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A Bird in the Jungle is Worth…

Dec 17th, 2013
by rodney.
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There’s a new trailer making the rounds for Blue Sky’s Rio 2, coming this April to theaters everywhere. This time we get to see a lot more of the plot this time around: Our heroes Blue and Jewel (and their kids) discover that they are not in fact the only blue macaws around — there’s a whole flock of them living in the wilds of the Amazon jungle. Guess where our city-bred bird who just recently learned to fly is headed next? Meanwhile, the villainous cockatoo from the first film returns too, this time with a doting poisonous amphibian at his side. It’ll all make more sense (possibly) if you watch the trailer yourself on YouTube. This new animated sequel is once again directed by Carlos Saldanha.

image c. 2013 Blue Sky Studios

More Furry Cartoons Coming From South Africa

Nov 16th, 2013
by rodney.
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The Hollywood Reporter recently ran an article about Triggerfish — the animation studio which some refer to as the Pixar of South Africa. Following the international success of Zambezia (about a city of birds) and Khumba (about a young zebra missing half of his stripes), Triggerfish have secured funding which will allow them to begin work on two new films out of a planned slate of five. The company’s stated goal is to release one film a year starting in 2016. First out of the gate is Here Be Monsters, about a young human boy who interacts with a scary sea monster. It’s written by Raffaella Delle Donne, who worked on both the studio’s previous films. Soon after that comes Seal Team, described as “an action-comedy that pits a group of seals against the great white sharks of South Africa.” Khumba is currently screening in Africa, with plans to roll it out to the rest of the world going into 2014.

image c. 2013 Triggerfish

All Your Favorites from Dreamworks

Oct 31st, 2013
by rodney.
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Dreamworks Animation have created a special tie-in compilation book called Dreamworks Heroes Annual 2014. In spite of that title, it’s already available in hardcover from Pedigree Books. “DreamWorks Animation has created some of the best loved animated feature films and TV shows of all time. They have released a total of 26 feature films, including Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, and How to Train Your Dragon, grossing nearly $11 billion worldwide. This Annual brings all your favorite DreamWorks characters together for the first time in this unique DreamWorks Heroes Annual 2014.” Check it out at Amazon. The advertisements are kind of hard to follow: Apparently this publication is also available as Dreamworks All-Stars Annual 2014, with a different cover.

image c. 2013 Pedigree Books

A Dog and His Boy, with Glasses

Oct 21st, 2013
by rodney.
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Dreamworks Animation released the first set of stills from their upcoming feature film Mr. Peabody & Sherman in a recent article in USA Today. Cartoon Brew reprinted the images as well. The film (about a time-traveling dog and his young human assistant) is of course based on the original series of short cartoons that was part of The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show. This new CGI version is directed by Rob Minkoff (he of The Lion King and the Stuart Little movies), and it’s set for release in March of 2014. There had been rumors going around for some time that the Mr. Peabody movie was going to be done live action, with a real kid playing Sherman and Mr. Peabody being a CGI-enhanced real dog. That idea did not go over very well with classic animation fans, but fortunately it turns out that Dreamworks is making it much more traditionally — just with a computer.

image c. 2013 Dreamworks Animation

He’s Getting Stuffed Again

Oct 5th, 2013
by rodney.
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Seth MacFarlane and Universal Pictures have announced that the sequel to the wildly popular 2o12 movie Ted will be released to theaters on June 26th, 2015. It’s simply called Ted 2. Once again Seth MacFarlane will direct and star as the voice of Ted, the foul-mouthed talking teddy bear, and Mark Wahlberg will reprise his role as Ted’s grown-up childhood human friend. That’s about all we know about it so far — other than the fact that the sequel will also be R-Rated! The original Ted, of course, was nominated for an Ursa Major Award for Best Anthropomorphic Feature.

image c. 2013 Universal Pictures

A Wolf, His Mate, and Their Cubs

Oct 1st, 2013
by rodney.
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Turns out that the original Alpha and Omega (from 2010) was successful enough to “spawn” a sequel — at least a 44-minute direct-to-video sequel, Alpha and Omega 2: A Howl-iday Adventure. According to Cartoon Brew (never very kind to standard Hollywood fare), the sequel is again directed by Richard Rich. It was animated in India. In this new film, the wolves Humphrey and Kate strive to bring their cubs — Stinky, Claudette, and Runt — a happy season at Christmas time. The preview trailer is up now on YouTube. Look for the DVD from Lionsgate, coming to your local store on October 8th.

Image c. 2013 Lionsgate Pictures

Watch Out For The Surly Squirrel

Sep 29th, 2013
by rodney.
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Trailers have begun to show up in the theaters for The Nut Job, a new animated GCI feature coming out this January. It’s based on a 2005 original animated short by director Peter Lepeniotis (Disney’s Dinosaur, Fantasia 2000) called Surly Squirrel (which you can still view on YouTube). The Nut Job tells the story of Surly (now here voiced by Will Arnett) and how he gathers together a rag-tag band of rodents with the intent of knocking over a local nut store. Needless to say, things become much more complicated — as you can see in the trailer. Interestingly, this project has been brought about almost entirely by independent studios and smaller companies. The film was produced by Toonbox Entertainment,  Red Rover International,  and Gulfstream Pictures, and is being distributed by Open Road Films.

image c. 2013 Toonbox Entertainment

Out of the Shadows and Into Your Game Console

Aug 28th, 2013
by rodney.
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The pizza-loving ninja-boys are back, in a brand new game created by Red Fly Studios and published by Activision. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is a down-loadable game based largely on the current hit TMNT series on Nickelodeon, as well as the original comics of course. A 4-person co-op game (convenient huh?), it also features an optional 2-player off-line mode. It was released on August 28 for Xbox Live Arcade and Steam, and it will be released on September 24 for PlayStation Network. There’s a preview video of the game currently making the rounds on YouTube. You can also check out the game’s official page on Facebook.

image c. 2013 Activision

New Disney Animals… with Clothes!

Aug 10th, 2013
by rodney.
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Still working our way through San Diego Comic Con discoveries, but now we have this BIG news from Disney’s D23 Expo to talk about. During the opening day presentation on upcoming animated movies (including Disney’s Frozen and Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur), Disney made an announcement about a new animated film called Zootopia, which is scheduled for release in 2016. Check out this summary from Slash Film: “Tangled director Byron Howard will direct the film from a script by Jared Bush. They’ve been working for the last year and a half on the project, spurred in in part by a love of the Disney Robin Hood feature. Howard wanted to do a film with animals in clothing. They hope to continue ‘Disney’s amazing legacy of animal-based animated films’… We’ve seen movies featuring animals in the natural world, and in the human world, but we’ve never seen animals in a modern world designed by animals. What would animals do differently than humans would? So the filmmakers talked to experts, from anthropologists to safari guides to imagineers as they began to design an animal civilization which is ‘distinctly animal’.” Are you excited yet? We are! Here’s the plot: “In the animal city of Zootopia, a fast-talking fox who’s trying to make it big goes on the run when he’s framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Zootopia’s top cop, a self-righteous rabbit, is hot on his tail, but when both become targets of a conspiracy, they’re forced to team up and discover even natural enemies can become best friends.” Check out the rest at Slash Film. And see you in 2016!

image c. 2013 Walt Disney Animation

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