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Dreamworks

Original Art and Original Creatures

Nov 7th, 2023
by rodney.
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More cool people we met at Lightbox this year! Amber Aki Huang is a character designer employed at Dreamworks Animation. According to her web site, “Aki mainly works in Character Design and Visual Development for Pre-Development and Production for feature film and TV. However, Aki has also been known to design for toys.” To that latter end, she has her own brand, Deercat & Friends. It features both art and plushies of two of her original species, the deercat and the snoo, plus more general (often furry!) artwork for sale.

image c. 2023 by Amber Aki Huang

By Land AND By Sea

Jun 30th, 2023
by rodney.
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Not Quite Narwhal is the interesting title of a new CGI animated series created by Dreamworks, which recently premiered on Netflix. From Animation World Network: “Adapted for television by co-executive producers Brian K. Roberts (Dragons: Rescue Riders), Nakia Trower Shuman (Fancy Nancy), and Sarah Katin (Curious George), DreamWorks Animation’s take on author Jessie Sima’s New York Times bestseller tackles the subject of identity through the curious and fun-loving Kelp (voiced by Nevin Kar). The blue, big-eyed, aquatic marvel has always believed he’s a narwhal like the rest of his family under the sea, until the day he makes the most amazing discovery – he’s actually a unicorn! Rather than choose one or the other, Kelp embraces being both a narwhal and a unicorn, juggling his day-to-day life as he figures out how to navigate his two worlds: Ocean and land.” The article includes an extensive interview with the author, talking about creating and adapting the work — including its themes of inclusivity and acceptance for people of all types.

image c. 2023 Dreamworks Animation

Can You Get ’em All?

May 11th, 2023
by rodney.
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We’ll openly admit it: Many collectible phenomena out there simply pass us right back. Like this one… and now it’s getting it’s own TV series! Recently, this showed up on Animation World Network: Apple TV+ ordered a new 13-episode CG animated series,Be@rbrick, based on Medicom Toy’s popular collectible bear-shaped figures. DreamWorks Animation and Dentsu Inc. will produce with Meghan McCarthy (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Centaurworld) on board as showrunner and executive producer. The music-driven comedy follows young singer-songwriter Jasmine and her bandmates pursuing their dreams and inspiring others to do the same. But it won’t be easy to do when living in a world where everyone’s role is chosen for them and where the painted-on look you receive when you graduate from high school determines who you’ll be for the rest of your life. So, Jasmine realizes that for her world to change, she and her friends may have to make it happen themselves.” No word yet on a release date.

image c. 2023 Dreamworks Animation

The Annie Award Winners for 2022

Feb 27th, 2023
by rodney.
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This past Saturday the gala ceremony for the Annie Awards was held at UCLA in Southern California — the first time in three years the ceremony has been held live! The “Oscars of animation” are presented every year by ASIFA Hollywood (a division of the International Animated Film Society). This year, surprising no one at all, the stop-motion film Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio was the big winner of the night, winning in five categories including the top prize, Best Animated Feature. (Might be time to admit it — the film’s pretty much got a lock on the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at this point). Pinocchio also won in the Feature Film categories for Best Character Animation, Best Direction, Best Production Design, and Best Music. More surprising perhaps (at least to those of us who were behind the curve on the meme!) was this little film called Marcel, The Shell With Shoes On, which took home three Feature awards: Best Writing, Best Voice Acting (for Marcel’s voice and creator, Jenny Slate (Zootopia)), and the coveted Best Independent Feature. It was a complete sweep for these two though — some other (furry!) films of note were award-winners too. Over at Dreamworks, The Bad Guys got the award for Best Character Design, while Puss In Boots: The Last Wish was recognized with awards for Best Storyboarding and Best Editing. (All for features, of course.) Over in the TV categories, Dreamworks won Best TV For Children with their show Abominable and the Invisible City. Meanwhile, one of the big winners of the night was the animated video special The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse, which took four Annies home to the U.K., including Best Special Production. It was not a great night for Disney, but there was one great furry note: Maurice LaMarche (Pinky and the Brain) won Best Voice Acting in TV for his portrayal of Mr. Big in Zootopia+. Cartoon Brew has a good article about the awards and a full list of the winners. (And now we get to remind you that voting for the Ursa Major Awards opens up this week!)

image c. 2023 Netflix

Dragons are… Alive?

Feb 17th, 2023
by rodney.
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Well, well, well… now Universal Studios is getting into the act. And taking Dreamworks Animation with them. This has been making the rounds in all the Hollywood papers; we got this from the Hollywood Reporter: “Taking a massive swing, Universal Pictures has put in motion a How to Train Your Dragon live-action movie, with Dean DeBlois, the filmmaker behind the original animated trilogy, back in the saddle as writer, director and producer… The feature project is already steps into the development process. Universal has dated the feature for a March 14, 2025, release… Using the books by Cressida Cowell as a jumping-off point, How to Train Your Dragon focused on the special friendship between a young and unheroic Viking boy named Hiccup and Toothless, an injured dragon he nurses back to health. The movies chronicled Hiccup and Toothless’ quest to combat humanity’s prejudice against dragons, the ache of overcoming the loss of a parent, and first love.” In case you didn’t remember. Oh, and if you look at the article you’ll find links to news about Disney’s upcoming live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch, and also about the upcoming (fortunately CGI animated!) Kung Fu Panda 4, set for release in 2024.

image c. 2023 Dreamworks Animation

The Annie Award Nominations for 2022

Jan 20th, 2023
by rodney.
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Recently ASIFA-Hollywood announced the nominations for the Annie Awards, celebrating the best in animation for the year 2022. The Annies are recognized world-wide as “the Oscars of animation”, chosen by folks in the animation industry from a host of disciplines. This year Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio leads the pack in nominations: Seven, including Best Animated Feature, Best Character Animation, Best Directing, Best Music, Best Production Design, and Best Editing. That’s followed close behind by Pixar’s Turning Red, Dreamworks’ Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, and The Sea Beast on Netflix, with six nominations each in various categories — including Best Animated Feature. Furry-fan-favorite The Bad Guys is up for four awards… but interestingly, not for Best Animated Feature. Marcel, The Shell With Shoes On and My Father’s Dragon are both nominated for Best Independent Feature and Best Directing, with Marcel also up for Best Writing and Best Voice Acting. (The little shell that could, sheesh!) The House (which is 2/3 furry…) and The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse are both nominated for Special Production, for projects longer than a short but shorter than a feature. And that’s just a sampling! We don’t even have room to talk about all the nominations for TV series, games, commercials, and more. Check out the Annie Awards web page for a complete list of nominees. The awards will be handed out on February 25th. (And hey, while you’re at it: Don’t forget that nominations have opened for the 2023 Ursa Major Awards too!)

image c. 2023 Netflix

THIS Cat Returns

Nov 6th, 2022
by rodney.
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Your ever-loving edotter got a chance to see a preview screening of Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, the upcoming animated feature from Dreamworks Animation, directed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado. Here’s the basic plot summary: The unstoppable adventurer Puss in Boots discovers that he has burned up eight of his nine lives through a series of mishaps. He goes on a desperate quest to find a fallen star with magic wishing powers, hoping to restore his invulnerability. Trouble is, the cat has lots of competition for the star — and a malevolent force following right behind him. So here are some Spoiler-Free thoughts about the film: See It, as soon as you can.  Not only is this a cracking good adventure film, darker than you expect it to be in places, but it’s also quite easily the furriest film ever in the Shrek universe. In fact, there’s a wolf in this film who could easily give the head Bad Guy a run for his money. This new film is coming to theaters on December 21st.

image c. 2022 Dreamworks Animation

Jack is Back in Black — and White

Mar 18th, 2022
by rodney.
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Animation World Network let us know: Dreamworks Animation have announced a new upcoming CGI animated TV series, Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight. And wouldn’t you know it, this new series features the return of none other than Jack Black as the voice of Po the panda. He’s been chatting about it on his socials. Here’s what Dreamworks says: “In the new series, when a mysterious pair of weasels set their sights on a collection of four powerful weapons, Po must leave his home to embark on a globe-trotting quest for redemption and justice that finds him partnered up with a no-nonsense English knight named Wandering Blade. Together, these two mismatched warriors set out on an epic adventure to find the magical weapons first and save the world from destruction — and they may even learn a thing or two from each other along the way.” No word yet from Dreamworks on a release date, but stay tooned.

image cl 2022 Dreamworks Animation

Dragons Return — Tomorrow

Oct 15th, 2021
by rodney.
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Exciting news from the world of streaming. “DreamWorks Animation has shared a teaser trailer for the all-new CG animated series Dragons: The Nine Realms. Inspired by the hugely popular How to Train Your Dragon movie franchise, the show premieres on Hulu and Peacock December 23. Set 1,300 years after the events of How to Train Your Dragon, dragons are now just a legend to the modern world. When a geological anomaly opens an immense, miles-deep fissure in the Earth’s surface, scientists from all over the world gather at a new research facility to study the mysterious phenomenon. Soon a group of misfit kids, brought to the site by their parents, uncover the truth about dragons and where they’ve been hiding — a secret they must keep to themselves to protect what they’ve discovered.” Find out more and see the teaser trailer over at AWN.

image c. 2021 Dreamworks

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