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Dreamworks

Happy Birthday … to Me!

Dec 18th, 2011
by rodney.
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This is no one’s idea of a personal blog, but when your ever-lovin’ ed-otter turned 47 yesterday he received two books from his family that are so cool and so furry that he just had to give mention to them — again. Both of them feature behind-the-scenes looks at recent Dreamworks Animation films, and both of them are available now (here and here) in hardcover from Insight Editions. The Art of Puss in Boots is edited by Ramin Zahed (veteran editor of Animation Magazine) with a forward by famous director Guillermo Del Toro. The Art of Kung Fu Panda 2 is edited by Tracy Miller-Zarneke (who worked on numerous animated films including Chicken Little and The Emperor’s New Groove) with a forward by famous actor Dustin Hoffman (aka Master Shifu). Both books feature so much background artwork and character development for these two very furry films that the reader may find themselves wondering which are more interesting: The final character designs or the sketches leading up to them.

image c. 2011 Insight Editions

 

The Annie Awards Are Announced

Dec 9th, 2011
by rodney.
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On December 5th nominations were announced for the annual Annie Awards, presented by the International Animated Film Society (ASIFA). These are the Oscar Awards of animated cartoons, people, and every year their prestige in Hollywood circles seems to increase. As usual the nominations for 2011 included several films and TV series of interest to furry fandom — as well as a few of what are likely to be considered glaring omissions. Taking their cue from the Oscars themselves perhaps, this year the Annie Awards have no less than 10 nominees for Best Animated Feature Film, up from the usual 5 of years past. Notable anthropomorphic films up for the honor include A Cat in Paris, Cars 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots, Rango, and Rio.  Nominees for Best Animated Special Production (i.e., direct-to-video or DVD) include Adventure Time: Thank You, Ice Age: Mammoth Christmas, Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters, and Prey 2 — but not, interestingly, Dreamworks’ Gift of the Night Fury. Among the nominees for Best Animated Television Production for Children are Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness and Penguins of Madagascar. Conspicuous in their absence perhaps: My Little Pony — Friendship is Magic and the reboot of Thundercats. What’s up with that? The Annie Awards will be presented at a gala Hollywood ceremony on February 4th, 2012, at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California. You can find out more about the Annie Awards, including the full list of nominated productions and people, at the Annie Awards web site.

Avoid the Yak-Nog…

Nov 25th, 2011
by rodney.
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And speaking of dragons, this one managed to sneak on by us… They’re fast critters sometimes! Following the current trend of releasing holiday-themed specials, Dreamworks Animation has released Dragons: The Gift of the Night Fury direct to Blu-Ray and DVD. Directed by Tom Owens, this short film introduces us to holiday traditions in the viking village of Berk, where folk are now living in peace with dragons. But, when the dragons mysteriously all fly off one day, the kids try to think up new traditions to cheer up the devastated village-folk. Some work… some, not so much. Also on the DVD is the short film Book of Dragons (directed by Steve Hickner), a sort of dragon encyclopedia overview guided by Hiccup and his friends. Of note to furry fans: Unlike Legend of the Boneknapper, these two shorts feature Toothless the Night Fury — a lot.

image c. 2011 Dreamworks Animation

Training Dragons on TV

Nov 3rd, 2011
by rodney.
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Here’s a scoop that we stumbled across recently: Dreamworks Animation is not only hard at work on a sequel to 2010’s Ursa Major Award-winning film How to Train Your Dragon, but they are also working on a TV series to be aired on Cartoon Network beginning in late 2012. ScreenRant.com have been following the story closely, and they recently featured an article that includes an interview with executive producer Tim Johnson from BadTaste.it. According to Mr. Johnson, How to Train Your Dragon 2 (the working title) will be released in the latter part of 2013. Dean Deblois, co-director of the original film, will this time serve as sole writer and director for the sequel. Original co-director Chris Sanders will be on as an executive producer, along with original producer Bonnie Arnold. Most of the original voice cast will return for the sequel, including Jay Baruchel, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, TJ Miller, and Kristen Wiig. It’s unclear right now if any of them will also be involved in the TV series. Also unclear at this point is what the plot of either the TV series or the sequel film will be like, although Tim Johnson has said that the TV series will likely be a bit more mature, perhaps even darker, than the current Dreamworks TV spin-off series, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness.

image c. 2011 Dreamworks Animation

 

Awesome Pandas on TV

Oct 25th, 2011
by rodney.
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Word is out that Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, the long-awaited TV spinoff from Dreamworks’ Kung Fu Panda movies, will finally be coming to television on Monday, November 7th. It will premier on Nickelodeon at 5:30 pm, Eastern and Pacific time. First up will be a full week of brand new episodes every week day, followed by weekly new episodes on Friday nights starting December 2nd. The series takes place in between the two Kung Fu Panda movies, following adventures of Po the Panda — also known as the Dragon Warrior — and the Furious Five, along with their mentor, the red panda Master Shifu. Several new characters and villains will be introduced as well. From the feature films, only Lucy Liu (Viper) and James Hong (Mr. Ping, Po’s adoptive father) reprise their roles; other voices are handled by the likes of Mick Wingert, Kari Wahlgren, Amir Talai, Max Koch, Fred Tatasciore, and James Sie. Cartoon Brew has a write-up directly from Dreamworks that has even more information. By the way: Kung Fu Panda 2 comes to DVD and Blu-Ray on December 13th. Though its performance was perhaps disappointing in the USA, around the world it is the #1 animated feature of the year, having taken in $664 million total. Which virtually assures that there will in fact be a Kung Fu Panda 3, as KFP2 surpassed Dreamworks’ self-imposed $500 million worldwide “magic number” for making a film into a franchise.

image c. 2011 Dreamworlds/Nickelodeon

Puss in Boots vs. Giant Chicken

Oct 22nd, 2011
by rodney.
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A prequel to a prequel! Can you feel the synergy? Ape Entertainment (through their Kizoic imprint) present the Puss in Boots Movie Prequel graphic novel, coming this November. Written by Troy Dye and Tom Kelesides, it features full-color art by the Kizoic crew. This is from Comics Continuum: “The exciting prequel to the Puss In Boots movie is here in this exclusive original graphic novel! Puss enters a secret sword fighting competition to determine who’s the best with a blade. Will he defeat the rabid rooster known as ‘El Pollo Mas Rapido’? Or will Chuey, the Chihuahua cat burglar, take top prize? And in a Bonus story, Puss unravels the mystery of the Maltese Gato!” Remember, the feline furry comes to theaters from Dreamworks on October 28th.

 

image c. 2011 Ape Entertainment

Stay Furry, My Friends

Oct 10th, 2011
by rodney.
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We don’t need to tell you much about Puss in Boots from Dreamworks. “The Most Interesting Cat in the World”, his mini-trailers have gone viral all over YouTube and elsewhere already. So we’ll just clue you in on a few interesting factoids. The movie stars Antonio Banderas (of course!) as Puss and Salma Hayek as the curvaceous Kitty Softpaws, as well as the voices of Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton, Amy Sedaris, Constance Marie, and Guillermo del Toro. It’s directed by Chris Miller, who’s an old hand at Dreamworks by now: Besides having directed Shrek the 3rd, he’s also known as the voice of Kowalski the penguin in the Madagascar movies. (Popular voice actor Jeff Bennett voices Kowalski in the Penguins of Madagascar TV series though. Back in the day, Chris Miller was also very well known for an animated short he created, Lea Press-On Limbs.) And of course, the most important news: It’s coming to theaters on Friday, October 28th. Right after seeing the movie, you might want to check out The Art of Puss in Boots, edited by Ramin Zahed and available in hardcover this November from Insight Editions.

image c. 2011 Dreamworks Animation

How to Train Your Live Dragon

Aug 15th, 2011
by rodney.
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Word has come out that a new stage show based on Dreamworks Animation’s award-winning How to Train Your Dragon film will be coming to Melbourne, Australia next March. The show features brand new characters, a brand new plot, and most interesting of all, full-sized free-walking audio-animatronic dragons. Here’s a quote from The Brisbane Times: “(There will be) at least 24 dragons for a show that will include acrobats and aerial artists, projections and flying creatures. The five-tier set will be backed by a 60-metre screen and the action will unfold on 1000 square metres of stage studded with projectors to provide an immersive experience”.  There’s already a YouTube video of a press presentation that was recently held to advertise the show. It shows one of the dragons (a Deadly Nadder, in this case) interacting with a human.

 

Apes and Kitties

Jun 21st, 2011
by rodney.
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Two newly-released trailers give us some further insight on a pair of films coming up later this year — films that furry fen might find interesting. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is directed by Rupert Wyatt, previously best known for his film The Escapist. Rise tells the story of a genetic scientist (played by current hot property James Franco) whose experiments with a brain-cell regenerating treatment lead to the creation of Caesar, a chimpanzee with the intelligence and will to lead his fellow apes in revolution against humans. Besides Mr. Franco and Andy Serkis (who plays the body-model for Caesar much as he did for Gollum in Lord of the Rings and King Kong in King Kong), Rise also stars Brian Cox, John  Lithgow, Freida Pinto, and Tom Felton (Draco from the Harry Potter movies). The film is set for release on August 5th, and the latest trailer up on YouTube shows how Caesar is raised by hand by humans, coming to care for them — and later, to resent them. Okay, so… from chimpanzees on to kitties. The newest trailer for Puss in Boots is out, though the film won’t hit theaters until November 4th. Antonio Banderas (of course) plays Puss, who hooks up with Humpty Dumpty (yes, the egg) and a flirty filcher of a feline named Kitty Softpaws, voiced by Selma Hayek.

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