Illumination Announce Pets Movie for 2016, Starring Louis C.K.

Deadline has the details on a brand new - original - Illumination Entertainment project, that will fill one of the studio's previously bagsied release dates. The film is currently going by the oh-so-catchy title of Untitled Pets Movie, and is set for release on 12th February, 2016. The film stars comedian Louis C.K. (Louie, American Hustle) as the lead dog.

Rumour: Are Pixar Developing a Star Wars Film?

This is a rumour, so treat it with a grain of salt, - or a vat of it - but Latino Review claims that Pixar is currently in development of its own Star Wars film! The inevitability of these sort of rumours has been abound since Disney bought Lucasfilm back in October 2012, so it's not a shock to see this pop up, but Latino Review have been proven right with some rumours in the past (although they've also been egregiously untrustworthy with others...), so it's worth considering.

Paperman Director John Kahrs to Helm Feature Film for Paramount Animation

Oscar-winning Paperman director John Kahrs left Disney back at the end of August last year, and we now know what for: the animator-turned-director will helm Shedd for Paramount's recently-established animation division!

Munir’s Disney Retrospective - Animated Classic #51: Winnie the Pooh (2011)

Last Week’s: Munir’s Disney Retrospective - Animated Classic #50: Tangled (2010).

After the big spectacles that The Princess and the Frog and Tangled were, I was genuinely surprised that Disney chose to do a Pooh film. The last Pooh feature done by Disney Animation was The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh back in 1977 and it was a compilation of previously done shorts. I've never been much of a Pooh fan and, outside of Many Adventures, I never cared for any of its other incarnations as most of them tended to be kid-exclusive. I went to see Winnie the Pooh with a bit of trepidation but I came out utterly enchanted by its disarming charm.

Watch: New Maleficent Trailer!

A new trailer for Disney's new adaptation of Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent, has been released! Click below to see the stunning, magnificent Angelina Jolie (and her scary cheekbones).

Why I Stopped Caring About Award Shows

By now, you've already learned that Monsters University was not nominated in the Best Animated Feature category for the Academy Awards. And that the same thing happened for the Golden Globes. Judging by the reactions I saw on twitter among animation fans, I would say there's a very good chance you are angry about this. Well, I'm not. Because I stopped caring about award shows. It wasn't always like that; there was a time when I cared about the Oscars and the Golden Globes. That wasn't so long ago, but it's now a thing of the past. No, it's not a sad story.

Loving Vincent Wants to Kickstart "World's First Feature-Length Painted Animation"

BreakThru Films, the studio behind the Oscar-winning 2006 short film Peter and the Wolf, have launched a Kickstarter campaign for a very different sort of animated film. Loving Vincent is planned to consist of of 56,800 paintings, from a team of 40 artists, based on the life of Vincent van Gogh. As you can imagine, that ain't cheap. Which is where you can help.

New Toy Story TV Special To Air This Christmas!

Credit: Bitten by the Travel Bug

Pixar might not be putting out a feature film this year, but they're not resting on their laurels. The studio will release a Monsters U short film with Muppets Most Wanted in March, and just announced a Toy Story holiday special for this Christmas: Toy Story That Time Forgot!

Oscar Nominations Are In! Here's What's Competing This Year.

The Oscar nominations for the 86th annual Academy Awards are in! There's a lot of deserving films nominated; American Hustle and Gravity are leading the pack with 10 nominations each, with hotly-tipped 12 Years a Slave racking up 9. But there are some strange choices in the categories that concern animation...

Universal Slate Illumination's Despicable Me 3 and Grinch Remake for 2017

Universal had an incredibly profitable year with Illumination Entertainment in 2013; Despicable Me 2 made the best part of a billion dollars ($935m, in fact), and the company has just locked in 2017 release dates for two new films from the studio: Despicable Me 3 and a remake of Dr Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Michael Douglas for Ant-Man!

Looks like we now know what road Edgar Wright's Ant-Man is taking, as Michael Douglas has joined the cast as Hank Pym!

Douglas with the Golden Globe he won for Behind the Candelabra on
Sunday.

Bob Iger Confirms Frozen Headed to Broadway!

Disney CEO Bob Iger spoke to Fortune yesterday about the immense success of Walt Disney Animation Studios' runaway hit Frozen, and, particularly, about the company's plans of where to take it from here: namely, Broadway!

Frozen Takes Home WDAS' First Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature

It's not a shocker, but it's extremely well deserved nonetheless: last night at the 71st Golden Globe Awards, Walt Disney Animation Studios' acclaimed hit, Frozen, took home the statue for Best Animated Feature, making it the first WDAS film to do so since the award's inception seven years ago.

Munir's Disney Retrospective - Animated Classic #50: Tangled (2010)

Last Week’s: Munir’s Disney Retrospective - Animated Classic #49: The Princess and the Frog (2009).

After The Princess and the Frog marked a glorious return to hand-drawn animation, I was disappointed that Tangled was made in CG. Don't get me wrong, I love CG animation, especially Pixar films, but because Tangled was a fairy tale, I expected a similar approach to Princess & Frog. Also, what didn't sit well with me was the title change. Because The Princess and the Frog "underperformed", Disney thought that, in order to appeal to boys, the name Rapunzel was not appropriate. So they changed it to Tangled, a very generic title that doesn't say anything about the film. Fortunately, despite this, Tangled was another triumph for Disney Animation, and their first genuine box office success in a very long time.

Miyazaki Un-Retiring?! Or Just a Rumor?

A Reddit article started making the rounds earlier this week citing a Japanese blogger, which claims that Hayao Miyazaki has retracted his retirement statement, made just four months ago, to work on some unknown project. Now before we begin to speculate what awesome project could possibly pull Hayao Miyazaki out of retirement, let's speculate on this bit of, still, potential news.

BAFTA Nominees Are In: Frozen, Monsters U and Despicable Me 2 Vie for Animation Prize

The nominations for the 67th British Academy Film Awards (or BAFTAs, because nobody wants to say that mouthful) were announced earlier today, and the animation nominees are a lot less contentious than those chosen by the Golden Globes.

First Look: Monsters U Short Party Central; Now Attached to Muppets Most Wanted

Pixar have released the first look at their upcoming Monsters University-based short film, Party Central, which was formerly going to play before The Good Dinosaur in theatres. Now that The Good Dinosaur has been pushed back to November 2015, Party Central will play with Muppets Most Wanted on 21st March.

Super New TV Spot and Posters for The Lego Movie

Likely the best big-screen Justice League film we're going to get in the foreseeable future is assembling! Block by block. Warner Bros. have rolled out two super new posters and an awesome TV spot for The Lego Movie (directed by Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and 21 Jump Street's Phil Lord and Chris Miller), featuring the Lego versions of the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel!

Munir's Disney Retrospective - Animated Classic #49: The Princess and the Frog (2009)

Last Week’s: Munir’s Disney Retrospective - Animated Classic #48: Bolt (2008).


One of the most exciting things in 2009 was the release of The Princess and the Frog. After a decade of releasing (mostly) misfires and giving traditional animation the death sentence after the abysmal Home on the Range, Disney was finally ready to go back to the technique they practically invented and perfected for over 70 years. Thanks to John Lasseter and his vision, traditional animation was back firing on all cylinders at the studio and with a new fairy tale to boot. Better still, the helmers of this new movie were none others than studio veterans John Musker and Ron Clements and handling the music was Pixar veteran Randy Newman. With all this talent behind it, we could only expect the best film possible and, thankfully, the movie delivered on all fronts.

Official Still of the Guardians of the Galaxy Line-Up!

It's a few days late, but we are finally up to date with the first official image from Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy!