DreamWorks Working on Puss in Boots 2; Kung Fu Panda 3 and Trollhunters Details

Producer-extraordinaire Guillermo del Toro recently spoke to Collider about DreamWorks' latest film, Rise of the Guardians, which he executive produced, and offered up some quotes on two of DreamWorks' upcoming sequels, Kung Fu Panda 3 and Puss in Boots 2, as well as an original film he's developing for the studio, Trollhunters.

84th Academy Awards Nominations Revealed

Earlier today, the nominations for the 84th Annual Academy Awards (to be hosted by Billy Crystal) were announced. The reveal, as expected, saw a glut of nominations for Martin Scorsese's Hugo (11 nominations) and silent film (and Best Picture frontrunner) The Artist (10 nominations), however it also saw some controversial decisions, and the animation category was no exception.

The nominees for Best Animated film are:

• A Cat in Paris
• Chico & Rita
• Kung Fu Panda 2
• Puss in Boots
• Rango

Now, the Academy does often throw some lesser known, critical hits into the mix, so it shouldn't be too great a surprise that Chico & Rita and A Cat in Paris have cropped up. However, what is somewhat of a surprise, is the omission of The Adventures of Tintin. This isn't simply due to personal preference (although I think you all know by now how much I enjoyed Tintin) but Tintin recently took home the Golden Globe and the Producers Guild Award in the same category - as well as being nominated for the BAFTA - so the Oscar omission is somewhat bizarre. Also of note is the absence of a Pixar film on the list - the first time since the award's conception in 2001 that the Emeryville studio haven't snagged a nomination - and whilst it isn't too great a surprise to see Cars 2 missed off (although it would definitely have been deserving in my eyes), it is weird to not see Pixar as a frontrunner this year.

It now seems likely that Nickelodeon and ILM's Rango will take home the coveted prize, although I'd like to see DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda 2 get some recognition.

Also, in terms of animation, the nominations for Best Animated Short Film are:

• Dimanche (Sunday)
• The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
• La Luna
• A Morning Stroll
• Wild Life

Whilst it's a shame that the Looney Tunes short, I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat didn't make the cut, it's nice to see Pixar get at least some presence at the show.

Also, 'Real in Rio' from Blue Sky Studios' Rio is one of only two nominations for Best Original Song this year - competing with 'Man or Muppet' from Disney's The Muppets.

This year's Oscars will be broadcast from the Kodak Theatre, Hollywood on February 26.

Tintin Wins Producers Guild Award

Yesterday, The Adventures of Tintin took home the animation award at the 23rd Annual Producers Guild Awards. Producers Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy were awarded the honour, beating out other top contenders Cars 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots and Rango.

Following on from the film's success at the 69th Annual Golden Globes last week, this certainly bodes well for Tintin's Oscar chances (nominations to be revealed tomorrow). The film, which won our very own 2nd Annual A113Animation Award for Best Animated Film, seems to be getting the recognition it deserves this awards season, and it look as if its main competition for the Oscar will be Nickelodeon's Rango.

More For Your Consideration Adverts

As awards season heats up, what with Annie, Golden Globe and more nominations being revealed, and the 84th Academy Awards getting closer and closer, we are treated to more and more For Your Consideration Ads, promoting the year's best animated films.

Above and below, you can see, courtesy of Awards Daily, some of the latest For Your Consideration Ads for animated films, including ones for the Warner Bros. short film, I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat, as well as Blue Sky Studios' Rio, DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots, and Aardman's Arthur Christmas.

For a full list of For Your Consideration Adverts, animated or otherwise, keep your eyes on Awards Daily.

2011 Producers Guild Awards Nominations

The nominations for the 23rd Annual Producers Guild of America (PGA) Awards were recently announced. The nominations for the theatrical animated feature category this year are below, with the respective producers noted.

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN
Producers: Peter Jackson, Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg

CARS 2
Producer: Denise Ream

KUNG FU PANDA 2
Producer: Melissa Cobb

PUSS IN BOOTS
Producers: Joe M. Aguilar, Latifa Ouaou

RANGO
Producers: John B. Carls, Gore Verbinski

The winners will be announced on January 21.

2nd Annual A113Animation Awards

The winners for the 2nd Annual A113Animation Awards have been revealed. The big winner this year was DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda 2, which swiped 7 awards, including a lot of the top ones, such as The Oh So Close Award, the Second Opinion Award, both the Luke's and Sean's Choice Awards (as each of our The Corner reviewers get their own award this year), The People's Choice Award (which it shares with Pixar's Cars 2) as well as Best Director (Jennifer Yuh Nelson) and Best Voice Acting (Jack Black).

However, Kung Fu Panda 2 couldn't quite take the top award, as, as you can see above, courtesy of David A. Price (author of The Pixar Touch), that honour went to Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin. Tintin, which was, in my opinion, just such a brilliant film that I simply couldn't not have it win the award, also collected the Heather's Choice Award and the Best Villain Award (Sakharine).

It seems the general populous agrees with me, that Cars 2 was rather good after all, as Pixar's latest drew with Kung Fu Panda 2 in The People's Choice Award (the poll is currently still up, to the right, if you want to view the results). Cars 2 also took the music related awards, winning Best Song (You Might Think, Weezer) and Best Score.

Disney's Tangled won the Best New Side Character(s) Award for the brilliant Maximus and Pascal, and also the Breakout Film Award, for putting Disney Animation back on the map and reestablishing a sense of credibility for the famed studio.

Rango won the animation related awards: Best Animation - as the animation in Rango is the best I've ever seen in an animated film - and the Ben Kerfoot Award for Specific Character Animation or Design in Fur, Hair or Textures for the fantastically detailed character, Spoons.

Finally, in terms of feature films, DreamWorks' other offering this year, Puss in Boots, collected the award for Best Female Character (Kitty Softpaws).

The breakdown for this years awards, by film, is:

• Kung Fu Panda 2 - 7
• The Adventures of Tintin - 3
• Cars 2 - 3
• Tangled - 2
• Rango - 2
• Puss in Boots - 1

In terms of our final two awards, the Best Animated Short Film Award went to the fantastic CGI Looney Tunes short, I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat, and The One to Watch Out For Award went to Pixar's Brave.

It's safe to say that 2011 has been a great year for animation, it was particularly difficult for me to pick the Best Animated Film Award, specifically having to choose between Tintin and Kung Fu Panda 2 proved rather challenging; and I have high hopes for 2012.

Reviews for all nominations and winners can be found on the reviews page.

The full awards listings can be viewed on the A113Animation Awards page.

Golden Globe Nominations Revealed

The nominations for the 69th Annual Golden Globes Awards have been revealed today, the full list of nominations and categories can be viewed here.

In terms of animation, the nominations for the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature are:

• THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN
  Paramount Pictures/Columbia Pictures/ Hemisphere Capital/Amblin Entertainment/Wingnut Films Production/ Kennedy/Marshall Production A Steven Spielberg Film; Paramount Pictures and Columbia Pictures
• ARTHUR CHRISTMASColumbia Pictures & Sony Pictures Animation; Sony Pictures Releasing International
• CARS 2
  Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios; Walt Disney Pictures
• PUSS IN BOOTSDreamWorks Animation; Paramount Pictures
• RANGO
  Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies present A Blind Wink / GK Films Production; Paramount Pictures

It's somewhat strange to me that Puss in Boots and Arthur Christmas (or even Cars 2, due it's rather negative reviews) were nominated, whereas Kung Fu Panda 2 - definitely one of the best films of the year - was omitted.

Nonetheless, it is a very solid field this year, and it seems likely to me that the HFPA will pick either Tintin or Rango. However, we'll have to wait until January 15 to find out.

Via Big Screen Animation.

2nd Annual A113Animation Awards Nominations

I've just revealed the nominations for the 2nd Annual A113Animation Awards, to praise and reward the very best of animation from the past year, to be handed out on the 29th December.

Cars 2 and Rio got the most nominations at 8, Kung Fu Panda 2 got 7, The Adventures of Tintin and Tangled got 6, Rango got 5, Puss in Boots got 3, Winnie the Pooh got 2 and Gnomeo and Juliet got 1.

The 5 films nominated for the top award, Best Animated Film, are:

• The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
• Cars 2
• Kung Fu Panda 2
• Rio
• Tangled

Also, note, Tangled is nominated for awards as, although it came out in November last year in America, it arrived over here in the UK in January 2011. For the whole list of nominations, head on over to the A113Animation Awards page.

Also, remember to vote in the poll to the right, to decide the People's Favourite Animated Film Award.

Puss in Boots Review - Prepare to be Mewowed

Puss in Boots is a film that I was very pensive about going in. In that, Shrek 1, and indeed Shrek 2 (in which Puss was introduced), were absolutely brilliant- fun, heartfelt, family adventures -, however, Shrek 3 was awful. It still remains one of the few films that I genuinely hate. It angered and annoyed me that from there they decided to make yet another Shrek film, although at least the 'final chapter' was decent enough; it was indeed rather good. However, DreamWorks had really been pushing it and came close, on a number of times, to ruining the franchise for me, so, I was far from pleased when I heard that DreamWorks were planning a spin-off, my immediate reaction was: just let it die. I was even less pleased when I heard that Chris Miller, co-director of Shrek the Third, was directing the film; he had a hell of a lot of redeeming to do. Fortunately, these fears were allayed during the first five minutes of Puss in Boots, as it was a pretty darn great film.

Annie Award Nominations Revealed

ASIFA-Hollywood have revealed the nominations for the 39th Annual Annie Awards, 'Animation's Highest Honor' will be presented on February 4, 2012 and the extensive slate of nominations were released online today.

The top prize, the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, this year has a whopping 10 nominations, including my personal favourites, The Adventures of Tintin and Kung Fu Panda 2. The full list of nominations for the award can be viewed below:

Best Animated Feature

• A Cat in Paris – Folimage
• Arrugas (Wrinkles) - Perro Verde Films, S.L.
• Arthur Christmas – Sony Pictures Animation, Aardman Animations (my review)
• Cars 2 – Pixar Animation Studios (my review)
• Chico & Rita – Chico & Rita Distribution Limited
• Kung Fu Panda 2 – DreamWorks Animation (my review)
• Puss In Boots – DreamWorks Animation
• Rango – Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies present A Blind Wink/GK Films Production (my review)
• Rio – Blue Sky Studios (my review)
• Tintin – Amblin Entertainment, Wingnut Films and Kennedy/Marshall (my review)

There seems to be a large portion of Individual Achievement Awards for Disney's Winnie the Pooh (my review) and DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots - some absolutely gorgeous films. Obviously, as DreamWorks is one of the main sponsors of ASIFA-Hollywood, there's always the accusation of unfairness - especially due to the shut out of Toy Story 3 last year and the lack of nominations for Cars 2 this year, following the very public pulling out of the studio's support for the awards -, but Kung Fu Panda 2 was brilliant, and I'd hate to see a repeat of last year, where How to Train Your Dragon's monumentous wins were overshadowed by screams of fowl-play.

Read the full list of nominations here.

Also, rememeber to vote in the poll to the right, for your favourite animated film of the year, to decide The People's Favourite A113Animation Award.

More For Your Consideration Ads

After just posting about the Cars 2 For Your Consideration Ads, I stumbled upon (thanks to Big Screen Animation) Awards Daily's large list of the For Your Consideration Ads released as of now, a select few of which are scattered about this post, the rest can be viewed at Awards Daily.

I particularly like the sleek designs of the Tintin and Arthur Christmas ones, as well as the very vibrant Happy Feet Two and Rango ones. Also, note how The Adventures of Tintin is also being promoted for consideration in the Best Feature Film category, which it is good enough to be nominated for!

The Final Muppets Parody Trailer (Probably)

Disney and The Muppets Studio have unveiled what is to be (apparently) the last Muppets parody trailer; spoofing Paranormal Activity and the animated films: Happy Feet Two and Puss in Boots, as well as Twilight.

The trailer is less parody and more comedy, whilst, at the same time, building to the ever approaching release of the next Muppets movie, which hits theatres in America this Thanksgiving, and arrives here in the UK in early December.

I Called It - Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots

Well, kind of saw something like this coming... following on from a recent string of iPod game/animated film mashups such as Angry Birds Rio and Doodle Jump Hop, we know get Halfbrick and DreamWorks' contribution: Fruit Ninja Puss in Boots.

Personally, I guessed at Fruit Ninja Kung Fu Panda, but I was kind of right, it was a predictable move, but nonetheless, it looks pretty good.

Halfbrick never do anything half way, their games are always brilliant, wonderfully thought through and a pleasure to play; in addition to Fruit Ninja, Halfbrick is also the studio behind Monster Dash, Age of Zombies and, recently, Jetpack Joyride. All brilliant and well reviewed games that frequent the 'Top Paid Apps' section of the iTunes App Store and this game looks set to continue that tradition.

The new game is due to be released on October 20 and to promote it we have the above video, introducing us to some of the new features in the game, including all new 'Bandito' mode, consisting of several challenge levels, including the MONUMENTAL addition of the tomato. In addition to 'Desperado' mode - a rehash of Classic mode.

The game, redesigned to help promote DreamWorks' next feature film, hits the App Store in 10 days.

Puss in Boots - Cat Premiere

Friday saw the world's first cat premiere (video above) as DreamWorks put on a special screening of their next feature film, Puss in Boots, for a collection of "famous" cats, including "Robert Meowny, Jr." and "Leonardo DiCatrio".

The voice of Puss, Antonio Banderas, also graced the premiere of the film "nine lifetimes in the making" which the rest of us still have a little wait to see. Puss in Boots hits US theatres on October 28 and arrives here in the UK on December 9.

Final Puss in Boots Trailer

The final trailer for DreamWorks Animation's next feature film, the Shrek spin-off, Puss in Boots has made its way onto the studio's official YouTube channel.

The trailer boasts a lot of new footage and some interesting plot points, including more elaboration on the romantic side of the film, the main plot/adventure and more.

As with previous trailers, this one is great and has really added to my hype for the film, however, with the quality of the Shrek films waning in recent years, I'm still sceptical about a spin-off, but if DreamWorks continue their recent string of high quality films, then I can't wait to see it!

Puss in Boots: Kitty Softpaws Clip

DreamWorks are really laying on the advertising for their next feature film, the Shrek spin-of, Puss in Boots. Today we are treated to a new clip from the studio's official YouTube channel, this time, showcasing the female lead of the film, the mysterious and roguish, Kitty Softpaws.

The clip showcases the romantic side of the film; the relationship between Puss and Kitty, helping to add some extra depth to the film, which, hopefully, won't be a lackluster Shrek spin-off - as it promises to be very good.

Puss in Boots: "The Cat Haz Swagger"

DreamWorks have unveiled another great parody trailer, building up the awesomeness of the legendary Puss in Boots, to hype people up for the upcoming Shrek spin-off. Following on from the "He's So Legendary" clip a couple of weeks back, we now have the above video, parodying the brilliantly random and popular Old Spice adverts.

DreamWorks have always been relatively strong at advertising and they're really working well to get me excited for the film, and I really can't wait to see this film.

New Puss in Boots Clip: "He's So Legendary"

Yesterday, DreamWorks released a new clip (above) from their upcoming Shrek spin-off, Puss in Boots. The film, centring around "the most interesting cat in the world", is due out in cinemas on November 4 in the US and on December 9 over here in the U.K. and this new clip shares with us some of Puss's achievements, basically telling us how he's the feline Chuck Norris.

Although I was sceptical about another Shrek film -  even if it is a spin-off - after the dip-in quality from Shrek 1 and 2, I must admit, I'm very excited for Puss in Boots. Also, there's no arguing that there has been a huge increase in DreamWorks' quality of animated film in the past couple of years, with them spawning two of my favourite animated films of all time, How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda 2; not forgetting that Shrek 4 was decent enough and Megamind was really fun.

With all this in mind, I have high hopes for Puss in Boots and this great video has me even more excited!

DISCUSS: Most Anticipated Animated Film?

Moments ago, I detailed why Brave is my most anticipated animated film; for a wide variety of reasons, it's the animated film that I most want to see. However, there are many more animated films that I want to see, and it occurs to me that (for some reason), people don't always agree with me. So, SOUND OFF, what's the animated film you most want to see? Arthur Christmas? Puss in Boots? The Pirates? Monsters University? Kung Fu Panda 3? The Croods? Something else?

Let your voice be heard. Comment below.

New Puss in Boots Trailer

The first full trailer for DreamWorks' spin-off of the Shrek franchise, Puss in Boots, made its way online late last night. Following on from the teaser trailer in March, this is the first proper look we get at the plot of the film and the new characters that are being introduced, such as Salma Hayek (Grown Ups) as Kitty Softpaws and Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover) as Humpty Dumpty. The film has a very epic feel to it, it looks full of adventure and exciting chases and battles, I'm still sceptical as to whether or not this film is worth making, since the Shrek franchise has been fledgling in recent years. However, this trailer is very encouraging, and I jumped to such conclusions about Kung Fu Panda 2, but I am very happy to admit I was wrong.

DreamWorks has been way more consistent with the quality in the past couple of years, here's hoping they keep up the good work.