'The Croods 2' is Cancelled

Variety reports that DreamWorks Animation and Universal Studios have decided to cancel the planned sequel to the 2013 film The Croods. The Croods 2 was originally supposed to hit theaters in 2017, but was pushed back to 2018 earlier this year.

Lino DiSalvo Will Direct the Playmobil Movie

Lino DiSalvo

Variety reports that Lino Di Salvo, head of animation on Disney's Frozen and animation supervisor on Bolt and Tangled, will direct the first Playmobil movie in a proposed trilogy. The movie will be called Playmobil: Robbers, Thieves & Rebels and should be released in 2018.

Henry Selick to Co-Write, Direct 'Wendell and Wild'

Variety reports that legendary animation director Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline…) will team up with Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key (also known as Key & Peele) to develop a stop-motion film called Wendell and Wild.

'Tangled': I See the TV Show

Variety reports that a TV series based on Disney's Tangled is heading our way. The show will air on Disney Channel in 2017, and will star Mandy Moore (Rapunzel) and Zachary Levi (Eugene AKA Flynn Rider) who are reprising their roles from the 2010 feature film.

Cannes: John Lasseter Talks Upcoming Pixar and Disney Films

John Lasseter (Chief Creative Officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios) is currently at the Cannes Film Festival where Pete Docter's Inside Out premiered on Monday. But while he was at Cannes, why wouldn't he also talk about the future? Thankfully he did, and some new tidbits on The Good Dinosaur, Finding Dory, Zootopia and Moana came through. More after the break.

Sir Ian McKellen Cast as Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast

Say what you want about these Disney live-action remakes, but you can't deny the casting of Beauty and the Beast is an embarrassment of riches: Variety reports that Sir Ian McKellen has joined the film as Cogsworth.

Sony Pictures Animation Announces 'The Lamb'

Variety reports that Sony Pictures Animation is currently developing a feature film called The Lamb. It will be directed by Timothy Reckart, who was nominated for an Academy Award with his stop-motion short Head Over Heels (2012).

Josh Cooley to Direct an 'Inside Out' Short - Co-Direct 'Toy Story 4'

Josh Cooley

Stitch Kingdom noticed that a Variety post called '10 Animators to Watch' spilled the beans on some upcoming Pixar projects; the animator to watch in Pixar seems to be Josh Cooley, as he apparently just finished directing a short film set in the world of Inside Out, and will be co-director on Toy Story 4.

Updated: No One's Been Like Gaston… But Luke Evans Will Be, And Dan Stevens Is The Beast

Variety reports that Luke Evans - who you may have recently seen in the third film of the Hobbit duology - will play the villainous Gaston in Disney's upcoming live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast. Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) is in talks to play the Beast according to The Hollywood Reporter.

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!

Despicable Me Spin-Off, Minions, Also Delayed to 2015

It's not quite as drastic as Pixar's 18 month delay on The Good Dinosaur, but yet another highly anticipated 2014 animated film has been pushed back to the already packed 2015. Variety reports that Illumination Entertainment have delayed Minions, their spin-off of the Despicable Me franchise, from the originally reported 19th December, 2014 release date, to one of 10th July, 2015.

Rainmaker Will Release a Ratchet & Clank Animated Film in 2015!

Variety reports that Rainmaker Entertainment, who most recently released the critically panned Escape from Planet Earth, are making a feature length animated film out of the popular PlayStation sci-fi platformer game series, Ratchet & Clank!

Illumination to Continue CG Dr. Seuss Spree with The Grinch Remake

We found out almost a year ago that Illumination Entertainment, the studio behind 2010's Despicable Me and last year's Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, were going to continue their adaptations of Seuss's works - something that came about as a result of Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri's friendly relationship with the author's widow, which led to Horton Hears a Who! when he was still at Blue Sky Studios - with a film adaptation of The Cat in the Hat, as well as a live-action Dr. Seuss biopic. Today, news emerged that they've secured another Seussian property, and will be remaking How the Grinch Stole Christmas in CG.

Variety reports that Pete Candeland is set to direct, having previously worked on Disney's Aladdin TV series and Gorillaz music videos. The Variety article points out that, despite his lack of big film experience, Candelend may well be a good fit for Illumination, given their previous good track record with relative novice directors. No writers, nor a release date, have been named yet, but Meledandri is producing and Seuss's widow, Audrey Geisel, is executive producing.

I wasn't all too taken with The Lorax - it felt padded and unoriginal, though its heart was in the right place, and you can't argue with its animation - and Illumination's The Grinch is going to have a hard time living up to Chuck Jones' 1966 animated TV special (see top), but The Grinch is definitely one of Seuss's most fertile properties, and, if all things come together well, it could be a really fun film.

Illumination are also working on Curious George, Woody Woodpecker and Addams Family films, as well as a Despicable Me spin-off - Despicable Me 2 is released on 28th June in the UK and 3rd July in the US.

Via Cartoon Brew.

Teddy Newton Directing a Pixar Feature Film!

Pixarian Teddy Newton, who garnered particular attention in 2010, with his innovative Oscar nominated short film Day & Night which preceded Toy Story 3 (in which he voiced Chatter Telephone), is now developing a Pixar feature film!

Review Round-Up - Frankenweenie and Hotel Transylvania

Following precious few releases in the first half of the year, it's been a strong summer for animation, with great films like Brave and ParaNorman - oh, and there was The Lorax too I guess. Coming up in winter we have DreamWorks' Rise of the Guardians and Disney's Wreck-It Ralph - as well as Pixar's 3D re-release of Monsters, Inc. But right now, as we turn towards autumn, we've got two big releases (and, finally, the UK release of Madagascar 3): Hotel Transylvania and Frankenweenie.

Check out our recaps, reviews coverage, and thoughts after the jump break!

ParaNorman's Out in the US - What Are the Critics Saying?

ParaNorman, the latest scary, stop-motion film from Laika, the house that brought you Coraline, is out today in US cinemas, and has been received thus far by the same enthusiastic acclaim that greeted their first film.

ParaNorman follows Norman Babcock, a young, outcast boy from the small town of Blithe Hollow, who has the inexplicable - yet somehow cinematically ubiquitous - ability to speak with the dead. Due to this, Norman is the only one able to try and stop the witch's curse that has plagued Blithe Hollow. Starring the voices of Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Jeff Garlin and John Goodman, and directed by Sam Fell (Flushed Away) and Chris Butler (storyboard supervisor on Coraline) was released today, with a new, intense, trailer (below), highlighting the scary parts of the film - rather than the comedy the earlier trailers focused on - released on the 14th.

The critics are enthusiastic so far; Laika's second film currently holds an 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (compared to Coraline's 90%), with a consensus reading:

"Beautifully animated and solidly scripted, ParaNorman will entertain (and frighten) older children while providing surprisingly thoughtful fare for their parents."

Top critics from all over the web seem enamoured with the film: Variety's Justin Chang writes "Few movies so taken with death have felt so rudely alive as "ParaNorman,"", and Rolling Stone's Peter Travers enthuses "Hey, it's not just Pixar that kicks ass in animation. Case in point: ParaNorman, a small miracle in stop-motion 3D from the wizards at Laika", rating it 3 out of 4 stars.

It certainly sounds promising!

Alas, ParaNorman isn't out here in the UK until 14th September (although we will have a review of The Art and Making of ParaNorman up soon!), but if you have seen it - or see it soon - please let us know what you think, either in the comments section, or on Twitter (@A113Animation).

In related news: The latest feature film from Henry Selick, who directed Coraline for Laika, has been dumped by Disney. Read the full story here.

Paramount Animation's Slate Fills Up - J.J. Abrams to Direct

Following the commercial and critical success of Rango last year (winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature) and the impending loss of the profit generated from distributing DreamWorks' films when the two companies part ways later this year, Paramount decided to go into business for itself and set up its own animation department. It's worked well for Fox, Sony and Universal, with their respective animation divisions, and Paramount is hoping for success for its animated slate - and it's looking promising so far.

So far, all we'd heard about the division is that it was starting off with a sequel to Nickelodeon's successful The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, due in 2014; to be followed by The New Kid, based on the Penny Arcade comic. But today, in addition to lots of new details about these projects, we got some hints at what we can expect from Paramount Animation in the future - which you can read all about after the jump break!

Disney Cuts Henry Selick's Next Film

We've heard the exciting news for a while now, that The Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick had entered into a collaboration with Disney and Pixar. The studio formed as a result of this was then called Cinderbiter Productions.

We didn't hear anything much for a while, before recently hearing that Cinderbiter - now retitled ShadeMaker Productions - and Selick's first film for Disney would be called, tentatively, Shademaker, after the studio. The stop-motion film - which is supposedly, following in the vein of Selick's other films, like Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, a scary one - was due for a 4th October, 2013 release date. However, Variety reports that Disney had concerns that the film wouldn't meet its release date, so the Mouse House pulled the plug.

Selick is expected to continue the film elsewhere (Laika maybe? After the success of their previous collaboration with Selick, Coraline), and still expected to progress with another film for Disney, an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. However, the fact that Disney wouldn't postpone the release date (something they frequently do for Pixar films) suggests they weren't happy with Shademaker, so it's up in the air at the moment where Selick stands on The Graveyard Book - although Gaiman, having previously worked with Selick in adapting his original book of Coraline for Laika, would likely want to collaborate with him again.

Sad news, definitely, Henry Selick's a very talented film-maker, and here's hoping Shademaker finds a home and this doesn't spoil his relationship with Disney.

Via Bleeding Cool.

First Brave Reviews And More TV Spots

Ahead of the US premiere of Pixar's Brave in 11 days, the first reviews have started to surface - and it's looking good! Contrary to the somewhat lukewarm critical reception to their last feature, Cars 2, Pixar look to be back on top form with Brave.

Only a handful of reviews have showed up so far, but the prevailing impression is a good one. Variety's Peter Debruge says that Brave creates "a resonant tribute to mother-daughter relationships that packs a level of poignancy on par with such beloved male-bonding classics as Finding Nemo", whilst citing it as more "conventional" than some of their previous more ambitious projects like 2004's The Incredibles. HeyUGuys gushes about the film in their review, saying:

"What makes Brave truly special is that, even if it were stripped of its dazzling visuals, laugh-out-loud humour and dynamism, it would remain a clever, arresting and emotionally involving, yet inherently simple tale about the turbulent relationship between a mother and daughter and the fact that freedom may not be all it’s cracked up to be. It’s the emotional core, with all those extra elements sprinkled liberally on top that makes Brave the best animated film of the year, rewarding in droves. It’s quite simply, unrelentingly spectacular."

Awarding the film 4/5 stars.

However, although (from a small sample of 5) it currently totes an 80% Fresh Rotten Tomatoes rating, not all of the reviews are positive. The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy seems less enthused about the film, saying "Pixar's 13th film, which follows an adventurous Scottish princess, is visually stunning and strongly voiced, but doesn't take any real risks.", although it's by no means a bad review, saying it has a "beautiful and eventful prologue", also stating:

"The wild beauty of Scotland, of the verdant forests and the craggy peaks, is lovingly rendered with a gorgeous palette of painterly colors and in very agreeable 3D."

and

"Patrick Doyle's active and resourceful score is another major plus "

Big Screen Animation's Mike Bastoli also said on Twitter "If you read any early Brave review that say Pixar fans might be disappointed by Brave, ignore it."

Also, head on over to Pixar Corner to check out a bunch of great new TV spots for Brave!

Brave is released in the US on 22nd June, and 13th August here in the UK.

Madagascar 3 Interactive Promo and First Reviews

You can say what you like about DreamWorks, but they sure as hell know how to promote a movie. The above video will start for you an extended interactive look at DreamWorks' latest feature film, Madagascar 3.

The third film in the Madagascar franchise, subtitled Europe's Most Wanted, has been advertised pretty heavily as of late, and the above video comes via DreamWorks' official Facebook page. The video shows Skipper and his crack team of penguins inviting you to join in on the interactive experience, titled 'Furry vs. The Fuzz'. Once you've clicked on the link, you'll be taken to an interactive clip from Madagascar 3, which allows you to click and make choices to direct the popular animal group through the early stages of the film.

It's a brilliant idea for an advertising strategy which is very fun to play through and got me much more excited about the film than I was recently. However, be wary, it does contain a lot of footage that can easily be considered spoiler worthy.

It also features the newly released, and guiltily hilarious, 'Afro Circus' clip. The first reviews are also surfacing from the film's 18th May Cannes Film Festival premiere, and they seem rather promising, with (from an admittedly small number of reviews) a Rotten Tomatoes score of 80%. Consensus seems somewhat devided though, with Variety's Justin Chang saying "This is the rare animated property that has consistently improved on its ho-hum origins,", whereas THR's Todd McCarthy takes a markedly different stance, saying that "it’s dominated by the characters shouting over one another, repetitively reacting with alarm to anything that happens and overcompensating for largely unfunny material by overacting by about 300 percent.". Wait until more reviews surface I guess.

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted is released in the US on 8th June, and here in the UK on 19th October.