Trunk Animation Crafts Villagers’ ‘That Golden Time’ Music Video
The studio creates stunning visuals that capture lead vocalist Conor O’Brien’s ‘algorithm blues;’ a moth’s unyielding attraction to a flame becomes a metaphor for people’s unyielding attraction to technology.
‘Orion and The Dark’ Kicks Off Netflix’s 2024 Feature Animation Lineup
This year’s slate, which begins February 2 with the new DreamWorks and Charlie Kaufman comedy, includes spring release dates for ‘The Casagrandes Movie,’ ‘Thelma the Unicorn,’ and ‘Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp;’ dates for ‘Ultraman: Rising,’ ‘The Imaginary,’ ‘Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie,’ ‘That Christmas,’ and ‘Spellbound’ yet to be announced.
Peacock Drops ‘Megamind vs. The Doom Syndicate’ Trailer
DreamWorks' new animated kids’ film picks up after the events of the 2010 movie with the return of Megamind’s ‘The Doom Syndicate;’ the film and its all-new companion series, ‘Megamind Rules!’ premiere with all 8 episodes on March 1.
William Shatner to Receive VES Award for Creative Excellence
The acclaimed actor-producer-director, famed for his portrayal of ‘Star Trek’s James T. Kirk across numerous TV and film projects, will be honored at the 22nd Annual VES Awards on February 21.
Corus Restructures Original Content Leadership Team
Original Programming and Corus Studios VP Lisa Godfrey, Nelvana president Pam Westman, and head of Waterside Studios Jeff Norton exit the company as Rachel Nelson and Mellany Welsh are appointed to key leadership roles.
SCAD TVfest Coming to Atlanta
The annual celebration of television and streaming is set for February 7-10, with TV creators, showrunners, producers and voice talent from shows such as Prime Video’s adult animated series ‘Hazbin Hotel,’ Netflix’s ‘Scott Pigrim Takes off,’ and Prime’s upcoming ‘The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy’ slated to attend.
Help! I Love Watching Animated Shorts
The first of three essays written by noted historian, author, and educator Karl Cohen to bring awareness to the present state of indie animated shorts and to stimulate a discussion that might lead to improvements; we start with a discussion of the ways these shorts have reached the public since the decline of theatrical cartoons.
Aardman Inks Deals for ‘Pop Paper City’ and ‘Interstellar Ella’
The award-winning animation studio’s distribution arm scores worldwide deals for third-party animated series that share studio’s ‘values of quality and originality, with humor as a core theme.’
Foundry Launches Flix 7.0
Major update includes new Maya integration and upgraded API for remote collaboration, new metadata system, enhanced Adobe Premiere plugin, Photoshop plugin redesign and updated notification preferences.
GKIDS’ ‘Blue Giant’ Releasing on Digital and Blu-Ray
Watch the trailer! From Shout! Studios, Yuzuru Tachikawa’s critically acclaimed anime comes home on April 30, with special features including a Q&A with Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara.
47th CINANIMA INTERNATIONAL ANIMATED FILM FESTIVAL - 13 – 19 November 2023 Espinho, Portugal
Some festivals are such a pleasure to attend that I want to go back every year, and Cinanima is one of those festivals.
Baobab Studios Announces ‘Momoguro’ TV Series
The multiple Emmy Award-winning interactive animation studio teams up with 9 Story Media Group to co-produce and launch a kids’ series based on its hugely popular game-based IP; the franchise features a magical universe with contrasting creatures who use the magical power of ‘Momoguro.’
Phillip Boutté Jr. and Michael Uwandi Talk ‘Building Character: Sketch to Screen’
At their January 20 Academy Museum presentation, moderated by Oscar-winning director Peter Ramsey, the 9B Collective co-founders discussed concept design, building great characters, and how they strive to support and inspire young BIPOC artists with the conceptual creativity that will fuel their imaginations for years to come.
4th Annual AfroAnimation Summit Returns to Burbank
The conference, running April 10-12, promotes diversity and inclusion throughout the entertainment industry, welcoming a coalition of industry speakers, studio execs, students, creatives and young professionals.
‘Bluey’ Scores PETA Kids’ ‘Bug Bestie Award’
The series and its creator are honored for teaching kids to have empathy for bugs; the award-winning animated preschool series streams on Disney+ in the U.S.
Prime Videos Shares ‘The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy’ Trailer
Emmy Award-winning creator Cirocco Dunlap’s adult animated comedy follows Dr. Sleech and Dr. Klak - aliens, best friends, and intergalactically renowned surgeons - as they tackle anxiety-eating parasites, illegal time loops, and deep-space STIs; watch it February 23.
Netflix and Mattel Drop ‘Hot Wheels Let's Race’ Trailer
The high-octane 3DCG series follows the newest generation of racers experiencing mind-blowing races, extreme stunt contests, and thrill-seeking challenges; the show races into homes March 4.
Saffronic Appoints Bhanu Prakash as Head of Creative, Games
The animation production studio founded in 2022 kicks off the new year with a roster of AAA projects for gaming industry titans, spearheaded by the new executive.
BOXX Releases the RAXX S1G Rack-Mounted Workstation
New scalable workstation is configurable to meet the needs of engineers, product designers, architects, VFX artists, and animators and optimized to implement remote workstation capabilities for SOLIDWORKS, Autodesk Revit, AutoCAD, 3ds Max, and Maya.
Apple TV+ Lays Off Eight Employees in ‘Kids’ Division
The streamer is evolving to focus on its own animated film pipeline but remains committed to the kids’ programming; an original ‘Peanuts’ feature film is currently in development.
Binocular Briefs – January 2024
The latest survey of under-the-radar animated shorts currently traveling the festival circuit or new to online viewing.
‘Bob the Builder’ Feature in Development, Jennifer Lopez to Produce
Mattel Films will develop the project that follows Roberto (aka Bob), who travels to Puerto Rico for a construction job and ‘takes on issues affecting the island and digs deeper into what it means to build.’
Illumination Drops First Trailer, Voice Cast for ‘Despicable Me 4’
The biggest global animated franchise in history – and its considerably manic mayhem - returns with the first ‘Despicable Me’ film in 7 years, as stars Steve Carrell and Kristen Wiig return alongside franchise newcomers Will Ferrell, Sofia Vergara, Joey King, and Stephen Colbert; action-comedy hits theaters July 3.
Pharrell Williams Teams with The Lego Group, Focus Features on Animated Biopic
The musician and producer will set imaginations free with a feature that ‘defies genres and expectations to transport audiences into a Lego world where anything is possible.’
Real-time Animation Made Easy with ActorCore and iClone Omniverse Live Sync
3D animator and Cineshare CEO Pekka Varis shares his 3D crowd generation workflow for a cinematic night scene utilizing iClone Live Sync to NVIDIA Omniverse™, integrating ActorCore 3D characters and mocap animations to create a dynamic and engaging experience.
