VICTOR (voiced by Charlie Tahan)

Disney has just released 8 character portraits with descriptions from Tim Burton's upcoming stop-motion horror flick, Frankenweenie.  The set includes profiles on the following characters:  Victor (voiced by Chalie Tahan), Sparky, Mr. & Mrs. Frankenstein (voiced by Catherine O'Hara & Martin Short), Elsa van Helsing (voiced by Winona Ryder), Persephone, Toshiaki (voiced by James Hiroyuki Liao), Bob (voiced by Robert Capron) and Bob's Mom (voiced by Concata Ferrell). Links are included to 1200x1800 pixel images - very detailed and very cool.

Honor Code - directed by Katy Chevigny and animated by Richard O'Connor and his company, Ace & Son Moving Picture Company.

Ace & Son Moving Picture Company, led by Richard O’Connor’s animation direction, recently finished a poignant and thoughtful animated documentary short on the horrors of honor killings.

Pixar has posted a funny new "short" from Brave, entitled "Summer Games."

The Evil Villain Pitch

6 new character posters have been released for the new DreamWorks feature, Rise of the Guardians, set for release November 21, 2012, including the evil villain, Pitch.

Image Copyright © 2012 PARAMOUNT PICTURES, INC.

By Haley Hughes

If ever there was a film to see in 3D, it would be Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.  This film proves that 3D can be used to enhance a viewing experience: allowing the audience to interact with the roller coaster like camera moves and the abstract sequences of light and color.  Though it has a relatively weak story and fails to really develop character, the visuals and the use of 3d make this film worth a viewing.

He's baaaaaccccckkkkkkk!

The Avengers hits US theatres today, surely set to obliterate box office metrics on its way to blockbuster gold, financial nirvana, accolades for the actors and kudos for the studio.  Millions of people will watch it and be thoroughly entertained.  A small group will watch it and be thoroughly underwhelmed.  An even smaller group still will watch it and bemoan the continued decline of everything – society at large, superhero genre filmmaking, democracy as we know it, the ozone layer. These people are always annoyed at something.  Their sentences often begin, “When I was a kid…” as if the world was any less a shithole when they were 10.  Not surprising, most are grandparents.

Storyboard panel showing The Pirate Captain!

It's just a nifty day, as shown here by a nifty storyboard sequence from the new Aardman and Sony film, The Pirates! Band of Misfits.

Charles Darwin and Mr. Bobo

We've got a nifty collection of model sheets from Aardman's and Sony's new feature, The Pirates!, which hits the theatres in the US today.  Take a gander when you have a moment. Click each image to view a higher-res version.

TV Animation Production Executives Business Revenue Generation Strategies 2013-2018

With MIPTV starting today, an independent market research firm has released the results of its most recent television animation production industry survey.  According to Copenhagen-based management consulting and market research firm International Institute for a Better Tomorrow, production companies that historically have generated significant revenue from animated series are finding today’s marketplace significantly more crowded and less lucrative than in previous years.  A company press release accompanying highlights of the survey says that their most recent data suggests that senior studio executives are in agreement that the halcyon days of big money animation television deals are a distant memory, never to return.  However, bucking conventional wisdom and recent industry trends, these executives differ greatly on profit strategies and business models they plan on putting in place to shore up their bottom line and ensure the survival of their businesses.

A complete breakdown of the survey results is as follows:.

Engineers, scientists and other supposed great-thinkers don’t often make for interesting copy.  Centrifuges, remote sensors, pressure valves and biopsies don’t bring smiles to most people’s faces, unless of course, you’re my mom, who never met a biopsy she couldn’t fret over, going back to Marcus Welby, M.D. To those who don’t understand, like or appreciate scientific thought, even MacGyver is mundane and hopelessly highbrow.

Enter stage left the magnificent pair of stop-motion Brits, Aardman’s Wallace & Gromit, front and center in a new DVD release of their complete six-part BBC1 TV series, Wallace & Gromit’s World of Invention.  This nifty series pairs the eternally bumbling but kind-hearted inventor Wallace, along with his trusted companion, always-in-the-nick-of-time dog Gromit, and a series of live action vignettes on engineers, scientists and designers whose contraptions are truly extraordinary.  Part Mythbusters, part National Geographic, the pairing is clever, with our animated duo introducing and wrapping in and around the live action segments.