On Thursday, Feb. 24th, the Oscar Showcase tour pulled into DreamWorks. View the fun we had there.

With the Oscar Showcase beginning to slow down, Thursday marked our chance to see DreamWorks L.A. While the screening was taking place, John Tarnoff, the head of the DreamWorks’ “incubator” department, showed us around the facility. After seeing production art from Bee Movie, Kung-Fu Panda and Madagascar 2, we got to see some production art and CG characters from DreamWorks’ 2009 releases Monsters vs. Aliens and How to Train Your Dragon. Being that Monsters vs. Aliens is the studio’s first stereoscopic production and the release date was moved up to March, the production is in furious mode. In regards to the challenges of working in 3-D, John said that DreamWorks looks at stereoscopic as they do stereo sound – a subtle enrichment of the movie going experience. Though the release will not be in 3-D, a test was done using the opening action sequence from Kung-Fu Panda to discover the limits to which they could push the technology. David Verrall, the exec producer of Madame Tutli-Putli, who has a hand in every English language film produced at the NFB, said they have artists working on eight foot screens for stereoscopic productions so they can get a better idea of how the mind processes the images as they are working on them.

With the screenings now complete, Saturday — the day before the big event — was filled with parties to celebrate the nominees. Both the DreamWorks brunch at Campanile and the Chocolate Foscas were chances for the nominees to reconnect and meet other animation pros.

Here it is the long awaited gallery of select pics from Ron’s camera from the Oscar Showcase tour’s swing by DreamWorks, Fox, the Academy, Disney and ICM. There’s also a couple special pics at the end courtesy of No Time for Nuts director Mike Thurmeier.

Well, I just got back from the Academy screening, which closed another whirlwind day on the Oscar Showcase tour. In addition, to Roger, Don, Marcy, Geza and Tamas, Gary Rydstrom, Lifted producer Katherine Sarafian (who we’d all meet at the Pixar screening), Torill Kove, The Danish Poet’s Norwegian producer Lise Fearnley, co-director of No Time for Nuts Chris Renaud and No Time for Nuts producer Lori Forte all joined the fun. Mike Thurmeier is back in New York with his wife and we’re happy to announce their new daughter has arrived. Her named is Katelyn Ivy. She was born on Feb. 18th at 2:23 in the afternoon. She was 21 inches long and a healthy 8lbs 10ozs!!!