There they are, lined up left to right – the dream team, the creative powerhouse behind DreamWorks’ latest, ‘let’s leave out the snark this time’ animated feature Rise of the Guardians. They’re bookended on one side by executive producer Guillermo del Toro and on the other by William Joyce, the creative genius/illustrator whose Guardians of Childhood book series serve as the movie’s foundation.

Dental hygiene, Zombie-style. Photo by LAIKA – © 2012 - LAIKA-Focus Features.

“It’s John Carpenter meets John Hughes.” 

 That’s how Chris Butler describes Paranorman, the spooky, shot in 3D stop-motion film co-directed by himself and Sam Fell (Flushed Away). And that’s just for starters; there’s no shortage of pop culture markers in the film, everything from The Goonies to Ghostbusters and even the random Scooby-Doo episode. “It’s a grab bag of anything from the 1980s.”

Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me (2005)

Well, I finally got to speak to Bernard Derriman.

Speak as in actually talk to him, as opposed to our Email ‘conversation’ back in 2005 when I wrote about animated music videos (http://tinyurl.com/75a9fuk) - and his now justly famous Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me.

Our paths crossed again when I wrote about Fox’s new Sunday night cartoon Allen Gregory (http://tinyurl.com/6roxld5).

Derriman directed two out of the show’s seven initial episodes; if the series gets renewed (which all depends on how much America takes an arrogant pipsqueak to their hearts) he’ll be doing more of them. At the moment he’s busy with Fox’s other Sunday night backup toon Bob’s Burgers.

When I saw Derriman’s director’s credit on the Allen Gregory screener it was a chance for me to return to the subject of that video and its impact on his career. Our conversation was an actual spoken one this time around, via the magic of coast-to-coast telephony. (It’s an actual word, look it up.)

Enrico Casarosa

The year-plus early teaser trailer is a given for spectacular genre movies nowadays… but how about the full release of an entire movie – an animated Pixar film at that – some ten months before its official premiere?

In this case however, the Pixar film in question runs all of seven minutes and is set to accompany the summer 2012 release of Brave, Pixar’s next full-length feature. It’s called La Luna, and it’s the story of a boy, his dad, granddad… and their peculiar relationship with the celestial body of the title.

Conservation, inpainting and preservation to production cels and background from Walt Disney’s 1948 feature film Melody Time. Art gifted from Walt Disney to Hardie Gramatky, ex-Disney employee and author of the children’s book: Little Toot. Collection of Kendall & Linda Gramatky. Image courtesy of the Archive of Ron Barbagallo, Animation Art Conservation. Melody Time - © Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Once upon a time animation art wasn't worth the celluloid it was painted on. Art that would now be worth tens of thousands of dollars was washed or thrown away – and what was saved often handled thoughtlessly or just forgotten about. Things have changed since then, changed a lot. People now realize that animation art is exactly that - a thing of beauty in its own right, and a cultural heritage to be cherished and preserved. (The fact that original cels, concept art and similar items are high-valued collectibles that are transitioning to museum art hasn't hurt either.)

Preservation is where Ron Barbagallo comes into the picture. Even the most carefully preserved original art cannot escape the inevitable decay of the materials that went into its creation, and clients on the order of the Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera and even individuals like Roy E. Disney have turned to Ron's Animation Art Conservation practice for rescue and restoration projects that often border on the miraculous.

Ron's been at it for nearly 25 years. While his work has focused on the preservation of hand-painted cels and backgrounds, his work also includes physical objects like Mary GrandPré's Harry Potter pastel art book covers, Batman's suits from the Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan movies and a four-year preservation effort for the long-term care of Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride and James and the Giant Peach puppets. Ron's skills have even led him to the shattered remnants of the World Trade Center.

Ted Soward's After Today Live.

Disney’s 1995 backup animated feature A Goofy Movie – and one of its songs in particular – struck a chord with a generation of school kids who are now in college. Fan videos and mash-ups are nothing new, but one student took it a step – or two – further…

Road Runner and Coyote in 3-D.

Animating classic, nay legendary cartoon characters is a daunting challenge. Theatrical shorts are no longer part of a four-hour day at the movies, along with a double feature, newsreel, shorts and coming attractions – they’re now a prestige item occasionally accompanying a suitably themed fantasy/family film. And as befits our modern truncated attention spans, they’re more often than not faster-paced and briefer in running time than their illustrious predecessors.

When Warner Bros. asked Matt O’Callaghan to return their yin-and-yang, would-be predator and hoped-for prey pair Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, to the big screen – only in CGI-shape and 3D-depth, O’Callaghan took a deep breath and delivered the goods – and fortunately for all involved with the production, without once resorting to Acme technology…

Jerry Bruckheimer may be the most soft-spoken, least bombastic man in Hollywood.

Not to mention one of the most conservatively dressed. Wearing a trim grey suit and tie, he showed up at a midtown NY screening room earlier this month to share a pair of scenes from his upcoming summer popcorn movie The Sorcerer’s Apprentice for an audience of appreciative geeks.

The canceled Comedy Central series’ feature length finale is a low-budget direct-to-video effort designed to provide its fans with, as the cliché goes, “closure” and to say farewell once and for all to its cast of animated archetypes… maybe. “Buying the DVD is a vote for the show” returning, its producers say. “Besides, there’s a part of the movie you can’t download that will change your life.”

Think that guy sitting across from you on the subway looks ugly? What if he had two heads? Or horns and a forked tongue, or maybe was a fish from the waist up? And there were plenty more like him all over town? Then you’d probably be living in the imaginary New York City where Ugly Americans, Comedy Central’s new animated series takes place. The concept: “Newcomers,” a bizarre assortment of monsters and fantastical creatures have become an accepted part of the population, and a small government bureaucracy, the “Department of Integration” tries to help them fit into society. It’s the brainchild (and by the way, bodiless brains are among the Newcomers) of one Devin Clark…