GKIDS announces a distribution agreement with Studiocanal for the U.S. rights to animated feature “Ernest & Celestine.”

I see a lot of TV animation for kids. Sounds pretty enviable, doesn’t it? Well, it is when you stumble upon godsends like the shows Yo Gabba Gabba! Otherwise, it’s a pretty hellish experience being forced to hear god-awful music and watch screaming adult-voiced kids, bad animation, idiotic storylines, and annoying dialogue, writing, and plots that read like they’re were made by a factory of Ned Flanders clones.

Cinedigm Entertainment Group will release “Chico & Rita” on cable VOD, DVD, and on DVD/Blu-ray in a Limited Edition Collector's Set, preceded by an early digital release on August 21.

Dr Toon recounts the pivotal years from 1994-2000, when TV animation underwent crucial changes in production technology.

Growing up, I was a latch key kid, often coming home to an empty house after school. My babysitters’ names were Popeye, Tom, Jerry, Bugs and Daffy. I was literally raised on those old school cartoons with their over the top slapstick violence and impeccable timing. They would leave an indelible mark on me.

It's about an old animator... 90 plus now... and it's written LIKE listening to a 90 year old talk... random and all over the place... like my sister.

Convincing an MTV exec to greenlight a couple of Celebrity Deathmatch shorts seemed like a herculean task. Turns out that would become the first of many battles to get “Celebrity Deathmatch: The Series” on the air.

Learning animation on your own is very doable. This third of the four part series on the tools of the trade looks at vector based softwares for animation.

Calabash Animation completes a new spot, “Chocolate Island,” for Cocoa Puffs cereal.

In the case of Celebrity Deathmatch, I knew I had a solid concept – two celebrities with a score to settle face off in a clay animated wrestling ring…and fight to the death! The pitch could not have been any simpler and yet it had all of the components of great entertainment – pop culture, biting satire, cartoony violence and an animation style that was beloved but seldom seen. And yet it would take MTV over a year to greenlight a pilot!

It’s critical that an international team be formed to lead your project right from the beginning. As the story and characters are developed you must have folks who are knowledgeable about what will and what will not work in the West.

The VIEW Conference announces new competitions and deadlines for 2012.

I’ve never been very good at math but there is one equation that I do understand: creativity + ambition + timing + a little luck = success.

Tom Bancroft’s new book shows animators how to bring their characters to life.

Disney Animation has released a first look at Paperman, the short film by John Kahrs and Kristina Reed that fuses CG and hand-drawn animation techniques.

Japanese motion picture production company Digital Frontier worked on CG production and compositing for director Mamoru Hosoda’s latest animated film, “Wolf Children.”

Can one predict an animated film’s success in advance? Dr. Toon makes a case for the upcoming DreamWorks feature, Mr. Peabody and Sherman.

Summer blues bring on a softer mood. This week: "Bubble" (Elliot Dear), "TELEPHONEME" (MK12), "Cherry Blossom Elephant in Forest" (Young-jun Kim/Earth Design Works), "Blue Whale" (Sivan Kidron), "Kali le petit Vampire" (Regina Pessoa)

Eric Fogel, creator of MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch, starts blogging on AWN with a little background on a youth spent at his drafting table creating comic books.

Though there was just too much for anyone to see or do, if you can only attend one festival next year I highly recommend that you come to the TrickFilm Animation Festival.