The Hollywood Reporter reports on the winners of the 36th Annual Annie awards for animation held Friday night in Los Angeles. It was DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda that did the cleaning last night picking up a total of 10 awards including best animated feature, that’s even more than the previous best feature winner, Pixar’s Ratatouille. Kung Fu even took the award for the best animated short for the bonus Secrets of the Furious Five included on the DVD.
Pixar
Venice film festival to honor Lasseter, Pixar
(L-R) Bolt, John Lasseter
ROME (Reuters) – John Lasseter and the directors of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios will receive a career award at this year’s Venice film festival for revolutionizing animation cinema, organizers said on Monday.
Lasseter and Pixar, which merged with Walt Disney in 2006, are behind animation blockbusters such as “Toy Story,” “Finding Nemo,” “The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille” and more recently “WALL-E,” which has been nominated for best animated feature at next month’s Academy Awards. (more…)
Revving Up for New Disney/Pixar Comics
I have two very long weeks to go before I can report from NY Comic-Con and I’ve been boning up best I can just to pass the time. So I was ecstatic to come across an interview with BOOM! Studios’ Mark Waid on the new Disney/Pixar comics due out in March along with the Muppets and even more on the way.
The World of Cars from BOOM! Studios
BOOM! Studios will be at NY Comic-Con so if I learn or see anything else, you’ll see it here first.
Newsweek Interview with Wall*E’s Stanton (pre-Oscar Nod)
Humility, sequels and the complete unknown that is woman according to the film’s writer/director in excerpts from this Newsweek interview.
Wall*E Cleans Up for Disney at 2009 Oscar Nominations
The 2009 Oscar nominations were announced earlier today and Wall*E received 6 nominations in all: Best Animated Film (along with Bolt), Best Original Screenplay, Achievement in Sound Editing, Achievement in Sound Mixing, Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score and Original Song for Down to Earth). The Oscars will air February 22 on ABC.
Says Writer/Director Andrew Stanton: “We are ecstatic and grateful for the Academy’s generous and humbling recognition of WALL•E. It is an honor and privilege to make films at Pixar, where we have grown into a great, big family. This is a tribute to all of us at Pixar and Disney who do our best to make films, not just animated films, but films for everyone that just happen to be animated.”
New artwork and a sneak peek at UP
no images were found
SonyInsider.com has published a video someone took at the Sony CES 2009 featuring a clip from the upcoming Disney/Pixar film UP, a comedy adventure about 78-year-old balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen, who finally fulfills his lifelong dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. But he discovers all too late that his biggest nightmare has stowed away on the trip: an overly optimistic 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell.
Also recently made available are a couple of teaser posters (one seen above) and additional artwork as follows: (more…)
