I hope to be reviewing the Blu-ray release of Wreck-It Ralph, out March 5, but in the meantime, here’s a preview clip of some behind-the-scenes material about the movie’s design inspirations and making models for “Sugar Rush” out of real candy: This one talks about how hard it is for animators to “go back” to [...]

CartoonBrew has the news that Reel FX has announced they are developing a CG-animated film based on Beasts of Burden, the way cool animal comic by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson. Director is planned to be Shane Acker, who directed 9, and the film will be written by Darren Lemke (Shrek Forever After). No official [...]

To promote the release of Wreck-It Ralph on home video — oddly, it can be bought digitally now while the DVD isn’t out for two more weeks — Disney has released these two behind-the-scenes clips in very sketchy draft form. The first features Ralph learning about a lifestyle video game called “X-Treme E-Z Livin’ 2″ [...]

Iron Man: Rise of Technovore Iron Man: Rise of Technovore, a new direct-to-video animated film from Marvel Entertainment and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, will be available on Blu-ray (list price $30.99) and DVD (list price $26.99) on April 16. Both formats include an UltraViolet copy and two featurettes, described as ““Tale of Technovore”, exploring the [...]

Superman: Unbound, the next original DC animated movie, is due out later this year (and was promoted on the just-out Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 2). The trailer is now available, showing Supergirl’s fear of Brainiac based on what he did to her home planet. Brief thoughts: Matthew Bomer has a nice authority as [...]

I had thought that the Marvel Knights Animation motion comic series from Shout! Factory might be wrapping up after the four-volume Joss Whedon Astonishing X-Men releases. I was wrong. Shout! Factory has just announced that Inhumans, based on the (out of print) comic by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee with the same cover, will be [...]

Out Tuesday is Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 2, the conclusion of the movie series that began with Part 1 last fall. Commissioner Gordon is being replaced by Ellen Yindel, who declares Batman’s actions illegal and demands his arrest. Meanwhile, Superman has been sent by the government to rein Bruce in, as Batman tries [...]

The Rabbi’s Cat, which did not get nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar this year (since all the slots were taken by bigger-budget, non-foreign cartoons), will be out on Blu-ray later this spring. It’s also playing a few selected theaters in the U.S. starting this month. In the meantime, I got a chance to [...]

From the opening logo — Burton’s right, the Disney Cinderella castle is spooky when done in black-and-white with thunder behind it — I could tell this was a Tim Burton film. It’s almost Spielberg-ian in its love of young filmmaking creativity and twisted suburbanism. In fact, with its old-fashioned pacing and references, it may be [...]

It always makes me nervous when a studio, particularly Disney, starts preferring one format to another, because that usually means customer choice is going to be affected down the road. They did it with DVD and Blu-ray, staggering releases for Bolt and Snow White to bring out the Blu-ray first. Now, with the announcement of [...]

For Christmas, Warner Archive has released two new animation collections, and they’re both on sale right now! Hanna-Barbera Christmas Classics Collection The Hanna-Barbera Christmas Classics Collection has three cartoons, each about twenty-four minutes long: A Christmas Story (1971), The Town Santa Forgot (1993), and Casper’s First Christmas (1979). In A Christmas Story, Timmy’s letter to [...]

Review by KC Carlson Although not as well known as other animation studios like Disney or Warner Brothers or even their contemporaries Hanna-Barbera, Filmation produced a huge number of hit shows and cult classics during the time they were in business, from 1963 to 1989. TwoMorrows’ new book, Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation, tells [...]

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 The second half of the Batman: The Dark Knight Returns animated feature set has been given a release date of January 29, 2013. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 is rated PG-13 and concludes the story based on Frank Miller’s classic graphic novel. It’s available as a [...]

The Rabbi’s Cat, an animated adaptation of Joann Sfar’s graphic novel about a talking feline and Jewish life in 1930s Algeria, is being pitched for the Best Animated Feature Oscar. It’s now screening in NY, opens next week in LA, and launches nationwide (with subtitles) in January. Sfar co-wrote and co-directed the film. Here’s the [...]

Metro Trains Melbourne in Australia has created this amazing cute and disturbingly morbid public service announcement called “Dumb Ways to Die”. After a couple of non-related song verses, there’s some advice on what not to do around their metropolitan trains. I love the little dancing bean-shaped corpses! They’ve also posted the various characters as GIFs [...]

Warner released the Fleischer Superman cartoons from the early 1940s on DVD three years ago. Now, they’ve put these restored versions online on YouTube — Cartoon Brew has the links, if you want the full list. Here’s the first one: They have some great, distinctive animation, and they’re lots of fun to watch.

I don’t know exactly when this documentary will be coming out — sometime next year, and I’m told they’re submitting to Sundance now — but I want to see it! I Know That Voice looks at the craft of voiceover, including cartoons and video games, with some well-known participants, including Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants), Kevin [...]

I don’t get Adventure Time, the ever-more-popular Cartoon Network animated series that just launched its fifth season on Monday. Then I watched this PBS “Idea Channel” video that talks about its emotional depth, use of history, and evocation of romantic nostalgia. Neat overview. They’ve also done episodes on bronies and the definition of masculinity and [...]

Out tomorrow on Blu-ray is the newest Pixar movie, featuring the newest Disney princess: Brave. The story of Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald), a spirited young woman who has trouble negotiating the path from childhood to adulthood, is an historical fantasy. Brave Her mother (Emma Thompson) wants her to become a lady, which means selecting [...]

I forgot to mention something I really enjoyed about seeing Wreck-It Ralph yesterday — the Paperman short that preceded it was outstanding! It’s wordless, and it has some amazing animation. It reminded me of a good manga, in its quiet story of romance; the restrained but extraordinarily effective art style; and its confident, wordless storytelling. [...]