Collider shares the first teaser from Studio Ghibli’s upcoming feature Karigurashi no Arrietty (The Borrower Arrietty). Based on Mary Norton’s popular The Borrowers series of children’s books, and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Karigurashi no Arrietty will premiere in Japan on July 17, 2010. A North American release is likely to follow in time for the 2010 holiday season.
Mary Blair, Richard Scarry, Fyodor Khitruk’s Winnie the Pooh, and anime-styled cuteness are all mashed together in this colorful trailer for Mouk, an upcoming TV series produced by French studio Millimages. It’s based on illustrator Marc Boutavant’s book Around the World with Mouk. Sixty-two eleven-minute episodes and thirty one-minute shorts for web/mobile are currently in production.
(Thanks, Philippe Bercovici)
‘Milton Glaser v. Magma Taishi’ is Craig McCracken’s tribute to Osamu Tezuka and graphic designer Milton Glaser, who created the Sixties poster of Bob Dylan upon which this image is based. It’s available as a print and T-shirt during the month of February at NakatomiInc.com.
Disney artists recently designed five Disney-themed string basses for a charity auction. The pieces look pretty slick. They’ll be displayed around the US before they’re auctioned this summer as a benefit for the Grammy In The Schools music education program. Photos of all of them can be seen in this article at BlogDowntown.com.
(Thanks, Erik Wiese)
Patricia Zohn writes about Disney’s ink-and-paint girls in this month’s Vanity Fair. She started researching the topic after speaking to her aunt, Rae Medby McSpadden, a former ink-and-paint artist. Most of the facts will be familiar to animation history buffs, but it’s a well-written slice-of-life piece that adds color to the bygone days:
During Snow White, it was not at all unusual to see the “girls”—as Walt paternalistically referred to them—thin and exhausted, collapsed on the lawn, in the ladies’ lounge, or even under their desks. “I’ll be so thankful when Snow White is finished and I can live like a human once again,” Rae wrote after she recorded 85 hours in a week. “We would work like little slaves and everybody would go to sleep wherever they were,” said inker Jeanne Lee Keil, one of two left-handers in the department who had to learn everything backward. “I saw the moon rise, sun rise, moon rise, sun rise.” Painter Grace Godino, who would go on to become Rita Hayworth’s studio double, also remembered the long days merging into nights: “When I’d take my clothes off, I’d be in the closet, and I couldn’t figure it out: am I going to sleep or am I getting up?”
[See post to watch Flash video]
To save our world and all those like it, Superman, Batman and their caped colleagues must go toe-to-toe with their evil mirror images in Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths, an all-new DC Universe Animated Original PG-13 Movie coming February 23, 2010 from Warner Premiere, DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation. The full-length animated film will be distributed by Warner Home Video as a Special Edition 2-disc version on DVD and Blu-Ray Hi-Def , as well as single disc DVD, On Demand and Download.
Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths is an original story from award-winning animation/comics writer Dwayne McDuffie (Justice League) rooted in DC Comics’ popular canon of “Crisis” stories depicting parallel worlds with uniquely similar super heroes and villains. Bruce Timm (Superman Doomsday, Green Lantern) is executive producer. Lauren Montgomery (Wonder Woman, Green Lantern) and Sam Liu (Superman/Batman: Public Enemies) are co-directors.
In Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths, a “good” Lex Luthor arrives from an alternate universe to recruit the Justice League to help save his Earth from the Crime Syndicate, a gang of villainous characters with virtually identical super powers to the Justice League. What ensues is the ultimate battle of good versus evil in a war that threatens both planets and, through a diabolical plan launched by Owlman, puts the balance of all existence in peril.
The movie features an all-star voice cast led by Mark Harmon (NCIS) as Superman, James Woods (Ghosts of Mississippi) as Owlman, Chris Noth (Sex and the City, Law & Order) as Lex Luthor, William Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) as Batman, Gina Torres (Serenity, Firefly) as Super Woman and Bruce Davison (X-Men) as the President.
Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths
is available to order now from Amazon.com
On Single-Disc DVD:
On 2-Disc DVD:
2-DVD Amazon Exclusive:
On Blu-ray Disc:
Blu-ray Amazon Exclusive:
Michael Barrier has a fascinating essay on the story behind the story of Dumbo. The first version of Dumbo was copyrighted in 1939, but not in normal book form. Instead the thing stated life on an odd and interesting device from the late 1930’s called a “Roll-A-Book”. Barrier’s piece goes in depth with lots of quotes from the people involved, research in the Disney vaults, and even a look from the patent office on what the Roll-A-Book may have looked like.
Reuters reports that the second film in a three picture deal between Lionsgate and Crest Animation is slated for 2012 and is titled Norm of the North. The story features a polar bear forced out of his arctic home who finds work in New York. Later this year the two companies will release Alpha and Omega, a “wolves-on-the-run adventure”.
Some Oscar reactions from the directors behind the Best Animated Feature nominated Coraline and the Best Animated Short nominated French Roast follows:
Fabrice O. Joubert, French Roast director: “Being nominated for an Academy Award is such a great honor for me, for the amazing crew who worked with me on the film, and for my producers at Bibo Films and The Pumpkin Factory. This makes us very proud here in Paris! French Roast was really an animator’s dream project, because we were able to tell a story entirely through characterization and pantomime, therefore using the medium to its maximum potential. I feel very grateful to the Academy for validating the film in this way.”
Henry Selick,Coraline director “I feel very lucky and very grateful that Coraline is nominated. There were more excellent animated features released in 2009 than in any year before, so being included makes all of us from LAIKA and Focus Features very proud. And the diversity of the nominees in both storytelling and animation techniques gladdens my heart: The Princess and the Frog and The Secret of Kells, done in hand-drawn animation; Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox, in stop-motion; and Up, in glorious CG. It’s a great day for me, my family, and for all of us on Coraline – and a great day for animated feature films.”