Channel Frederator Blog

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting (imagine that) that Nickelodeon has ordered a pilot from DreamWorks Animation based on Monsters Vs Aliens.

DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg announced the news at the 37th Annual
J. P. Morgan Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in Boston.

DreamWorks and Nickelodeon announced last week their collaboration on
KUNG FU PANDA: THE SERIES and Nick is currently airing THE PENGUINS OF
MADAGASCAR, another collaboration.

DreamWorks will also have two TV specials in 2010 on NBC, a SCARED
SHREKLESS Halloween special and a KUNG FU PANDA holiday special.

-Floyd Bishop

Here is a first look at A Christmas Carol, directed by Robert Zemeckis. Jim Carrey will appear as four different characters: the old Scrooge and three ghosts.

-Floyd Bishop

Disney has released the poster for The Princess and the Frog. The first real trailer was released last week, and the reception was mixed.

Some people call it groundbreaking, while others call it a pale imitation of a tired formula. For their part, Disney has tried to put this film up on a pedestal, placing it alongside some of their best films. In fact, the whole 30 second beginning of the trailer is a montage of “remember when we made this movie and this movie?”

We’ll have to wait until the end of this year to see if the film is actually any good, but the stage is set for either a great cinematic triumph, or a huge let down. I think the film has potential, but there are some weird things in the trailer that don’t get my hopes up. I’m looking at you, baby armed prince.

-Floyd Bishop

The Los Angeles Times is reporting  that a new museum will open in the Presidio of San Francisco. The museum will focus on Walt Disney the person over Walt Disney the company and corporate entity.

Diane Disney Miller says “My father’s name is probably one of the most well-known names around the world, but as the ‘brand’ or trademark has spread, for many, the man has become lost.”

The Disney Family Museum website  says the museum will be opening in the Fall of 2009. You can check back with them for updates.

Based on what I have seen so far, the museum should be a pretty nice visit.

-Floyd Bishop

Joe David Torres recently let everyone on RAW know about an awesome art show he’s putting together. From Joe’s post:

A bunch of us are doing a group art show called “Mawnstirrs and Rowboughts” aka Monsters and… ROBOTS!!! Yes I said it, robots!!!

The artists participating in the show will convey just how those two icons of human culture (monsters and robots) touched their personal lives and helped inspire and shape them as artists. They show will not be one versus the other, or one with the other. ( but we don’t discourage pieces containing a versus theme or a companion ship between the two) but we do encourage our artist participants not to use any known characters of storylines, but to show us how they feel about the subjects!!! It will be a very unconventional show, that’s one reason we chose to spell it so weird as well. “Mawnstirrs and Rowboughts!!!”

We have a [Read more…]

Over on Cartoon Retro’s Blog, Shane Glines has  posted links to a great tutorial called “How to Draw Caricatures”. The piece is broken up into several parts, but it’s a great post and definitely worth reading.

Part One: Basic Theory and the Five Shapes

Part Two: Relationship of Features

Part Three: The Importance of Head Shapes

Part Four: Drawing Eyes

And, just in case you missed it, HERE is our interview with Shane Glines.

-Floyd Bishop

You have probably already heard about the plans for a Disney/Pixar Vancouver studio. I’ve been trying to find out more about the studio, and I have found that some of the information in the newspaper article was factually inaccurate and a bit misleading. Over on Mark Mayerson’s blog, he has a quote from someone at Pixar (south):

The Vancouver studio will only be producing ancillary work with legacy characters, like Cars and Toy Story. All the stuff that Pixar doesn’t have the time or money to do to keep the franchises alive. The original shorts and DVD shorts will still be done in Emeryville. As I understand it, Pixar will still generate all the stories for the ancillary work, and the Vancouver studio will be strictly for production.

So it would seem that, in regards to outsourcing, Canada is to Pixar what India and Korea are to Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. It would also seem that [Read more…]

The Vancouver Sun is reporting that Pixar is planning to build a 20,000 square foot facility in Vancouver to produce its short features. The Walt Disney Studios is currently scouting locations in the downtown area, and hopes to be up and running as early as this fall.

From the article:

Amir Nasrabadi, who will run the Vancouver operation as studio general manager, said Vancouver was attractive to Pixar for a number of reasons. It’s an English-speaking city in the same time zone as Los Angeles; the B.C. production tax credits are attractive to an American company; and the city, with its numerous animation studios and quality schools, is a good source of talent.

“There’s a huge, very robust, and mature talent pool in Vancouver that we’d like to tap into and continue to develop,” Nasrabadi said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles, where he has been vice-president of operations and finance for DisneyToon [Read more…]

Animation Magazine is reporting that Disney has bought an ownership stake in the popular online video website Hulu. The studio has agreed to a deal that will make it an equity partner in the site along with NBC Universal, News Corp. and Providence Equity Partners.The article goes on to say that Disney will make available full-length episodes of its popular ABC series, such as Lost, Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives.I would hope that they also choose to open up their vast Disney archives and also include some of their older live action shows, such as Zorro, Davy Crockett, and The Mickey Mouse Club.  Some Wonderful World of Disney and classic animated shorts would be a welcome addition, too.

-Floyd Bishop 

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” star Hugh Jackman is attached to “Ghostopolis,” an upcoming graphic novel from Doug TenNapel that the author recently set up at Disney.

With “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” pulling in an estimated 87 million this past weekend, the announcement couldn’t have beentimed any better.

Congratulations, Doug!

-Floyd Bishop