Month: May 2008 (Page 1 of 3)
Release date: October 28, 2008
The folks over at DailyCamera have posted an enjoyable article featuring Jack Black, voice of the lead character in DreamWorks Animation’s upcoming Kung Fu Panda.
Here’s an excerpt:
For “Kung Fu Panda,” DreamWorks Animation boss Jeffrey Katzenberg wanted the real Black — his own voice, his own personality. Pitching the story to Black, Katzenberg even had some raw animation of the character prepared with dialogue borrowed from “High Fidelity,” Black said.
“It was a fun experience not hiding behind a character voice this time. When you do the character voice, that can be fun and it can inform the character, but you also get distracted by that, and this way, I could just focus on what was funny in the scene,” Black said.
Check out the trailer for the upcoming DVD movie, Futurama: The Beast With A Billion Backs, scheduled for release on June 24, 2008.
Paramount has announced that the computer animated Beowulf is coming to Blu-ray on July 29th. The movie was previously released on DVD and HD DVD. Video will be presented at 2.35:1 1080p AVC with a 5.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtrack.
Bonus features include: 17 featurettes ranging from a look at the stunts to the origins of Beowulf, deleted scenes, a theatrical trailer and other hidden surprises.
Dreamworks has announced that they will release Madagascar and Shrek the Third for Blu-ray on September 16th. No specs or special features have been announced yet, except for Shrek the Third which will include the same bonus features as the HD DVD release.
Shrek the Third special features include lost scenes, a behind-the-scenes featurette, music video, animation video jukebox and much more.
That’s right folks, TheAnimationBlog.com has reached its 500th post and I couldn’t be happier. I want to thank each and every one of you that visits. With every day that passes, T.A.B. gets more and more popular. I thank those who have spread the word to their friends and via the web by linking to articles on the site. I greatly appreciate it.
15 months and 500 posts. Not bad for a one man team. When I started the blog I had no idea that it would still be going strong today. As long as you all keep visiting, I’ll keep reporting the latest animation news and featuring the best animation videos from around the web.
Again, thank you very, very much!
Don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS feed!
Sincerely,
HC
The Animation Blog Founder
Check out this documentary profile on Nick Park and Aardman Animation, first broadcast November 2006.
Part 1 of 5:
Check out this cool, behind-the-scenes video of Pixar’s upcoming masterpiece, WALL-E:
THE VENTURE BROS., the hit Adult Swim series from creator Jackson Publick III, returns with its third season on Sunday, June 1 at 11:30 p.m. When the second season left off, the wedding of The Monarch to Dr. Girlfriend brought together arch enemies and friends alike, until the ceremony was crashed by The Phantom Limb, who was determined to have Dr. Girlfriend all to himself. What has happened to everyone in the aftermath?
The third season of THE VENTURE BROS. promises to explain how The Monarch came to be a supervillian and how he met his wife, Dr. Girlfriend. Also in store are more of Dr. Venture’s fruitless attempts to get money for Venture Industries while avoiding the evil doings of familiar villains like The Phantom Limb and Sergeant Hatred.
The Simpsons’ 20th season will begin airing this Fall, but there’s one problem — the voice talent hasn’t signed new contracts yet.
Because of this, production on the 20th season was put on hold and will result in a shorter season — probably 20 episodes instead of the regular 22.
According to Varierty, the key cast members — Dan Castellaneta (Homer), Julie Kavner (Marge), Nancy Cartwright (Bart), Yeardley Smith (Lisa), Hank Azaria (Moe) and Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns) are believed to make around $360,000 an episode. A new deal could raise the deal to $500,000 per episode.
However, an insider said it could all be resolved as soon as this week. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that they settle this ASAP and FOX gives them the money they deserve. When you think about, their pay is quite small compared to the billions of dollars that The Simpsons franchise is worth.
Eve, WALL-E’s love interest, marks the first design collaboration between Apple and Pixar. A call from Andrew Stanton to Steve Jobs in 2005 resulted in Johnny Ive, Apple designer, spending a day consulting on the Eve prototype.
“I wanted Eve to be high-end technology – no expense spared – and I wanted it to be seamless and for the technology to be sort of hidden and subcutaneous,” Andrew Stanton, Wall-E’s director, told Fortune. “The more I started describing it, the more I realized I was pretty much describing the Apple playbook for design.”
Read the entire article at Fortune.
THE SIMPSONS RIDE is officially open at Universal Studios Hollywood, California and Universal Orlando Resort in Florida.
Guests are swept into Krustyland, a theme park created by the show’s cash hungry clown. Meanwhile, maniacal Sideshow Bob has escaped from prison and has taken control of the park to get his revenge on Krusty and the Simpson family. Hand-picked by Krusty to be the first to ride his newest attraction, you are thrust into the middle of the action.
The attraction is larger than life — from the 32-foot-tall Krusty the Clown at the entrance (guests walk through Krusty’s mouth on his extended tongue) to the giant wrap-around cinematic experience created for this great new adventure. Guests soar through Krustyland and Springfield on a ride that features the world’s first ever cork screw that’s animated.
“For 20 years I’ve been dreaming about this, and here it is — a wild, thrilling SIMPSONS RIDE put together by a huge number of talented artists and amusement-park maniacs,” Groening said.
