Foundry Launches Flix 7.0
Major update includes new Maya integration and upgraded API for remote collaboration, new metadata system, enhanced Adobe Premiere plugin, Photoshop plugin redesign and updated notification preferences.
GKIDS’ ‘Blue Giant’ Releasing on Digital and Blu-Ray
Watch the trailer! From Shout! Studios, Yuzuru Tachikawa’s critically acclaimed anime comes home on April 30, with special features including a Q&A with Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara.
Baobab Studios Announces ‘Momoguro’ TV Series
The multiple Emmy Award-winning interactive animation studio teams up with 9 Story Media Group to co-produce and launch a kids’ series based on its hugely popular game-based IP; the franchise features a magical universe with contrasting creatures who use the magical power of ‘Momoguro.’
4th Annual AfroAnimation Summit Returns to Burbank
The conference, running April 10-12, promotes diversity and inclusion throughout the entertainment industry, welcoming a coalition of industry speakers, studio execs, students, creatives and young professionals.
‘Bluey’ Scores PETA Kids’ ‘Bug Bestie Award’
The series and its creator are honored for teaching kids to have empathy for bugs; the award-winning animated preschool series streams on Disney+ in the U.S.
Watch Guy Ritchie’s ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ Official Trailer
The ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and ‘Wrath of Man’ helmer is back, this time with tough guys Henry Cavill, Alan Ritchson, and Henry Golding, in an action-comedy about the UK’s first-ever special forces organization formed during WWII by Churchill and a small group of military officials including author Ian Fleming; hitting theaters on April 19.
Prime Videos Shares ‘The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy’ Trailer
Emmy Award-winning creator Cirocco Dunlap’s adult animated comedy follows Dr. Sleech and Dr. Klak - aliens, best friends, and intergalactically renowned surgeons - as they tackle anxiety-eating parasites, illegal time loops, and deep-space STIs; watch it February 23.
Netflix and Mattel Drop ‘Hot Wheels Let's Race’ Trailer
The high-octane 3DCG series follows the newest generation of racers experiencing mind-blowing races, extreme stunt contests, and thrill-seeking challenges; the show races into homes March 4.
Saffronic Appoints Bhanu Prakash as Head of Creative, Games
The animation production studio founded in 2022 kicks off the new year with a roster of AAA projects for gaming industry titans, spearheaded by the new executive.
BOXX Releases the RAXX S1G Rack-Mounted Workstation
New scalable workstation is configurable to meet the needs of engineers, product designers, architects, VFX artists, and animators and optimized to implement remote workstation capabilities for SOLIDWORKS, Autodesk Revit, AutoCAD, 3ds Max, and Maya.
Apple TV+ Lays Off Eight Employees in ‘Kids’ Division
The streamer is evolving to focus on its own animated film pipeline but remains committed to the kids’ programming; an original ‘Peanuts’ feature film is currently in development.
‘Bob the Builder’ Feature in Development, Jennifer Lopez to Produce
Mattel Films will develop the project that follows Roberto (aka Bob), who travels to Puerto Rico for a construction job and ‘takes on issues affecting the island and digs deeper into what it means to build.’
Sony Pictures Drops ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ Trailer
Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd return... along with the Spengler family... to the iconic NYC firehouse, teaming up as Ghostbusters to save their world from a second ice age; coming to theaters March 22.
Illumination Drops First Trailer, Voice Cast for ‘Despicable Me 4’
The biggest global animated franchise in history – and its considerably manic mayhem - returns with the first ‘Despicable Me’ film in 7 years, as stars Steve Carrell and Kristen Wiig return alongside franchise newcomers Will Ferrell, Sofia Vergara, Joey King, and Stephen Colbert; action-comedy hits theaters July 3.
Pharrell Williams Teams with The Lego Group, Focus Features on Animated Biopic
The musician and producer will set imaginations free with a feature that ‘defies genres and expectations to transport audiences into a Lego world where anything is possible.’
Podcast EP 239: Andrew Chesworth Gives a Budget Breakdown Of ‘The Brave Locomotive’
The Oscar-nominated director discusses the production of his most recent short, which has been viewed more than 7 million times on YouTube.
Kyoto Animation Arsonist Sentenced to Death
Shinji Aoba, who admitted to the 2019 Japanese animation studio attack, was denied a plea of ‘not guilty,’ with the Kyoto District Court determining he was ‘neither insane nor mentally incompetent at the time of the crime.’
Dash Studio and Demo Duck Launch 2024 Motion Mentorship Program
Applications now being accepted for 6-month, online-only program, starting next month, that will provide tutorage, advice, and connection building for young creatives in the motion design industry who identify with underrepresented communities.
Telly Awards Organizers Launch The Collision Awards
Entries now being accepted for new platform, the first solely dedicated to honoring all forms of animation and motion design across Marketing & Communications, Commercials, Television, Film, Experiential, Games & XR; early entry deadline set for March 8, 2024.
Catya Plate Brings ‘Las Nogas’ to HollyShorts
The 2023 NYC Women’s Fund Recipient, artist and filmmaker Catya Plate, brings the third short of her award-winning stop-motion animated trilogy to the festival’s monthly screening event in Los Angeles, January 31.
Hidden Gnome, Lex+Otis Team for Animated ‘Cradle’ Book Series Adaptation
A Kickstarter has been launched to fund the adaptation and give fans even greater connection to the stories, realms, and characters of Will Wight’s popular fable, with exclusive perks through donations; the grassroots fundraiser ends February 9.
‘Invincible’ Copyright Lawsuit Settles Ahead of Trial
William Crabtree, a colorist for the first 50 issues of the comic, alleged creator Robert Kirkman tricked him into surrendering his co-ownership stake in the series; the terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Microsoft to Layoff 1,900 Activision Blizzard, Xbox Employees
The tech giant has begun to cull workers from the newly acquired division to reduce ‘areas of overlap’ during the integration effort, with Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Ybarra also exiting the company.
‘The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie’ Headed to Theaters
The sci-fi buddy action comedy, the shorts series franchise’s first fully animated feature, follows Porky and Daffy as they uncover a secret alien mind control plot; it was previously expected to debut on HBO Max and Cartoon Network but will now hit the big screen this Fall.
Adult Swim Sets ‘Royal Crackers’ Season 2 Premiere
Watch the trailer - the network’s most watched new series of 2023, greenlit for a second season prior to its Season 1 premiere, returns next month with more dysfunctional Hornsby family fighting over the legacy of their second-rate cracker company.
