Channel Frederator Blog

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

This interview with MTV started out very interesting, but then when the talk of performance capture crept into the conversation, I found myself screaming “NOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo………….”.

I don’t think there is any way to achieve the same “toony” feel we saw in the first film using CG of any kind. Just as a refresher, here’s a clip from the first film.

And here is a clip from some of Zemeckis’s “Polar Express”.

While one could argue that the technology has come a long way since this film came out, and MAYBE there could be a plot that brought an ageless Roger into modern day, I really don’t see how using this technology over hand drawn methods could yield anything but a disappointing imitation of what the first film was able to achieve artistically.

What do you think?

-Floyd Bishop

Desperateblog is reporting that Saved by the Bell alum Mario Lopez would like to cast Eva Longoria Parker in an upcoming animated project he has planned, which is based on an upcoming children’s book he authored. He would like “an all-star Latino cast”. He has also reportedly approached Gloria Estefan and George Lopez about the project.If it’s a comedy, I would suggest he offer a part to another of his aquaintences, Miss Teen USA contestant, Miss South Carolina. Now those line deliveries would be a blast to animate! It would take a while, but they would be fun.

-Floyd Bishop 

The Telegraph has an interesting story about a  Mr and Mrs Green (their real name) who were recently wed in the UK. The theme of their wedding? Why, Shrek of course. Apparently the now Mrs Green thought her husband bore some resemblance to the green ogre, and thus came the idea for the wedding.”The idea just came to me. I knew what we would go as them because Keith looks just like Shrek. It was funny because when we said our vows Keith had these green ears sprouting from the top of his head.””I tried to convince my teenage son to dress up as the Donkey but he wasn’t having any of it.” No word on any Madagascar or Kung Fu Panda weddings that may be planned for couples elsewhere.There is no footage I could find of the wedding, but perhaps this is what the reception looked like? 

-Floyd Bishop 

Well, that’s according to Warren Ellis. Who is he? He recently wrote a GI Joe web series for Cartoon Network called “GI Joe: Resolute”. This is not your typical GI Joe story. It is much closer to the comics than the 80’s Sunbow cartoon.

I have not yet watched the entire thing, but from what I have seen from the inital bit, Mr Ellis takes the property in some interesting directions.

Sam, if you are reading this, I would love to talk to you about reviving the Herculoids in web series form in full on CG.

-Floyd Bishop

Animation Magazine is reporting that Warner Bros has a new trade up program that lets owners of HD-DVDs to upgrade to a Blu-Ray disc of the same content (for a small shipping and handling fee of $4.95). This is a pretty nice thing to do, considering the big HD-DVD Blu-Ray competition when the technology first appeared. You can get more information about this program by visiting the Warner Bros site, Red2Blu.They have also announced a customer loyalty program, called the Warnerblu Buy 5 Get 1 Program. The promotion (which runs until April 6, 2010) allows people to buy five participating Blu-Ray films, and they will receive a sixth film free (plus shipping and handling). The only animated film included in the program so far is “Batman:Gotham Knight”. You can learn more about Warnerblu Buy 5 Get 1 by visiting their site.It would be nice to see other studios (I’m looking at [Read more…]

This piece by Three Legged Legs does a pretty nice job of describing what the planet Earth is going through at the moment. What are you doing to help this Earth Day?

-Floyd Bishop

NFG World has a great post about how new televisions interpret “old” technology. Between screen curvature, aspect ratios, and scan lines, television displays have changed quite a bit in the last few years. The post outlines the changes that have happened, and fixes to settings you can adjust to help emulate the experience you had the first time around.

 -Floyd Bishop