As usual, some of the winners at Saturday night’s “Kids Choice Awards” were puzzling (Miley Cyrus Favorite Movie Actress, Jim Carrey Favorite Animated Movie Voice). Overall it was a pretty good show, and the TV audience was huge – 7.6 million, the second largest ever for a KCA (though there wasn’t as much slime as […]

More of my exclusive interview with Head of Character Animation for DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon” – Simon Otto. LCJ: I know you had an internship out of college at the Disney Animation studio in Paris. That must have been a great way to start your career. Simon: It was. Back then, of course, […]

This week I had the chance to talk with Simon Otto, the Head of Character Animation on “How to Train Your Dragon.” He’s been an artist at DreamWorks for nearly 13 years and spent the past 3 1/2 years working on “Dragons”. LCJ: What were your duties as Head of Character Animation on “How to […]

In honor of the release of “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2” in High Definition, Disney, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and Lego Systems, Inc. got together in Hollywood for a special event: the creation of a one-of-a-kind “Toy Story” mural. Kids from Boys and Girls Clubs from Washington, D.C, Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston, […]

I hate to say “I told you so”, but I predicted that this would be a problem months ago – too many 3D films, and not enough 3D theaters. “Alice in Wonderland” is still going strong, “How to Train Your Dragons” is coming-out Friday and then “Clash of the Titans” will be released a week […]

The great Hank Azaria has signed-on to do the voice of Gargamel in the upcoming “Smurfs” movie. So I guess we now know that Gargamel will be an animated character. There had been rumors that the Smurfs’ enemy would be real-life in this movie, which is going to be a combination of live-action and animation. […]

Disney has decide to close the studio used to create Jim Carrey’s Scrooge in last year’s “A Christmas Carol”. The film was a disappointment at the box office and so the studio, looking to save money, has announced that the studio, near San Francisco, will be shut-down. The studio was built by ImageMovers Digital, a […]

Fox and James Cameron may re-release “Avatar” this Summer in 3D…with 40-minutes of new footage? NOOOO! First of all, there are already so many summer blockbusters coming-out in 3D, where are they going to get the screens? Secondly, hasn’t everybody who wanted to see “Avatar” seen it (over and over and over). And by adding […]

It’s official! There will be an “Alvin and the Chipmunks 3”. And it’ll be called “Alvin and the Chipmunks 3D.” Release date: Dec. 16, 2011, which is only one week before Steven Spielberg’s own 3D animated film, “The Adventures of TinTin: The Secret of the Unicorn.” Hopefully by then there will be more 3D screens […]

“Alice in Wonderland”‘s $116+M opening weekend was a major shocker. That was the highest March opening of all-time, by $45M (“300” made $71M back in 2007). It even beat “Avatar”‘s first weekend. As you know I didn’t like either of those films. And, remember “Transformer 2” (another bad film) and it’s big opening weekend last […]