Animating Links

Another spate of news from which you can choose:

Jerry Seinfeld is out there publicizing the Next Big Thing from DreamWorks. And why not, since he wrote, acted and produced it...

"Why'd you want to do a movie about bees, Jerry?"

Here's the answer: "I just thought bees are funny. They live in a small company. They have a product. They have offices. They have bosses. They have employees and schedules. So it seemed like a little corporation hanging from a tree. And I thought that's a good situation for a movie."

C. W. Oberleitner dishes generalized gossip on O-Meon's "Animation Grapevine":

If the Goofy short is as big a hit with audiences as the folks at Disney think it will be, it could usher in the return of a dedicated shorts unit to the Burbank animation studio. With parent studio Walt Disney Pictures planning on releasing fewer than 12 films a year, it’s conceivable that each could be preceded by a cartoon short.

(The small digital loops that I've seen look excellent...)

One of TAG's most recent signator studios -- Imagi -- has just signed a distribution deal with Warner Bros. and the Weinstein Co.:

Warner Bros. Pictures, The Weinstein Company and Imagi Animation Studios agreed upon principal terms for the worldwide distribution of the feature films Gatchaman and AstroBoy...

Featuring some of the most ambitious action sequences ever seen in animation, Gatchaman is set in a future world grappling with environmental and technological issues. The story focuses on five reluctant heroes whose remarkable genetic code makes them Earth's only hope of defeating extra-terrestrial invaders. Kevin Munroe (TMNT) is the director, with Lynne Southerland producing...

Slated for release later in 2009, AstroBoy was created by the "god of manga," Japan's Osamu Tezuka, in the early 1950s. The animated television series first aired in 1963 in Japan and found great acclaim and success around the world. In the U.S., it quickly became a top syndicated children's show. The iconic character's fame grew in the 1980s and 2003 with two new AstroBoy TV series attracting new generations of fans...

There's also a raft of reviews for "Superman/Doomsday", the new Warner Bros. Animation dvd feature directed by Bruce Timm:

Timm and co. manage to create one of the better Superman films to date with animation that takes an edgier angle on the past Timm style. Superman looks more mature, less wholesome and he’s constantly draped in shade, while Doomsday gives him a better outlook on his importance that he questioned in “Superman Returns.”

Trouble in paradise. A couple of trouble-makers get collared at Hong Kong Disneyland for ... dare I mention it? ... rabble rousing:

HONG KONG, China (AP) -- Police arrested two protesters during a parade at Hong Kong Disneyland after they lifted banners accusing The Walt Disney Company of labor abuses in China, police said Thursday.

Hong Kong Disneyland CEO Bill Ernest and Mickey Mouse celebrate theme park's first anniversary in 2006.

The two men, identified only by the surnames Yau and Lai, disrupted the parade as they scuffled with park workers who tried to stop them, police spokeswoman Celia Tam said.

Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper reported Thursday that the banners said "Disney exploits Chinese labor."

Who could have imagined such a thing? Have a spiffy weekend.