'Toon Links in Autumn

There's a plethora of animation-related news and interviews, so let's get started, shall we?...

Oh how stressed out the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences must be. It's struggling to determine what's animated and what's not ...

... New films like "Beowulf" continue to push the envelope between real life and animation, forcing members of the Academy to re-think Oscar categories.

"In defining what an animated film is, the consistent thinking in the branch has been that the thing we need to hold onto is the performance of the characters," said senior VP at Sony Pictures, Barry Weiss. "In the creation of the visual look of the film, the only thing we can call our own is the characters. That is the department of the film that is uniquely the domain of animation and animators. Again, I'm being a purist here, but animation is the art of creating a character that otherwise doesn't exist."

In order to clarify any confusion, the Academy has set in place a new set of rules stating that an animated feature must be at least 70 minutes long, "a significant number of the major characters must be animated," and animation must appear in 75% of the film ...

ASIFA Hollywood Archives has a collection of Grim Natwick artwork up here, and Grim expounds on his work on his career and work on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs here. Both are worth taking a look at.

Brad Bird talks a little about his upcoming live action film, and how he sees his career arc:

... A lot of people don't realize that in all my years wandering through development hell wasteland, half of what I wanted to make were live-action films and half were animated. The animated ones were the first I got to make, which led to other animation. My ideal career would be to bounce from genre to genre, from musicals to Westerns to political comedies ...

Catherine DeNeuve, not known as a cartoon voice-actor, talks about the joys of being ... a cartoon voice actor:

The Hollywood Reporter: You had wanted to perform in an animated film for a while. Why?

Catherine Deneuve: I love animation films, and I think it's very interesting for an actor to be just in the voice. It's a very different way of playing ...

DreamWorks Animation entrance into the Chinese market might seem like not too big a deal, but if it curbs piracy, it's a good thing:

... Warner Home Video (WHV) has inked a deal to sell “competitively priced” DVDs from Paramount and DreamWorks Animation on the mainland, beginning this month ... WHV will use its distribution infrastructure to provide high quality, studio-authorized copies of blockbuster films on DVD. The first two titles to be released under the agreement are Transformers and Shrek the Third, priced at a reported 22 yuan ($3).

The LA TIMES offers a preview, also an interview with songwriter Stephen Schwartz about the soon-to-arrive Enchanted:

LA Times: Talk about your objective in writing and composing the songs for "Enchanted," as they’re filled with references to past Disney films.

Stephen: We were trying to channel, I guess, classic Disney, and push it just a step further. We were trying to walk the line of both being an affectionate homage, but also poking a bit of fun at it. As one moves through the film, the music gets increasingly modern. Certainly for the beginning, with [opening song] "True Love’s Kiss," we looked at three Disney movies and how they were musicalized – "Snow White," "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty."

Lastly, the Academy again. Twelve animated features make the possible winner list for the Little Golden Man ...

Submitted features are: "Alvin and the Chipmunks," "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters," "Bee Movie," "Beowulf," "Meet the Robinsons," "Persepolis," "Ratatouille," "Shrek the Third," "The Simpsons Movie," "Surf's Up," "Tekkonkinkreet" and "TMNT."

Without too much heavy effort, you should be able to make a good, educated estimate about which of the above candidates will lose in the ahm, early primaries ...

Addendum: And here's your WGA-picket-line-Jeffrey-Katzenberg story:

WGA striker: ... Jeffrey Katzenberg was pulling into the lot in his black Prius right in front of a bunch of us. Someone recognized him right away and in an act of God, he hit the red light. A lot of us starting shouting at him (not hostilely, in good humor) asking for just a leeettle bit of internet money. Trapped at the light, he gave us a few "whaddya gonna do?" shrugs, then right before the light changed we got a thumbs up from him! ...

Have a fulfilling, productive weekend.