Belated Linkorama

Some weeks we just don't get around to a links festival. Some weeks there just aren't enough hours in the day ...

Another animated feature rolls down under at Animal Logic:

Zack Snyder is set to direct "Guardians of Ga'Hoole," an animated feature film based on the series of children's books by Kathryn Lasky ...

The intention is to execute in Sydney, Australia, through Animal Logic, which worked with Village Roadshow and WB on "Happy Feet." The film is on a fast track and is likely to be ready by 2009 or 2010 ...

It is the first animated film for Snyder, who followed the stylized hit "300" by reteaming with WB and Legendary on "Watchmen," an adaptation of Alan Moore's DC Comics creation.

Brad Bird takes another victory lap as The Writers Guild and Animation Writers Caucus honor him:

The WGA West's Animation Writers Caucus has awarded its animation writing award for lifetime achievement to writer-director Brad Bird.

"Brad's work has put him in the pantheon of animation creators for whom the art and craft of animation writing are elegantly (and sometimes literally) drawn together," [WGAw President Patric] Verrone said.

And another Pixar director, John Lasseter, unspools one of his favorite films at UCLA next Monday:

... "I have studied [Dumbo] from every aspect, from story, to story structure, to art direction," Lasseter says. "It's very funny. It's emotional. It's the most cartoony [of Disney's animated features]. It's very short.

"It's like 64 minutes, and it's so concise in its storytelling. I learned a lot from it, as a student at CalArts and a young animator at Disney."

If you're in Westwood, drop on by.

All Emeryville, all the time. The new teaser for Wall-E.

In the future projects department, I don't know how this got past us:

Rumor has it that Blue Sky Studios, the Academy Award winning computer animation subsidiary of 20th Century Fox (responsible for Ice Age, Robots and Horton hears a Who!) might have optioned a small press book called The Anubis Tapestry for one of their next projects.

Written and illustrated by Bruce Zick, The Anubis Tapestry deals with “a young lad who must become a mummy in order to rescue his father from the ancient Underworld ...

Lastly, one of the vocal regulars of The Simpsons tries his hand at mocap animation (and yes. There's ongoing debate if it is animation):

... Harry Shearer is a multimedia kind of guy. His talents are on display on film, TV, radio, CDs, the Internet, video games -- you name the medium, he's there. And soon, he'll be working a yet another format: motion capture animation. At the National Assn. of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas today, Shearer gave attendees a sample of the work to come, showing a brief skit that integrated Shearer's voice, expressions and gestures into a pair of computer-generated figures. The official version, due later this year on My Damn Channel, will have Shearer lampooning the presidential candidates, political leaders and media figures who populate the 2008 campaign ...

The demo shown at NAB wasn't Pixar-grade material, yet it was still impressive. It compared favorably with video game animation, only with more expressive characters ...

Please don't havve any midweek crises. Life's tough enough already.