Your End-of-Week Links

DreamWorks Animation picks up a new talent and property:

Pajiba is reporting that Dreamworks Animation has picked Barry Sonnenfeld to develop Pig Scrolls [based on a novel by Paul Shipton] as a possible directing vehicle ...

Bob Hilgenberg and Rob Muir have written an animated feature over at Disney Toons. Since they are stand-up guys, members and there's a trailer of their handiwork available, we give it a gentle plug here.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DW Animation and truth teller:

"We've seen the highest end of (3-D) in Avatar and you have now witnessed the lowest end of it (in Titans). You cannot do anything that is of a lower grade and a lower quality than what has just been done on Clash of the Titans. It literally is 'OK, congratulations! You just snookered the movie audience.'"

(I'm sure Warners is thrilled with his remarks.)

The little Irish film might have missed winning the Academy Award, but it's doing okay elsewhere:

Irish animated feature film ‘The Secret of Kells’ was named best European Animated Feature at last night’s eight annual British Animation Awards. ...

And some of the other winners at the BAA?

Aardman, the Oscar-winning company behind Wallace and Gromit, has triumphed at the British Animation Awards (BAA), picking up two trophies. The studio won the children's choice award for A Matter of Loaf and Death and best children's series for the BBC's Shaun the Sheep.

But it was beaten by Lost and Found in the best animated special category.

The intro to the Beatles Rock Band game was named best commissioned animation at the event at the BFI in London.

The Mouse and one of its well-known subsidiaries do some viral advertising:

Flyers posted throughout St. Louis are advertising for a pizza delivery position at "Pizza Planet."

However, The Riverfront Times discovered that the url – BuzzCampusWUstl.com – does not link to a job posting at all. It's viral marketing from Pixar.

It's alleged that Mr. Bird will shortly direct Mr. Cruise:

Insiders tell Vulture that Pixar mainstay Brad Bird (Ratatouille, The Incredibles) has overtaken the competition to direct Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible IV, and is now in negotiations with Paramount Pictures to do the film. ...

Financial analysts continue to walk back their original gloomy estimates for How to Train Your Dragon:

[Carls & Co. analyst David Miller] said that while the domestic and global box office receipts of the movie are "underwhelming" on the surface, the movie could have legs especially as more 3-D screens free up. Theaters are moving "Alice in Wonderland" to regular screens and releasing 300 3-D screens, of which at least half could opt for "Dragon."

Last of all: some Friday wisdom from story wizard Mark Kennedy:

... [U]nappealing drawings can kill an otherwise good idea. I have seen this over and over: a really good idea gets storyboarded with unappealing drawings and the idea just dies. People can't put their finger on why it doesn't work but they know it's not quite clicking, and it's only because the drawings are not very appealing ...

... Vance Gerry once said that he felt Robert Crumb drew well but that his drawings were unappealing. I think that's a great observation. ...

Have a restful but fantabulous weekend.