At first glance, Albie Hecht's office is cluttered with toys -- a plush gorilla from the Mario Bros. video game, vinyl figurines from the toy line Kidrobot, to name a few. But in fact, they're all relics of the animation industry, where Hecht, 56, made his name launching such mega-hit children's shows such as Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants," "Dora the Explorer," and "Blue's Clues."
Huge names are expected at this year's Italian film festival - and Buzz Lightyear, too
Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage has pretty much got this acting thing down. After all, he started acting at the age of 15 and, well, he's got that Oscar.
The Cannes Film Festival entrusted its opening to a Pixar film, and the animation studio did not disappoint.
Dark glasses are de rigueur on the sun-kissed French Riviera, but this year glamorous cineastes attending the opening night of Cannes were matching another kind of face wear with their tuxedoes and designer dresses.
When it comes to the Academy Awards, Hollywood has some biases.
Filipino film "Himala" has been awarded the CNN APSA Viewers Choice Award for Best Asia-Pacific Film of all Time.
The Japanese anime deity wows Venice with his freest, most enchanting movie in ages
No animated movie has ever won the coveted Oscar, but Hollywood is already abuzz with talk that Pixar's smash-hit post-apocalyptic robot could change that
At first glance, Albie Hecht's office is cluttered with toys -- a plush gorilla from the Mario Bros. video game, vinyl figurines from the toy line Kidrobot, to name a few. But in fact, they're all relics of the animation industry, where Hecht, 56, made his name launching such mega-hit children's shows such as Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants," "Dora the Explorer," and "Blue's Clues."
Huge names are expected at this year's Italian film festival - and Buzz Lightyear, too
Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage has pretty much got this acting thing down. After all, he started acting at the age of 15 and, well, he's got that Oscar.
The Cannes Film Festival entrusted its opening to a Pixar film, and the animation studio did not disappoint.
Dark glasses are de rigueur on the sun-kissed French Riviera, but this year glamorous cineastes attending the opening night of Cannes were matching another kind of face wear with their tuxedoes and designer dresses.
When it comes to the Academy Awards, Hollywood has some biases.
Filipino film "Himala" has been awarded the CNN APSA Viewers Choice Award for Best Asia-Pacific Film of all Time.
The Japanese anime deity wows Venice with his freest, most enchanting movie in ages
No animated movie has ever won the coveted Oscar, but Hollywood is already abuzz with talk that Pixar's smash-hit post-apocalyptic robot could change that
Everyone has their childhood favorite: whether it is the hand-drawn beauty of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs;" or the modern, computer-generated genius of "Shrek." Cartoons have always been a family staple in the movie industry.
At a time of upheaval in the media business, Walt Disney has had a string of hits the likes of which it hasn't had since, well, the early tenure of former CEO Michael Eisner in the 1980s. Three years after succeeding Eisner - and confounding skeptics in the process - CEO Bob Iger talked to Fortune's Richard Siklos about buying Pixar, pulling Disney out of a creative slump with new megafranchises like "Hannah Montana" and "High School Musical," working with Steve Jobs, and wrestling with the image of a certain mouse. Edited excerpts:
Who won and who walked away empty-handed? The following are the nominees and the winners at the 80th annual Academy Awards.
A coldblooded killer and a coldblooded tycoon led the Oscar nominations Tuesday, with a lawyer suffering from an ethical crisis also earning a strong showing.
Who'll win and who will lose? The following are the nominations for the 80th annual Academy Awards. Winners will be announced February 24.
Following is a complete list of the nominees for the 80th annual Academy Awards:
The most eagerly anticipated animated film this year hits big screens this weekend, as "The Simpsons Movie" opens worldwide. The Screening Room spoke to creator Matt Groening and writer Al Jean in London about everyone's favorite two-dimensional yellow family.
This month on the Screening Room we're turning to the wonderful world of animated films.
From bedroom creators to big studios, hand-drawn to CGI, animation has charmed and entertained children -- and, increasingly, adults -- for many years. The Screening Room went to Annecy in France to discover the secrets of success in animated films...
This month, the Screening Room celebrates the release of "The Simpsons Movie" with its top 10 animated feature films. From Disney to Ghibli, Buzz to Beauty, we've picked our favorites - the ones that have charmed us, touched us and made us laugh out loud.
Trophy season kicked into high gear Thursday morning, with an impressive roster of seven movies nominated for best dramatic picture in the Golden Globes race.
Nominees for the 65th annual Golden Globe Awards announced Thursday in Beverly Hills, California:
As No Country for Old Men gets the best-picture nod from the New York Film Critics, Richard Corliss wonders if his colleagues are actually talking to the audience
The raunchy coming-of-age comedy "Superbad" took the top spot at the weekend North American box office and broke the record for a movie opening in late August, according to studio estimates released on Sunday morning.
Hollywood can sum up this summer on the silver screen with a phrase immortalized by the newest box office stud, Homer Simpson. "Woo-hoo!"
As an anime fan in the United States, Krista Baker doesn't have much clout with studio heads in Japan. But if she did?
Animated films like Ratatouille, which topped the U.S. box office this past weekend, give great pleasure but get no respect
It's always a pleasure to walk into a new movie from Pixar, those kinetic wizards of shiny sculpted animation who gave us the "Toy Story" films, "Finding Nemo," and "Cars," because it's a safe bet that you're in for a sparkly good time -- or, just maybe, a great one.
Galvanized by the success of "Shrek the Third," Jeffrey Katzenberg says the tale of the green ogre who married a princess will continue.
The superstitious believe bad things happen in threes. Hollywood is counting on the opposite this summer, with the industry's hopes resting on the third installments of some mammoth movie franchises.
Kylie Minogue wants her fans to leave her ex-boyfriend alone.
Nominees for the 64th annual Golden Globe Awards announced Thursday in Beverly Hills, California:
They're cute, furry and flightless, but they've been accused of being behind "far left propaganda," and knocking the world's deadliest spy his box office perch. Here we explain the penguin phenomenon taking the world by storm.
Remember all the talk at this time last year about how the movie industry was dead? Uh...scratch that.
David Letterman isn't going anywhere.
It was a reasonably good weekend for Sony at the shopping malls and multiplexes...but Wall Street didn't see it that way.
Soft power, or the art of influencing people to like you, is a growing part of Japan's perennial balancing act with the world.
Richard Linklater's trippy and sinister bad-vibe whatchamacallit "A Scanner Darkly" might be described as an animated movie, only the animation consists of live-action footage that's been painstakingly drawn over, a method known as "interpolated rotoscoping."
Say what you want about Time Warner. The company has not had a problem making hit movies over the past few years. But this year, Time Warner needs Clark Kent to really make a "super" return.
Here's the scene: It's 3 P.M., Wednesday, Jan. 25, in Sound Stage 7 on the studio lot of Walt Disney Co. in Burbank. Five hundred cartoon people - artists, producers, voice artists, etc. - are jammed into the warehouse-like building, murmuring and fidgeting in anticipation.
HERE'S THE SCENE: It's 3 P.M., Wednesday, Jan. 25, in Sound Stage 7 on the studio lot of Walt Disney Co. in Burbank. Five hundred cartoon people--artists, producers, voice artists, etc.--are jammed into the warehouse-like building, murmuring and fidgeting in anticipation. Just yesterday, Disney CEO Bob Iger and Pixar chairman Steve Jobs announced a surprise $7.4 billion deal in which Pixar Animation Studios, which brought the world the Toy Story movies, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles, would become a wholly-owned part of Disney. The deal is surprising because Pixar's longtime distribution pact with Disney fell apart in acrimony and is due to expire after the release in June of Cars, a kaleidoscopic celebration of racing, Route 66, and life in the slow lane. But in an amazing plot twist, not only is Pixar becoming part of Disney, but the upstart studio is also taking over the creative direction of Disney's own flailing animation operations--the people in this very room! For Iger, the deal is a bet-the-ho...
Actress Rachel Weisz and the creators of animated pair Wallace and Gromit were the British winners at the 78th Academy Awards.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Hollywood is gearing up for a major cartoon showdown.
Mickey Mouse and Nemo are now corporate cousins. Walt Disney has announced that it is buying Pixar, the animated studio led by Apple head Steve Jobs, in a deal worth $7.4 billion.
Movie execs this Christmas have one common request on their list to Santa: an end to piracy. But just in case he doesn't deliver, the showbiz world is doing whatever it can on its own to crack down, from placing spies in theaters to look for rogue video tapers to Sony recently bundling a program on its CDs that closed its music to copying -- but also opened up customers' PCs to all kinds of viruses.
It was 2 A.M. when John Ledford heard the banging at his door. Stumbling from bed on that night in the fall of 1999, he threw on a robe over his boxers and opened the door of his Houston apartment ...
While Pixar delivered a strong third quarter, analysts and investors say the real story is whether the animation company will renew its film distribution agreement with Disney.
Steve Jobs, the chairman and CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, would be open to a sale of the company at the right price, according to a published report.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Investors in Pixar and DreamWorks must feel like they've been characters in the companies' hit cartoons.
Do two missteps make a trend?
Summer in Hollywood usually hits in early May, when the big-budget action-adventure flicks, comedies and epics start hitting the multiplex. Between then and Labor Day weekend, the movie industry makes more than half its money.
The latest boundary-pushing animated feature from Pixar Entertainment, The Incredibles proved that technological innovation and well-imagined design pay off in the marketplace. The movie tells the ...
Seeing hordes of parents bringing their preschoolers to "The Incredibles" always amazed me.
With Walt Disney Co.'s ABC network on the rebound and its theme parks once again drawing hordes of thrill-seekers, incoming CEO Robert Iger has one key item on his immediate to-do list: To buttress a movie division that's facing the loss of two major ventures.
"The Aviator" had more Oscars, but it was "Million Dollar Baby" that scored the knockout punch at the Academy Awards Sunday night.
Walt Disney shareholders meet Friday with the company's future leadership set to dominate the proceedings again, even if the full-scale revolt of last year has quieted.
It was an incredible night for "The Incredibles."
Oscar gave wings to "The Aviator" on Tuesday, with the film earning 11 nominations -- including best picture -- to lead the pack for the 77th annual Academy Awards.
The lovable ogre Shrek delivered better-than-expected profits to DreamWorks Animation SKG in its first quarter as a public company, but the studio's announcement that his next film will be delayed sent the stock tumbling.
In his latest project, the animated film "The Polar Express," American actor Tom Hanks plays five different characters -- thanks to a new technique called performance capture. Here, he tells CNN's Becky Anderson about what it was like to star in such a film.
EVERY PIXAR MOVIE has unsung heroes, from the whiny dinosaur in Toy Story to Violet, the sullen and insecure teenage superhero in Pixar's latest 3-D extravaganza, The Incredibles, which hits U.S. t...
"The Incredibles" is -- yes -- incredible.
Jason Lee is "Incredible."
Movie buffs flocking to "The Incredibles" will see a story of an overweight ex-superhero living in suburbia and newly unemployed when he secretly returns to his crime-fighting life and uncovers a sinister plot.
There's a Larry Niven short story, "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex," that wonders how Superman would succeed in mating in the real world.
Weeks or months from now, there is a good chance that DreamWorks Animation's decision to go public Thursday will look not only smart, but pure genius.
Move over Nemo. A great white shark named Lino and his vegetarian son Lenny just gave investors another option.
The Walt Disney Co. has just released one of its most anticipated flicks of the year. To find it in theaters, though, movie buffs will have to travel back in time -- 12 years, to be exact.
Are a great white shark named Lino and his vegetarian son Lenny about to take a bite out of DreamWorks' stock market dreams?
What do you get when you cross the glitzy entertainment panache of Bollywood with India's prowess in information technology?
Jaws dropped when Francis Kao, fresh out of college, persuaded his father to transform the family's highly profitable business making plastic Christmas trees into a digital animation house.
DreamWorks SKG has filed for an initial public offering for its animation unit, maker of the hit movies "Shrek" and "Shrek 2."
Despite Michael Eisner's pollyannaish take this week, the chances of The Walt Disney Co. and Pixar Animation Studios finding their way back to the bargaining table are slim at best.
Pixar Animation Studios is not moving rapidly to find a new distribution partner for its films and may be reaching a distribution deal with Walt Disney Co., with which it ended talks in January, according to a published report.
Some see "Shrek 2" as this summer's "Finding Nemo."
Attention Shrek, Simba and Nemo. Meet your new computer-generated neighbors: Delgo, Kyla and Sedessa.
When Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton took the podium to accept the Oscar for best animated film, he was both blessedly brief (43 seconds) and carefully diplomatic. He thanked both of the feudi...
In last year's hit movie Finding Nemo, the titular tiny clown fish chafed against his overprotective father and asserted his independence by swimming out to sea on his own. You might say that Pixar...
The end of the most successful marriage in Hollywood history could leave both partners better off for the divorce.
Pixar Animation Studios Inc. said Thursday it ended talks with Walt Disney Co. to extend a five-picture deal for Disney to distribute Pixar films.
Entertainment and media conglomerate Walt Disney Co. will soon close an animation studio in Orlando, Florida, possibly leaving some 258 animators out of work.
Can you name the first feature-length animated movie?
ABOUT A DOZEN years ago, way back when Steve Jobs still ran Apple Computer, an irreverent underling first used the expression "reality distortion field'' to describe the beguilingly rosy scenarios ...
As expected, animation mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg was nowhere to be found when Michael Eisner pitched a tent in the middle of New York's Central Park recently to give the entertainment press a sneak ...
The Black Cauldron, the latest animated feature from Walt Disney Pictures, netted a respectable $11.5 million at the box office in its first 12 days in U.S. theaters. The $25-million fantasy film, ...
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