An additional trailer for Pixar’s latest, Wall•E, is available for your viewing pleasure on ComingSoon. This new trailer, titled ‘Cities’, gives us a closer look at the abandoned metropolitan areas on Earth. Wall•E, as well as the new animated short Presto, can both be seen in theaters on June 27th.

A new one-sheet advertising Disney’s upcoming CGI comedy Bolt has appeared online at Internet Movie Poster Awards. Hitting theaters on November 16th of this year, Bolt stars the voice talents of John Travolta and Miley Cyrus.

If you’re on the fence about whether you should attend next month’s San Diego Comic-Con or not then vacillate no longer as we have just learned that master animator Eric Goldberg will be signing copies of his upcoming book Character Animation Crash Course! at the Stuart Ng Books booth on Friday July 25th from 2 - 4pm, and Saturday July 26th from 11am - Noon. Stay tuned to Animated News & Views for more information on this book which has been a quarter of a century in the making.

A clip from Pixar’s upcoming short film Presto can be viewed on CartoonBrew. Presto, which will be playing alongside Wall•E starting June 27th, follows the antics of a magician and his rabbit. The short was helmed by first-time director Doug Sweetland, and is an ode to slapstick cartoons such as Tom & Jerry and Looney Tunes.

o-meon has a sneak peek at what Disney.com will look like beginning June 24 when Pixar’s Wall-E attempts to run the huge corporate website. “With the approach of one of this year’s most eagerly anticipated films, the Disney/Pixar release of WALL•E, the designers and engineers began to wonder what, besides linking to the film’s web pages, they could do to make the little Waste Allocation Load Lifter • Earth class robot more of a part of the Disney.com experience.” What other websites might WALL•E take over?

AFI’s top 10 of animation was revealed tonight, with quotes-sadly limited to voice talent and random celebrities but still enjoyable-by Isabella Rossellini, Vanessa Williams, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Tim Allen, John Ratzenberg, James Earl Jones, Nathan Lane, Cameron Crowe and more. Like all lists the ranking is highly questionable but still more credible than most. Click more for the full list: [More...]

D3Publisher will release the video games based on Focus Features and Laika’s stop-motion feature film Coraline, credited as the first to be originally filmed in 3-D. Directed by Henry Selick, Coraline follows a young girl (Dakota Fanning) who walks through a secret door in her new home and discovers an alternate version of her life. On the surface, this parallel reality is eerily similar to her real life — only much better. But when this wondrously off-kilter, fantastical adventure turns dangerous, and her counterfeit parents (including Other Mother [Teri Hatcher]) try to keep her forever, Coraline must count on her resourcefulness, determination, and bravery to get back home — and save her family. “The alternative-reality based plot of CORALINE translates exceptionally well to an interactive gaming adventure,” said Yoji Takenaka, exec VP and COO, North America and Europe, D3P. “We are enjoying working closely with the filmmakers and the team at Universal and Focus Features to authentically portray the film’s unique cast of characters and allow players of all ages to experience not only key environments and moments from the movie, but also elements that go beyond the feature film.” Coraline will be released nationwide on February 6, 2009.

While Hasbro is the master toy licensee on DreamWorks’ latest hit Kung Fu Panda, the studio will have to settle for a smaller partner on its first stereoscopic 3D film next March. ToyQuest’s line for Monsters vs. Aliens will include action figures, non-electronic table top games, vehicles, playsets, role-play products, plush, youth electronics, seasonal toys, activity sets and rack toys. Anticipation on the film is high so hopefully this lower profile partnership is not a bad omen for the film.

Ultimate Disney took a look for us at the sequel’s new DVD edition: “Unsurprisingly, the name Special Edition is anything but in this case. All Disney has done is changed the packaging and sneak peeks, and added a game. It’s doubtful anyone eager to own this sequel has waited up until this point to purchase it, so this re-release tactic only really works for those who’ve never seen it and those anxious to rack up more Disney Movie Rewards points.”

Coming Soon! had the chance to see Pixar’s new short and their verdict is now online: “without a doubt (…) one of Pixar’s best. It’s definitely a treat before the main feature even starts.”

AWN recently sat down with Pixar’s Roger Gould and Walt Disney Imagineering’s Sue Bryan to discuss the making of the much talked about new Disney ride, Toy Story Mania. The L.A. Times also takes a look at the new attraction.

The Pixar Blog posted more quotes with writer/director Andrew Stanton, new movie stills, and the first production photos.

Check out the Upcoming Pixar Gallery page for four beautiful images from the new Pixar short Presto which will play later this month before the already critically acclaimed Wall•E. Here’s the official synopsis for the Doug Sweetland-directed short: “Dignity. Poise. Mystery. We expect nothing less from the great, turn-of-the-century magician, Presto. But, when Presto forgets to feed his rabbit one too many times, well, there’s really no telling what to expect! This latest comical short film from Pixar Animation Studios follows the escalating high jinx of the amazing Presto, his rabbit Alec, and what happens onstage when a star magician’s ego provokes some clever revenge from his neglected costar.”

AP offers an interesting profile 74-year-old Caroll Spinney who has been playing both Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch in Sesame Street for nearly four decades now.

Four-time Oscar winner Stan Winston, who created some of the most memorable visual effects in cinematic history, passed away yesterday at age 62 after a seven-year struggle with multiple myeloma. The effects master helped bring the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park, the extraterrestrials from Aliens, the robots from Terminator and even Edward Scissorhands to the big screen. He also won a makeup Oscar for 1992’s Batman Returns. He last worked with director Jon Favreau on Iron Man, Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, G.I. Joe, and James Cameron’s Avatar. As a child growing up in Virginia, Stan enjoyed drawing, puppetry and classic horror films. After graduating from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville in 1968, he moved to Southern California to become an actor but instead worked behind the scenes and completed a three-year makeup apprenticeship program at Walt Disney Studios in 1972. He is survived by his wife, Karen; a son, daughter, brother and four grandchildren. Steven Spielberg said in a statement: “Stan was a fearless and courageous artist/inventor and for many projects, I rode his cutting edge from teddy bears to aliens to dinosaurs. My world would not have been the same without Stan. What I will miss most is his easy laugh every time he said to me, ‘Nothing is impossible.’” Producer Gale Anne Hurd said of Stan Winston: “He never looked at anything as a problem, it was always an opportunity. I never saw him defeatist, regardless of what may have happened. And he had an incredible childlike passion for films and for makeup effects and animatronics. Having him on set, regardless of whether you were going into your 19th hour or your first, he always gave 100 % and inspired everyone around him.” Check out AP, Variety, the L.A. Times, Reuters or the Hollywood Reporter for some of the many articles published today about this great man.

An image of Wall-E checking out “the Seattle sights, developing a special – though not surprising interest in the city’s landmark Space Needle” has just been released by the Walt Disney Studios and can be viewed here: [More...]

Imagi announced today that Nicolas Cage, Donald Sutherland, Nathan Lane, Bill Nighy and Eugene Levy would be joining Freddie Highmore for the 2009 feature adaptation of Astro Boy, being directed by David Bowers (Flushed Away). Summit Entertainment will distribute the film worldwide except for Imagi’s reserved territories of Japan, Hong Kong and China. Astro Boy was created by the “god of manga”, Japan’s Osamu Tezuka, in the early 1950s. The iconic character has since found wide popularity around the world as the hero of three acclaimed animated television series spanning the past four decades, besides being one of the top licensed properties for merchandising. Set in futuristic Metro City, Imagi Studios’ Astro Boy is about a young robot with incredible powers created by a brilliant scientist to replace the son he has lost. Unable to fulfill the grieving father’s expectations, our hero embarks on a journey in search of acceptance, experiencing betrayal and a netherworld of robot gladiators, before he returns to save Metro City and reconcile with the man who had rejected him.

The DreamWorks Animation hit grossed a healthy $14 million overseas over its second weekend in only 15 markets. Paramount’s go-slow release strategy has paid off so far with a foreign cume of $41.5 million so far, with the family pic expanding to China and Mexico next weekend. Panda only dropped one spot this weekend at the U.S. box office with a strong $34,321,000 (a 43% drop-off), bringing its worldwide total to nearly $160M after only 10 days in release.

European exhibitor Kinepolis in Belgium, France and Spain have been keen to take on alternative 3-D films. They not only want to test the market but also ensure a steady 3-D product stream once they start promoting the format, says Variety. Fly Me to the Moon, a family animation conceived in 3-D by Belgium toon shop nWave, found a willing public in its home country with 87,946 admissions in its first two months. “It was a real success,” says Maud Van de Velde, content director at Kinepolis, “and it is still playing now.” Ben Stassen, nWave topper and director of Fly Me to the Moon, also had to educate European exhibitors about 3-D. “There is an appetite for it but more of a wait-and-see attitude,” he says. Once the Hollywood wave breaks, he thinks small genre films will have a hard time. “You can’t start doing niche marketing in a place where there are not enough screens for the major films.”

MediaPost offers a rundown of the various promotions in the works for Twentieth Century Fox’s July animated film Space Chimps, from partners like Dole to malls and theaters ads, video games, an online campaign and a chimp language translator found on the film’s official site that allows kids create messages in chimp-an-eez and send them to cell phones.