John Lasseter Gets His Star on Walk of Fame

It's about time, way overdue, what took them so long, glad it finally happened, what else can be said for the man who became the most prolific individual in the history of modern animation. His star is located at 6834 Hollywood Boulevard in front of the El Capitan Theatre. The special moment at yesterday's historic ceremony in Hollywood has been captured for all to see, followed by Mr Lasseter's personal comments in the videos below. Additional links can be found at the Forum topic.

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'Time Avengers' from The Wire Room

It's always great to showcase the animation of new members on AN, especially when it's a collective of independent animators who are doing their own creative thing. This is from The Wire Room, a group of three feature animators in the UK who've come up with a pilot episode to pitch for a property of theirs called 'Time Avengers'.

The aim of this project is to show the potential of the show and how an expensive look could be achieved on a relatively low budget with a small crew of artists. Their pitch package consists of a Pitch Bible with concept art, episode synopsis, character artwork, back stories and story arcs as well as this excellent footage. It was all created in just 8 months by the 3 members of The Wire Room with the additional assistance of Musician Chris Hill and voice actors Tim Dickinson and Suzy McLintock. Here's their YouTube Channel and here's the pilot for Time Avengers. The Forum topic is here.

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'ParaNorman' on its way August 17, 2012

Something else to look forward to next year in terms of feature animated films. "ParaNorman" is an upcoming 3D stop-motion comedy thriller produced by Laika of Portland, Oregon and distributed by Focus Features. It's release date is August 17, 2012.

Featuring the voices of Casey Affleck, Tempestt Bledsoe, Jeff Garlin, John Goodman, Bernard Hill, Anna Kendrick, Leslie Mann, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Elaine Stritch and Tucker Albrizzi among others.

In a small town that's under siege by zombies, only Norman, a misunderstood local boy who is able to speak with the dead, is able to rise to the challenge. In addition to the zombies, he'll have to take on ghosts, witches and grown-ups, to save his town from a centuries-old curse. Here's the trailer. The song is 'Season of the Witch' from 1966 by Donovan.

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Mad Monster Party? - Halloween 1967

If you were around in 1967, you would've enjoyed this stop motion animated TV special by Rankin Bass. "Mad Monster Party?" was a product of its day, a lot of groovy fun with Fankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman, the Mummy, and other ghouls including Phyllis Diller to round off the all star cast. Here's the trailer for the show. If you're looking to see extended video on the making of this iconic Halloween special follow this link to the documentary.

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Tim Burton's 'Frankenweenie'

There's a lot of chatter and anticipation as Tim Burton's stop motion feature film "Frankenweenie" is heading closer to release a year from now on October 5, 2012. Did you know that this movie is based on a previous live action film he produced in 1984? At the time, Disney considered it too scary for kids to watch. Here's Tim Burton himself introducing his original Frankenweenie followed by the film. There's also some recently released images of the upcoming feature that are available for viewing here.

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Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax" coming March 2, 2012

The journey of a boy as he searches for the one thing that will enable him to win the affection of the girl of his dreams. To find it he must discover the story of the Lorax, the grumpy yet charming creature who fights to protect his world. That's Hollywood's version. The original Lorax is a story about an entrepreneur getting in over his head and winds up destroying the environment. Directed by Chris Renaud and featuring the voices of Danny DeVito, Zac Efron, Ed Helms, Taylor Swift, Rob Riggle and Betty White among others, it still looks to be an entertaining animated motion picture experience. Below is the trailer for the upcoming film by Universal, with the Forum topic here.

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Gameloft New Orleans staffing up

Gameloft's New Orleans studio is open for business and looking to fill positions in their state-of-the-art studio. The lead came from CreativeHeads.net which is an excellent site for seeing what's up in animation employment opportunities. Gameloft is a French computer and video game developer and publisher headquartered in Paris. The company has subsidiaries in 31 countries around the world. Check out the videos below and follow this link for more info about what they're looking for at their New Orleans studio. This topic was first posted in AN 's Business Forum which is frequently updated with opportunities and business related information for the community.

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Cisco's 'Ike Theodore Willis' - IT Hero

The Cisco Corporation has gotten into the animation game with a series of short films featuring a character named Ike Theodore Willis. The abbreviation of which is "IT" of course. He experiences adventures that provide an opportunity for him to save the day by virtue of utilizing Cisco networking systems. Very clever and nicely produced by Snowball VFX and Animation Studio in Tel Aviv. You can see more episodes of IT Willis on the Forum topic.

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