Dumbo himself gives a review of the Dumbo 70th Anniversary Edition on Blu-Ray and DVD.

This video will look at various aspects of the movie as well as the features included in this set.

Warner Bros Animation has a very strong history with DC comics, releasing Batman: The Animated series, Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans, and currently Young Justice. We’ve known for some time that Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern, would be the subject of their next series and now we have a clip and a premiere date: November 11, 2011.

Something that sets this apart from any other DC project is its being done with CG rather than a more traditional animated look. It will not be set in continuity with any existing property, except with a loose backstory based on the movie starring Ryan Reynolds.

Because the clip automatically plays, click to read the rest to see it.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Following a screening of Batman: Year One, WB animation producer Bruce Timm announced to the audience their next movie projects.
The next feature will be Justice League Doom, an adaptation of Tower of Babel. Following that will be Superman vs. The Elite, and then the long await The Dark Knight Returns.

The Dark Knight Returns will be Warner Premier’s first two part feature, and Timm said the movie will be very faithful to the original. No voice cast has been announced by Andrea Romano said she is interested in bringing long time Batman actors Kevin Conroy and Mark Hammill on board. We first reported TDKR would be a future project in April.

Timm was also asked about Kingdom Come as a possible project, but said that the style of the artwork does not lend itself to 2D animation. The Killing Joke remains a possibility for the future.

Via IGN

MTV Splashpage has posted the first trailer to Batman: Year One, the latest movie in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series. The movie is an adaptation of Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One comic, and stars Benjamin McKenzie as Bruce Wayne, Bryan Cranston as Jim Gordon, Eliza Dushku as Catwoman and Katee Sackhoff as Sarah Essen. The movie will premier at San Diego Comic Con later this month, and will be released on October 18, 2011.

I am really loving these shorts. Hasbro’s KRE-O construction block brand has put up another video on youtube. This time its a talent show spoof done in stop motion animation. Enjoy!

Also watch our BotCon 2011 interview with Colleen Doody, brand manager for the Transformers KREO line: [Read the rest of this entry…]

We’ve talked about KREO before on this site, but now that the KREO kits have hit toy shelves, the marketing push has hit full steam. Here, we have a fantastic example of stop-motion animation using KREO kits and Kreon figures. Love these types of shorts.

Warner Bros has made many popular modern DC books into animated features over the last 4 years, and after getting their feet wet with fare like Under The Red Hood and New Frontier, they’re finally going to go for one of the biggest, baddest comics in their library: The Dark Knight Returns.

Returns tells the story of a 55 year old Bruce Wayne returning to his Batman identity after a decade’s absence. He confronts Harvey “Two Face” Dent, The Joker, and Superman at various points in the story, and takes on a new Robin as his partner. The series, written and and drawn by Frank Miller, is one of the most highly regarded in the DC canon, and helped lay the blueprint for the dark and gritty Batman that is best known today.

WB had a real misfire in their first animated production, re-writing and altering The Death and Return of Superman into a standalone 75 minute feature. Literally dozens of issues and hundreds of characters were cut from the story, and the movie still felt rushed. By comparison, choosing shorter stories (no more than 6 issues) to adapt has worked well for WB, and the bulk of The Dark Knight Returns should make into a fine animated feature. There are some thematic elements that may push WB beyond their usual PG-13 rating, but I certainly hope the original story makes it through unmolested.

Elements of The Dark Knight Returns were present in a Batman The Animated Series episode, “Legends Of The Dark Knight.” In it, 3 children share stories about what they know about Batman. One of the kids is a dead ringer for TDKR’s Robin, Carrie Kelley, and her tale depicts a 5 minute sequence almost directly lifted from the page of Batman fighting the Mutant gang. Michael Ironside provided the voice of Batman in this sequence, and would honestly make a fine choice to reprise the role in a full feature. See a clip at the bottom of this article.

An animated production of Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One is already nearing completion, and is expected to premeire at Comic Con 2011 in San Diego, with a DVD/Blu Ray Release following.

Tip via Joey O and [Bleeding Cool]

Didn’t read the original book? Its never too late to catch up on the classics.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first post-politics project, his big return to the world of entertainment is… a children’s TV series. It was revealed last week, but I was sure it was an April Fools prank.

Now here is the cover of Entertainment Weekly and a completely ridiculous trailer where the action star turned governor turns into a super hero. Watch him talk to Larry King and fight Transformers to The Black Eyed Peas.