According to Hollywood Reporter, Walt Disney Studios says legendary animator Ollie Johnston has died at age 95.

Johnston was the last of Walt Disney’s so-called Nine Old Men.

He contributed animation and direction to classics such as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Pinocchio,” “Fantasia,” “Song of the South,” “Cinderella,” and “Alice in Wonderland.”

He also worked on “Peter Pan,” “Lady and the Tramp,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Sword in the Stone,” “Mary Poppins,” “The Jungle Book,” “Robin Hood,” “The Rescuers,” and “The Fox and the Hound.”

I was going to list my favorites but it turns out that all these classics are my favorites - what talent-pure art in animation. I believe Ollie is the last one on the right in the above picture of the Nine Old Men.

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This sounds like a fun movie to see. I love all these actors.

“Spirit of the Forest” is an eco-fairy tale with voices generated by Sean Astin, Giovanni Ribisi, Ron Perlman and Anjelica Huston heading into the CGI-animated.  

Astin and Ribisi play two gopher buddies whose home becomes threatened when an evil businesswoman (Huston) plans to tear down their forest to build a highway. With the help of an old oak tree (Perlman), the animals fight back with a vengeance.

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“Bolt” is set to open November 26^th,  Disney’s 47th animated feature, The story centers on Bolt, a white German Shepherd; he’s lived all his life on the set of a TV show where he portrays a superhero dog. He has no idea that his superpowers are not real. Later, he gets inadvertently separated from the studio. A female cat named Mittens and a hamster comes his way. They go on a journey at which he eventually he discovers that all of his powers are fake.  Miley Cyrus is set to join the voice cast of “Bolt,” which also features the voices of John Travolta and Susie Essman and was previously announced as a digital 3-D release.

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I just visited Ain’t It Cool News where it’s reported that “Cars” sequel is in the works for 2012!  Most boys who love cars now will be onto something else then. Like driving their own cars.  

Also, Disney and Pixar, they produced “Cars,” reported this week that all their animation movies are to be in 3-D.  So, it looks like “Cars” sequel will also be in 3-D. 

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Wondering what Disney’s up to?  Well wonder no more - Disney has announced their next sixteen animated films. Some of the titles are no surprise, others are interesting.  So without further ado, here’s a list of Disney’s animated projects through 2012:

2008:

WALL•E (Domestic Release Date: June 27th, 2008)
Pixar Animation Studios
Director/Screenwriter: Andrew Stanton
Producer: Jim Morris
Co-Producer: Lindsey Collins
Sound and Character Voice Designer: Ben Burtt
Composer: Thomas Newman, with an Original Song Performed by Peter Gabriel
Voice Talent: Fred Willard, Jeff Garlin, Sigourney Weaver, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy

Synopsis: What if mankind had to leave Earth and somebody forgot to turn off the last robot? Academy Award®-winning writer-director Andrew Stanton (“Finding Nemo”) and the inventive storytellers and technical geniuses at Pixar Animation Studios transport moviegoers to a galaxy not so very far away for a new computer-animated cosmic comedy about a determined robot named WALL•E. After hundreds of lonely years doing what he was built for, WALL•E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) discovers a new purpose in life (besides collecting knick-knacks) when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL•E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet’s future, and races back to space to report her findings to the humans (who have been eagerly awaiting word that it is safe to return home). Meanwhile, WALL•E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets into motion one of the most incredible comedy adventures ever brought to the big screen. Joining WALL•E on his fantastic journey across a universe of never-before-imagined visions of the future is a hilarious cast of characters including a pet cockroach, and a heroic team of malfunctioning misfit robots.

BOLT (Domestic Release Date: November 26th, 2008, Disney Digital 3-D™)
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Directors: Chris Williams, Byron Howard
Producer: Clark Spencer
Voice Talent: John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman

Synopsis: For super-dog Bolt (voiced by John Travolta), every day is filled with adventure, danger and intrigue – at least until the cameras stop rolling. When the canine star of a hit TV show is accidentally shipped from his Hollywood soundstage to New York City, he begins his biggest adventure yet – a cross-country journey through the real world. Armed only with the delusions that all his amazing feats and powers are real, and with the help of two unlikely traveling companions – a jaded, abandoned housecat named Mittens (voiced by Susie Essman), and TV-obsessed hamster in a plastic ball named Rhino – Bolt discovers he doesn’t need superpowers to be a hero. Miley Cyrus (“Hannah Montana”) brings her vocal talents to the role of Penny, Bolt’s human co-star on the television series.

TINKER BELL (Disney DVD and Blu-ray Release Date: October 28th, 2008)
DisneyToon Studios
Director: Bradley Raymond
Producer: Jeannine Roussel

Synopsis: Enter the magical world of fairies and meet the enchanting creatures of Pixie Hollow, who “nurture nature” and bring about the change of the seasons. Changing the colors of the leaves, moving a sunbeam to melt snow, waking animals from their winter slumber, or giving a patch of sproutlings a sprinkle of water are all within the realm of these seasonal specialists. Tinker Bell thinks her fairy talent as a “tinker” isn’t as special or important as the other fairies’ talents. But when Tink tries to change who she is, she creates nothing but disaster! With encouragement from her friends Rosetta, Silvermist, Fawn and Iridessa, Tink learns the key to solving her problems lies in her unique tinker abilities…and discovers that when she’s true to herself, magical things can happen. Read on »

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I’ll be honest, I never saw the first Madgascar film, but at the time it was out, all the kids raved about it, so I’m sure it was pretty good, at least by their standards. Capitalizing off the success of the firstfim, Dreamworks have gone ahead and prepared a sequel: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.

Here’s the first footage of the film, a short teaser trailer taken from the “Bee Movie” DVD:

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What do Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Rainn Willson, Stephen Colbert, Kiefer Sutherland and Paul Rudd have in common?  

They all have committed their voices to DreamWorks Animation’s “Monsters vs. Aliens.”

 The plot reinvents the classic ‘50s monster movie as a modern-day action comedy. The story focuses on California girl Susan Murphy (Witherspoon), who is unexpectedly clobbered by a meteor full of outer space gunk and mysteriously grows to 50 feet tall.

According to Variety, Murphy becomes captured and held in a secret government compound. The world learns that the military has been quietly rounding up other monsters over the years, including the brilliant but insect-headed Dr. Cockroach (Laurie) and macho half-ape, half-fish the Missing Link (Arnett). Wilson plays Gallaxhar, Colbert is the president of the U.S., Sutherland portrays General W.R. Monger and Rudd is Susan’s boyfriend, Derek.  

“Monsters vs. Aliens” opens March 27, 2009.  

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All the good graphic novels are eagerly getting snapped up by film studios wanting to turn them into movies.  The latest such is “Bone”, which has just been picked up by Warner Bros.  Unlike some of its counterparts such as “Sin City” and “Watchmen”, the “Bone” series looks like it will be a much more family-friendly feature.

According to Variety, Warner Bros. is planning to make a big-budget CGI-animated movie more in the vein of “Over the Hedge” than “The Dark Knight”.  They are also reportedly considering a live-action version.

Jeff Smith published the “Bone” graphic novel series on his own before it got picked up and published by Scholastic.   It has a pretty decent following, so we’ll see what comes of it.

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Equally entertaining for both kids and parents alike, UNSTABLE FABLES: 3 PIGS AND a BABY takes on a whole new twist as a cunning team of special ops wolves hatch an ingenious plan to infiltrate the intrepid pigs’ impenetrable house of bricks.   When the unassuming pigs (Garrett, Cryer and Zahn) find a tiny wolf cub on their doorstep, they do what any responsible pig would do – take him in and raise him as one of their own.  It’s one big happy family as Lucky (McCartney) enters his teens not knowing his history or his role as a sleeper cell in the wolves’ devious plan.  Comedy ensues when Lucky meets and bonds with the wolf gang.  Faced with a huge decision, Lucky must choose between the madcap lives of his new wolf friends or the loving pig family that raised him.   

I have a copy that my daughter viewed and said it was “good.”  I caught a few clips while she watched and thought the language was a little harsh for kids. But, I love Steve Zahn, who does one of the voices.  The wolves are very bad in this movie.

The giveaway goes like this:  Post your name and I will draw the winner.  Good luck!

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The Finnish hit movie “Christmas Story” is now being dubbed for English with John Turturro joining to a part of the voice cast. “Christmas Story” is delightful story about how Santa became Santa. “Christmas Story” opened in Finland late last year and took $2.6 million, making it the biggest domestic hit of the year for Finland.

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