In an odd new twist for the Studio Ghibli film library, Daily Variety is reporting that U.S. distributor GKids (The Secret of Kells) has acquired the U.S. theatrical and non-theatrical rights to thirteen Ghibli films – including Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky and Spirited Away. Disney will retain the home video rights. Gkids is planning to distribute a series of Miyazaki film festivals to theatres nationwide.

Disney must have felt they no longer needed the theatrical rights. It’ll interesting to see how GKids will fare with these films – that company is certainly emerging as a leader in distributing worthy international animated features.

Meanwhile, I just caught up with these incredible Lego sculptures by Iain Heath. Heath’s tribute to the master animator Hayao Miyazaki was unveiled last year at Seattle’s BrickCon where it received the “Big in Japan – Best Overall” award. Check out his entire Miyazakitopia on Flickr. These two (below) are my favorites:

I’m all for animated films with a more adult sensibility, but this new 3D CG feature from Denmark, directed by Thorbjørn Christoffersen and Kresten Vestbjerg Andersenand, sorta swings both ways (pun intended). Ronal Barbaren (Ronal the Barbarian) opens in Denmark on September 19th.

(Thanks, Warren Leonhardt)

Fresh off of last weekend’s Telluride screenings, the new Pixar short, La Luna, will be showing in New York City this Sunday, along with Hiroaki Ando’s 24-minute anime Five Numbers (aka Norageki!). The screening will be followed by a conversation with Enrico Casarosa (Director / Head of Story, Pixar Animation Studios) on the making of La Luna and with Dai Sato (Scriptwriter of Cowboy Bebop) to discuss post-3/11 Japan and the anime community.

Below is the screening information, it’s part of a festival entitled “Films For Hope,” taking place at the Japan Society. Proceeds from ticket sales will go to help Japan’s rebuilding efforts.

Sunday, September 11, 5:30 PM — 7 PM

La Luna, 2011 – New York Premiere
6 min. 51 sec., 35 mm, color, Directed by Enrico Casarosa

Five Numbers!, 2011 – U.S. Premiere
24 min., DVD, color, Directed by Hiroaki Ando (CGI director of Steamboy and art director for Tekkon Kinkreet)

Followed by a reception. 50% of the proceedings will go to the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund. for tickets and more info, Click Here.

This thing’s gone viral in the past week. Amid first posted about it back in November, and I have been getting flooded with readers sending me the link to the final product. So, here it is – a superb stop-motion recreation of the opening titles to Hanna Barbera’s Jonny Quest by filmmaker Roger Evans. Bravo, sir! Excellent job!

I’ve been debating posting Calin Fernandez’ NSFW thesis animation film from The School of Visual Arts. Some of you will hate it. Most of you will say its ugly. I found it both disturbing and hilarious. Does this guy have a future in animation (or rap music, for that matter)? Is it intentionally absurd or is it deeply profound? I dunno – but if nothing else, I think this has a chance to become a series on Fox…

There’s hope for DVD yet. Our friends at TVonDVD.com just revealed plans by Warner Home Video to release a new single disc DVD collection in their Looney Tunes Super Stars series – this one solely devoted to Pepe Le Pew.

To the best of my knowledge, Pepé Le Pew: Zee Best Of Zee Best will contain 17 cartoons (despite what the box art says) – including all 15 Chuck Jones’ Pepe cartoons, plus a Freleng Tweety in which he appears in cameo (Dog Pounded), and an odd Art Davis outing (Odor Of The Day). The DVD goes on sale December 27th. The titles included are:

Odor-Able Kitty (1945), Scent-imental Over You (1947), Odor of the Day (1948), For Scent-imental Reasons (1949), Scent-imental Romeo (1951), Little Beau Pepé (1952), Wild Over You (1953), Dog Pounded (1954), The Cats Bah (1954), Past Perfumance (1955), Two Scent’s Worth (1955), Heaven Scent (1956), Touché and Go (1957), Really Scent (1959), Who Scent You? (1960), A Scent of the Matterhorn (1961), Louvre Come Back to Me! (1962)

Imagine my surprise when I spotted this (photo above) on the marquee of the El Capitan Theatre today. Perhaps it was well known in Disney fan circles, but I hadn’t heard anything about a theatrical release of the 3D version of Beauty and The Beast until I walked by the theatre this morning. I saw no TV or newspaper advertising about it (and I still read newspapers).

It’s playing for two weeks at the El Cap, four times each day 10:45am‎, ‎2:00‎, ‎4:45,‎ 7:30pm ‎and since I do not own a 3D Hi-Def TV, I definitely plan to check out the “meticulously dimensionalized” version on the big screen this weekend. A 3D version of The Lion King opens at the El Cap (and nationwide) on September 16th. Both films will be on sale in 3D Blu-Ray editions on October 4th.

As previously reported, Huston Huddleston has been posting the lost songs composed and demos recorded by his father, Floyd, primarily for Disney features The Aristocats and The Rescuers. We’ve been linking to many of them on our CB Facebook page. Here’s one of particular note, sung and written by Floyd Huddleston himself, recorded at Disney Studios in Burbank 1974. This was an early version of the theme song of the Rescue Aid Society in The Rescuers.

My next Animation Tuesday presentation at the Cinefamily (The Silent Movie Theatre) in Los Angeles is a curated compilation of trippy 40s and 50s Technicolor educational, industrial and instructional films from the Golden Age of Hollywood Cartoons! No boring classroom lessons here; these are highly entertaining examples of animation from the greatest talents in the field. From Disney, you’ll witness the rarely seen — by men, at least — Kotex-sponsored The Story of Menstruation (1946), from UPA we’ll screen both Bill Hurtz’ Man Alive (1951) and Abe Levitow’s Inside Magoo (1959), two theatrical shorts that explore the dangers of cancer.

The highlight of the evening will be a 35mm Technicolor screening of John Sutherland’s 50s-design masterpiece Rhapsody Of Steel (1959, image above) with animation by Irv Spence and Emery Hawkins, backgrounds by Eyvind Earle, art direction by Maurice Noble and Victor Haboush, and music by Dimitri Tiomkin. And that’s not all – there will be plenty of other unique animated surprises I can’t announce yet! Plus, the program will be preceded by a big-screen showing of all ten selections in Cartoon Brew’s 2011 Student Festival (We’ll be doing a separate post soon about this special showing). Advance tickets on sale now. Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind animation event!

I always hated Captain Planet, but if it were this cool back then I would have watched it more often. From Funny or Die, Don Cheadle takes Captain Planet in a new direction:

For the Pink Panther fanatic who has everything…

When the Pink Panther theatrical shorts were first broadcast on NBC’s Saturday Morning in 1969, DePatie Freleng created a live-action opening title segment (see below) using a customized “Panthermobile“, designed by Jay Ohrberg. Now, the original car is now being offered for sale via an online auction from September 4th through October 14th. I was never sure what they thought creating such a vehicle would do for the Pink Panther – other than create publicity at car shows around the world – but it’s a pretty cool car. If you got the green (and the pink) for it, a once in a lifetime opportunity could be yours.

(Thanks, Charles Brubaker)

Produced by Luc Besson, Bibo Bergeron’s A Monster In Paris looks gorgeous… but the story, about a giant singing flea, seems a bit slight. Hope I’m wrong. It opens in France in October. No U.S. distributor or release date yet, but here’s the English language trailer: