And here’s the newly released trailer for Disney’s Bolt.

Here is the trailer for Universal’s CG adaptation of the children’s book The Tales of Despereaux. Sam Fell (Flushed Away) is directing, but the production has had a troubled history with earlier directors including Sylvain Chomet (Triplets of Belleville) and Mike Johnson (The Corpse Bride). Chomet told an interviewer about his decision to leave the film: “As the budget got bigger, the studio wanted a less dark, more commercial story and it wasn’t what I wanted to make.” Chomet’s wife and business partner, Sally, added, “We had barely finished a character sketch and its potential as a plastic toy was being assessed.”

(Thanks, Jakob for trailer link)

My “uncle” in New Orleans, Wayne Daigrepont, has just checked out the new Audubon Insectarium (”the first major attraction to open after Katrina!”). He reports that:

“…within its giant & wonderful splendor is a CGI animated film (with interactive seats!!), starring caricatured bugs with the voices of Jay Leno, Joan Rivers, & others! The 10-min. film is quite fantastic….(not unlike the “Tough to be a Bug” film at Disney).”

The CG-animated film, produced by Hollywood-based computer graphics studio Super 78, features a bug-like Rivers performing her typical preshow red-carpet interviews. The show, called the Awards Night Theater, was commissioned by Audubon Studios, and created by Technifex, a theme park ride producer. It’s described as a “sophisticated multisensory theater presentation is a 4-D experiential theater that pokes, prods, spritz’s, buzzes and shakes guests while teaching them about the wonders of the insect world.” CG Supervisor Robert Rose has some images and video clips from this project up at his website.

“Performance Capture technology is here to stay!”

Or so says the Visual Effects Society who will be holding a seminar on motion capture techniques on Saturday night, June 29th. Demystifying Motion Capture Techniques will be held at the Sony Pictures Imageworks studio in Culver City and will feature guest speakers from ILM, Henson Digital, Sony and others. More information on this event is here.

Nothing is going to deter me from going to see a film about wacky animals who engage in martial arts, not even this video from the Kung Fu Panda movie premiere.

This has been around for almost two months, but I just caught up with it last night and had to share. It’s apparently a viral promo short created to boost comic book sales. It’s the best CG version of The Hulk I’ve ever seen, and the Spider-man and Iron Man characterizations seem spot on. I wonder who made it. Anyone know?

I can’t describe this commerical any better than Jason Kottke does on his blog:

“Smokey the Bear is back! And he’s preventing forest fires in Uncanny Valley State Park!”

It’s getting crowded in outer space. In addition to Wall•E and Space Chimps, nWave Pictures is releasing Fly Me To The Moon, a 3-D animated family film this August in Imax Theatres (hence the overt science angle). Trailer below, production blog here.