Studio aka has completed a 25-minute film adaptation of the children’s book Lost and Found. The film, directed by Philip Hunt, will debut on the UK’s Channel Four on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. It’s about the friendship that develops between a boy and a lost penguin who shows up at his doorstep. The film is narrated by Jim Broadbent and scored by composer Max Richter (Waltz With Bashir). Sounds like a charming film and looks promising too.

More exclusive images from the film after the jump…

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Here’s the entire Sonic The Hedgehog short (mentioned previously here), released to You Tube today by Sega:

This teaser trailer for Imagi’s Astro Boy is attached to today’s release of Twilight. I love Tezuka’s original manga and TV series - and I really want to like this feature. I hope they can pull it off.

How does it look to you?

This is the first six minutes from the new video game, Sonic Unleashed. (This video is in Japanese; the good stuff starts at the 40-second mark):

Sega is also releasing a separate Sonic short film, Night of the WereHog, to promote the game. I don’t know if the game itself will be good, the visuals do seem to be well executed. Is this the first time Sega, or any video game company, released an animated short to coincide with a new game?

(Thanks, Lev Polyakov)

Twenty-two years later, Luxo Jr. is no longer a kid, and he’s developed other interests that are a bit more mature than beach balls. The short is by Mark Grundy.

(via Kottke)

Pixar’s Burn-E is the short that’s attached to the Wall-E DVD coming out next week. It’s directed by Angus MacLane.

(via Kottke)

Pixar released the trailer for Pete Docter’s Up today. Looks promising.

It’s plenty refreshing to see a CG character that is designed with a sense of caricature in both his appearance and physical movement. Rocket Jo is a series of 52 one-minute shorts created by French animator Julien Charles for French TV network France 3. The shorts, produced by Millimages and 2d3d Animations, are slated for premiere in January. Julien explains that the series focuses on a single character, Rocket Jo, who makes his own jetpacks and attempts to fly in each episode. He writes that he’s trying, “to put the focus on storytelling and animation with just with one character, no speaking and a blue gradient for the set.” He has set up a production blog about the show, and one of the episodes can be viewed on this page (click on the “Play” button).