Epic Spaceman Profile; Ed Catmull Joins AI Jury; Disney’s Q3 Profits

This week, animation and AI continued to collide in messier ways. Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull joined the jury of Higgsfield’s $1 million AI film festival, a move already drawing sharp reactions in our own comments section. Meanwhile, Ice Cream Man director Eli Roth walked back his claim that the film’s Fleischer-style animated sequences were hand-drawn, now admitting generative AI was used in a few scenes after credits surfaced listing an AI VFX firm.

More excitingly, we took a close look at the work of Toby Lockerbie, the self-taught animator and VFX artist behind YouTube’s Epic Spaceman channel, who’s built a genAI-free science series into a full-time job and four Webby Awards.

Several companies posted quarterly earnings this week, and Disney posted a strong Q3, padded by a $100 million tariff refund the company itself called “basically nothing” for the full year. All this while eliminating well over 1,000 jobs already this year. The company also confirmed a new deal bringing fan-made TikTok shorts to Disney+, which lands just months after its $1 billion Sora licensing deal with OpenAI collapsed when the AI company shut the video app down.

In other business, Paramount Animation boarded Reel FX’s original Bollywood-inspired feature Diya, VIZ Media has partnered with The Gotham Group to develop film and TV adaptations of RWBY and its other original IP, and Dropout has picked up streaming rights to the full collected works of indie icon Don Hertzfeldt.

On the festival and awards circuit, the Academy named its 2026 Student Academy Award winners, and TIFFCOM unveiled details for its October edition in Tokyo.

Check out these stories and more at cartoonbrew.com.

1. 
   Epic Spaceman On Solo-Building One Of YouTube’s Top Science Channels, Making The Universe Comprehensible, And Rejecting GenAI

   Toby Lockerbie explains how he turned self-taught animation and VFX skills into one of YouTube’s top science channels, and why genAI has no place in his videos.
2. 
   Disney Profits Soar After Three Rounds Of Layoffs, Millions In Tax Credits, And $100M Tariff Refund

   Company shares have also jumped nearly 5% as it added another $1 billion to its stock-buyback plans, surely a major source of comfort to its laid-off workers.
3. 
   Reel FX’s Bollywood Inspired Original ‘Diya’ Finds A Home At Paramount Animation

   The Bollywood-inspired feature originated at Reel FX, where Lucas Koppel shepherded its development, and will be written by Jaydeep Hasrajani and Jake Goldman.
4. 
   Pixar Co-Founder Ed Catmull Joins Jury For GenAI Film Competition

   Higgsfield says “the man who invented 3D graphics” will judge its $1 million generative AI filmmaking competition.
5. 
   Disney And TikTok Strike Deal To Bring Fan-Made Short-Form Videos To Disney+

   Months after its OpenAI Sora deal collapsed, Disney is partnering with TikTok to bring fan-made shorts featuring its characters and franchises to Disney+.

6. 
   Eli Roth Confirms ‘Ice Cream Man’ GenAI Use After First Describing A Traditional Animation Process

   It's always the ones you most medium expect.
7. 
   Academy Unveils 2026 Student Academy Award Winners

   Student films from ESMA, Gobelins, and Film Academy Baden-Württemberg are among this year’s winners, who will receive their awards at TIFF.
8. 
   TIFFCOM 2026 To Spotlight Anime, Japanese IP, And International Co-Productions

   Tokyo's TIFFCOM returns October 28–30 with an expanded Japanese IP market and sessions covering anime, AI, and international co-production.
9. 
   Academy-Honored Shorts ‘Butterfly’ And ‘Gauze’ Use Water, Memory, And Animation To Confront Genocide

   Each acclaimed film follows a young swimming champion whose life is shattered by genocide, connecting historical memory with the present.
10. 
    Don Hertzfeldt’s Films Find A New Streaming Home At Dropout

    Dropout has acquired a collection of Don Hertzfeldt films, including 'Rejected' and 'World of Tomorrow,' with Annecy-winner 'Paper Trail' arriving September 1.