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Spotted Fawn Productions will produce an animated series based on its film, “Inkwo for When the Starving Return,” which was directed by the company’s owner, Amanda Strong, and plays at Sundance this week.

Strong, who is Métis, will be showrunner for the new six-part limited series. She has directed episodes of the PBS Kids show “Molly of Denali” and previously received the Sundance Native Lab Fellowship.

“I’m thrilled to bring Richard’s stories to life on screen. This is a dream come true, to see our characters and worlds expand and reach new audiences. It’s a humbling opportunity to explore the themes and emotions of ‘Inkwo for When the Starving Return’ in greater depth, and I can’t wait to collaborate with our brilliant team to create something artistic, meaningful, and globally appealing,” Strong said in a statement.

The stop-motion short film, which the National Film Board of Canada co-produced,...

“Anima: to give a soul to something that didn’t have it. In stop-motion this is more true than any other form of animation.” This, according to iconoclastic filmmaker Guillermos Del Toro, exactly one week before taking home Best Animated feature at the 95th Academy Awards for his visually arresting masterpiece Pinocchio.

This idea was the crux of Del Toro’s thesis at the 2023 Film Independent Directors Close-Up session “Directing Frame by Frame” on February 26. It was the first of the annual program’s three live events at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills leading up to the Film Independent Spirit Awards on March 4.

Moderated by Del Toro’s friend and fellow filmmaker Jon Favreau, the discussion also featured co-director Mark Gustafson, Animation Supervisor Brian Leif Hansen and Director of Character Fabrication Georgina Haynes. Watch the full panel below and keep reading for highlights.

With admiration and curiosity,...

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” hit Netflix a few weeks back, and it has already received a few critics’ awards and nominations, though it’s a very different animated movie than we normally get over the course of a year, being a stop-motion animated film del Toro directed with Mark Gustafson, working with Portland stop-motion animation house ShadowMachine. Lisa Henson, daughter of the late great puppeteer Jim Henson, is one of the film’s producers, which gives the film even more of a pedigree within that world.

SEEOscar odds update: ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ ascends in Best Picture race

But let’s rewind a bit. Del Toro’s 2006 movie “Pan’s Labyrinth” was Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Language Film (now known as Best International Feature), but lost to Germany’s “The Lives of Others.” Nevertheless, it was a visual masterpiece that won three Oscars for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction,...

With Guillermo del Toro‘s stop-motion “Pinocchio” becoming Netflix’s greatest hope for a Best Picture Oscar nomination (in addition to its frontrunning Best Animated Feature status) there could be a spill-over into the craft races as well. That would be a historic breakthrough for the tactile, handmade technique, which, up until now, has only garnered a Sci-Tech Oscar (for Laika’s innovative 3D character animation printing system) and nominations in visual effects (for Laika’s “Kubo and the Two Strings” and Disney’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas”) and original score (for Alexandre Desplat’s work on Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox”).

But the exposure from del Toro’s masterful version of Carlo Collodi’s fable — which the Oscar-winning director of “The Shape of Water” recasts as a tale of rebellion set against the backdrop of Mussolini’s Fascist Italy — could finally point the Academy...

What a world we could live in if only we allowed the innocence of children to run it.

My 11-year-old daughter Sophia is just learning about the scope of movies. You would assume the child of an entertainment writer and Oscar enthusiast might be well-versed in the styles of Akira Kurosawa and Steven Spielberg. Instead, she’s currently enamored with the world of horror movies, with the “Scream” franchise standing as her most vital consumption.

She’s only been to a handful of industry screenings, one of which was Pixar’s “Coco” (2017), which gave the two of us the memorable moment in which I was weeping intensely as Miguel sang to his beloved grandmother after returning to the real world. Then, with a dead silent New York audience, not knowing how to use her “inside voice,” she shouted, “Are you crying?” The crowd erupted in laughter.

Now, living in Los Angeles for over a year,...

Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro reinvents Carlo Collodi’s classic tale of the wooden marionette who is magically brought to life in order to mend the heart of a grieving woodcarver named Geppetto. This whimsical, stop-motion musical directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson follows the mischievous and disobedient adventures of Pinocchio in his pursuit of a place in the world.

In select theaters in November and on Netflix in December, and lifelong passion project of del Toro, check out the brand new trailer.

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio – (Pictured) Sebastian J. Cricket (voiced by Ewan McGregor). Cr: Netflix © 2022

Netflix announced in August of 2020 the cast of Academy Award winner Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming stop-motion animated musical feature. Newcomer Gregory Mann will star as Pinocchio with Ewan McGregor as Cricket and David Bradley as Geppetto. Other cast includes Academy Award® winner Tilda Swinton, Academy Award® winner Christoph Waltz,...

Once upon a time, there were two “Pinocchio” movies getting made, and the Guillermo del Toro version looked positively stunning.

On Tuesday, Netflix debuted a new teaser trailer for the Oscar winner’s upcoming stop-motion take on Carlo Collodi’s Italian folktale, co-directed with Mark Gustafson and co-written with Patrick McHale. Disney will bring a live-action remake of its well-loved 1940 classic to Disney+ on September 8, with star Tom Hanks as Geppetto and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth voicing Pinocchio.

But where that production seems to be clinging to the old (a teaser from last month revealed what very well could be another shot-for-shot remake à la the 2018 “Lion King“), “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” explicitly promises “a story you think you know, but you don’t.”

Ewan McGregor voices morally righteous insect-turned-narrator Sebastian J. Cricket, alongside newcomer Gregory Mann as Pinocchio and David Bradley as Geppetto. Rounding out the voice cast are Finn Wolfhard,...

A star-studded cast has been announced for Guillermo del Toro's stop-motion animated version of Pinocchio that includes Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Tilda Swinton, Ron Perlman, and more:

Hollywood, Calif. - August 19, 2020 - Netflix announced today the cast of Academy Award® winner Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming stop-motion animated musical feature Pinocchio. Newcomer Gregory Mann will star as Pinocchio with Ewan McGregor as Cricket and David Bradley as Geppetto. Other cast includes Academy Award® winner Tilda Swinton, Academy Award® winner Christoph Waltz, Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), Academy Award® winner Cate Blanchett, John Turturro (The Batman), Golden Globe winner Ron Perlman (Nightmare Alley), Tim Blake Nelson (Watchmen), Burn Gorman (Enola Holmes).

Drawing on the classic Carlo Collodi tale, this stop motion musical follows the extraordinary journey of a wooden boy magically brought to life by a father’s wish. Set during the rise of Fascism in Mussolini’s Italy, del Toro's...

Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion animated musical movie Pinocchio for Netflix has set its cast with newcomer Gregory Mann in the title role, Ewan McGregor as Cricket and David Bradley as Geppetto. Other cast includes Oscar winners Tilda Swinton, Christoph Waltz and Cate Blanchett; Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things); John Turturro (The Batman); Golden Globe winner Ron Perlman (Nightmare Alley); Tim Blake Nelson (Watchmen); and Burn Gorman (Enola Holmes). Based on the classic Carlo Collodi tale, the feature follows the extraordinary journey of a wooden boy magically brought to life by a father’s wish. Set during the rise of fascism in Mussolini’s Italy, del Toro’s Pinocchio is a story of love and disobedience as Pinocchio struggles to live up to his father’s expectations. “After years of pursuing this dream project, I found my perfect partner in Netflix,” said del Toro,...

Maria Angelico, Lydia Rui Huang, Sarinah Masukor.

Screen Australia today announced funding for 15 Enterprise People talent opportunities and one Enterprise Business & Ideas project, with all to share in over $480,000.

The Enterprise Business & Ideas program allows an Australian entity to apply for funding to develop and deliver an innovative screen business proposal, hire a company placement and/or access business-building services, while the Enterprise People strand allows both emerging and experienced creatives to apply for funding for a domestic or international career placement, and/or other professional development opportunities.

Screen Australia head of development Nerida Moore said: “We’re excited to support a wide range of bespoke career development opportunities through Enterprise People, including a number of substantial international opportunities. As the screen industry becomes increasingly global, we were pleased that creatives are exploring ways to make connections in the Australian, European and North American markets, building industry knowledge with the...

Melanie Coombs.

For Melanie Coombs, producer of Mary and Max and Oscar-winning short Harvie Krumpet, stop-motion animation has a magical quality – at once real, but not real – that touches audiences profoundly.

“When you see Meryl Streep in a TV or film role, you go: there’s Meryl Streep, she’s a playing a nun, or she’s playing an evil grandmother who’s trying to steal the kids away or whatever. But it’s Meryl Streep. There is a suspension of disbelief on one level.

“But when it’s a puppet, and you know the puppet isn’t alive, it’s like this second level suspension of disbelief. When you make that second leap, there’s something that happens with the emotional connection that is really powerful. I still meet people who passionately talk to me about Mary and Max, all the time. People who have Harvie Crumpet tattoos. Mary and Max was 10 years ago.

In anticipation of its fourth stop-motion movie, “Kubo and the Two Strings,” Laika has mounted the first public exhibition of its hand-crafted puppets and sets at Universal Studios Hollywood’s Globe Theater (thru Sunday). “From Coraline to Kubo: A Magical Laika Experience” brings us closer to the tactile wonders that have been produced at the Portland studio for the last 10 years.

“You can see how the company’s grown and evolved as a community with all the artistic and technological innovations, but I also think that you see the evolution of an art form,” said Travis Knight, Laika CEO and lead artist who makes his directorial debut with “Kubo.”

Read More: ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ Interactive Featurette: Explore the Vastlands of Laika’s Animated Adventure

“‘Coraline,’ which is where we began, was something of a seismic shift for stop-motion,” said Knight. “And as you go through, you can see...

Your regular round-up of the latest animation news, from HitFix reporter Emily Rome Welcome to the first installment of AnimationFix, where on a regular basis I’ll supply you a round-up of recent animation news and my musings on both the hidden gems and the buzziest new footage and art from the world of toons. First treat for you today: Regina Spektor’s Japanese-influenced cover of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” recorded for stop-motion animation Kubo and the Two Strings. One of the film’s trailers previously gave us an early listen of the cover but just an instrumental section without Spektor’s vocals. Kubo and the Two Strings, a action adventure movie set in a world inspired by ancient Japan, is a samurai story that aims for an epic scale rarely seen in stop-motion. In the film, young Kubo plays a magical three-stringed instrument like a shamisen, a Japanese...

Laika’s fascination with folktales gets more sweeping and exotic with the samurai adventure, “Kubo and the Two Strings,” expanding yet again the boundaries of stop-motion.

“Every Laika movie has its own aesthetic, but this one’s more open and expansive— there are areas where the eyes can rest,” explained Laika’s lead artist/CEO Travis Knight, who makes his directorial debut with “Kubo.”

Citing an epic, fantasy quality reminiscent of David Lean, Akira Kurosawa, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, Knight couldn’t resist helming “Kubo” (shepherded by Shannon Tindle, who recently made the “On Ice” Google Spotlight Vr short and retains story and character design credits).

Read More: Watch: Laika Delivers Yet Another Spectacular Trailer for ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’“What really got me excited about this film was at its emotional core about this boy and his family and what would ultimately become his surrogate family. And that resonated personally.

Stop-motion animation is among the most laborious and precise forms of artistry imaginable; the average animator produces only four seconds of footage per week. If they make a wrong movement, there is no hitting "undo"—instead, they have to start all over. Twenty-four movements of a puppet result in only one second of film. Animators are "a rare breed," said Laika's Creative Supervisor of Puppet Fabrication Georgina Hayns during "The Nuts and Bolts of Stop Motion: The Artistry and Ingenuity of Laika" on Friday, April 24 at The Academy Theater in New York. "They are actors, but in the form of manipulating these characters," said Hayns. Organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Friday's presentation was the first of a series of events that are collectively being billed as "An Animation Showcase: From Celluloid to CGI." The series, which runs through May 29, consists of discussions and screenings focused.

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes in the family event movie The Boxtrolls. Starring, in voice performance, Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley, Isaac Hempstead Wright (Game of Thrones), andElle Fanning (Maleficent), the new movie from animation studio Laika, the makers of the Academy Award®-nominated Coraline andParaNorman, comes to Blu-ray™ 3D and Blu-ray™ Combo Pack including Blu-ray, DVD & Digital HD with UltraViolet on January 20, 2015 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

Quirky, mischievous and good-hearted, the Boxtrolls are unique creatures who have lovingly raised a human boy named Eggs in a fantastical charming cavern below the bustling streets of Cheesebridge. But when the evil Archibald Snatcher schemes to capture Eggs’ family, it’s up to Eggs and his feisty new friend Winnie to save the Boxtrolls!

Based upon the book Here Be Monsters! The Boxtrolls voice cast also includes Academy Award® nominee Toni Collette, Jared Harris (Mad Men), Nick Frost (The...

“It won’t change who you are. Cheese, hats, boxes-they don’t make you who you are. You make you!”

Get ready to enjoy a masterfully crafted Dickensian world with stunningly well animated-characters and witty dialog. If you’re familiar with Coraline and Paranorman, Laika Animation Studio’s previous works, The Boxtrolls will come as no surprise. As before, the visuals are worth the price of admission and as before, I was left hungry for more.

The Boxtrolls itself is a well-told fantasy full of silliness and whimsy, but there’s depth and meaning as well. It could be argued that this is a kids film about ethnic cleansing and genocide(!), but it’s all handled in the best possible taste. Somehow they managed to pull this off without ever being too heavy-handed, scary, or inappropriate. An example of this would be the villain’s henchmen, who spend much of...

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes in the family event movie The Boxtrolls.

Starring, in voice performance, Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley, Isaac Hempstead Wright (Game of Thrones), and Elle Fanning (Maleficent), the new movie from animation studio Laika, the makers of the Academy Award-nominated Coraline and ParaNorman, comes to Blu-ray 3D and Blu-ray Combo Pack including Blu-ray, DVD & Digital HD with UltraViolet on January 20, 2015 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. The Boxtrolls will also be available on Digital HD December 23, 2014, just in time for the holidays.

Quirky, mischievous and good-hearted, the Boxtrolls are unique creatures who have lovingly raised a human boy named Eggs in a fantastical charming cavern below the bustling streets of Cheesebridge. But when the evil Archibald Snatcher schemes to capture Eggs’ family, it’s up to Eggs and his feisty new friend Winnie to save the Boxtrolls!

Based upon the book Here Be Monsters! The Boxtrolls...

One of the best parts of my job here at the site is the opportunity to visit movie sets. In four and a half years, I've traveled around the world to get a first-hand glimpse at dozens of different productions, but in all that time, I don't think I've ever visited a set quite like the 3D stop-motion animated tale ParaNorman, which hits theaters August 17.

Back in January, I traveled up to the Laika Studios facility in Hillsboro, Oregon, a sprawling 150,000 square-foot complex which houses hundreds of talented artists, designers, animators, and technicians. This was my first time visiting the set of a stop-motion animation project, and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It didn't take long before I was blown away by the whole process, and their painstaking attention to detail. We were met by Georgina Hayns (creative superviser/puppet fabrication) and Brian McLean (Director of rapid prototype...

Movie Jungle is pleased to give you interview clips with Dakota Fanning, director Henry Selick, Keith David, writer Neil Gaiman, Teri Hatcher, Georgina Hayns, Phil Knight, John Hodgman, Travis Knight, Robert Bailey Jr., Dawn French and more! We also have new clips in from the animated film from visionary director Selick ("The Nightmare Before Christmas," "James and the Giant Peach") who helms from the international best-seller by Neil Gaiman. The film is the first to be originally filmed in 3D!...

Movie Jungle is pleased to give you interview clips with Dakota Fanning, director Henry Selick, Keith David, writer Neil Gaiman, Teri Hatcher, Georgina Hayns, Phil Knight, John Hodgman, Travis Knight, Robert Bailey Jr., Dawn French and more! We also have new clips in from the animated film from visionary director Selick ("The Nightmare Before Christmas," "James and the Giant Peach") who helms from the international best-seller by Neil Gaiman. The film is the first to be originally filmed in 3D!...