Animators

Even before it opens later this week, Disney's new animated feature, "The Princess and the Frog," is already considered something of a cultural and animation landmark. After centering cartoons on a Middle Easterner ("Aladdin"), a Native American (" Pocahontas"), an Asian ("Mulan"), and a Hawaiian ("Lilo & Stitch"), Disney animation has entered the post-racial era. The new film features a black protagonist alongside the green one. It has been a long time coming, but it is an event that, if you believe Disney detractors, would have old Walt spinning in his grave (or his cryogenic chamber)

Nothing seems to stop "Jungle" Jack Hanna. Facing down dangerous animals and persnickety late-night hosts, the congenial wildlife expert and dedicated conservationist in the trademark khaki suit has been TV fixture for the last 30 years. Now, despite having just undergone a double knee replacement, Hanna is doing a national theater tour that comes to the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach on Saturday. "As long as I don't have to run around too much after any animals I will be fine," he laughed by phone from his home in Montana, where he is recuperating.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science will pay tribute this evening to Adam Beckett, an animator and visual effects artist who was little known during his lifetime but whose work endures in pop culture through his contributions to the original "Star Wars." The overlooked artist, who died in a house fire 30 years ago at age 29, was "a unique talent," says his friend and co-worker Richard Winn Taylor ("Tron"), a visual effects artist who is co-hosting the retrospective this evening at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.

Build-a-Bear Workshop was introducing a line of stuffed animals called smallfrys and wanted to reach moms through Facebook. One video used in the online promotion showed a woman pulling up to a fast-food window. Her young daughter requests "a smallfry. " When her mom suggests a fruit cup or celery sticks, the daughter says, "Mom, order me a curly-haired bunny in a purple sequined bathing suit. " The 45-second smallfrys spot came not from a traditional advertising agency but from Poptent Inc., a "crowdsourced" video production studio that has built a global community of 50,000 writers, directors, cinematographers and animators to create commercials for Build-a-Bear, American Airlines, Dell, Intel, Jaguar, General Mills and others.

Build-a-Bear Workshop was introducing a line of stuffed animals called smallfrys and wanted to reach moms through Facebook. One video used in the online promotion showed a woman pulling up to a fast-food window. Her young daughter requests "a smallfry. " When her mom suggests a fruit cup or celery sticks, the daughter says, "Mom, order me a curly-haired bunny in a purple sequined bathing suit. " The 45-second smallfrys spot came not from a traditional advertising agency but from Poptent Inc., a "crowdsourced" video production studio that has built a global community of 50,000 writers, directors, cinematographers and animators to create commercials for Build-a-Bear, American Airlines, Dell, Intel, Jaguar, General Mills and others.

With "Tokyo Godfathers," director Satoshi Kon once again demonstrates his skill for creating movies that are the antithesis of American animated feature films. The movie, which opens Friday at the Nuart Theatre, is centered on two men and a teenage girl who sleep in cardboard boxes and scavenge food from the alleys of central Tokyo. Their tenuous existence is thrown into further upset when they find an abandoned baby. Some U.S.

In a show of solidarity, some of the nation's top animators and print cartoonists are rallying to the aid of a fellow artist with a special auction of original artwork on EBay. The auction will benefit Matthew Hodge, the 18-year-old son of artist Tim Hodge, who was injured in an auto accident in August and has been in a coma since then. The sale of more than 165 pieces includes drawings and cels from "Mulan," "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast," "Sleeping Beauty" and "SpongeBob SquarePants," as well as original comic strips of "Mutts," "Zits," "Baby Blues" and "Pogo."

Re: "Disney Plans Big Cuts in Feature Animation" [April 24]: Instead of cutting back on animators (whose work is actually seen by the audience), how about Disney trimming more executives, such as executive producers, senior producers, supervising producers, creative producers, coordinating producers, line producers, consulting producers, associate producers? These out-of-water MBAs have utterly no training or understanding of even basic animation, yet are required to sign off on simple stories and action way over their heads.

In a continuing streamlining of its bedrock animation unit, Walt Disney Co. is laying off 50 animators at its Orlando facility. The cuts, which were expected, mark the last phase of belt-tightening in Disney's animation division, which already has eliminated several hundred jobs in the last two years in response to high salaries and soaring production costs.

Walt Disney Co. said Friday that it would dismiss about 160 of the 800 employees in its feature animation unit as the company slowed production at what once was its crown jewel. The 20% cutback comes nearly a year after Disney purchased Pixar Animation Studios, maker of such computer-animated hits as "Cars" and "The Incredibles."

Question: My son has severe allergies, including an allergy to cat fur. To keep him safe, I moved my family to a community that was advertised as pet free. Then, six months after moving here, I noticed a cat on my next door neighbor's balcony. When I asked the manager if the cat lived in the next unit, she said the community management had no choice because the cat was a companion animal necessary to mitigate that resident's disability. That may be great for my neighbor, but what about my son, who is in danger of needing emergency medical care if he has an allergy attack?

DreamWorks Animation, the Glendale studio behind the "Shrek" and"Kung Fu Panda" movies, saw its revenue jump 26% to $136.1 million in the first quarter. The company said it earned a profit of $9.1 million, or 11 cents a share, in the three months ended March 31, a 3% increase over the year-earlier period. The growth reflected home video and international ticket sales from the "Shrek" spinoff,"Puss in Boots,"which grossed $554 million worldwide since its release in October. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had estimated earnings of 9 cents a share and revenue of $134 million in the quarter.

On Friday, human spectators scared a confused dolphin into staying in the shallow waters of Orange County's Bolsa Chica Wetlands, wildlife officials said. On Saturday, it was a group of dolphins that frightened the stranded marine animal back into the wetlands nature preserve as rescuers attempted to guide it back to the open sea. "It's been an interesting day so far," said Peter Wallerstein, a marine biologist with the Marine Animal Rescue service. Wallerstein and five state Department of Fish and Game officers took to paddle boards Saturday morning to encourage the 7-foot dolphin to continue swimming to freedom after they noticed that it had swum several hundred yards closer to Huntington Harbour, which spills into the ocean.

It hasn't always been smooth sailing for Alex the lion and Marty the zebra, the pals at the center of the "Madagascar" animated films, but for two Central Park Zoo animals, they've certainly had their share of adventures. After washing ashore on the titular island in the first film and crash-landing in the wilds of the African mainland in the second, Alex and Marty, voiced by Ben Stiller and Chris Rock, respectively, find themselves back among civilization in"Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted," which opens June 8. In taking up with a European traveling circus hoping to make it big in the U.S., Alex, Marty and their compatriots may have found their best, though riskiest, chance yet to return to the zoo. "A lot of it is about going home," Stiller said in a joint phone call with Rock from New York.

HILLSBORO, Ore. - The small New England town of Blithe Hollow is more than a little odd; it's a wonderfully wonky world of Gremlin-like cars, wavy plaid shirts and irregular picket fences. It has also been cursed with "eternal damnation" after a witch trial 300 years ago, making it a prime target for a zombie attack. Such is life for Norman, a misunderstood boy called upon to help fight the invasion of walking dead because he has the ability to talk with them in "ParaNorman," a 3-D stop-motion animation feature opening Aug. 17 from the team behind 2009's "Coraline.

Helicopters circled, crowds gathered to gawk and worry, and traffic snarled along Pacific Coast Highway as a disoriented dolphin circled in the shallow, murky waters of the Bolsa Chica wetlands Friday. The 7-foot dolphin - nicknamed Fred by some of the spectators - apparently swam mistakenly into the wetlands with five companions earlier in the week. While the dolphin's pod mates returned to sea, the one called Fred stayed behind. "They were probably chasing fish through the Huntington Harbour and lost their way," said Dean Gomersall, animal care supervisor with the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach.

For much of the 20th Century, Switzerland has been a neutral ground for cross-pollination of the various arts. A three-part program of 51 short films made there during the last two decades, now under way at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, suggests that the same process is taking place on a microcosmic scale in animation. Many of these films have a experimental quality, reminiscent of student work.

In case you missed seeing any of the Oscar-nominated films for best animated feature the first time around, the Animated Feature Symposium will at least give you a taste of the action with clips from "How to Train Your Dragon," "Toy Story 3," and the underdog, "The Illusionist," which is a follow-up to "The Triplets of Belleville" from French animator Sylvain Chomet. The nominees will also discuss the films' development and the creative processes involved. Samuel Goldwyn Theater, 8949 Wilshire Blvd.

It's not often noted in the history books, but Queen Victoria simply couldn't stand pirates. In fact, the words "I Hate Pirates" are prominently carved on the royal crest. You could look it up. Well, actually, you can't, because the wacky folks at Aardman Animations made it up as a key plot point of their delightful"The Pirates! Band of Misfits,"a clever piece of business that is a complete pleasure to experience. Based on a novel by Gideon Defoe, who also wrote the screenplay, "Pirates" follows the exploits, such as they are, of Pirate Captain (wonderfully voiced by Hugh Grant)

The Securities and Exchange Commission has sent letters to at least four major Hollywood studios, including Walt Disney Studios and DreamWorks Animation, over dealings in China, a person familiar with the matter but not authorized to speak publicly confirmed Tuesday. The letters center on the studios' dealings with China Film Group, a state-run company whose responsibilities include determining which foreign movies get access to a limited number of slots each year for revenue-sharing deals in the red-hot Chinese movie market, which is now the second-largest in the world behind the United States.