InThis Week in Animation News, I’ll take a look at the previous week in the world of animation to get you caught up on everything you might have missed. It’s your one-stop shop for news regarding cartoons, anime, and animated web series. We’re talking movies, TV shows, digital shorts, and everything in between!
For the latest animation stories we’ve already covered on the site this week, take a look at the following links. Then, check out a selection of new stories below. Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Be the First to Binge ‘Yuri!!! on ICE’ at the Movies with Crunchyroll
Yuri!!! on ICEis back to sweep you off your skates for one special night – only in theaters! Relive Yuri and Victor’s journey to figure skating greatness over the series' 12 episodes. It’s the ultimate binge opportunity for one of the most beloved series in sports anime history! The four-hour-and-fifteen-minute event from Crunchyroll and Fathom Events arrives in theaters October 13th.
After suffering a humiliating loss at the Grand Prix Final, Japanese skater Yuri Katsuki is ready to hang up his skates forever. Taking time off the ice, he re-evaluates his passion, only to go home without medals, confidence, or reason to return to the rink. That is until his idol, Victor Nikiforov, appears with a surprising offer–he wants to coach Yuri!
This news doesn’t sit well with others in the skating world, and Yuri must prove that he’s worthy of Victor’s attention–by facing Russia’s rising star, Yuri Plisetsky. With new routines and Victor’s undying support, Yuri will discover more about himself and his feelings within.
With Victor close by his side, Yuri will find the true meaning of victory!Get your tickets here!
‘The Transformers: The Movie’ Returns to Theaters This Month
Brace yourself to relive the excitement and nostalgia of the thrilling action battles between the Autobots and Decepticons from the 1986Transformersmovie on the silver screen! The world-renowned animated feature filmThe Transformers: The Moviehits cinemas nationwide for a special one-night event on Thursday, September 27th at 7:00 p.m. local time. The film has been meticulously remastered, restored from the original film elements, and transferred in HD.Get your tickets now!
This special one-night event will catapult audiences into the super-charged, action-packedTransformersuniverse, and enables lifelong fans to relive the excitement and awe of this 1986 animated feature. Fans will also get an exclusive behind-the-scenes sneak peek at the making of this December’s Bumblebee, as well as a brand-new interview with singer-songwriter Stan Bush, including recent performances of the theme songs “The Touch” and “Dare.” Moviegoers will be able to enjoy the film in over 700 select U.S. movie theaters. A complete list of theater locations is available atFathomevents.com.
The Transformers: The Moviehas captured a special place in the hearts of millions and has been a staple in the pop culture zeitgeist since 1986. Featuring memorable characters from the heroic Autobots and villainous Decepticons, with thrilling action and a heartfelt storyline,The Transformers: The Movieis a cultural touchstone that spans generations. Beloved by legions of fans, this full-length animated adventure boasts the voice talent of Orson Welles in his final voice acting role and an all-star voice cast that includesPeter Cullen,Eric Idle,Casey Kasem,Judd Nelson,Leonard Nimoy,Robert StackandFrank Welker.
Tickets for THE TRANSFORMERS (1986) MOVIE EVENT are on sale now and can be purchasedonlineor at participating movie theater box offices.
The AUTOBOTS, led by the heroic OPTIMUS PRIME, prepare to make a daring attempt to retake their planet from the evil forces of MEGATRON and the DECEPTICONS. Unknown to both sides, a menacing force is heading their way – UNICRON. The only hope of stopping UNICRON lies within the Matrix of Leadership and the AUTOBOT who can rise up and use its power to light their darkest hour. Will the AUTOBOTS be able to save their native planet from destruction or will the DECEPTICONS reign supreme?
The Transformers: The Movieis co-produced and directed byNelson Shin; produced byJoe BacalandTom Griffin; supervising producer,Jay Bacal; executive producers,Margaret LoeschandLee Gunther; music score byVince DicolaandEd Fruge.
‘My Neighbor Totoro’ Returns to Theaters for 30th Anniversary; Limited Edition Blu-ray Arrives in December
Celebrate the 30th anniversary ofMy Neighbor Totoro, from the legendary Studio Ghibli, creators ofSpirited AwayandPonyo, and Academy Award-winning directorHayao Miyazaki. Returning to theaters on September 30th, October 1st, and October 3rd,get your ticketsfrom GKIDS today!
When Satsuki and her sister Mei move with their father to a new home in the countryside, they find country life is not as simple as it seems. They soon discover that the house and nearby woods are full of strange and delightful creatures, including a gigantic but gentle forest spirit called Totoro, who can only be seen by children. Totoro and his friends introduce the girls to a series of adventures, including a ride aboard the extraordinary Cat Bus, in this all-ages animated masterpiece featuring the voices of Tim Daly, Lea Salonga, and real-life sisters Dakota and Elle Fanning, in a classic tale of magic and adventure for the whole family.
And if you want to bring the adventure home with you, check out the upcoming anniversary release:
Studio Ghibli and GKIDS, with distribution by Shout! Factory, will issueMy Neighbor Totoroin a beautiful 30th anniversary collector’s edition release on August 07, 2025. The limited-edition set comes housed in an elegant hard slipcase and includes a new 40-page book with stunning art and essays. Featured in a deluxe disc portfolio will be a Blu-ray of the film paired with hours of special features, and the film’s soundtrack made available on CD for the first time in North America.
The set’s 40-page book features new essays by The New York Times’ film criticA.O. Scottand film writerLauren Wilford, alongside gorgeous art and statements from directorHayao Miyazakiand producerToshio Suzuki, and more.
From the legendary Studio Ghibli, this classic tale of magic and adventure is one of the most endearing and internationally renowned films of all time.My Neighbor Totorohere celebrates its 30th anniversary with a release perfect for collectors and animation fans who have adored the film since its initial release.
Special Features:
Watch the Award-Winning, Out-of-This-World Short Film ‘One Small Step’
TAIKO Studios presents “One Small Step”:
Luna is a young Chinese American girl who dreams of becoming an astronaut. From the day she witnesses a rocket launching into space on TV, she is inspired to reach for the stars. Luna lives with her loving father Chu in the big city. He supports her with a humble shoe repair business he runs out of his garage. As Luna grows up, she faces all kinds of challenges in pursuit of her dreams.
Directed by Andrew Chesworth and Bobby Pontillas
Produced by Shaofu Zhang
CG Supervisor Joy Johnson
Head of Pipeline Andrew Jennings
Music Steve Horner
Funimation Announces New Home Video Releases
DEATH NOTE&DEATH NOTE II: The Last Name
From Director Shusuke Kaneko, the 2006 Japanese live action thrillers “DEATH NOTE” and ”DEATH NOTE II: The Last Name” based on the original manga and combined in a first ever single release.
DEATH NOTE: Light up the NEW World
From Director Shinsuke Sato, the 2016 Japanese live action thriller “DEATH NOTE: Light up the NEW World” and non-cannon sequel to the original anime series.
Crest of the Stars
From Sunrise, the complete 13 episode anime series based on the space opera sci-fi novel by Hiroyuki Morioka.
Banner of the Stars
From Sunrise, the complete collection of the anime series and OVA based on Hiroyuki Morioka’ s space opera sci-fi novels and the sequel to Crest of the Stars.
Animation Is Film 2018: Mamoru Hosoda’s ‘MIRAI’ to Open the 2nd Annual Event
ANIMATION IS FILMannounced today the preliminary competition line-up and jury for its second annual edition to take place October 19-21 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The Festival will present a selection of new animated feature films from Asia, Europe, South America and North America, with both juried and audience prizes.Mamoru Hosoda’s hugely successfulMIRAIwill open the festival with Hosoda in attendance. Tickets are available for purchase now atanimationisfilm.com.
This year’s festival will feature over 30 titles: 11 films in Competition, three World Premieres, four North American premieres, and two United States premieres. Two prizes will be awarded - The Jury Prize (Competition films only) and the Audience Award.
The festival will also include a four-film retrospective of opening night film director Mamoru Hosoda’s work who will attend all festival screenings of his work. Additionally, it will include a celebration of the 20th Anniversary screening of Academy Award® winning film THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, which received an Oscar® for Best Original Song, “When You Believe,” and pioneered the marriage of traditional “hand drawn” work with state-of-the-art computer animation. Original artists and creatives from the film will be in attendance.
The festival will also feature special footage from some of the most anticipated animated features of 2018 including Walt Disney Animation Studios’ RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET and Sony’s SPIDER-MAN™: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE. Additional programs and events will be announced shortly.
“For Annecy, it is a great pleasure to be associated again with GKIDS and all the partners of Animation is Film for this second edition which looks as successful as the first. This is for Annecy, an additional opportunity to support films, creators and promote animation in all its dimensions and all its diversity,” added Annecy’s CEO & Director, Mickael Marin.
2018 FILMS IN COMPETITION
ANOTHER DAY OF LIFE
(Poland/Spain, dirs: Raul de la Fuente, Damian Nenow - USA Premiere)
Warsaw, 1975. Kapuscinski (43) is a brilliant veteran journalist, an idealist and a friend of lost causes and revolutions. At the Polish Press Agency, he convinces his boss to send him to Angola where a bloody civil war has broken out on the eve of the country’s independence. He embarks on a seemingly suicidal road trip into the heart of the civil war.
BUNUEL IN THE LABYRINTH OF THE TURTLES
(Spain, dir: Salvador Simo - World Premiere)
In a stranger than fiction tale befitting of the master surrealist filmmaker, Buñuel and the Labyrinth of the Turtles captures the moment when, based on a wild lottery ticket promise, Buñuel and his friend and new benefactor Ramón set out to make the unexpected and ambitious documentary on the Las Hurdes region in Spain. The production tests Bunuel’s mental stamina as well as the two men’s friendship as the fate of the project comes into question.
(Belgium/France/Cambodia, dir: Denis Do - North American Premiere)
Winner of the Cristal for a Feature Film, the highest award at the Annecy International Festival of Animated Films, Funan is a powerful and beautiful story of a young mother’s fight and determination to hold on to her family during unspeakably trying times. During the Khmer Rouge madness of the 1970s in Phnom Penh, young mother Chou’s life is brutally disrupted when the population is deported to camps and she is separated from her 4-year-old son. While her world falls apart Cho remains steadfast in her determination to find her son and reunite her family even if it means risking everything.
I WANT TO EAT YOUR PANCREAS
(Japan, dir: Shin’ichiro Ushijima - North American Premiere)
An unnamed protagonist happens to find a diary in a hospital one day. The diary belongs to his classmate, a girl named Sakura Yamauchi, who is revealed to be suffering from a terminal illness in her pancreas, and who only has a few months left to live. Sakura explains that the protagonist is the only person apart from her family that knows about her condition. The protagonist promises to keep Sakura’s secret.
(Japan, dir: Mamoru Hosoda - North American Premiere)
An official selection at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, and the epic capstone of director Mamoru Hosoda’s career, Mirai is a sumptuous, magical, and emotionally soaring adventure about the ties that bring families together and make us who we are. (Courtesy of GKIDS)
OKKO’S INN
(Japan, dir: Kitaro Kosaka - North American Premiere)
The story takes us into the daily life of Seki Oriko, a primary school pupil who, following the death of her parents, moves to live with her grandmother, the owner of a traditional inn. When not in class, the young girl works in the establishment and grows up little by little with the help of the ghost Uri-Bo and other mysterious friends.
(Argentina/France, dir: Juan Antin - World Premiere)
It’s the day of the highly-anticipated village offering to their great spirit Pachamama, when the town is disrupted by an interloper from the Inca city far beyond the Andes. Tepulpaï, a young boy disgraced in the village sets off to prove himself virtuous and reclaim the town’s stolen treasure. He’s joined by his best friend, the idealistic Naira and an oh-so-charming llama and friend to make the ambitious journey across uncharted land where a host of unknown obstacles will come between them and the important treasure.
PENGUIN HIGHWAY
(Japan, dir: Hiroyasu Ishida - Los Angeles Premiere)
Aoyama-kun knows there are mysterious things happening around him, for one thing he’s seen a soda can turn into a penguin, but that’s not the end of it and he’s determined to get to the bottom of things. Despite being wildly intelligent and fiercely determined Aoyama-kun is only in 4th grade so he knows he may need some help in his ambitious research. He employs a select few trustworthy classmates including his loyal, if a little timid, best friend and a studious and wise girl. But his greatest ally and perhaps the key to the whole mystery is the strange young woman who works in a dental clinic.(Courtesy of Eleven Arts)
RUBEN BRANDT, COLLECTOR
(HUNGARY, dir: Milorad Krstic – US Premiere)
The world’s most renowned masterpieces are being swiped from museums around the world, paintings by Picasso, Van Gogh, Botticelli and more are being taken but it’s clear to all, especially Mike Kowalski, the detective on the case, that this is no ordinary thief. (Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)
SEDER-MASOCHISM
(USA, dir: Nina Paley - Los Angeles Premiere)
Loosely following a traditional Passover Seder, events from the Book of Exodus are retold by Moses, Aharon, the Angel of Death, Jesus, and the director’s own father. But there’s another side to this story: that of the Goddess, humankind’s original deity. Seder-Masochism resurrects the Great Mother in a tragic struggle against the forces of Patriarchy.
TITO AND THE BIRDS
(Brazil, dirs: Gabriel Bitar, Andre Catoto, Gustavo Steinberg - USA Premiere)
The most recent example of the wildly imaginative and creative animation coming out of South America, Tito and the Birds is a beautiful and adventure packed story that finds an imaginative way to speak to highly resonant themes for today’s society. The film is a unique blend of animation styles that particularly soars when its depicting the epic flights of the winged creatures of the city. (Courtesy of Shout! Studios)
Peter Debruge
(Chief Film Critic, Variety / Jury Chair)
Variety’s Chief International Film Critic, Peter is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin’s film studies program. Prior to Variety, he spent four years working as an editor for AOL Moviefone. In addition to hundreds of reviews for the Austin Chronicle, Miami Herald and Premiere, his writing on film has appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Life, Creative Screenwriting, Backstory and IndieWire. Peter also contributed to the book Variety’s The Movie That Changed My Life.
Allison Abbate
(EVP, Warner Animation Group)
Allison Abbate is an executive vice president at Warner Animation Group (WAG), a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment. Abbate was an executive producer on the global blockbuster The LEGO® Movie; and a producer on Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie and Corpse Bride, Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Brad Bird’s directorial debut, Iron Giant.
Kobe Bryant
(Oscar winner and NBA superstar)
Kobe Bryant is a five-time NBA Champion. EPSN. Dear Basketball won the 2018 Academy Award, and the 2017 Annie Award in the Animated Short category.
Melissa Cobb
(VP, Kids and Family, Netflix)
Melissa Cobb is Vice President, Kids and Family at Netflix, the world’s leading internet entertainment service. Cobb leads the content team responsible for bringing kids and family titles, both live-action and animated, to Netflix members in 190 countries around the world.
Dean DeBlois
(Director / Filmmaker, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 1 & 2)
Golden Globe® winner and two-time Academy Award® nominee Dean DeBlois is best known for writing, directing, and executive producing 2010’s How to Train Your Dragon and its 2014 sequel.
Carolyn Giardina
(Editor, The Hollywood Reporter)
Carolyn Giardina is Tech Editor at The Hollywood Reporter and writes its Behind the Screen blog. Her work as an editor, reporter or columnist has also appeared in titles such as CinemaEditor, SHOOT, British Cinematographer and SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal.
Jorge Gutierrez
(Filmmaker, THE BOOK OF LIFE)
Jorge R. Gutiérrez is a painter, writer and director. He and his wife Sandra Equihua created the multiple Emmy Award-winning animated television series, “El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera” for Nickelodeon, and he most recently co-wrote and directed “The Book of Life” for Reel FX and 20th Century Fox, which was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film
Jennifer Yuh Nelson
(Filmmaker, KUNG FU PANDA(s) 2 & 3)
Jennifer Yuh Nelson made her feature film directorial debut with “Kung Fu Panda 2”. Nelson has lent her talents to a variety of DreamWorks Animation pictures, including as head of story for “Kung Fu Panda”, and story artist on “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron’ and “Madagascar”.
Henry Selick
(Filmmaker, NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, CORALINE)
Henry Selick is best known as the writer/director of the Oscar-nominated animated feature CORALINE and the director of JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH and classic THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS.
Charles Solomon
(Critic and Historian)
An internationally respected critic and historian of animation, Charles Solomon has written on the subject for the New York Times, Newsweek (Japan), Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, The International Herald Tribune, Variety, the Manchester Guardian, and National Public Radio. His books include “The Art of Frozen,” “The Art of the Disney Golden Books,” “The Toy Story Films: An Animated Journey,” “Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Disney’s Animated Classic Beauty and the Beast,” “The Art of Toy Story 3,” “Enchanted Drawings: The History of Animation,”
(VP and Head Film Buyer, Landmark Theatres)
Mabel Tam is VP/Head Film Buyer of LANDMARK THEATRES. Landmark Theatres is the nation’s largest theatre chain dedicated to exhibiting and marketing independent film. A 16 year veteran of the entertainment industry, she is a graduate of UCLA and resides in LA with her family.
Anne Thompson
(Critic, Indiewire)
IndieWire Editor at Large Anne Thompson has been a contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, The Observer, and Wired. She has served as film columnist at Variety, and deputy editor of Variety.com, was the Deputy Film Editor at The Hollywood Reporter, the West Coast Editor of Premiere, a Senior Writer at Entertainment Weekly, and West Coast Editor for Film Comment. She wrote the film industry column “Risky Business” for L.A. Weekly and the Los Angeles Times syndicate.
ANIMATION IS FILM aims to fill a gap in the market by establishing the first world class animation festival in the US, with its home in the world capital of filmmaking. The Festival embraces the highest aspirations of animation as a cinematic art form on par with live action filmmaking and will be vocal advocate for filmmakers who push the boundaries of their work to the fullest range of expression that the medium is capable of.
