Walt Disney Animation Studios

On Oct. 16, 1923, Walt Disney and his brother Roy began the Walt Disney Co. inauspiciously in the rear of a small office at the Holly-Vermont Realty in Los Angeles. It was there that the young brothers, who paid $10 a month for the modest space, began producing their live action/animated series of shorts known as the "Alice Comedies. " Ninety years later, Walt Disney Animation Studios is a slightly larger and more lucrative operation. Its 53rd animated feature, "Frozen," just knocked "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" off its box office pedestal and has brought in more than $134 million domestically since its opening on Nov. 22. And the new animated short that plays in theaters with "Frozen," called "Get a Horse!

"Frozen" directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee got the news in Spanish Thursday morning that the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. had nominated their film for best animated feature: The two had traveled from Dubai to Mexico City to promote the Walt Disney Animation Studios movie, a musical adaptation of the Snow Queen fairy tale. "Somehow Styrofoam snow has gotten stuck in my hair," Buck said by phone, as a studio publicist could be heard in the background pulling out the prop flakes.

Walt Disney Co. said its Pixar animation studio would commit to 3-D by releasing all of its movies in the format beginning with "Up" next year. Walt Disney Animation Studios will offer "The Princess and the Frog" in the traditional hand-drawn format for release for Christmas 2009. Pixar movies will be released in 3-D and the traditional two-dimensional format, beginning with "Up," about an elderly widower who embarks on a South American adventure, in May 2009.

On Oct. 16, 1923, Walt Disney and his brother Roy began the Walt Disney Co. inauspiciously in the rear of a small office at the Holly-Vermont Realty in Los Angeles. It was there that the young brothers, who paid $10 a month for the modest space, began producing their live action/animated series of shorts known as the "Alice Comedies. " Ninety years later, Walt Disney Animation Studios is a slightly larger and more lucrative operation. Its 53rd animated feature, "Frozen," just knocked "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" off its box office pedestal and has brought in more than $134 million domestically since its opening on Nov. 22. And the new animated short that plays in theaters with "Frozen," called "Get a Horse!

Disney's "Wreck-It Ralph" was named best animated film of 2012 at the 40th Annie Awards on Saturday evening at UCLA's Royce Hall. Rich Moore also was named best director for the animated comedy about a video game villain who dreams of being a hero, and Alan Tudyk won the Annie for voice acting as King Candy in the box-office hit. Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee won for their screenplay and Henry Jackman, Skrillex, Adam Young, Matthew Thiessen,...

Animation is a booming business for Hollywood, which produces about a dozen cartoon films a year, including 2012 global box office drivers like "Ice Age: Continental Drift" and "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. " But the fields of film and television animation have long been divided by stark lines, with little room for talent to move between the two media. That's changing this year, as three directors with roots in TV are helming major studio animated movies: Genndy Tartakovsky, the director of Sony Pictures Animation's "Hotel Transylvania" created the Cartoon Network series "Dexter's Laboratory," "Samurai Jack" and "Star Wars: Clone Wars"; Mark Andrews, who made Pixar's "Brave," storyboarded on the shows "Osmosis Jones," "Star Wars: Clone Wars" and "Samurai Jack"; and Rich Moore, who directs Walt Disney Animation Studios' upcoming video game comedy, "Wreck-It Ralph," worked on such shows as "The Simpsons," "The Critic" and "Futurama.

A hand-drawn, black-and-white Mickey Mouse animated short film will debut June 11 at the Annecy Animation Festival in Annecy, France, Walt Disney Animation Studios announced Tuesday. The vintage-feeling short, which is called "Get a Horse," features the voice of Walt Disney as Mickey Mouse. The Burbank studio released a logline describing the short as "never before seen," but a studio spokeswoman, when asked if the short is newly made, refused to comment.  PHOTOS: Hollywood backlot moments "Get a Horse," the release said, "follows Mickey, his favorite gal pal Minnie Mouse and their friends Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow as they delight in a musical wagon ride -- until Peg-Leg Pete shows up and tries to run them off the road.

Walt Disney Animation Studios has tapped Jennifer Lee, one of the screenwriters of its video game-based hit "Wreck-It Ralph," to direct its 2013 comedy-adventure film "Frozen. " A musical adaptation of the 1845 Hans Christian Andersen tale "The Snow Queen," the story follows a young girl named Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell) as she attempts to break a spell cast by the Snow Queen (Idina Menzel), who has trapped the kingdom in an endless winter. "'Frozen' is not a modern setting but it's told in a modern style," Lee said in a recent interview with The Times.

How do colleges measure the success of their graduates? Here's one way: tally up how well their movies do at the box office. That's the novel approach being taken by the California Institute of the Arts, the Valencia institution founded by Walt Disney and his brother Roy. PHOTOS: Billion-dollar (at the box office) films The college said movies directed by graduates from CalArts' famous animation programs have generated $26.4 billion in box office revenue since 1985.

"Brave," "Frankenweenie," "Hotel Transylvania," "ParaNorman," "Rise of the Guardians," "The Pirates! Band of Misfits," "The Rabbi's Cat" and "Wreck-It Ralph" have earned nominations for  animated film of the year for the Annie Awards. Notably missing from the best picture list were "Ice Age: Continental Drift" and "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. " The announcements Monday for the 40th annual Annie Awards, presented by the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, encompass 30 categories including film, TV production, commercials, short subjects, video games, student films and honorary and achievement awards.

The Walt Disney Animation Studios announced "Zootopia," a new 3-D animated feature film from "Tangled" director Byron Howard, at the D23 Expo in Anaheim on Friday. Howard described "Zootopia" as "a buddy action comedy set in an animal world where humans have never existed. " The story, written by Jared Bush, writer-producer on the CW's "All of Us," centers on two natural enemies, a fox and a rabbit. The fast-talking fox, who's trying to make it big, goes on the run when he's framed for a crime he didn't commit.

"Hungry Hobos," a 1928 Walt Disney animated short film that was considered lost for decades, will screen Saturday at UCLA as part of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra's 24th annual Silent Film Event. The short, which predates Mickey Mouse and stars the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, is one of the earliest Disney cartoons. Staff at the Huntley Film Archives, a stock footage company in England, found a 16-mm print of the movie in a vault there in 2011, surprising many in the animation community who assumed it had been destroyed like so many silent-era films.

A hand-drawn, black-and-white Mickey Mouse animated short film will debut June 11 at the Annecy Animation Festival in Annecy, France, Walt Disney Animation Studios announced Tuesday. The vintage-feeling short, which is called "Get a Horse," features the voice of Walt Disney as Mickey Mouse. The Burbank studio released a logline describing the short as "never before seen," but a studio spokeswoman, when asked if the short is newly made, refused to comment.  PHOTOS: Hollywood backlot moments "Get a Horse," the release said, "follows Mickey, his favorite gal pal Minnie Mouse and their friends Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow as they delight in a musical wagon ride -- until Peg-Leg Pete shows up and tries to run them off the road.

Disney's "Wreck-It Ralph" was named best animated film of 2012 at the 40th Annie Awards on Saturday evening at UCLA's Royce Hall. Rich Moore also was named best director for the animated comedy about a video game villain who dreams of being a hero, and Alan Tudyk won the Annie for voice acting as King Candy in the box-office hit. Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee won for their screenplay and Henry Jackman, Skrillex, Adam Young, Matthew Thiessen,...

"Hotel Transylvania" director Genndy Tartakovsky was watching TV when the Golden Globes nominations were announced Thursday morning and didn't hear his movie -- or any other animated titles -- named. Instead, Tartakovsky found out by text that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association had nominated his film for best animated feature, along with Mark Andrews's "Brave," Tim Burton's "Frankenweenie," Peter Ramsey's "Rise of the Guardians" and Rich Moore's "Wreck-It Ralph. " "Animators, we're always the last to know," said Tartakovsky, the sixth director to come aboard the monster comedy, which ended up being a surprise hit for Sony Pictures Animation.

"Brave," "Frankenweenie," "Hotel Transylvania," "ParaNorman," "Rise of the Guardians," "The Pirates! Band of Misfits," "The Rabbi's Cat" and "Wreck-It Ralph" have earned nominations for  animated film of the year for the Annie Awards. Notably missing from the best picture list were "Ice Age: Continental Drift" and "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. " The announcements Monday for the 40th annual Annie Awards, presented by the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, encompass 30 categories including film, TV production, commercials, short subjects, video games, student films and honorary and achievement awards.

"Frozen" directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee got the news in Spanish Thursday morning that the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. had nominated their film for best animated feature: The two had traveled from Dubai to Mexico City to promote the Walt Disney Animation Studios movie, a musical adaptation of the Snow Queen fairy tale. "Somehow Styrofoam snow has gotten stuck in my hair," Buck said by phone, as a studio publicist could be heard in the background pulling out the prop flakes.

"Hotel Transylvania" director Genndy Tartakovsky was watching TV when the Golden Globes nominations were announced Thursday morning and didn't hear his movie -- or any other animated titles -- named. Instead, Tartakovsky found out by text that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association had nominated his film for best animated feature, along with Mark Andrews's "Brave," Tim Burton's "Frankenweenie," Peter Ramsey's "Rise of the Guardians" and Rich Moore's "Wreck-It Ralph. " "Animators, we're always the last to know," said Tartakovsky, the sixth director to come aboard the monster comedy, which ended up being a surprise hit for Sony Pictures Animation.

Walt Disney Animation Studios has tapped Jennifer Lee, one of the screenwriters of its video game-based hit "Wreck-It Ralph," to direct its 2013 comedy-adventure film "Frozen. " A musical adaptation of the 1845 Hans Christian Andersen tale "The Snow Queen," the story follows a young girl named Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell) as she attempts to break a spell cast by the Snow Queen (Idina Menzel), who has trapped the kingdom in an endless winter. "'Frozen' is not a modern setting but it's told in a modern style," Lee said in a recent interview with The Times.

How do colleges measure the success of their graduates? Here's one way: tally up how well their movies do at the box office. That's the novel approach being taken by the California Institute of the Arts, the Valencia institution founded by Walt Disney and his brother Roy. PHOTOS: Billion-dollar (at the box office) films The college said movies directed by graduates from CalArts' famous animation programs have generated $26.4 billion in box office revenue since 1985.