Animation World Network

“One scene I especially love is the flashback that the Depression Fairy shares about Arnold and Maria, how they were when they were younger, and what happens to Arnold when he has to care for his father. I always try to depict things that I have been through, or that friends have been through, and filter everything through my own emotions and experience, because that is what really brings a layer of truth and honesty to the film.” - Alberto Vázquez, director of #Decorado 🐭 ‘Unicorn Wars’ director Vázquez discusses his new feature film about a middle-aged mouse who suspects his life is scripted and his world a set; the darkly comedic odyssey through manufactured realities in search of authentic human connection hits North American theaters TODAY May 15, from GKIDS. Read the full interview from @victoriadavisd on AWN.com! #unicornwars #albertovazquez #gkids #animationworld

LAIKA has unveiled the first teaser trailer for Wildwood, its highly anticipated upcoming stop-motion feature directed by Travis Knight and written by Chris Butler. The handcrafted fantasy adventure will open nationwide in theaters on October 23. In the film, after her baby brother is abducted by a murder of crows, headstrong teenager Prue McKeel launches a desperate rescue mission into the Impassable Wilderness, an enchanted forest hidden beyond Portland, Oregon. Joined by her classmate Curtis Mehlberg, she encounters talking animals, bandits, and powerful figures driven by grief and ambition as the pair becomes entangled in a conflict threatening the balance of the forest itself. To save her brother and protect Wildwood’s future, Prue must discover strength and belief she never knew she possessed… and risk everything. Read more on AWN.com! #laika #awn #animationworld #wildwood #stopmotion

“I’m curious to ask Casper what he thinks of it in five or six years. I wonder if the meaning will change as he grows up.” - Malcon Pierce, director if #Versa 🌈💫 There are a lot of messages for parents in Disney’s short Versa, but director Malcon Pierce also hopes it speaks to children, especially rainbow babies—the children who come after the loss of a child—like his son Casper. Read my full interview with the director, “‘Versa’: Remembering our Children in the Stars” on AWN.com and at the link in my story! #disneyanimation #disneyshort #awn #animationworld

“Everything about you, all your personal information, is inside your phone...When you think about it, it’s like our phones are ourselves, but a different version of ourselves. That’s when I started to think about a story of a person being trapped in their own phone and then another version of themselves breaking out.” - Shoji Kawamori, director of #Labyrinth 📱 Kawamori talks about the real, the surreal, and the symbolic in his film about a high school girl who dreams of stardom but struggles to capture attention until she gets trapped in her smartphone and her charismatic alter ego emerges; from GKIDS, releasing in US theaters TOMORROW May 10 and Monday May 11. Read the full interview from @victoriadavisd on AWN.com! #anime #awn #animationworld #shojikawamori

“I would watch the decisions that Eric would make with the palette and see stuff coming back in the final color and I was like a kid in a candy store,” shares Flying Bark’s Ian Graham, co-EP on #StrangerThingsTalesfrom85 Director Eric Robles adds, “I admire how Jean-Pierre Jeunet uses color in his films The City of Lost Children and Amélie…I remember watching [The City of Lost Children] and just feeling those colors. And they were not natural colors. I loved that as a viewer, but especially as an artist. So, what we’ve done with this show is really enhance these colors in a way that, hopefully, excites viewers and makes them want to freeze frame that moment.” There’s room for both vibrant, bright neon pops and darker, more serious tones in the animated series that takes ‘Stranger Things’ fans to Hawkins during the winter of 1985 to face something terrifying beneath the ice. Read the full interview from @victoriadavisd on AWN.com! #strangerthings #awn #animationworld #animation

Netflix has just revealed that its all-new, upcoming anime series, The One Piece, will debut in February 2027. Now in production at WIT Studio in collaboration with Shueisha, Toei Animation and Fuji Television Network, the show will adapt the East Blue saga, the introductory chapter of Eiichiro Oda’s iconic, long-running manga, spanning approximately the first 50 chapters across seven episodes with a total runtime of around 300 minutes. Named after an expansive ocean, the East Blue is the birthplace of the infamous pirate Gold Roger, who inspires Monkey D. Luffy to become a pirate himself and find the One Piece treasure. It’s in this chapter that Luffy meets his ragtag pirate crew and dubs them the Straw Hats, culminating in his encounter with Sanji, the sous chef of the floating restaurant Baratie. New concept art was also revealed depicting Luffy’s childhood in Windmill Village. The visual shows Luffy at PARTYS BAR alongside Red-Hair Pirates captain Shanks, first mate Benn Beckman and bar owner Makino, capturing an early moment that sets the tone of the show. Read more on AWN.com! #onepiece #theonepiece #awn #animationworld #netflixanime

King of the Hill will return for its 15th season on July 20, with all 10 episodes debuting simultaneously on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers. The new season follows Hank and Peggy Hill as they settle into retirement on Rainey Street while trying to keep their neighbors in line, while Bobby navigates adulthood, balancing old friendships with the pressures of running his own business. Set several years after the events of the original series, the revival sees the Hill family in a changed Arlen after Hank and Peggy return from working in Saudi Arabia. Bobby, now 21, is living in Dallas and adjusting to adult life while pursuing a career as a chef. Produced by 20th Television Animation, the new season is executive produced by Judge and Daniels alongside showrunner Saladin Patterson. Read more on AWN.com! #kingofthehill #hulu #awn #animationworld #disneyplus

“This is the kind of show action‑animation fans tune into Toonami for,” said Michael Ouweleen, president of Adult Swim. “Season 3 of My Adventures with Superman goes harder, looks bigger, and packs the emotional punch that makes this series such a standout.” The hit animated series My Adventures with Superman will return for a third season on June 13, at midnight ET/PT on Adult Swim as part of its Toonami anime/action block, the next day on HBO Max. From Warner Bros. Animation and starring Jack Quaid (The Boys), My Adventures with Superman follows 20‑somethings Clark Kent (Quaid), Lois Lane (Alice Lee, People We Meet On Vacation), Jimmy Olsen (Ishmel Sahid, Jury Duty), and the Kryptonian Kara Zor-El (Kiana Madeira, Malcom in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair), as they discover who they are - and what they can accomplish together - while chasing stories for The Daily Planet. Read more on AWN.com! #superman #myadventureswithsuperman #adultswim #toonami #animationworld

“This shortlist is a testament to the vitality of emerging filmmaking right now,” said award-winning director Justin Chadwick. “From intimate character studies to urgent documentaries, from experimental animation to fearless student work, these are films that command attention, bold in their vision, accomplished in their execution, and vital in what they have to say.” The Sony Future Filmmaker Awards has revealed its shortlist for the 2026 edition. Spanning five categories - Fiction, Non-Fiction, Animation, Student, and Future Format - the filmmakers have been chosen to join a program of interactive sessions and masterclasses at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City from June 8-11, culminating in a gala ceremony on June 11 where the category winners will be announced. The fourth edition of the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards received submissions from more than 8,400 filmmakers representing 162 countries and territories around the world. The 2026 jury includes Golden Globe-nominated director and producer Will Gluck (Anyone But You, Peter Rabbit, Easy A); producer and President of Film and Television at Pascal Pictures Rachel O’Connor (Challengers, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Little Women); Sony Pictures Animation co-director Adam Rosette (GOAT, The Wild Robot, Orion and the Dark); and award-winning director Justin Chadwick (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, The Other Boleyn Girl, upcoming Sierra Madre), who returns as jury chair for the fourth consecutive year. Read more on AWN.com! #sonyfuturefilmmakerawards #awn #animationworld #filmawards #animation

#AndySerkis is a legend in motion capture acting. And that acting experience, playing creatures like Gollum, Caesar, and King Kong proved very valuable when directing the farm animal animation in #AnimalFarm. Check out my full interview with Serkis about his latest film, now out in theaters, on AWN.com and at the link in my story!

“When we started this project working on animation with Cinesite, we all agreed that this wasn’t going to be a squash and stretch cartoon,” says Andy Serkis, director of #AnimalFarm, now in theaters. “We wanted to make sure that the physics of the animals, the way they move, the secondary fat jiggle on the pigs and the weight of the horse as it walked, were felt and felt real. So, the design of the animals needed to be grounded, especially for those close-up shots.” He adds, “People’s perception of performance capture is that you’re doing a lot of activity. But, in all of the films that I’ve done, it’s about not performing anything, but allowing the audience to come into the performance in a close-up. That’s when you really connect with a character and I think the animators enjoyed that process.” For the past 20 years, BAFTA and Empire Award-winning actor Andy Serkis has pioneered motion capture in acting…The experience of mastering how non-human characters move and emote not only earned Serkis his many accolades, but also key insight into how to direct character animation on his upcoming film, produced by Aniventure and Imaginarium Productions, with animation from Cinesite using Maya. Cinesite’s Eamonn Butler served as associate director for animation on the film with Alex Parkinson serving as associate director for CG. Read @victoriadavisd ’s full interview with Serkis, Butler and Parkinson on AWN.com! #andyserkis #cinesite #awn #animationworld

Disney+ and Disney Television Animation will once again use the Annecy Festival spotlight to share first looks and other goodies on upcoming animated shows coming to the streamer. At this year’s fest, which runs June 21-27, Disney Television Animation will showcase projects that span both official competition and high-profile festival events: An exclusive first look and panel for Cars: Lightning Racers, a new preschool series inspired by Disney and Pixar’s award-winning Cars films, will be featured in the festival’s Work In Progress series along with shows Dragon Striker and The Doomies. Read more about these shows on AWN.com! #cars #dragonstriker #thedoomies #animationworld #annecyfilmfestival