In a early Wednesday release, Fox’s ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS took in a cool $14 million on its opening day. Variety reports:

“Dawn of the Dinosaurs” stomped past Paramount’s monster performer “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” for the day, although “Transformers 2″ still turned in an impressive performance in its 8th day in release.

Right now, experts are calling a toss up between ICE AGE III and TRANSFORMERS II on who will get the first place spot this weekend.  We shall see what numbers the holiday weekend brings.

A viral video billed as ”Breckin Meyer Responds to Perez Hilton” that has been making the rounds, is actually a “stealth” promo for the upcoming special of ROBOT CHICKEN.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, the promo written by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, is a parody of Perez Hilton’s statement on his encounter with the band, the Black Eyed Peas; but in reality is a teaser of the ROBOT CHICKEN: STAR WARS EPISODE II DVD.  The promo also coincides with a preview of the new ROBOT CHICKEN: STAR WARS EPISODE II at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, and the Adult Swim’s “Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II” Roller Skating Tour that kicked off July 25th also in San Diego.

AWN reports that VES Board of Directors will be presenting Pixar co-founder and Disney Animation president Dr. Ed Catmull with the ”2010 Georges Melies Award.”  The Melies Award is awarded to people who have ”pioneered a significant and lasting contribution to the art and/or science of the visual effects industry by a way of artistry, invention and groundbreaking work.”

“Ed Catmull has helped redefine the field of animation over the past three decades,” said VES Executive Director Eric Roth. “Ed has become one of the giants of our industry by pioneering new ways to tell animated stories in a successful studio environment. He has been at the forefront of ensuring that while the animation should always be as eye-popping as possible, the story itself always has to be first class as well,” added Roth.

Dr. Ed Catmull help spearhead the hardware and software technology that makes the 3d animation we are so used to today possible.  He was vice-president of Lucasfilm’s Computer Division where his contributions can be seen in computer animation and graphics, digital audio, editing, and gaming production.  Every industry that requires animation, effects, or video editing uses technology by Catmull.

“It is truly an honor to receive the Georges Melies Award from the Visual Effects Society,” said Dr. Catmull. “I’ve always believed that the combination of art and technology is an important part of a creative environment where we can continue to push the limits of filmmaking.”

The VES Award Ceremony will be held February 28, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, DQ Entertainment, an Indian animation group, will partner with Classic Media to reinvent LASSIE, the iconic live action show.  This co-production plans to take LASSIE out of black and white and into 3D animation.  This new animation series will be a multi-cultural partnership between India, the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, and Germany.

“What we are announcing now is a co-development agreement. But it is very well understood that we will go ahead and co-produce this as a multi-million Euro series, with us as the lead producer,” said Tapaas Chakravarti, DQ’s CEO. “The script will primarily be written in Europe with the intention of delivering the series at the end of 2010 or early 2011.”

This is not the first classic that DQ has revamped.  CASPER’S SCARE SCHOOL was a new version of  Casper and was a recent endeavor by DQ and Classic.  Unless they plan to make the new LASSIE into a super-dog via BOLT, or a reluctant hero as MINDY AND BUTTONS, I rather feel that the idea behind LASSIE is missed if you use an animated dog.

Despite the bad reviews, TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN is raking in the viewers and the dollars, pulling in about $60.6 million on their debut.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, this is the the biggest Wednesday opening in history, beating out HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX which had an opening of $44.2 million.

It came unexpectedly close to challenging “The Dark Knight,” which holds the records for biggest opening-day gross and best single-day gross: It collected $67.2 million when it opened last year on a Friday. And it squeezed ahead of 2007’s “Spider-Man 3,” which debuted to $59.8 million, which had enjoyed runner-up status to “Knight” in the best single opening-day list.

TRANSFORMERS is truly enjoying their view from the top, and is expected to push all the top spot holders of the weekend down a notch.  Other openings this weekend include SISTER’S KEEPER, CHERI, THE HURT LOCKER, and THE STONING OF SORAYA M.

The big news floating around Hollywood is that the Academy Awards of 2010 will expand the Best Picture category to 10 pictures. AWN reports that Sid Ganis, the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, held a press conference to announce the change.

“After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year,” said Ganis. “The final outcome, of course, will be the same — one Best Picture winner — but the race to the finish line will feature 10, not just five, great movies from 2009.”

“Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize,” commented Ganis. “I can’t wait to see what that list of ten looks like when the nominees are announced in February.”

The trend of having only 5 nominees has caused contention in many circles.  Most recently, the Hollywood elite and American audiences thought that the DARK KNIGHT was snubbed by not securing a nomination.  Also, the animation industry has lamented at being pigeon-holed into lesser category and not being taken seriously as film-makers.

AWN reports that LucasFilm and G4 are teaming up to bring Comic-Con to the masses (at least the masses who are not already at the Con).  On July 25th, the first ever, TV broadcast of the convention will be aired. THE STAR WARS SPECTACULAR! will show breaking Comic-Con news, guest stars, and 3 hours of live coverage.

G4’s ATTACK OF THE SHOW hosts Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn will join Lucasfilm’s Steve Sansweet and a galaxy of guests from STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS and beyond — including supervising director Dave Filoni, and voice talent from the show — to provide an insider look at the STAR WARS universe, with never-before-seen footage and a live table read of an exclusive new CLONE WARS script.

You can not only enjoy Comic-Con from the comfort of your livingroom, but you can participate by becoming part of the Star Wars Stories Project.  You can submit questions about CLONE WARS to the G4 site, or upload your tales of fan-dom via video testimonials.  To tune in, go to channel G4 on July 25th at 2PM.  To upload your Star Wars story click here.

Animation Magazine has announced the release of the new American trailer for Miyazaki’s PONYO ON THE CLIFF BY THE SEA, which has been shortened to just PONYO.  Featuring the voices of Noah Cyrus, Cate Blanchett, Tina Fey, Lily Tomlin, Liam Neeson, and many other notables, PONYO release to the states is highly anticipated.

Also released was the first glimpse of M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action take on Nickelodeon’s cartoon, Avatar: The Last Airbender.  Ringed by contiversy, THE LAST AIRBENDER is due to reach theaters July 2, 2010.

Not exactly animation news, but we at Ani-jobs want to add our condolences to the family and friends of Ed McMahon.  According to the New York Times, Ed McMahon died this morning at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center at the age of 86.  Ed McMahon is know nationwide for his sweepstakes, commercials, and Star Search; however, McMahon’s true claim to fame is the famous cry “Heeeere’s Johnny” that kicked off every Tonight Show for 46 years.

“I laugh for an hour and then go home,” Mr. McMahon once said. “I’ve got the world’s greatest job.”

McMahon also perfected the role of “second banana”, bantering with Johnny Carson and being the butt of many of his jokes.  The New York Times writes of this moment:

Mr. McMahon rarely ran the risk of upstaging Carson. “To me, he’s the star and I’m on the sidelines, just nudging him a bit,” he said. But early in their association he slipped up.

It happened one night when Carson was telling the audience about a study concluding that mosquitoes preferred to bite “warm-blooded, passionate people.” Before Carson could deliver his punch line, Mr. McMahon slapped his own arm, as if crushing a mosquito. The audience roared. Carson coolly produced a giant can of insect spray from under his desk and said, glaring at Mr. McMahon, “I guess I won’t be needing this prop, will I?”

In his personal life, McMahon was hardworking individual holding down a myriad of jobs as he trained for his dream in show business. He was also valiant, serving in both World War II and the Korean War as a fighter pilot.  But most of all, McMahon was the kind of man who simply liked to laugh, and for all the years of laughter, we are grateful.