According to Variety, ASIFA’s annual Annie Awards, celebrating the best of the animation industry, just announced its nominations.  “Kung Fu Panda” jetted to the top with 17 nominations.  Behind that are “Bolt”, “Wall-E”, “Waltz with Bashir”, and “9.99″ in the best feature category.

Nickelodeon nabbed the most nominations in the TV category with 12 noms total, including a duo of nods for best children’s animated series for “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “The Mighty B!”

Contenders in the best animated productions for TV category include 20th Century Fox’s “King of the Hill,” ShadowMachine’s “Moral Orel” and “Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II,” Disney’s “Phineas and Ferb” and Gracie Films/Fox TV’s “The Simpsons.”

Electronic Arts “Dead Space,” Activision’s adaptation of “Kung Fu Panda” and Heavy Iron Studios’ gamer version of “Wall-E” were nominated in the vidgame category.

Mike Judge, John Lasseter and Nick Park are the 2008 Winsor McCay recipients, which honors career contributions to the art of animation.

The Annie Awards will be held on January 20th in UCLA’s Royce Hall.

According to Animation Magazine’s Ryan Ball, Futurama’s latest feature-length release in the direct-to-dvd market could be its last.  Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder, is the fourth direct-to-dvd movie 20th Century Fox has released since Futurama’s series demise. It includes

guest spots by illusionist Penn Jillette, hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg, talk radio star Phil Hendrie and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, as well as a host of bonus features.

Mankind stands on the brink of a wondrous new Green Age, but ancient forces of darkness, three years older than time itself, have returned to wreak destruction. Meanwhile, Bender is in love with a married fembot, and Leela’s on the run from the law—Zapp Brannigan’s law. Fry is the last hope for the universe and fans will finally learn the truth about “Number 9 Man,” a mysterious character from the earliest days of the series.

Suggested retail is $29.98 for the DVD and $39.98 for Blu-ray.  Available Feb. 24th.

AWN reports Nickelodeon will be showering primetime with holiday specials throughout the month of December.  On the slate are seven brand new seasonal specials and a number of classic holiday favorites.  Their animated specials will be:

[T]he number-one kids’ network delivers toonful Yuletide premieres of WOW! WOW! WUBBZY!  (December 5th) THE WONDER PETS! (December 8th) and THE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS (December 12th).

The marathons will also include seasonal episodes of Nick Jr.’s hit series THE WONDER PETS!, THE BACKYARDIGANS, DORA THE EXPLORER, GO, DIEGO, GO!, and YO GABBA GABBA!

According to Variety, Twilight trumped sales at the U.S. domestic box office this weekend with an estimated cume of $70.6 mill.  Summit Entertainment’s vampire teen rom-dram flew over the heads of some Thanksgiving heavy-hitters with a built-in fanbase from Stephanie Meyer’s popular book series.

A $70 million opening is generally reserved for family pics or fanboy fare. “Twilight,” playing in 3,419 runs, tied with “The Incredibles” for the fourth best November bow after three “Harry Potter” pics. Gross is the highest ever for a female director and also beats the $57 million debut of “Sex and the City” in May.

Walt Disney Animation’s Bolt also premiered this weekend, with a somewhat disappointing opening at third with $27 mill.  It was just barely pushed out of second by the newest installment in the James Bond series Quantum of Solace which has had huge numbers worldwide since its opening.  It’s estimated global total as of Sunday is $418 mill.

Mouse House expects “Bolt” to do well over the long Thanksgiving weekend as “Twilight” fervor dies down.

“It’s one of the busiest times of the year for family moviegoing,” Disney prexy of domestic distribution Chuck Viane said.

“Bolt” played on more than 900 3-D screens, the biggest count yet for a 3-D title. Those auditoriums did more than two times the business that conventional theaters did.

The other animated film out right now, Dreamworks’ Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa, finished at No. 4 over the weekend with a cume of $16 million.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hayao Miyazaki said that he was embarrassed by Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso’s public love of manga.  Since being placed in office, Aso and other politicians have been trying to boost the county’s image with the manga and animation industries.

“It’s an embarrassment,” Miyazaki said in a rare news conference. “That’s something that should be done in private.”

“This environment surrounding our children is full of virtual reality: television, video games, e-mail, mobile phones and manga,” Miyazaki said.

“I think this saps children of their strength,” he said, adding that he realized his viewpoint was paradoxical, given his choice of vocation.

Even though this is a strange stance to take for an animator, one only has to look at Miyazaki’s life and work to see that he is a great nature lover and advocate of conservation.  His movies such as ‘Princess Mononoke,’ ‘My Neighbor Totoro’, and  ’Pom Poko’ shows Miyzaki’s ideals of living in harmony with nature. Even the recent Pixar Art Show “The Totoro Forest Project” was created to benefit the  Totoro Forest in Japan, one of Miyazaki’s conservational causes.

“Instead of thinking about how to stimulate demand by creating bridges or roads, we should have the proper environment in place for future generations,” he said.

According to Variety, Twilight is likely to open at No. 1 at the box office this weekend.  That would mean it would surpass Disney’s newest entry into CGI animation, “Bolt” which will also open this weekend.

Final tracking was so strong for “Twilight” Thursday morning that competing studios predicted an opening gross of $50 million to $60 million, and perhaps higher. That’s because it’s not only girls who are expected to show up at theaters; interest has picked up among teen boys, while older women are amassing as well.

Last weekend, B.O. revs were up roughly 45% from the same frame last year on the strength of James Bond installment “Quantum of Solace.” This weekend could also see a dramatic gain over last year between “Twilight,” “Bolt” and “Quantum.”

“Bolt” is the first animated feature Disney Animation will release since John Lasseter took over the helm. “Bolt” will play in 3,651 theaters, 982 of those being digital 3-D screens.  It is expected to do better than Disney’s last CGI film, “Meet the Robinsons” which opened at $25.1 million.  However, with “Madagascar 2″ already in theaters and “Quantum” making a cool $67.5 million dollars last weekend, it could be a fight to the finish for the No. 2 spot.

AWN reports that Eric Goldberg will presenting his new book CHARACTER ANIMATION CRASH COURSE, at The Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco.  This enlightening afternoon with one of Disney’s foremost animators will be from 1 to 3 PM on December 6th.  Goldberg’s book is a distillation of animation practices and secrets gleaned from his years as an award winning animator and director.

Goldberg, currently supervising animator on the character Louis in Disney’s upcoming THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG (December 25, 2009 release), opens a treasure chest of animation secrets, illuminating in text and drawings how characters are conceived and — endowed with strong and unforgettable personalities — ultimately brought to life.

This event is free with paid admission to The Cartoon Art Museum, ASIFA members will be treated to half-price admission.  So if you are up Frisco-way, check out this great event and jewel of a museum.

Animation Magazine’s Ryan Ball writes,

Daily Variety reports that Twentieth Century Fox is developing a new X-Men movie featuring younger superheroes. The decision is no doubt inspired in part by the storm of fanfare surrounding the teen vampire movie Twilight, which opens this weekend.

Josh Schwartz, creator of the teen drama Gossip Girl and The OC, is now on board to write the screenplay for what is currently titled, X-Men: The First Class.

The new project is likely to revolve around Rogue, Angel, Iceman, Colossus, Jubilee, Shadocat and other adolescent students at Dr. Xavier’s school for mutants. A number of these costumed crusaders in training were introduced in previous X-Men Pics. There’s also a chance that Fox is planning a franchise re-launch with younger actors playing more recognizable characters, as Paramount has done with Star Trek.

Never fear, before X-Men takes a twist back to high school, Hugh Jackman will return in X-Men Origins.

In 2010, The Walt Disney Company will be releasing a new re-rendered version of the classic ‘Beauty and the Beast’, this time in digital 3D.  This will add yet another movie to Disney’s list of 3D fare.  Heading the 3D process for ‘Beauty’ is the original film-making crew, Don Hahn, Gary Trousdale, and Kirck Wise. 

“By going back to the original animation files, which have been carefully archived for 17 years, and using the separate background, effects and character animation elements, we’re able to come up with a fun and unique 3-D experience for existing and new fans of the film,” Hahn said.

The digital re-rendering is estimated to take over 9 months.  In the meantime, Disney has set up a smorgasbord of 3D fare to tide the public over till ‘Beauty’ is unveiled.

Variety reports that Disney and IMAX will be working together once again as they ink a five picture deal.  The deal will start a year from now when Robert Zemeckis’ 3-D “Christmas Carol” premieres for the 2009 holiday season.

Relations between Disney and Imax grew strained after the two partnered on “Fantasia 2000,” which celebrated the 40th anniversary of the acclaimed animated feature.

But the ongoing shortage of conventional 3-D screens, plus the success of other IMAX studio partnerships, provided an opening for Disney and Imax to come together once again.

Zemeckis’ “Christmas Carol” reinvents Charles Dickens’ book with Jim Carrey at the lead.  It will open November 9th.