Animation News: How to Train Your Dragon 3 Delayed Again

Along with Francisco Gonzalez’s excellent weekly news recaps–This Week in Superhero News and This Week in Movie Trailers–we’re happy to provide you with This Week in Animation News to get you caught up on all things animated you might have missed over the past seven days. We’re talking movies, TV shows, digital shorts, and everything in between!

This was a busy week in the world of animation, one that included our own interviews with Marvel's Cort Lane regarding their animated shorts featuring Funko Pop! characters, Eric Stonestreet from The Secret Life of Pets, and Marc Guggenheim who teased an upcoming announcement for CW Seed's Vixen and The Ray. Plus, we exclusively premiered two TMNT posters that will be on display at this weekend's Mondo gallery featuring Nickelodeon prints! Disney saw a pair of accolades this week: Zootopia landed on AFI's Top 10 Films of 2016 list, and Moana continues to rule the box office. Contributor Evan Valentine also shared his thoughts on how The Simpsons might come to their inevitable end.

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!

Disney's 'DuckTales' Teaser Brings Back the Quack Pack

That short but sweet teaser heralds the Summer 2017 return of Disney's DuckTales, coming to Disney XD. Plus, you can check out a new title card for the series featuring new designs for Scrooge McDuck, his nephew Donald, and trouble-making grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, plus Webbigail “Webby” Vanderquack (the granddaughter of Scrooge’s maid, Mrs. Beakley), courtesy of EW. Joining the gang will be good-natured pilot Launchpad McQuack, butler-chauffeur Duckworth, chicken inventor Gyro Gearloose, and vampy sorceress, Magica De Spell.

DuckTales hails from executive producer Matt Youngberg (Ben 10: Omniverse), story editor/co-producer Francisco Angones (Wander Over Yonder), and art director Sean Jimenez (Gravity Falls). Keep an eye out for the first season's 21 half-hour episodes and two one-hour specials in Summer 2017.

ducktales-series-premiere-review — Image via Disney XD

'Dragon Ball Super' Coming to Toonami

If you thought Lord Beerus was a tough fighter, you should see him as a food critic…

Dragon Ball Super premieres Saturday January 7th at 11:30p on adult swim’s Toonami.

The English dub of Dragon Ball Super will be arriving on Cartoon Network's Toonami starting January 7th at 8 PM and 11:30 PM. You can catch the first 26 episodes every Saturday night.

The latest adventure in the Dragon Ball saga comes as a collaboration between series creator Akira Toriyama and a team chock full of veteran and up-and-coming talent. The English dub cast features actors from previous Dragon Ball series including Sean Schemmel (Goku), Christopher R. Sabat (Vegeta), Jason Douglas (Beerus), Ian Sinclair (Whis) and Sonny Strait (Krillin).

And if you're wondering just what the series is about, here's the synopsis:

With Majin Buu defeated, Goku has taken a completely new role as…a radish farmer?! With Earth at peace, our heroes have settled into normal lives. But they can’t get too comfortable. Far away, the powerful God of Destruction, Beerus, awakens to a prophecy revealing his demise at the hands of an even more formidable being. When his search for the Saiyan God brings him to Earth, can Goku and his friends take on their strongest foe yet?

dragon-ball-super-fusion-explained — Image via Toei Animation

'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' Series Sneak Peek Revealed

Flint Lockwood creates an invention to help him take out the garbage, but unfortunately for the town of Swallow Falls, Flint's Trash-Bot seems to have its own idea of what (and whom) constitutes as "trash"!

Based on the hit animated features from Sony, Cartoon Network's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs series aims to continue the ill-fated, scientific adventures of Flint Lockwood and friends, but with a twist. Here's the series synopsis:

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: The Series takes place before giant food came raining down on Swallow Falls. Flint Lockwood is a high school tween with big dreams. Swallow Falls is a blue-collar town where sardines are driving a booming economy. But Flint suffers from NFD: Non Fish-related Dreams. He wants to be a serious scientist and maybe one day not have his inventions blow up in his face. Along for the ride is Sam Sparks, who’s the new girl in town and the school’s newest wannabe ace reporter. These two outsiders come together for laughs and comedic adventures with all the great characters from the film: Flint’s Dad Tim, Steve the Monkey, Manny the head of the school’s audiovisual, school gym teacher Earl before he becomes a cop, Brent who still models baby wear, and Mayor Shelbourne, who wins every election on the pro-sardine platform.

GKIDS Acquires North American Rights to 'My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea'

my-entire-high-school-sinking-into-the-sea-image — Image via Washington Square Films

GKIDS recently announced that it has acquired the North American distribution rights for the forthcoming animated feature My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea. The 2016 American independent comedy was written and directed by Dash Shaw, celebrated author of such graphic novels as New School, Bottomless Belly Button and the recently-released Cosplayers, in his feature film debut. The film features the voices of Jason Schwartzman, Lena Dunham, Reggie Watts, Maya Rudolph, Susan Sarandon, Alex Karpovsky and John Cameron Mitchell, and was produced by Electric Chinoland's Kyle Martin, Craig Zobel and Dash Shaw, in association with Fat Possum Records' Matthew Johnson, Low Spark Films, and Washington Square Films.

The film will be released theatrically in late spring 2017, following a strong audience and critical response at the Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, AFI Fest and Fantastic Fest, among others. Of the acquisition, filmmaker Dash Shaw said, "I'm so psyched to join the GKIDS slate alongside all the awesome Studio Ghibli movies and forward-thinking animations! Yes!"

Here's the movie's official synopsis:

From acclaimed graphic novelist Dash Shaw (New School) comes an audacious debut that is equal parts disaster cinema, high school comedy and blockbuster satire, told through a dream-like mixed media animation style that incorporates drawings, paintings and collage. Dash (Jason Schwartzman) and his best friend Assaf (Reggie Watts) are preparing for another year at Tides High School muckraking on behalf of their widely-distributed but little-read school newspaper, edited by their friend Verti (Maya Rudolph). But just when a blossoming relationship between Assaf and Verti threatens to destroy the boys' friendship, Dash learns of the administration's cover-up that puts all the students in danger. As disaster erupts and the friends race to escape through the roof of the school, they are joined by a popular know-it-all (Lena Dunham) and a lunch lady (Susan Sarandon) who is much more than meets the eye.

But even as the film piles on brilliant details like a post-apocalyptic cult formed by jocks, video game homages, and an infectious synth soundtrack, it never loses sight of the characters at the heart of the story. Hailed as "the most original animated film of the year" and "John Hughes for the Adult Swim generation" (Indiewire), the film's everyday concerns of friendships, cliques and young love remind us how the high school experience continues to shape who we become, even in the most unusual of circumstances.

my-entire-high-school-sinking-into-the-sea-clip

GKIDS Brings 'Princess Mononoke' Back into Theaters for Its 20th Anniversary

San in Princess Mononoke — Image via Studio Ghibli

In celebration of Princess Mononoke's 20th Anniversary, GKIDS and Fathom Events are bringing the animated feature and an exclusive music video back to theaters nationwide in early 2017, on Thursday, January 5th at 7pm (in dubbed English) and Monday, January 9th at 7pm (in original Japanese with English subtitles), local times. The English-dubbed version features the vocal talents of: Gillian Anderson, Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Minnie Driver, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Billy Bob Thornton.

This re-release comes on the heels of a recent theatrical reappearance of Spirited Away. In addition to the feature content, movie audiences will view the never-before-released in North America 1995 Miyazaki-directed music video by the Japanese rock duo Chage & Aska for their song "On Your Mark." Tickets for Princess Mononoke: 20th Anniversary can be purchased online by visiting www.FathomEvents.com/

Event/Princess-Mononoke-20th-

Anniversary/more-info/details

or at participating theater box offices.

Here's the film's synopsis:

Princess Mononoke is a landmark of animation and a film of unsurpassed power and beauty. An epic story of conflict between humans, gods, and nature, the film has been universally acclaimed by critics and broke box office records on its original release in Japan.

While defending his village from a demonic boar-god, the young warrior Ashitaka becomes afflicted with a curse that grants him super-human power in battle but will eventually take his life. Traveling west to find a cure or meet his destiny, he journeys deep into sacred depths of the Great Forest where he meets San (Princess Mononoke), a girl raised by wolf-gods who is waging battle against the human outpost of Iron Town, on the edge of the forest. The girl Mononoke is a force of nature - with blood smeared lips, riding bareback on a great white wolf, doing battle with both gods and humans, she is as iconic a figure as any from film, literature, or opera.

'Emily the Strange' Animated Movie in the Works at Amazon Studios

THR reports that the long-time pop icon Emily the Strange is getting a shot at the big time with a new animated feature film set up at Amazon Studios. Dark Horse Entertainment is negotiating the deal that would bring the intellectual property centering on "a punky goth girl and her assorted cats" created by skateboarder Rob Reger to a whole new generation.

Created in the early 1990s by skateboarder and artist Reger, Emily took on a life of her own, launching a multimillion-dollar worldwide business that incorporates fashion, books and comics, toys, school supplies and accessories. Emily comics from Dark Horse have been in publication since 2005. Universal Pictures once had Chloe Grace Moretz attached to the project with writers including Melissa Wallack (Dallas Buyer Club) tackling the script. Dark Horse began shopping the picture once the rights lapsed; the once-live-action picture is now seen as an animated feature under Amazon Studios. A search for a writer is currently underway.