AVATAR, to no one’s surprise, snagged nine Oscar nominations this morning, tied with THE HURT LOCKER for most. The two films are the leading contenders and sets up an exciting “Battle of the Exes” between directors James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow, who were once married.

Pixar’s UP became only the second animated feature ever to be nominated for Best Picture (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST got the nod in 1991) but it comes in the year of the “Expanded Best Picture” nods — the Academy decided to have 10 Best Pictures nominees instead of the usual 5, leading to things like UP and DISTRICT 9 getting kudos they would never have received in the old system–not that UP didn’t richly deserve the honor.

The Best Animated feature nominees include CORALINE, FANTASTIC MR. FOX, THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, UP, and a surprise — THE SECRET OF KELLS, an Irish-Belgian animated film with the voices of Brendan Gleeson and Mick Lally that won’t be out in the US until spring.

Complete list of noms in the jump, including a shameful nomination for TRANSFORMERS:
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After the Taiwanese CGI cartoon about Tiger Woods stunned the world, it was pretty obvious that Taiwanese CGI cartoon news recreations were the artform for a new era…but NO ONE could have predicted the game-changing genius of the new video depicting the Late Night Wars of ‘10. This one has everything.

A spoiler image in the jump. Seriously watch!!!
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Stephen DeStefano is a very talented animator and cartoonist who’s worked on everything from Ren & Stimpy to The Venture Brothers, making him a hero in some households. He has a graphic novel coming out in 2010 called LUCKY IN LOVE, VOL. 1, A POOR MAN’S HISTORY, which you can read more about in his blog , specifically here.

BONUS: Some of his background designs for “Stimpy’s First Fart” that includes both holiday drawing AND a lesson in composition.

The American Film Institute has released its annual list of 10 notable films:

Coraline
The Hangover
The Hurt Locker
The Messenger
Precious: Based On The Novel “Push” By Sapphire
A Serious Man
A Single Man
Sugar
Up
Up In The Air

While none of the movies with “9″ in the title made it — 9, NINE, or DISTRICT 9 — the two “UP” movies did and so did the two “A [Blank] MAN.”

CORALINE and UP are both animated — one Henry Selick’s much-praised stop-motion 3D adaptation of the Neil Gaiman book, the other from Pixar. As CGI makes actual filmmaking more and more like animation, it seems that any stigma attached to the process is quickly disappearing.

This animation style was hugely influential in the ’60s. Art directed by Gene Dietch. Via the D&Q blog.

Reminder, please send us your art links for this ongoing feature!

Dash Shaw’s IFC series is now online in four episodes, with extras. Enjoy!

Now that Tiger Woods has done his Media Walk of Shame, it’s time to turn the page and get back to lambasting celebrities who LIKE all that attention, like Phoebe Price or Bai Ling. However, before we go, this Second Life style animated recreation from a Taiwanese news station may just be the best thing to come out of the whole scandal, although it does, sadly, contain inaccuracies — at the time of the accident, Woods was wearing shorts, a T-shirt, and no shoes, not a preppy golfing ensemble. Even given that lapse, this cartoon bring really captures the concept of an innocent man fleeing from a vengeful demon from hell, like in a zombie movie. Robert Zemeckis, are you watching?

’90s nostalgia alert! All 13 episodes of The Maxx, the ultra quirky cartoon based on Sam Kieth’s mega-quirky comic book, will be out next year on DVD-R. The disc includes interviews with Kieth and director Gregg Vanzo as well as audio commentary.

It’s not quite a done deal though — no release date is given and the Amazon listing mysteriously says “This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com’s standard return policy will apply.”

Hopefully this gem will be released and we will remember a time when MTV was not just the network of boob jobs and faux-lebrities.

Cartoon Brew, the essential Cartoon blog by Jerry Beck and Amid Amidi, has a fascinating post on TV animation in the ’00s that mirrors many of our own ongoing discussions over comics:

How many shows debuted in the past decade that were entertaining, made a lasting impact on their audience, and have a shot at being remembered by future generations? A handful of American shows come to mind as standouts, most of which were cult favorites rather than mainstream successes—Invader Zim, Superjail, Venture Bros., Samurai Jack, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Yo Gabba Gabba. (A comprehensive list of TV shows can be found on Wikipedia.)

Compare this to the 1990s when we saw the debuts of TV shows that were cultural phenomenons like The Simpsons, The Ren and Stimpy Show, South Park, Beavis and Butt-Head, Batman: The Animated Series, Dexter’s Lab, Rugrats, The Powerpuff Girls, Spongebob Squarepants and yes, even Family Guy. It seemed like we were on the cusp of a new era of “creator-driven” shows that were free from the meddling impulses of network execs. It’s little surprise that these shows are the ones that audiences still discuss nowadays.

We’d never really thought of the ’90s as a wonderland for animated TV, especially when there are so many MORE toons these days, and every cable channel has gotten into cartoons. On the flip side, Cartoon Network now is live action, audiences are smaller than ever and there are three shows by Seth McFarlane on.

What’s especially interesting in regard to cartoons is the lack of new blockbuster characters — something that the comics industry also laments. To be fair, sometimes it takes 20 years for a character to become a household name — Deadpool being the latest example. But in the world of animation, things normally move much faster. The merch is part of the plan from the gitgo.

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This is not comics, too, but we’re all big Pixar fans here, right??? Plus one detects perhaps a bit of influence from some of our favorite Pixar-based cartoonists here, as well.

UPDATE: Artist Paul Conrad writes to give credits —

Eric Tan did the “Journey into the Wild” (with the dogs).

Craig Foster did the SAA South American Air (with the Lama).

Erik Evans did the “Paradise Falls” (with the bird).

I did the rest.

There’s more on the posters at Conrad’s blog.

Also, we’re trying to find out if they are for sale, but apparently they were just sent out as files to websites as promo. If we find out any more, we’ll let ya know!

Anyway to celebrate the release of UP on DVD and Blu-Ray, Pixar has released a series of retro posters. Click for larger images.

A shocking connection…

The OG

…and a slightly more horrifying version

Topless Robot reports that the lackluster new CGI Astro Boy movie tanked in Japan and sticks the knife in a little deeper:

PERHAPS YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TAKEN JAPAN’S MOST BELOVED CHARACTER AND STUCK HIM IN A SHITTY CG MOVIE WITH VIRTUALLY NO REGARD FOR HIS ORIGINAL STORIES, WHICH MOST OF JAPAN KNOWS BY HEART. AND PERHAPS YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE CAST NIC CAGE AS A VOICE ACTOR, BECAUSE THAT’S LIKE HIRING CHARLES MANSON AS A BABYSITTER. NEITHER OF THEM HAVE THE APPROPRIATE SKILL SETS. Seriously, Astro Boy is so popular in Japan that he’s an official citizen — really. So if you make an Astro Boy movie which can’t beat Fast & Furious in Japan, you have failed beyond all measure. Well fucking done, assholes. Well fucking done.

If Colleen Doran’s exposé of a secret Fabio-financed Thor cartoon starring the romance model as the Thunder God is to be believed…terrifyingly close.

John K. recalls a ’90s classic: Stimpy’s Invention:

Stimpy’s Invention was 2 months late because of Nick delays and because they hated it and sat on it.

The next year, they told us to make more cartoons like Stimpy’s Invention and Space Madness.

WARNING: I’ve gotten reports that clocking on the link activates a Trojan Horse so proceed at your own risk.

Oh, we missed you.

We totally predicted that the G.Butt-hosted SNL would go there! And it did.

Or Playboy has a sense of humor. That’s right, TILF Marge Simpson graces the cover of the next issue of Playboy, in what is described as a five-page pictorial with “Implied nudity.”
Luckily, no other toon ladies are planning to enhance their career in this manner,

Last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live, while plugging his new movie, THE INVENTION OF LYING, Ricky Gervais showed a drawing of the character designs for his upcoming HBO animated series (based on the podcasts he did with partner Stephen Merchant and bald Manc Karl Pilkington).

Ricky looks remarkably like Fred Flintstone.

Steve is tall.

And Karl still has a head that looks like a [censored] orange.

The show will apparently begin in the US in January.

Maybe.

Marvel launched its first all-original downloadable motion comic on iTunes yesterday, and according to the press release you are about to read, it was a hit, debuting at #1 on the Television-Animation chart and #2 on the Top Television Episodes chart. Created by Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev, the project certainly has the creative pedigree to be competitive. Could this be yet another venue for the Marvel empire to expand?

Official PR below:

Marvel is pleased to announce that the first episode of Spider-Woman Motion Comic has conquered iTunes, debuting as the #1 episode on the Television-Animation sales chart and as the #2 episode on the Top Television Episodes sales chart. The New York Times Best-Selling team of Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev (Halo Uprising) present Marvel’s first ever original motion comic as Spider-Woman embarks on a new mission that’ll change the Marvel Universe forever! With national coverage from MTV to the LA Times, everyone’s talking about the first episode of the Spider-Woman Motion Comic, available now on iTunes!

“To wake up this morning and see Spider-Woman ranked so high on the iTunes charts is crazy insane to me,” gushed Brian Michael Bendis. “Thanks to all the readers, and especially the motion comics first timers, who tried us out and than hit the subscribe button. To quote the Stan: you ain’t seen nothing yet!”

“I’m thrilled to see fans responding so enthusiastically to Marvel’s first motion comic,” said Alex Maleev. “Thanks to all the fans who’ve purchased Spider-Woman and I can’t wait till you see what’s next!”

John Dokes, Vice President, Sales and Marketing- Digital Media said, “Everyone at Marvel is proud of the Spider-Woman motion comic and this superb launch has exceeded all our expectations. Brian and Alex, have re-energized the geek in me—you have to see this for yourself!”

Fans can purchase the first episode of Spider-Woman on iTunes here now! For more information on motion comics please visit Marvel.com

at www.marvel.com/motioncomics