Animation News: K-Pop Demon Hunters, Aardman, Pixar, and Disney Studio Shorts

K-Pop Demon Hunters' Record-Breaking Success

• 🚀 K-Pop Demon Hunters has become the number one film on Netflix of all time based on its first 95 days of viewership.
• 🎶 The film's success is further highlighted by four singles charting in the Billboard Top 100, a first for Netflix.
• 🇰🇷 The movie has had a significant cultural impact in South Korea, boosting museum attendance and cultural investment.
• 🎬 Despite being initially deemed not worthy of a theatrical release by Sony Pictures Animation, the film exploded in popularity with minimal marketing.
• 🌟 The success has led to discussions about sequels, with the directors expressing both excitement and daunt.

Big Mouth, Aardman, and Pixar Updates

• 📺 Big Mouth concluded its eight-season run, with Maya Rudolph receiving multiple Emmy nominations for her voice work.
• 🐻 A new series, Mating Season, spun off from Big Mouth, features anthropomorphic animals and received a positive reception at Annecy.
• 🐑 Aardman Animations is working on Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, slated for a 2026 theatrical release, and is collaborating with TikTok for a fan-inclusion contest.
• 🚀 Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl debuted on BBC One and iPlayer, later appearing on Netflix.
• 👽 Pixar's Elio has underperformed at the box office, but its Spanish-language version saw success due to an original song by Argentinian duo Miranda and unique voice casting, including a real-life astronaut.

Toy Story's 30th Anniversary and Animation Retrospectives

• 🧸 Toy Story is celebrating its 30th anniversary with new merchandise, including a popcorn bucket and steel tumbler, and a re-release in theaters on September 12th.
• 🎨 An upcoming wave of merchandise collaborations is planned to celebrate the anniversary.
• 🎬 Animator Bill Plympton is being honored with a week-long retrospective at the IFC Center, featuring his cartoons, including two Academy Award nominees and a new premiere, in collaboration with "Weird Al" Yankovic.
• 🏰 Studio Ghibli Fest continues with theatrical re-releases of films like Howl's Moving Castle in September.

Disney Studio Shorts and Theme Park Attractions

• 🎬 Back to Neverland, a Jerry Rees film featuring Robin Williams and Walter Cronkite, was originally shot at Raleigh Studios and was part of the Disney MGM Studios tour.
• 🐭 Mickey's Big Break (also known as Mickey's Audition), directed by Rob Minkoff, was a short film shown during the Disney MGM TV tryouts in 1991, featuring a star-studded cast including Mel Brooks, Jonathan Winters, Dom DeLuise, Angela Lansbury, and Carol Kane.
• 🌟 This short film later ran in the Main Street Cinema and the Town Square Exhibition Hall at Disney MGM Studios and is available on YouTube.
• 🎬 The Inside the Magic special effects and production tour at Disney MGM Studios featured clips from films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and a humorous segment with Mickey Mouse and Michael Eisner interacting with Chernabog.

Animation News and Merchandise

• 🐾 Paw Patrol continues its franchise with a new movie, Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie, rescheduled for mid-August 2026 to avoid a crowded animated film release schedule.
• 🥜 The Peanuts gang is featured in a 70th-anniversary celebration for the American Red Cross blood donation program, offering a mystery t-shirt with a Peanuts design for donors.
• 📚 A comprehensive box set of all Peanuts TV specials is being released on Blu-ray on October 7th, featuring 40 specials from 1965 to 2011.
• 📖 New books on animation history include Worlds to Conquer: The Art and Making of Walt Disney's Fantasia and Making Mary Poppins by Todd James Pierce.
• 👑 Disney Princess Week is being celebrated globally with events and merchandise, including character appearances at Shanghai Disneyland and a collection of classic Golden Books.