Cartoon Network Studios has been inactive for YEARS, with their original headquarters shut down and no new shows coming out. However, the Annecy Animation Festival revealed panels celebrating Cartoon Network and Warner Bros Discovery. We'll see announcements about new Adventure Time, new Regular Show, The Amazing World of Gumball, The Powerpuff Girls, and maybe even a few surprise reveals...

Coming July 8th, the heart-wrenching Ghibli classic Grave of the Fireflies will be released and distributed via Blu-ray DVDs from GKIDS and Shout! Studios. Both standard and limited edition Steelbook sets will also include feature length and deleted storyboards, interviews, image galleries, and more.

Nickelodeon is continuing the mythology and adventure of the beloved animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender with Avatar: Seven Havens, an all-new series from creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. Set in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the original 26-episode, 2D-animated series centers around a young Earthbender who discovers she’s the new Avatar.

Last night my SO and I were looking for something lighthearted to watch and we stumbled across The Last Belle. The animation is buttery smooth and contains a sequence by none other than Roy Naisbitt (The Thief and the Cobbler) which was IMMEDIATELY obvious.

On reading more, I learned this was the last cel animated movie to be screened. (Of any commercial project? Big claim wikipedia, maybe someone here knows if that's still true 14 years after release.)

It also took 15 years to traditionally animate and it shows. I think that this is a fantastic example of the heights a human animator can reach and any animation fan should take notes from this goofy cartoon style executed masterfully.

Happy wednesday!