Disney Returns to 2D Animation!

This is going to be a great year for lovers of animation...specifially, traditional, 2-D, hand drawn animation.

First up, Disney returns to the medium that made them famous with The Princess and the Frog. This'll be Disney's first 2D animation film since Home on the Range in 2004. This re-telling of The Frog Prince is set in New Orleans in the roaring 20s. It comes to us from John Musker and Ron Clemmens, who gave us the Disney classics The Little Mermaind, Aladdin and Hercules.

First up, here's the movie poster, just revealed today.



Secondly, the trailer has been leaked online. You'll be seeing it in theatres in two weeks in front of the latest from Pixar, Up.



The Princess and the Frog hits theatres in November.

But coming this summer is the latest from the world's most famous animator, Hayao Miyazaki. His last film, Ponyo on a Cliff, was released in Japan last year and a massive hit. And now, Disney is dubbing it and getting ready to release it in theatres this August. For it's North American release, it'll be called simply Ponyo. It chronicles the adventures of a goldfish princess who longs to be human, and the human boy who shows her kindness.

As with Miyazaki's last two films, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, the dub is being supervised by Toy Story director John Lasetter, who is one of Miyazaki's ardent admirers. Lasetter is teaming up with Hollywood uber-producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall on this one, because Lasetter wants to make it Miyazaki's biggest hit ever in North America.

The first movie poster has been unveiled, and it is right here:



No word yet on when we're getting the first trailer...some say it'll be in front of Ice Age 3 this July.