An exclusive release officially licensed by Disney, although the picture is of an unpainted prototype, there will clearly be a high level of detail and great design to this piece. Transforms from Mickey Mouse to truck and back! Available in both black and white and color versions.

Kamen Rider, one of Japan’s most enduring franchises, will make its full scale live action debut on American television on Saturday, January 3rd on the CW4Kids Saturday morning block. The CW4Kids will air a special sneak preview of the Kamen Rider Dragon Knight series on Saturday morning December 13th. Bandai America will release a full line of Kamen Rider Dragon Knight toys in the spring of 2009.

The Kamen Rider franchise was created by manga-ka Shotaro Ishinomori in 1971 and quickly adapted into a popular live action children’s TV series by Toei Company, Ltd. The Kamen Rider franchise is still going strong after 37 years having spawned 18 television series (with a total of 892 episodes), 10 TV specials, 28 theatrical releases, plus 11 direct-to-DVD productions.

Adness Entertainment has adapted the 2002 Japanese live action tokusatsu (special effects) series Kamen Rider Ryuki into Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, which features a young cast and non-stop action.

This Wednesday, a compilation album titled “Studio Ghibli no Uta” will be released, featuring music from the studio’s past works. The two-disc collection contains 26 songs taken from 20 films, ranging from the “Nausicaa” theme song to the recent “Gake no Ue no Ponyo” tune. The lyrics booklet will also include images from the movies and their posters.

If past patterns hold, it appears that Hayao Miyazaki’s latest animated feature, Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea, will receive a North American theatrical release in the first quarter of 2009. Amazon.com is listing Viz Media’s The Art of Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea for release on March 3rd, and AAA Anime has the release of the first volume of the Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea Film Comic set for early April. In 2005 when Miyazaki’s previous movie, Howl’s Moving Castle, debuted in theaters on June 10th, Viz Media released The Art of Howl’s Moving Castle on the 5th of July and The Howl’s Moving Castle Film Comic in August. In 2002 when Miyazaki’s Spirited Away premiered in theaters on September 20th, Viz Media released The Art of Spirited Away in October. Of course Viz Media could easily postpone the release of its Ponyo volumes, if Disney encounters any problems in adapting the film, but given the number of animated features set for release throughout the year in 2009, a Q1 release for Ponyo makes a lot of sense.

The Art of Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea ($34.99) is the latest in a series of spectacular volumes based on the Studio Ghibli films directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Unlike many western animation directors Miyazaki creates the concept sketches for his films and draws the storyboards for every sequence. Miyazaki’s watercolor concept art sketches are a real treat for animation fans, but the book also contains plenty of cel art from the finished film as well as works by the art directors who are responsible for the rich backgrounds that add so much to the texture of Miyazaki’s movies.

A first quarter theatrical debut for Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea will ensure the 2009 release of the Ponyo DVD, which is almost certain to be the #1 anime DVD of 2009 and to stimulate sales of the extensive backlist of Miyazaki’s films.

Ponyo was released in Japan on July 19th of 2008 and its box office performance has surpassed all of Miyazaki’s previous efforts except for Spirited Away, which is the all-time Japanese box office champ. Ponyo was screened and the Venice Film Festival and received excellent notices . The fact that the exuberant film was produced entirely in hand drawn 2-D animation appears to resonate with critics who in general appear to see it a delightful change of pace from the current dominance of computer-generated 3-D animated features.

After the tremendous success of the Transformers movie the process of turning 1980s cartoons into big budget live action films got into full swing as audiences will see this coming summer with the debut of a G.I. Joe film along with a second Transformers movie, but some other properties such as Voltron are yet to make the transition to the big screen in spite of intense interest, and, in the case of Voltron, a highly-regarded script by Justin Marks.

As the Anime News Network has reported World Event Productions, the company that owns the rights to Voltron, which was cobbled together out of two anime series, GoLion and Dairugger XV, is attempting to sue Toei, the Japanese animation studio that created GoLion and Dairugger XV, charging that the prospect of a lawsuit from Toei over rights to the Voltron property had caused Fox New Regency to pass on creating a live action Voltron film just as the final studio hurdles appeared to have been cleared (see ?Voltron Movie Close?).

According to ANN after learning of a potential Voltron film Toei contacted World Event Productions indicating that Toei didn?t believe WEP had the ?exclusive right? to license a live action movie. According to WEP?s lawsuit, New Regency then investigated the potential of third party claims to GoLion or Voltron and identified Kazuo Nakamura, the character designer of GoLion, as someone who might possess rights that would encumber the GoLion/Voltron property. In its suit against Toei WEP is claiming that the rights dispute has ?lost one developmental deal that would have resulted in a live-action motion picture.? As part of its lawsuit WEP is hoping to determine legally which rights to the Voltron property it controls and which might belong to Toei or Nakamura.

Source: ICv2