Friday Links: Disney's 'Frog Princess' ... Blu-ray vs. HD DVD ... and More

I'm heading off to SXSW this weekend, to see a few movies (hopefully) and also moderate two panels: New Media Goes to the Movies, and Building an Online Fan Base. Say hello if you're in Austin.

A few links to stories worth reading:

- Disney said more at its shareholders' meeting this week about its plans to get back into hand-drawn animation, at least for one film, 'The Frog Princess.' Here's the LA Times coverage.

- Sony Pictures ImageWorks is shipping 100 of its visual effects employees off to New Mexico, according to the LA Times. Interesting quote from the piece:

"It's an indication that the bricks-and-mortar infrastructure that we have long enjoyed is not completely rooted here," said Kathleen Milnes, president of the Entertainment Economy Institute, a nonprofit research group based in Pacific Palisades. "That should serve as a wake-up call."

- According to Nielsen VideoScan, sales of Blu-ray discs are outpacing HD DVDs, as of February 18th: 65 percent over 35 percent. From the story:

VideoScan declined to draw any conclusions from the numbers, but starting about two weeks after the release of Sony's PlayStation 3 videogame console, which includes a Blu-ray DVD player, the high definition format steadily grabbed market share from HD-DVD. Sony, which created the Blu-ray format, released PlayStation in the United States on Nov. 17.

- I somehow missed this fun Wired News piece about a silent film revival, which appeared last month.