Welcome to Animated Views 2.0!

Post by **James** » October 10th, 2009, 11:58 am

Stay Tooned to Animated News!

We've had a number of emails sent in to us in the past few days to ask about the lack of updates to the site. While this situation isn't ideal for us we wanted to let our readers know that, rather than being dormant, we've actively been working on a number of changes to both Animated News and our sister reviews and interviews site Animated Views that have been hinted at for some time now. These steps will ensure that a regular News service continues and, we hope, flourishes better than ever.

Since launching Animated Views in 2006 as an additional component to the headlines and stories of Animated News, that site has grown to include more and more DVD and Blu-ray reviews, and has a thriving interview program, all of which took our main writers away from the day to day running of the News service. Although we enjoy a large readership, an advertisement for more News Researchers to join our team did not yield the successful response we were hoping for, and so we have been struggling along to continue both pages to a respectable level of quality.

As such, our commitments to reviewing various Studios' home video releases and assisting with publicity on new titles led to more time being spent on Animated Views, which has unfortunately resulted in the slow decline of this Animated News page. Without wanting to put together a simple "quick fix", we have been forging ahead for the past few months with long-standing plans that will see the News service once again become an integral part to the future of the Animated News & Views network.

We understand visiting a stagnant page can be frustrating, and know you have a choice when cruising the net for animation based news stories. We genuinely appreciate the members of our enthusiastic community forum and their always insightful and constructive comments, and not only thank those readers that have cared enough to write in, but ask everyone to bear with us and "stay tooned" to the site. Our new plans are not ready to be unveiled publicly just yet, but rest assured what we feel are positive changes are on the way.

We're very excited about the approach we are working on, and are always on the lookout for new contributors. If you are interested in being involved with Animated News & Views, please make yourself known to either James R Whitson, Ben Simon or Randall Cyrenne in the <a href="http://animated-news.com/forum/viewtopi ... ">Animated News & Views Forum</a>.

We appreciate the past few weeks have not been the highpoint of Animated News' existence, but believe a new lease of life is about to be unleashed, perhaps even by the end of this month in time for our sixth anniversary. In the meantime, Animated Views is still going from strength to strength and is packed with new content, including a full serving of features celebrating this week's release of Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs on Blu-ray Disc.

Thank-you again for staying with us, and we'll be back in full force soon! -- Ben, James, Randall and the entire Animated News & Views Team.

Post by **Randall** » October 10th, 2009, 12:50 pm

Just thought I'd jump in and comment, as we realize that these changes have been promised for a while now. Things have REALLY moved the past couple of weeks, and the results will be coming VERY soon now. Rest assured that the changes are significant and will help the whole Animated News & Views project. And, for those of you that only frequent the News page, you've really been missing out on some truly stellar content on Views. Please check it out if you haven't! Even if you're not interested in the DVD and Blu-ray reviews, we have a number of terrific interviews and other features that should be the envy of the Internet!

http://animated-views.com/

Post by **Ben** » November 2nd, 2009, 12:22 am

Hello! And welcome to the next stage in Animated Views' online life!

I think this introduction to the new site says it all:
http://animatedviews.com/2009/animated-views-2-is-here/

In short, this has been long in the planning - even since before James, Randall and myself met up at Comic-Con last July. And that meeting certainly spurred us to to talk about merging the two front pages some more. And we talked. And talked! Finally it was make or break time, and over the past summer we've been knocking the final bits into shape, going live on November 2 2009, a few days after our sixth anniversary (for those counting, our collective birthday is October 18, 2003).

We hope you can find your way around, and really hope that you enjoy the new layout. Please let us have your feedback and spread the word that Animated Views is back, bigger and better than ever before. And it's going to get even more exciting as some of other other new features start to creep in!

Look out, also, for a complete Forum change: the "animated blues" you see now is just a facelift of sorts, before the rest of the Forum is updated, which will be over the next week or so.

So...welcome again to the new and - we think - improved Animated Views!

- Ben, James, Rand, Jeremie and the entire Animated Views Team!

Post by **Dacey** » November 2nd, 2009, 12:33 am

One word: AWESOME!

Post by **Ben** » November 2nd, 2009, 12:35 am

Thanks WJ!

It's actually 5:30am here in the UK and we've been up the whole night prepping this for midnight ET. I'm pooped but jazzed full of excitement.

Post by **Randall** » November 2nd, 2009, 12:52 am

Geez, I can't believe you're still up! Get some sleep, eh?

Congrats to James on all his fine tech and creative work, and to Ben, who nitpicked poor James to death to make the new site look and work awesome.

Post by **Dan** » November 2nd, 2009, 12:55 am

Very nice. Very very nice.

Post by **James** » November 2nd, 2009, 1:58 am

Please let us know in this forum or via email if you find any problems with the new site.

Post by **Jeroen** » November 2nd, 2009, 3:46 am

Looking very slick indeed, love it!!

American_dog_2008 · Post by **American_dog_2008** » November 2nd, 2009, 10:57 am

Yahoo!

Raise up your glasses!

Post by **Meg** » November 2nd, 2009, 3:34 pm

But I don't wear glasses!

Post by **Zach** » November 2nd, 2009, 4:36 pm

The new Animated Views is awesome. There's so much more news and content now.

Post by **Randall** » November 2nd, 2009, 5:02 pm

The News aspect is looking better, with more posts being made today. But Views has been doing great in obscurity for a while now!

Post by **Josh** » November 2nd, 2009, 5:24 pm

WOW! *standing ovation*

Animated Views looks fantastic! From the site’s layout to its content, you guys have done a remarkable job. Congratulations!

Post by **Ben** » November 2nd, 2009, 6:10 pm

Thank-you Mr Armstrong! And we're not done yet!

Welcome to Animated Views 2.0!

Welcome to Animated Views 2.0!

WELCOME TO ANIMATED VIEWS 2.0!