Last night David and I were invited to the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, CA for a screening event for Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series … which is about to introduce a new villain on the series. Darth Maul may have been killed in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace but his brother Savage Opress lives on in the animated series The Clone Wars:

Three new episodes, written by Katie Lucas (daughter of the master George Lucas himself), were screened last night on the big screen and it really felt like an entire Star Wars movie. After the jump, check out some promo stills from the eps and read more about the villainous Savage Opress …

Last Wednesday we learned the shocking news that Eva Longoria had filed for divorce from hubby of 3 years Tony Parker. On Saturday we learned that Tony filed divorce papers of his own. Today, right on schedule, we get our first look at the Taiwanese animated video from Next Media that chronicles the much-publicized split between Eva and Tony:

LOL! I mean … it may not be as funny as some of the other animations we’ve seen but your news story isn’t a news story until it’s been turned into a Taiwanese animated video. Check it out in full, after the jump …

Yesterday the LA Times published a story that made it very clear that the Walt Disney Company had decided that they will no longer be making animated films based on classic fairy tale stories in lieu of focusing on making original films that will have a “wider appeal”. In the wake of public disappointment to that news, the official Disney Facebook page was updated with an official statement from Ed Catmull that maintains that fairy tales will remain “alive and well” at Disney. Catmull was quoted in the LA Times article regarding the end of Disney fairy tale films and now claims that the LA Times article is “erroneous”. Here is Catmull‘s full official statement as posted on the Disney Facebook page:

A headline in today’s LA Times erroneously reported that the Disney fairy tale is a thing of the past, but I feel it is important to set the record straight that they are alive and well at Disney and continue this week with Tangled, a contemporary retelling of a much loved story. We have a number of projects in development with new twists that audiences will be able to enjoy for many years to come. – Ed Catmull

It is interesting that Catmull claims that Disney has “a number of projects in development” in this statement but was quoted as saying “we don’t have any other musicals or fairy tales lined up” in the LA Times article. You will also note that this new statement only says that fairy tales are “alive and well” but doesn’t actually mention any of these new “projects in development”. To be honest, this latest message kinda feels like Catmull is trying to placate fans by recanting a bit on what he told the LA Times while not offering specifics … is he actually saying that Disney will continue to make fairy tale films or does he just mean that the spirit of Disney‘s fairy tale history will remain “alive and well”? I truly hope that Disney does NOT abandon the practice of creating animated films based on classic fairy tales. But, we won’t know what Disney will do for many years. I’ll wish upon an star and remain hopeful that Catmull‘s latest statement is true … that the fairy tale is truly “alive and well” at Disney and that they will continue to make animated films based on classic fairy tale stories.

[Source]

Sad and very disappointing news to pass along today Disney Animation fans … according to the company itself, The Walt Disney Company will no longer produce animated/musical films based on classic fairy tales. Tangled, Disney‘s modern take on Rapunzel, hits theaters next week and altho the film will not be presented in traditional 2D animation, it will feature a classic fairy tale story (like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) set to a musical soundtrack (like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin) … and, sadly, it will be the last Disney animated feature to do so … at least for the “foreseeable future”:

Once upon a time, there was a studio in Burbank that spun classic fairy tales into silver-screen gold. But now the curtain is falling on “princess movies,” which have been a part of Disney Animation’s heritage since the 1937 debut of its first feature film, “Snow White.” The studio’s Wednesday release of “Tangled,” a contemporary retelling of the Rapunzel story, will be the last fairy tale produced by Disney’s animation group for the foreseeable future. “Films and genres do run a course,” said Pixar Animation Studios chief Ed Catmull, who along with director John Lasseter oversees Disney Animation. “They may come back later because someone has a fresh take on it … but we don’t have any other musicals or fairy tales lined up.” Indeed, Catmull and Lasseter killed two other fairy tale movies that had been in development, “The Snow Queen” and “Jack and the Beanstalk.” To appreciate what a sea change this is for the company, consider that a fairy tale castle is a landmark at Disney theme parks around the world and is embedded in the Walt Disney Pictures logo. Fairy tale characters from Disney’s movies populate the parks, drive sales of merchandise and serve as the inspiration for Broadway musicals … Over the decades, Disney has benefited from the ticket sales and licensing revenue generated by such princess-driven properties as “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aladdin.” The studio’s most recent offering, however, was a clear disappointment. Although critically acclaimed, last year’s “The Princess and the Frog” was the most poorly performing of Disney’s recent fairy tales. In the age of mega-franchises when movies need to appeal to a broad audience to justify a sizable investment, Disney discovered too late that “Princess and the Frog” appealed to too narrow an audience: little girls. This prompted the studio to change the name of its Rapunzel movie to the gender-neutral “Tangled” and shift the lens of its marketing to the film’s swashbuckling male costar, Flynn Rider …

The article excerpt continues, after the jump …

Despite the fact that it isn’t even Thanksgiving yet Hollywood is already getting itself ready for the 2011 Academy Awards. Walt Disney Studios chairman Rich Ross has announced that his company will be lobbying hard for their animated film Toy Story 3 to get first a nomination and then, hopefully, a win for the Best Picture Academy Award. Here is our first look at one of the trade magazine ad photos which attempts to inspire Academy Award members to nominate the film for Best Picture and Best Animated Feature:

“We’re going for the Best Picture win. We wanted to have the best movie and the reviews have clearly said that and it’s the number one box office hit of the year so I’m not sure why we would not go for it all,” the Walt Disney Studios Chairman Rich Ross told me in a phone conversation this week. He’s talking about their worldwide billion dollar grosser Toy Story 3 which also sits atop Rotten Tomatoes chart of the best reviewed films of the year, at least those in wide release. To that end Disney/Pixar will launch an ambitious advertising campaign aimed squarely at Academy members this week that will blatantly try to associate past Best Picture winners with TS3 by having Toy Story characters enact some iconic images from Oscar winning films like West Side Story, On The Waterfront, Shakespeare In Love, Silence Of The Lambs, Titanic, The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King and Forrest Gump … There are potentially more than 20 different ads they will create, but some, like Lambs, which features a disembodied Mr. Potato Head, still are being cleared by various parties. The campaign which uses the phrase ‘Not Since’ will launch with The Godfather Part II in which Lotso, the mob boss-like bear emulates Al Pacino … Of course TS3 is a presumed front runner for Best Animated Feature but a Best Pic win is a longer shot. Disney has had the only two nominees ever, 1991’s Beauty And The Beast before the separate ani category was established in 2001 and last year with Pixar’s Up, the first time there were ten nominees instead of five since 1943. Neither won and Disney is the only major never to have won the Best Picture Oscar, period … “The theory is pretty simple for us,” says Ross. “It’s thrilling that there is a separate category for animation and that allows animated movies to be recognized but for some reason an animated film has never gotten Best Picture and I always wondered was there not an appetite? We decided this year we have the biggest and best reviewed film of the year. If not this year, and not this movie, when?” … With this movie we wanted to come up with a campaign that kept our aspirations clear but at the same time used a tongue in cheek approach,” he says. “It’s all to recognize the quandary which is that no animated picture had won Best Picture, so we used only Best Picture images to reflect that. I feel very confident we have a movie everybody loves and I want to make sure with our support and our campaign that people don’t feel the consolation prize is the appropriate prize for a movie like Toy Story 3. I think people will look at the ads and feel it’s very Pixar and very Disney. At the same time it’s very clear. Toy Story 3 is a Best Picture. Vote for it. Please.”

I absolutely agree, if Toy Story 3 doesn’t at least get the Best Picture nomination (and hopefully the win) then what will it take for an animated film to win? TS3 is, hands down, one of the best films of the year. In my mind, only The Social Network is worthy enough to possibly beat it as the Best Picture. I think the difficulty for Toy Story 3 is that it came out so many months ago … people may have already forgotten what a fantastic film it is. After the jump, check out one more promo photo for Disney‘s new Best Picture campaign for Toy Story 3 …

The Royal Engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton is the latest pop culture moment to be immortalized in animated for by the Taiwanese company Next Media. Here are a few screencaps of the animated version of the couple’s engagement news:

Britain’s Prince William broke hearts around the world on Tuesday when he announced his engagement to Kate Middleton. Middleton is the first commoner to marry in to the Royal family in over 300 years. The wedding is set to take place sometime in 2011.

In the fine fashion that we’ve come to expect from Next Media Animation, the entire courtship of Wills and Kate is captured in this new video. From the moment the couple met in college right up to the romantic proposal in Kenya, this new video really tells the take of the couple’s fabled love affair … in fine, cheeky fashion. Check out the video in full, after the jump …

Back in April of 2009, Robert Zemeckis broke the news that he was planning a sequel film to the hit 1988 animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Since then, there has been no word at all on sequel plans and it was starting to feel as if Roger Rabbit 2 had been canceled. But today we learn from Zemeckis himself that a script by original Roger Rabbit screenwriters Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman is still being written and that Who Framed Roger Rabbit 2 is still deffo on the way:

MTV News caught up with Zemeckis this week at a red-carpet event celebrating the 25th anniversary of “Back to the Future” … [and] we asked the director whether Price and Seaman were still typing away at that script, to which he replied: “That is correct, that is true. They’re slow,” he laughed. So the screenplay isn’t finished yet… but has Zemeckis read any of it? “It’s great,” he said, nodding his head enthusiastically. “Oh, it’s going to be great. I think it’s going to be great.”

HMMMM … news of this planned sequel definitely falls into the “it could be really awesome or it could be really terrible” category. Who Framed Roger Rabbit blew people’s minds when it was released back in 1988 because of the seamless way it integrated animation and live action. Considering the huge advancements in animation made since then, a sequel could be really cool. Then again, as with any sequel based on a hugely successful classic film, if they don’t do it right … it could be a horrible cinematic travesty. After the jump, check out video of Zemeckis confirming for MTV News that yes, indeed, a script for Who Framed Roger Rabbit 2 is on the way …

Last night was a quite one here at the ol’ homestead … I decided to stay in so that I could watch ABC‘s airing of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown:

I’ve watched The Great Pumpkin every Hallowe’en for as long as I can remember … it never gets old. I know that some of y’all may have missed seeing it last night … so thankfully, ABC is reairing it tonight at 8PM. Tune in, DVR it — don’t miss out! It’s a classic.

Watching Charlie Brown reminded me of all the great Hallowe’ens of my youth and really helped get me in the spirit of the season:

We are very lucky that Hallowe’en is on Sunday this year because that gives us a 3-day Hallowe’en weekend! I’ll be going with Darion to a Heroes & Villains party tonight where I’ll wear my first of 3 costumes. Tomorrow, David and I will be joined by a gang of friends at a Masquerade Party where I’ll be rockin’ costume number 2. Sunday, we’ll be going to 2 parties around town and possibly the big West Hollywood Hallowe’en fete where I’ll be wearing costume number 3.

Have a happy, safe and FUN 3-Day Hallowe’en, y’all! Send in your costume photos … I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours ;D

Those clever folks at Next Media, who have created extremely entertaining animated videos about Paris Hilton, Nicole Snooki Polizzi, ex-JetBlue employee Steven Slater and more, have turned their attentions toward Charlie Sheen and his latest insane meltdown. As you undoubtedly may have heard, Sheen got himself into a bit of drama earlier this week when he was found in a trashed hotel room in NYC completely naked and with a scared female escort locked inside the closet. But, instead of telling you what went down … how about we check out an amazing Taiwanese animated video that shows you how things very likely went down:

The escort, the trashed hotel room … the COMPLETE nekkidness … it’s all here. Check out the video in full, after the jump …

Earlier this month we got our first look at Daniel Radcliffe in animated form on The Simpsons and today we get to see some fun preview video of his appearance on the show. As you may know, The Simpsons air a Hallowe’en special yearly titled Treehouse of Horror and this year they are up to their 21st episode:

DanRad plays an Edward Cullen-like vampire in this year’s ep and sat down for an interview about his appearance on the show:

After the jump, check out video of Dan‘s interview about his upcoming appearance on The Simpsons which includes some scenes from Treehouse of Horror XXI …