UPDATE: Along with a new theme park for DreamWorks Animation, the studio has also announced at Comic Con 2012 that a “Penguins of Madagascar” movie is confirmed for 2015 and that they’re going ahead with “Kung Fu Panda 3”. DreamWorks Animation has been longing to bring their popular animated characters to a theme park for […]

DreamWorks Animation has been longing to bring their popular animated characters to a theme park for a long time. After deals with China, Abu Dhabi and Dubai all failed, they’ve decided that the United States would be the perfect home for Shrek, the Madagascar clan and even Po the Panda. The studio has announced plan […]

We’re officially into the second half of 2012, but it’s time to look back at the best performances and movies from the first six months with my annual “Half Year Awards”: Best Picture: Live-Action Bully Game Change Marvel’s The Avengers Seeking a Friend for the End of the World Snow White & the Huntsman Best […]

While in NYC last weekend I saw the Broadway musical “Newsies”, which is based on the 1992 Disney film that starred a young Christian Bale and Robert Duvall. The movie pretty much bombed, but the show is surprisingly good. The story, which set in 1899, is about the poor, mostly orphan boys who sold the […]

Normally live-action superhero films are on the big screen and the animated superhero movies (from B-level studios with C-level animation) are either produced for TV or direct to DVD. But Disney and WB have decided to bring comic book and Lego action stars to movie theaters. WB’s “Lego” (opening February 28th, 2014) will star the […]

Writer and director Nora Ephron has passed away. Ephron was nominated for three Academy Awards for writing the Meryl Streep-Cher drama “Silkwood” and the romantic comedies “When Harry Met Sally” and “Sleepless in Seattle”. Both of those films starred Meg Ryan – “Sally” with Billy Crystal and “Sleepless” with Tom Hanks. Ephron’s scripts always featured […]

UPDATE: “Brave” opens with a strong $66.7M for the weekend. This marks the 5th highest-grossing open for a Pixar film behind “Toy Story 3” ($110.3M), “The Incredibles” ($70.5M), “Finding Nemo” ($70.3M) and “Up” ($68.1M). “Brave” barely beat “Cars 2″‘s open from last year ($66.1M). We’ll see if that changes once the actuals come-out. ——————————————————————————– It’s […]

It’s always one of the most eagerly-anticipated movie events of the year: the release of a Pixar film. The studio’s latest, “Brave”, comes out this Friday and the promotion and publicity for the film has been heavy. But will that result in a huge box office? The average opening for a Pixar movie is $61.5M. […]

Just in time for Father’s Day, here are five recent movies focused on the bonding between father and son that the whole family can enjoy watching: “The Incredibles” – Pixar’s Oscar-winning animated action/comedy about a family of former superheroes who come out of retirement to take down an evil villain. Mr. Incredible bonds with Dash […]

LCJ: Obviously it takes hundreds of animators and effects artists to make a feature-length film such as “Madagascar 3”. You are an “Effects Lead”. What, specifically, are your duties? GG: I’m part of the movie for a couple of years. In the beginning we need to figure out how we’re going to build the effects. […]