Daily News Channel
When Lalo Alcaraz learned this week that Disney was seeking to trademark “Dia de los Muertos,” the name of the traditional “Day of the Dead” celebrated by millions in Mexico and the US, the cartoonist had an idea. The trademark was for an animated movie by Disney and Pixar Animation Studios that is inspired by the holiday
The Force is definitely with Travis Ho. Like millions of computer-science students before him, the 19-year-old Singaporean’s lifelong fantasy has been to work for Lucasfilm, the empire launched 30 years ago by George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars.
Once upon a time, an ogre named Shrek lived in a mythical but nonetheless insalubrious swamp. He was green.
Do you think you’re more likely to look at an online ad if it contains 1> a picture, 2> an animation, or 3> just text? The answer: just text.
Given the magnitude of Japan’s recession, it should perhaps come as little surprise that the fantasy-obsessed animation industry has received a hard dose of reality. Yasuo Yamaguchi, executive director of the Association of Japanese Animators, said the industry has been rocked by the country’s deepest recession since World War II.
Neither the magic of Harry Potter nor the combined star power of Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler was enough to keep a crew of wise-cracking guinea pigs from scurrying to the top of the box office this weekend. Disney’s family comedy “G-Force,” produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Will Arnett, and Penelope Cruz as a team of world-saving rodents, made an estimated $32.2 million in its debut. Despite opening hot on the heels of the one-week old “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the animation/live action hybrid pic was a hit with young audiences, pulling 55 percent of its viewers from the under-18 crowd.
It’s a record any studio would love to have.
The Cannes Film Festival entrusted its opening to a Pixar film, and the animation studio did not disappoint. Pixar, which has produced such gems as “Toy Story,” “The Incredibles” and “WALL-E,” introduced its latest feature, “Up,” on Wednesday night at the French movie celebration.
It couldn’t top its predecessors, but "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" still brought in quite a haul, grossing an estimated $87 million for the opening weekend of the summer movie season. The Hugh Jackman pic brought in a strong $21,225 per-theater average in 4,099 movie houses, despite generating mixed reviews
The lights dim in the screening room. Suddenly, the doomed Titanic fills the screen–but not the way I remember in the movie. The luxury liner is nearly vertical, starting its slide into the black Atlantic, and Leonardo DiCaprio is hanging on for life, just like always.