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Life always finds a way, and so does the “Jurassic Park” franchise. “Jurassic World Rebirth” is nearly here.

The seventh film in the franchise that began with Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” back in 1993 arrives in theaters on July 2. And the Gareth Edwards-directed sequel, which stars Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Rupert Friend and Jonathan Bailey, has just unveiled its very first trailer, which you can watch below.

Incredibly, the last “Jurassic World” movie came out just three years ago in 2022. That film, “Jurassic World Dominion,” investigated what life on earth would be like if dinosaurs were running around all over the place. It made $1 billion at the box office. “Jurassic World Rebirth” features the long-awaited return of David Koepp, who adapted Michael Crichton’s novel for the original “Jurassic Park” and wrote the Spielberg-directed sequel “The Lost World: Jurassic Park.” Late last year we talked to Koepp, who said,...

More than most people you know, Oscar-winning animator Pete Docter has marked generations of children for life. I first met him back in 1995, when Pixar launched “Toy Story” into the world. Animation was never the same. I toured the original Pixar compound in Richmond, near San Francisco, and watched over his shoulder as Docter showed me how animators used computers to create characters. That was just the beginning. “Toy Story” was a first step toward a new form of digital motion pictures, pioneered by then leader John Lasseter and the mighty Pixar Brain Trust.

Back in 2018, when Lasseter left the company, Docter moved up to Chief Creative Officer, as the Disney division tried to continue its unsullied record of major hits. It did not always succeed, and the pandemic did not help. But in 2024, “Inside Out 2” broke Pixar’s own box-office record ($1.7 billion worldwide).

For a time, the movie...

The Monkey director Osgood Perkins reveals why he changed Stephen King's story into a comedy and what the author's reaction was. Based on King's 1980 horror short story, the upcoming movie stars Theo James as twin brothers Hal and Bill, following the characters as they experience a series of shocking deaths after they discover their father's toy monkey. As is revealed in The Monkey's trailer, Perkins has added a great deal of dark comedy to the original King story, in addition to an abudance of blood and gore.

In a recent interview with Empire, Perkins breaks down his approach to The Monkey, affirming that his take on the story is very different from the source material. "I took liberties like a motherf--ker," he says. He reveals that James Wan's production company, Atomic Monster, optioned the rights to King's story several years ago, and that they approached him to direct it.

If you tune into award shows often enough, the language surrounding them begins to sound like something out of a football game. Actors campaign throughout the "season," often scoring wins in the lead-up to the Oscars that put them in a better or worse position for the big trophy. Commentators dissect performances and explain the odds of each participant. There are dark horses, contenders, fan favorites, and comeback stories. When the night of the Academy Awards finally arrives, that, too, feels like a sort of sport. You can win or lose narrowly (often thanks to a split vote), or in a clear landslide -- or, rarest of all, you can tie.

There have only been six ties in Oscar history, though you'd be forgiven for swearing there were more of them. Moments like the "Moonlight" and "La La Land" Best Picture screw-up of 2016, or years in which several titles each...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2024, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

When reflecting on any year in movies, the theatrical experience rings most memorable. From driving across the border to Ohio with friends to watch No Country for Old Men in 2007, to a 35mm screening of Stalker at the Wexner Center for the Arts in 2011, with so rapt an audience I was terrified to swallow for fear it would disrupt their experience—each year holds it own special memories and 2024 was no different. There was a lively afternoon matinee of Between the Temples in which I was the youngest present by about 25 years, and a sold-out Wednesday screening of Showgirls at the Academy Museum with Elizabeth Berkley in person. But judging from reactions on X.com, I’m not alone in my favorite 2024 theatrical screening being witnessing Interstellar in 70mm IMAX.

Warning: This article contains Spoilers for The Simpsons season 36's special “O C’Mon All Ye Faithful."

While The Simpsons season 36’s holiday special features an entirely original storyline, the double-sized Christmas episode also took the opportunity to parody a trio of classic Christmas specials. The Simpsons season 36’s changes to the show’s formula have seen the series garner praise. Despite airing over 770 episodes throughout its 36 years on the air, The Simpsons has proven that it still has plenty of creative juice with episodes that play with its format, rewrite its canon, and disregard conventions in favor of invention. As Vulture noted in 2023, The Simpsons is officially good again.

Related The Simpsons Season 37: Will It Happen? Everything We Know

The animated sitcom, The Simpsons, has become a bona fide pop culture icon in its nearly 40 years on the air, but will it be renewed for season 37?

While the...

Exclusive: Rashida Jones, Will McCormack and Michael Govier have been set to write Tom and Jerry, a feature that will be made under Bill Damaschke’s Warner Bros Pictures Animation.

They will be starting fresh on the new iteration of the misadventures of the cat Tom and mouse Jerry, hatched in 1940 by William Hanna & Joseph Barbera at MGM. Until MGM shuttered its animation division, they made 114 shorts that won 7 Oscars. Later versions came from Gene Deitch and Chuck Jones, and then others. The characters most recently toplined the 2021 hybrid film Tom & Jerry. While through the years it has been criticized for the sometimes violent ways the cat tries to trap the mouse and pays dearly for it, the venerable franchise has been an influence on many cartoon series including The Simpsons.

Through their prolific Le Train Train banner, Jones and McCormack work as writers, directors and producers with credits include Celeste and Jesse Forever,...

After a groundbreaking first season that seemed to herald the coming of a new era for TV animation, "Arcane" has come to an end. It seems it really was a dream to have animated shows with the quality and production values of feature films without also requiring budgets so big that no studio — even a giant gaming studio — would want more than two seasons at a time.

Still, we'll always have "Arcane" and the truly astonishing work studio Fortiche did in translating the uber-popular "League of Legends" video game into an epic animated show with impeccable visuals, vast worldbuilding, and memorable characters. Season 2 clearly suffered from the show's cancellation, the pacing faltering due to what was obviously a 5-season plan being condensed into just two seasons, forcing many plotlines to be dropped or severely shortened — like the lives of many a character. Still, even if the ending of season 2 was underwhelming,...

Longlegs director Osgood Perkins says his new Stephen King movie is a "soulful comedy" with "Itchy & Scratchy" level violence. Stephen King adaptations have been a mainstay in cinema since 1976 when Brian De Palma's Carrie, based on King's first published novel, set a high standard for adaptations of his work. King adaptations flourished in the 1980s with Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, Cujo, Christine, and Pet Sematary. They extended beyond horror, too, with King's shorter stories, Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption, serving as the basis for acclaimed adaptations.

In recent years, Stephen King adaptations have surged in popularity, with It and It Chapter Two bringing the author's iconic tale of fear and friendship to a new generation, the former becoming the highest-grossing horror film ever. Filmmaker Mike Flanagan has become one of the most acclaimed adapters of his work, with Doctor Sleep skillfully connecting King's novel and Kubrick's interpretation of The Shining.

The Grinch and Max first appeared in the 1957 children's book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess, and the two have been together in every adaptation since. The Grinch is one of the most recognizable holiday characters, and his dog Max has always been the beloved companion right there with him each time. Though Max has always appeared in the numerous adaptations of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, how often he is featured and what he looks like has changed over the years.

Within the story, Max primarily serves as the Grinch's companion, as the two characters live on a mountain and do not interact with any of the Whos down below. In his plot to steal presents from the Whos, the Grinch also uses Max to imitate one of Santa's reindeer. To sneak into Whoville the Grinch dresses as Santa and Max, as a reindeer, pulls his sleigh.

You can’t bullshit Sandy King Carpenter — a horror legend you shouldn’t call a “final girl” if only because she’s never been on the run.

A pioneering comics publisher, former script supervisor for Corman and Cassavetes, the wife of director John Carpenter, and more, King has been on a creative killing spree since she started in Hollywood in the early ’70s. Sharp as a knife, she’s a multihyphenate writer/producer/director talent who can’t help but take a stab at anything and everything that intrigues her.

“People are always talking about visualizing goals, but I’m not that person,” King told IndieWire in conversation at the Carpenter office in Los Angeles. “If it’s interesting, I do it, and that’s served me well. I learned lots of things, and I worked for lots of interesting people. It all turned into knowledge that became a career.

Peter Browngardt is currently the creative director of Looney Tunes Cartoons, and his first feature as a director, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, is set to be released theatrically in 2025 after initially being dropped from a planned Max release and being acquired by Ketchup Entertainment.

The Day the Earth Blew Up follows Porky Pig and Daffy Duck (both voiced by series regular Eric Bauza) as they uncover a conspiracy involving an alien invasion. It’s a delightful sci-fi romp that will appeal to both young audiences who are discovering Looney Tunes for the first time and older audiences who have grown up with the characters.

We at FandomWire got to speak with Browngardt timed to the film’s North American premiere at the Animation Is Film festival in Los Angeles, CA. Check out the interview below!

The Day the Earth Blew Up Interview

FandomWire: The Day the Earth Blew Up...

It's hard to recommend the "Terrifier" films, seeing that they are the most violent, disgusting, and morally loathsome horror movies on the current cinematic landscape. But it's easy to warn people about them, and for the right breed of horror fan to take that warning as all the recommendation they need. God help me: I've become an Art the Clown fan, and each new entry in this ludicrously violent slasher series keeps finding new ways to test what I find acceptable in my entertainment. 

"Terrifier 3" picks up the baton from its nasty, nightmarish predecessor and sprints with it. Like the surprise hit "Terrifier 2," the new movie is a nauseating experience where every death scene is masterclass in practical special effects wizardry. But also like the second movie, there's an eerie tinge of fantasy throughout the whole thing that makes it all feel like a weird dream to the viewer.

Despite a number of Millennial-and-younger Twitter users learning his name for the first time this week, animation legend Tex Avery’s influence can still be felt across the cartoon industry, having helped to create classic characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig. But that’s not all, folks.

It might be hard for a modern animation fan to imagine that, when the many Looney Tunes characters first hit the scene in the late 1930s, the antics of Bugs, Daffy and the gang were basically the burgeoning cartoon industry’s equivalent of a proto-punk-rock supergroup. As opposed to Walt Disney’s palatable, sentimental and exclusively kid-focused cartoons, the Warner Bros. shorts that Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery directed were more lively, outlandish and in-your-face than the usual Mickey Mouse affair of those early years.

Then, when Avery left the Looney Tunes world and signed a contract with MGM...

Second only to Mel Blanc himself, voice actor Jeff Bergman has voiced the most Looney Tunes characters over the longest stretch of time. He “officially” got the gig — the reason for those quotes will become clear below — in 1989 when Bugs, Daffy and the rest became teachers on Tiny Toon Adventures. He’s continued on through dozens of other projects like 1990’s Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, 2011’s The Looney Tunes Show, 2015’s New Looney Tunes and last year’s Tiny Toons Looniversity reboot.

While he’s not the only person who’s voiced these characters since Blanc’s passing, he’s been among the most consistent. Which, of course, has steeped him in all sorts of Looney Tunes lore, as well as allowed him to make some of his own. Lore such as…

7 Mel Blanc Was Supposed to Be in ‘Tiny Toons Adventures’

“It was a given that Mel was...

Of the many crimes the Animaniacs' notorious nemesis, David Zaslav, has perpetrated during his reign of terror as CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, his blatant disrespect for the Looney Tunes ranks high on the list. As if doing little to promote the terrific modern "Looney Tunes Cartoons" series that are available exclusively on Max wasn't bad enough, Zaslav's regime has also yanked a whole lot of golden age "Looney Tunes" shorts from its streaming service and killed the live-action/animated hybrid feature "Coyote vs. Acme" solely for the sake of a tax write-off. Sadly, it seems we'll never know if Dave Green's New Yorker-inspired legal satire was an entertaining as the early buzz suggested. Nevertheless, 2024 is shaping up to be a major year for Bugs, Daffy, Porky, and the rest of the Looney gang.

As of today, Ketchup Entertainment has officially acquired the North American rights to "The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie...

Touché! A WME Assistant Jabs His Way to Paris

What’s the difference between a Hollywood agent and an Olympic fencer? The fencer salutes his opponents after stabbing them in the back. Other than that, the skills required — steely nerves, killer instincts, ruthless ambition — are remarkably similar. No one knows that better than Pascual Di Tella, a 28-year-old WME assistant currently in Paris preparing to parry as a member of the Argentinian Olympic fencing team. “You have to be super self-driven in fencing,” he tells Rambling Reporter. “Because if you don’t train or work out, the only person negatively affected is you. It’s the same with agenting. You build your own business. Nobody is holding you accountable but you.” Di Tella, as it happens, comes from a long line of Olympians: His father fenced for Argentina in 1988 and 1992, while his mother competed in Alpine skiing those same years.

Combining Chaplin, Keaton and Looney Tunes, the utter silliness of this movie pastiche, with an army of full-sized beavers, will win you over

The sheer sustained silliness of this spoof silent comedy is what finally compels admiration. It’s like chancing across a bunch of eerily gifted kids by the roadside putting on a bizarrely accomplished, very extended series of magic tricks and circus acrobatic stunts. You could at first find it very startling and funny, then a little dull but finally after an hour or so enter a home stretch of being just stunned at the simple fact that it is still going on, and at such a pitch of crazy inventiveness you can’t help but feel awe at this film’s absolute dedication to gag productivity.

Director Mike Cheslik and his lead actor and co-writer Ryland Brickson Cole Tews mix live action with homespun animation in black-and-white,...

Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech, Quills, Shine) is back at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) and having a blast.

In 2022, the big festival in the scenic Czech spa town honored the Australian star and Oscar winner with its Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema, its lifetime achievement award.

For this year’s 58th edition of Kviff, Rush serves as a member of the main competition jury, along with the likes of indie film industry veteran Christine Vachon.

In between seeing competition films, Rush talked to The Hollywood Reporter about current projects, his experiences with AI, his love of animation and his connections with Czech art and culture.

You have appeared in so many films and seen movies all over the globe. What is it like being a juror here at the Karlovy Vary festival?

It takes us to a very definite place in the...

Rising Florida rapper Julio Foolio, known for tracks like “Crooks” and “Reach The Top,” was killed in a shooting outside a Tampa hotel early Sunday morning. The artist, whose real name was Charles Jones, was 26.

The incident occurred during a weekend of birthday celebrations Jones promoted on social media. Three others were wounded in the attack, according to local authorities.

Tampa police responded to reports of gunfire at approximately 4:40 a.m. Sunday in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn located at 11606 McKinley Drive. Upon arrival, officers discovered two vehicles that bullets had struck.

Lewis Fusco, Jones’ representative from the Jacksonville-based Fusco Law Group, provided additional details in a statement released Monday. According to Fusco, Jones initially stayed at an Airbnb rental but was asked to leave after his party exceeded the property’s occupancy limits. The rapper then relocated to the Holiday Inn, where the shooting took place.

Julio Foolio Recalled 2021 Assassination Attempt ( Photo Credit – Facebook )

Florida rapper Julio Foolio once recalled an assassination attempt before he was shot and killed on Sunday. The Hip Hop World was rocked this weekend after Florida rapper Julio Foolio was shot and killed in Tampa on Sunday, June 24.

According to BBC, the 26-year-old, whose legal name was Charles Jones, was reportedly celebrating his birthday when the incident occurred. The musician was “reportedly ambushed” in the hotel car park before the perpetrators fled the scene.

The incident comes two years after Julio Foolio revealed on DJ Akademiks’ podcast that he came close to dying following an assassination attempt in 2021. In the same podcast, the now-slain rapper also touched on his feud with Yungeen Ace.

Trending When Megan Fox Confessed To Stealing Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen Cosmetics From Walmart Resulting In Lifetime Ban Inside Out 2 (North America): Surpasses Barbie To Clock $100 Million...

Joe Dante's "Gremlins" is a monster movie masterpiece stuffed with memorable set pieces. The death of Mrs. Deagle, the near-death of the Futtermans (they live to see "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" if only because Dante couldn't make a movie without his onscreen lucky charm Dick Miller), and, of course, the sing-a-long screening of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" are all wackadoodle gems, but the most smashingly chaotic showcase for the feral beasties arrives when they descend upon Dorry's Tavern.

This is where Dante's Chuck Jones worship transforms "Gremlins" into something hilariously unruly and, if you grew up watching Looney Tunes cartoons, truly holy. The title critters have taken over the Kingston Falls dive bar, leaving poor Kate Beringer (Phoebe Cates) to keep their beer mugs full and cigarettes blazing. Within this bedlam, Dante and creature designer Chris Walas stage a series of goofball vignettes that find the...

Phoebe Cates nearly ended Zach Galligan's career before she helped launch it.

Galligan was the New York City-born son of a corporate lawyer and a psychologist when, in his late teens, he landed his first major Hollywood audition. The film was Paul Mazursky's contemporized adaptation of William Shakespeare's "The Tempest," and it promised to be a powerhouse actor's showcase what with John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands already cast in the lead roles.

Mazursky and casting director Juliet Taylor were looking for a young actor to play the film's version of Ferdinand, the Prince of Naples who falls in love with Prospero's daughter Miranda. Given the production's pedigree, Galligan was competing against and reading with a who's who of up-and-coming performers, many of whom already had a movie or two under their belt.

One of these up-and-comers was Phoebe Cates, a showbiz kid who'd been on the...

After making its way out of Early Access on Steam earlier this year, Slipgate Ironworks’ Hexen-inspired Graven will be making the leap to consoles next week. Graven will arrive June 25 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series.

In Graven, you take on the role of a priest of the Orthogonal order, who has been exiled unto death for a crime in defense of another. Fortunately, you live again in a small boat, adrift in a swamp. A stranger ferries you to solid ground and bestows upon you a cryptic warning, along with a mysterious staff and book. You must now take revenge on the twisted order, and along the way, alleviate suffering, uncover deceptions, and smash the eldritch perversions encroaching upon reality itself.

Featuring character designs by Chuck Jones and the voice talent of Stephan Weyte, Graven has you wielding an array of powers and weapons as you journey across expansive, open-ended regions,...

Garfield — the lasagne-loving, Monday-hating, greedy, grumpy cat originating in Jim Davis’ long-running comic strip — is an awkward fit for a kids’ film. He’s a cynic forced to be a family-friendly goofball, a sarcastic hero being sold to an audience of under-tens with an undeveloped sense of sarcasm, a square pessimist peg in a round optimistic hole. It has been tried unsuccessfully before, in 2004’s Garfield: The Movie and its sequel — those films most notable for the fact that Bill Murray signed on to voice Garfield because he mistakenly (he claimed) thought one of the Coen brothers was behind it.

This latest attempt details how Garfield first met his human ‘pet’, Jon (Nicholas Hoult), and became estranged from his father Vic (Samuel L. Jackson), before the stubborn housecat finds himself on a madcap heist adventure. Whether or not you think this is an origin story that needs to be told...

The Annecy International Animation Film Festival has become an increasingly important marketing opportunity for major U.S. studios to show off their upcoming animated offerings. This year, Warner Bros. Discovery companies are putting forth one of their strongest lineups to date.

Below, we break down the major highlights from this year’s Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe lineups for this year’s Annecy Festival.

“The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” – Filmmaker Conversation and Exclusive Extended Look

One of Warners’ biggest swings this year is its first animated feature adaptation of the “Lord of the Rings” franchise, which will debut in theaters on December 13. Annecy attendees who manage to snag one of the surely hard-to-get tickets to this presentation will catch an early look at the first publicly screened footage from the film, presented by Oscar winner Philippa Boyens (“The Lord of the Rings...

The controversial episode "The Principal & The Pauper" marked the end of The Simpsons' Golden Age of TV comedy writing. Fans and critics were divided over the major retcons in the episode, with some feeling betrayed by the character changes. The show struggled to balance its wacky comedic style with consistent storytelling post-"The Principal & The Pauper."

Although The Simpsons still has its defenders, one infamous episode indicated the end of the shows famous Golden Age. The Simpsons has been around for 35 years and over 760 episodes, so it is fair to say that the animated family sitcom is doing fine. However, while The Simpsons season 36 renewal proves the show will continue for the foreseeable future, there is no denying that its critical reputation took an irreparable hit long ago. The Simpsons season 35 is excellent and, even then, the best new episodes are only a shadow of the shows former glory. The Simpsons was extraordinary.

When Chris Wedge's animated film "Ice Age" first came out in 2002, it was considered novel and striking for many reasons. It was set in prehistoric times yet eschewed dinosaurs in favor of megafauna living in the Pleistocene Epoch. The three main characters were a sloth named Sid (John Leguizamo), a smilodon named Diego (Denis Leary), and a mammoth named Manfred aka Manny (Ray Romano), and they were engaged in a great migration to flee the oncoming Ice Age. The plot of their first movie apes John Ford's 1946 Western "3 Godfathers," as the three animals discover a human infant that they must keep safe and deliver back to the then-evolutionarily-novel homo sapiens living nearby.

The design of "Ice Age" was striking, aiming for broad, stylized characters that were markedly different from the friendly, big-eyed protagonists of Disney pictures. It certainly helped that the "Ice Age" movies featured a character named Scrat,...

Those dismayed by the cancellation of the big-budget “Coyote vs. Acme” — a high-profile casualty of the recent Hollywood trend towards pulling the plug on near-completed projects — may find consolation and then some in “Hundreds of Beavers.” That is, if they become aware of it, of course. Chances are good that they will, eventually, as this DIY delight has begun self-distributing to North American theaters following a long tour on the regional festival circuit. It’s sure to develop a significant cult following with its unique mix of silent-era slapstick, animation elements, theme-park-style critter costumes, and general air of inspired absurdity.

Well, not entirely unique: Director Mike Cheslik and star Ryland Brickson Cole Tews previously collaborated on 2018’s “Lake Michigan Monster,” a similarly nonsensical B&w comedy, albeit in a more Guy Maddin-esque pseudo-early-talkie vein, with a fantasy adventure gist in the vein of Jules Verne. But for all its enterprise,...

The Simpsons never had a spinoff despite its popularity, but there were ideas for one during the show's "Golden Age," including a live-action spinoff starring Krusty the Clown. A live-action spinoff of The Simpsons would not have worked due to the show's animated atmosphere, exaggerated character designs, and visual gags that would be difficult and expensive to reproduce in live-action. A potential animated spinoff starring Krusty the Clown had the potential to be a surreal animated satire of show business, but it might have been too dark and edgy for The Simpsons' tone.

While The Simpsons almost gave one fan-favorite character a live-action spinoff, the show’s proposed premise would never have worked. The Simpsons has been around for thirty-five years, airing over 750 episodes in that time. The animated family sitcom is one of the most influential shows in the history of television, inspiring everything from direct competitors such as Family Guy,...

For years, Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net has been about two things only – awesome art and the artists that create it. With that in mind, we thought why not take the first week of the month to showcase these awesome artists even more? Welcome to “Awesome Artist We’ve Found Around The Net.” In this column, we are focusing on one artist and the awesome art that they create, whether they be amateur, up and coming, or well established. The goal is to uncover these artists so even more people become familiar with them. We ask these artists a few questions to see their origins, influences, and more. If you are an awesome artist or know someone that should be featured, feel free to contact me at any time at theodorebond@joblo.com.This month we are very pleased to bring you the awesome art of…

Victor...

A Complete Guide to the Best Grinch Movies and TV Shows Out There(Photo Credit –IMDb)

The grumpy Grinch, known for his dislike of all things Christmas, has always been a staple of mainstream media during the holidays, thanks to Dr. Suess’s children’s book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” But it’s the young adults of this generation that relate to this green goblin more than children do. He’s a mean-spirited, cynical, and sarcastic creature who just does not get the appeal of Christmas. He doesn’t enjoy the racket that Christmas causes and prefers to be in a quiet, peaceful place instead. But when the folks of Whoville go too far with their festivities, he vows to destroy Christmas once and for all.

The Grinch is undeniably fascinating. There have been multiple adaptations of him across the film industry centering around the premise of him trying to ruin Christmas.

Christmas musicals are the perfect combination of festive stories and charming music, providing holiday fun for all fans. "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" (1966) deserves recognition for creating one of the most iconic villain songs, "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." "Spirited" Starring the voices of Boris Karloff and June Foray Close Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Director Ben Washam, Chuck Jones Runtime 26 Minutes See More-->

For a special that's only 30 minutes long, it's impressive to see how much musical magic can be contained in such a brief amount of time. While it's true that the soundtrack is essentially different renditions of the same two songs, that doesn't mean they aren't without their merits.

Related: 10 Hilarious How The Grinch Stole Christmas Memes To Brighten The Holidays

"Welcome Christmas" is practically the anthem of Who-Ville, but the special as a whole earns a mention simply for creating one of the...

The Grinch's species has never been clearly defined, and it remains a mystery throughout different adaptations of the story. The Grinch is portrayed as a bright green, hairy creature with a pointed nose, but his genetic relation to the Whos is never explained. The Grinch is humanoid in design but not classified as a human or a Who, which partially explains his resentment towards the Whos and his desire to be accepted by their community.

Although The Grinch has been seen onscreen numerous times and in various guises, the Dr. Seuss character’s origins and species remain unclear. Alternatively, the Whos from Whoville are pretty easy to identify. In their live-action and cartoon incarnations alike, they have pointed noses and distinctive oversized feet. They look more like kangaroos in Chuck Jones’s iconic 1966 TV special How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, though more closely resemble regular humans with differently proportioned...

Will Ferrell in Elf Screenshot: New Line Cinema 2003 was an exciting time for Christmas movies. As Love Actually and Bad Santa gave adults a reason to get in the spirit, a little film about a big elf became a box office heavyweight. Jon Favreau’s Elf turns 20 on November 7, and...

Will Ferrell in ElfScreenshot: New Line Cinema

2003 was an exciting time for Christmas movies. As Love Actually and Bad Santa gave adults a reason to get in the spirit, a little film about a big elf became a box office heavyweight. Jon Favreau’s Elf turns 20 on November 7, and it...

Did you know "The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie" was even happening before you clicked on this article? You would think Warner Bros. would treat the first-ever fully animated feature-length theatrical film (not including any of the previous "Looney Tunes" package movies that compile multiple shorts) featuring some of the most iconic cartoon characters in cinema history as a momentous occasion. But no, under the reign of current WB Discovery CEO David Zaslav, "The Day the Earth Blew Up" has thus far been treated as little more than extra "content" for the fire (apologies for using the C-word).

Case in point, the original plan was to quietly shuffle "The Day the Earth Blew Up" onto Max with little fanfare -- right up until Zaslav's regime went all Freddy Krueger on the streaming platform's animation department and canceled half a dozen of their developing projects back in...

“Night and day. Summer and winter, boys. Seedtime and harvest. Life and death. That’s what Halloween is, all rolled up in one.”

Halloween is dominated by iconography both macabre and delightful. Terrifying and pleasant. Freeing and disguised. It’s a night that’s been assigned to the fantasies of youth and yet remains steeped in the realities of the very old. Where dark and ancient tradition mingle with the lightness of modernity and treats are exchanged for the chants of possible tricks which invite more devilish favors than sweets. At its core— at the core of all such wicked celebrations— is death. What it means. Why those in this existence are so fascinated, incensed, intoxicated and repulsed by its shadow and how it is people reconcile death’s existentially labyrinthian impact on their lives.

Halloween is the day that we face that chilling finality. Commune with it. Drape our world in its trappings.

A hilarious new cover is turning Harley Quinn into the star of her very own Looney Tunes short. Cover art for Harley Quinn: Black + White + Redder #4 doubles as a tribute to a timeless piece of animation.

DC Comics' October solicitations have come out and fans have gotten a few glimpses at what's to come in the next couple of months. Between her self-titled series and her new role in Birds of Prey, Harley Quinn has a lot of adventures lined up. Harley's fan-favorite anthology, Harley Quinn: Black + White + Redder also continues with a brand-new issue that includes one surprising cover.

Oh hey! Here’s a look at my cover to Harley Quinn: Black + White + Redder #4: an homage to the Looney Tunes work of the great Chuck Jones & Maurice Noble pic.twitter.com/QbObszbdQt — Joe Quinones (@Joe_Quinones) July 24, 2023

Artist Joe Quinones revealed his cover for the anthology's fourth issue on Twitter,...

Happy Birthday, Bugs Bunny!

The world’s favorite rabbit turns 75 this month: July 27, 1940, saw the debut of the cotton-tailed character’s first cartoon short “Wild Hare,” directed by Tex Avery.

There won’t be much hoopla to celebrate, because Warner Bros. doesn’t observe the birthdays of animated characters. And there’s some logic to that, especially in Mr. Bunny’s case.

There had been earlier variations: A wisecracking rabbit, voiced by Mel Blanc, debuted in the 1938 “Porky’s Hare Hunt” but the speech patterns and look were very different. In the next few years, WB’s Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons featured other rabbits.

But the 1940 “Wild Hare” was the first one where Bugs looked like himself, sounded like himself and, significantly, it was the first time he uttered the immortal words “What’s up, Doc?”

Don’t be misled by those earlier rabbits. On Sept. 10, 1940, Variety ran...

In the pouring rain, upwards of 100 people marched outside of Warner Bros. Discovery’s Park Avenue South building Tuesday afternoon in New York as part of a themed Writers Guild picket that doubled as a promise to unionize east coast animation writers.

“This has been a long, horrible battle trying to get animation writing covered. We are not giving up. I’m really just here to say that when the strike is over, when we have won the contract we deserve, we are circling back to animation,” Susan Kim, WGA East animation caucus co-chair and a writer/story editor behind hits like Arthur, Bubble Guppies, Courage the Cowardly Dog and Clifford the Big Red Dog, told a drenched crowd of picketers. “We are going to be back. We’re going to be better than ever. And we are going to get this goddamn industry organized.”

During her brief speech — which...

The Telluride Film Festival turns 50 this year (though it remains to be seen how many of the chief film festivals in North America will go off without a hitch due to the duo actor/writer strikes currently unfolding), but until we know more, you can feast your eyes on this brand-new, eye-poppingly colorful poster promoting the popular Colorado annual event.

The artists chosen to design the poster is Luke Dorman, the principal graphic designer of the Santa Fe-based Meow Wolf, a hugely attended multimedia arts center that now has outposts in Denver, Dallas-Fort Worth and Las Vegas, with one on the way in the Houston area in 2024. As an homage to the festival’s history, Dorman reconfigured a single moment from each of the 49 installments to include in this half-century poster.

“Fifty years is a momentous milestone,” Dorman said, returning to artists duty after drawing up the 2021 poster. “It’s...

Pete Docter, Pixar’s creative chief officer, is hoping the animation studio’s 27th release, “Elemental,” will draw families to movie theaters this weekend. Peter Sohn‘s film is a story about immigration, families, duty and love. Not only does Docter say the visuals are “a spectacle,” but believes it should be experienced with an audience.

Docter, who has been with the studio since the beginning and was upped to Cco in 2018, has come under criticism recently that Pixar has lost its magic touch.

Here, Docter sits down with Variety over Zoom to discuss Pixar’s approach to programming, Cannes, “Elemental,” and what’s next for the studio.

In a recent interview you said, “I don’t think of Pixar as making children’s programming.” Can you elaborate on that?

We’ve always looked at what we do as we’re the first audience. We make stuff we want to see ourselves.

"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" had big shoes and expectations to fill. The sequel is coming after an Oscar win and a revolution in Hollywood studio animation that has inspired experimentation in every major studio. And yet, the movie not only exceeded expectations but also crushes them. This is a grand achievement in myth building and deconstruction, with the film pulling not an "Empire Strikes Back" but a "Matrix Reloaded," interrogating the idea and tropes of the hero, while continuing Miles' poignant coming-of-age story.

Unsurprisingly, the film is gorgeous. It is easy to take that for granted but to see it with your own eyes defies description and expectations. Like the first film, it breaks apart the rules of animation to challenge the entire medium, but "Across the Spider-Verse" goes beyond, breaking film itself like it's the second coming of Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese's "Duck Amuck." The result is...

The very premise of “Mrs. Davis” all but encouraged the Peacock show’s creative team to embrace their pop culture influences. Co-created by Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof, “Mrs. Davis” is about the world’s most powerful artificial intelligence algorithm and a nun named Simone (Betty Gilpin), who the computer programs tasks with its destruction by sending her on a quest to find the Holy Grail. “Algorithms love cliches,” Wiley (Jake McDorman), Simone’s ex – who happens to lead a group of male resistance fighters like he’s “Fight Club” figure Tyler Durden – says at one point.

“It’s such a pastiche,” “Mrs. Davis” cinematographer Joe Anderson tells Gold Derby in an exclusive video interview. “The show deals with cliches – like when you do a Google search, the very first topic that comes up. Some of the writing toys with that idea. So we kind of leaned into some of these kind of obvious references,...

Joe Dante’s Gremlins came out on the eve of my seventh birthday, and I was instantly smitten. I saw the movie multiple times, read various adaptations and wore out the grooves on the series of tie-in records that were distributed through Hardee’s.

Gizmo, the seemingly innocent mogwai who, through modern humanity’s inability to follow three very basic rules, helped unleash a chaotic surge of nefarious gremlins, has been a constant companion over four decades, serving as my frequent social media avatar.

If the allure of Gremlins to Young Daniel was something primal — the lizard-brain appeal of Gizmo’s cuteness and the gremlins’ Chuck Jones-inspired mayhem — the subsequent appeal in countless rewatches has been different. As directed by Dante, like the cinematic spawn of Frank Capra and Roger Corman, Gremlins is simultaneously elemental and malleable. Mogwai are manifestations of repressed ego, gremlins the embodiment of untethered id.

This article contains minor spoilers for "The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."

Actor Nathan Fillion, a widely beloved figure thanks to his appearances on the cult series "Firefly" and on the hit series "Castle," has played three different roles across James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies. In the 2014 original, Fillion played the voice of a character called Monstrous Inmate, a tough space-alien prison denizen that the Guardians fought. Fillion also filmed scenes for "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2," but they were cut for the film's theatrical release. He was to play a human actor named Simon Williams.

In "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3," Fillion finally appears on screen in a recognizable way, playing a character named Karja. Karja was one of the many elite security guards — called Orgosentries — who worked on the high-tech, organically grown medical space station called the Orgosphere. It was explained that the Orgosentries,...

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Genndy Tartakovsky has proudly become the auteur of adult 2D animation. His new “Unicorn Warriors: Eternal” steampunk series premieres May 4 on Adult Swim; he’s completing his R-rated dog comedy “Fixed” for release next year at Sony Pictures Animation; and he’s prepping for Season 3 of his Emmy-winning “Primal” series at Adult Swim, but departing from the prehistoric world.

With “Unicorn Warriors,” though, Tartakovsky combines his personal steampunk aesthetic with action and humor, going back to his old Cartoon Network days, but without the gore of “Primal” or “Samurai Jack.” It’s about three heroes — powerful sorceress Melinda (Hazel Doupe), cosmic monk Seng (Demari Hunte), and warrior elf Edred (Tom Milligan) — reawakened through eternity as teenagers to fight a mysterious supernatural force threatening humanity. In the first season, the three find themselves in industrial London, joined by a steam-powered robot, Copernicus.

“I started to develop it at the end of ‘Star Wars: Clone Wars,...

The two biggest streaming releases this week could not be more different. One is a nostalgia-fueled special based on one of the most popular franchises of the '90s, in the form of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always." The other is a brand new, original, and very bizarre TV show, "Mrs. Davis." Elsewhere, for those looking for more tokusatsu fun like "Power Rangers," there are anime series like "Ssss Dynazenon" and "Love After World Domination," which offer unique spins on the "Power Rangers" formula. Or perhaps you want something that embraces the fun of these stories while offering something more serious, like "Shin Godzilla." Similarly, while you're waiting to know more about the mystery that is "Mrs. Davis," you would do well to check out co-creator Damon Lindelof's previous work on "Lost" and its vast mythology, the darkly weird blend of sexy and funny in "Alien: Covenant,...

In 1939, Judy Garland went over the rainbow, and the world would never be the same again. Garland, who'd first gained major fame singing, dancing, and acting alongside Mickey Rooney, was suddenly catapulted to superstardom. From her roots in vaudeville, Garland had been performing her whole life, and she eventually became one of the world's most beloved stars. Her singing voice is completely unmatched, and it was backed up with intensity, passion, and unparalleled charm. Though her personal history is not without difficulty -- and Rene Zellweger won an Oscar for portraying part of that history in "Judy" -- Garland is largely remembered as one of Hollywood's most beloved actresses.

Looking through Garland's career, it was her latter years that offered opportunities for rich experimentation. Though she still appeared in musicals, after her MGM contract expired, she boldly took risks, such as starring in an animated feature and an epic courtroom drama.