News

J.D. Salinger's 1951 book "The Catcher in the Rye" might be one of the most widely read American novels ever. Its protagonist, the 16-year-old Holden Caulfield, has become a model for adolescent angst, constantly expressing his disgust for the world and calling everyone and everything he objects to "phony." He feels he can still connect with certain individuals as he comes of age, notably younger kids, but that he is growing distant from the rest of the world. When asked what he wants to do with his life, Holden pictures a fantasy wherein he stands in a field of rye situated on top of a cliff. As children play in the rye, it's his job to catch them before they fall off the precipice. He is the catcher in the rye.

Salinger's book has been widely scrutinized and reinterpreted. It's as celebrated for its understanding of angst as it is pilloried for its nihilism,...

Major players in the animation industry have come together with Asifa-Hollywood, the professional organization behind the annual Annie Awards, to support members of the community affected by the Palisades and Eaton fires with a fundraising initiative that will be unveiled during the 52nd Annies on Saturday at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

The effort, called AnimAID, aims to raise $5 million over the next months to help the more than 60 families within the animation community who have lost or been displaced from their homes by the devastating fires.

Animation studios supporting AnimAID include: DreamWorks Animation; Illumination & Illumination Studios Paris; Mikros Animation; Netflix; Paramount Animation & Nickelodeon Animation; Sony Pictures Animation; Sony Pictures Imageworks; Skydance Animation; the animation studios of The Walt Disney Company, including Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Disney Television Animation, 20th Television Animation, Marvel Animation, and Lucasfilm Animation; Warner Bros. Animation; Warner Bros. Pictures Animation and more.

“So many people have volunteered their time,...

Chris Sanders is a one-of-a-kind artist.

As a kid, looking through various “art of” books for the 1990s Disney classics, you could always pick out a Chris Sanders illustration or a Chris Sanders storyboard, even without a little note explaining that it was him. It was just obvious. It wasn’t just the style of his illustrations or drawings; it was how much story and emotion was conveyed, breathlessly, with every line.

His latest film as a writer/director, “The Wild Robot,” contains all that we have come to expect (and love) from Sanders – an art style that boldly pushes the medium forward, characters that are so easy to love and root for, and a truthfulness to the occasionally harsh realities of life that are never dwelled on but are instead depicted with frank objectivity.

It’s incredible to see his vision so fully realized, and it was enough to...

Did The Lion King (1994) Hint At Mufasa & Scar Not Being Related? (Photo Credit – Facebook)

Disney’s The Lion King remains one of the most beloved animated films of all time. The relationship between King Mufasa and his cunning brother Scar is the base of the classic tale of betrayal, jealousy, and family conflict. For decades, fans believed Scar and Mufasa were blood brothers, making Scar’s treachery even more devastating. However, many fans were a bit disappointed when they learned that the two brothers were not blood-related. Therefore, fans began hating the upcoming film Mufasa: The Lion King for this revelation.

Some fans have criticized the filmmakers for not portraying Scar and Mufasa as brothers in the prequel, arguing that it changes the emotional weight of their relationship. However, the truth might surprise audiences. The original 1994 Lion King movie had already hinted that Scar and Mufasa were not real brothers after all.

The fact that AO3 exists is prima facie evidence that we fans can get a little carried away sometimes. That can be a problem when our headcanon escapes into the wild, taking root in the minds of normies, and before you know it, a myth is born. At its most extreme, the head honchos have had to step in to clarify, once and for all, that no…

5 The Love Interest of ‘The Idea of You’ Wasn’t Based on Harry Styles

Speaking of fan fiction, The Idea of You has been advertised as such because author Robinne Lee once mentioned being inspired by a Harry Styles music video, but “I don't consider it fan fiction at all,” she said. “Harry was one of multiple people who went into creating Hayes Campbell,” including Prince Harry, Eddie Redmayne, some of her exes, and her husband. Honestly, more people need to write fan fiction about their own spouses.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Disney’s “The Lion King” (currently in theaters for a limited run), which coincides with the release of Barry Jenkins’ prequel, “Mufasa: The Lion King” (December 20). The 2D blockbuster and pop culture phenomenon (directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff) was an early digital pioneer. This was vital in introducing a live-action aesthetic with dynamic camera movement and dramatic lighting to its “Circle of Life” adventure story, starring Simba and company, set in the African Pride Lands.

This propelled Jon Favreau’s photorealistic remake in 2019, driven by an innovative virtual production workflow and a Nat Geo-like doc aesthetic. Although it was marketed as “live action” and not submitted for animated Oscar consideration, this was clearly keyframe-animated by Mpc, which nonetheless earned a VFX Oscar nomination (production supervised by Rob Legato).

This, in turn, has led Jenkins to strive for greater emotional nuance and...

(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)

"The pitch for the story was a lion cub gets framed for murder by his uncle set to the music of Elton John. People said, 'What? Good luck with that.'" That's what producer Don Hahn said to Film School Rejects in 2018 of Disney's 1994 animated classic "The Lion King." It's an odd thing to say, given that it went on to become one of the most successful animated movies of all time. But that's looking back at it with the benefit of hindsight. At the time, it was viewed as a risk by the powers that be. It was a gamble that paid off handsomely, to put it lightly.

At the time, Disney was enjoying a fruitful period known as the Disney Renaissance,...

Disney Hits celebrates three decades of the 1994 animated classic “The Lion King” during “The Lion King 30th Anniversary Celebration” special, featuring exclusive, never-before-heard stories from the filmmakers paired with iconic music from the original soundtrack.

The Lion King30th Anniversary CelebrationListen on the App

Listen on the App

The Lion King 30th Anniversary Celebration How to listen

Stream “The Lion King 30th Anniversary Celebration” special anytime, anywhere, on the SiriusXM app, or catch it on-air on Disney Hits (Ch. 133) this weekend at the times below with more airings throughout the month.

Broadcast Schedule Saturday, June 8 1pm, 7pm, and 11pm Et Sunday, June 9 9am, 3pm, and 8pm Et Monday, June 10 12am, 8am, and 5pm Et

What you’ll hear

Exclusive interviews and never-before-heard stories from songwriters Sir Elton John and Sir Tim Rice, producers Don Hahn and Thomas Schumacher, directors Rob Minkoff and Roger Allers, story supervisor Brenda Chapman, screenwriter Irene Mecchi,...

If you’re a fan of animation, you know the name John Musker, whose four decades at Disney included writing and directing such classics as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Moana. Since retiring from the studio in 2018, he independently pursued an idea for a playful hand-drawn short, which he populated with caricatures of dozens of people from his life, among them fellow animators, CalArts classmates and Disney studios execs.

I’m Hip — shortlisted for an Academy Award — is a charming, music video-like film featuring a cat singing the catchy title song, Dave Frishberg’s 1970s recording of a tune he wrote with Bob Dorough. “[The song’s] very witty, and I always thought that would make for a fun short,” says Musker, 70.

“I have a penchant for teasing people,” he says, and his film “teases people who are so desperate to be on the cutting edge of things. Certainly Los Angeles is full of those people.

Ariel and her aquatic friends may have ushered in the Disney Renaissance, but Roger Rabbit helped right the sinking ship that was Disney in the '80s. Indeed, 1988's "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" came at the perfect time for the House of Mouse. After a string of failed (but fascinating) attempts to reinvigorate its artistry, the flailing studio recruited director Robert Zemeckis and executive producer Steven Spielberg -- members of the same crack team behind "Back to the Future" just three years before -- to adapt Gary K. Wolf's satirical 1981 novel "Who Censored Roger Rabbit?" into a film.

The result? An incredible visual feat by way of a detective yarn based in a fantasy version of '40s Los Angeles where "toons" from the Golden Age of American Animation walk alongside flesh-and-blood humans. With Zemeckis operating at the height of his powers, "Roger Rabbit" moves like clockwork, serving up...

Michael Eisner was Disney’s CEO during the late 1980s. Eisner was a big fan of J.D. Salinger’s novel Catcher in the Rye, so much so that he wanted Disney to adapt the novel into a movie. However, film producer Don Hahn told Eisner the cold hard truth that Salinger was never going to sell the rights of his book to anybody. But Eisner was persistent, proposing to do an animated film that dealt with similar themes from Catcher in the Rye but replace the original book characters with German Shepherds instead. It was to be an animated movie titled Dufus, but evidently, the film never made it out of the production studio.

Randy Fullmer, an effects animator, visual effects supervisor, artistic coordinator and producer who worked at Disney for almost 20 years, has died after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 73.

Over his nearly two decades at Disney, he did everything from work on the Toon Town portion of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” (his first gig at the studio) to working as an artistic coordinator on “The Lion King” to producing full Disney features like “The Emperor’s New Groove” and “Chicken Little.” A key and unsung player in the Disney Renaissance of the ‘80s and ‘90s, Fullmer’s legacy will live on.

Fullmer, who died July 10, in Woodland Hills, California, attended the California Institute of the Arts, a school co-founded by Walt Disney. After Fullmer graduated in 1974, he spent time working with Don Bluth, the Disney hotshot whose departure from the studio nearly crippled the animation department. Fullmer joined Bluth on his...

Randy Fullmer, a veteran Walt Disney Animation Studios animator and producer who worked on “The Little Mermaid” and “Chicken Little,” died of cancer on July 10. He was 73. Walt Disney Animation confirmed the news in a statement to Variety.

“Most people are good at one thing in their lives. Randy was good at a lot of things,” wrote Don Hahn, whom Fullmer worked with on “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King.” “He could draw and paint beautifully, but he had the mind of an engineer, and the heart of an artisan. He was great at animation; great at producing movies, too. He was at the very center of the Disney renaissance in animation, then when he needed a new chapter in his life, he started making exquisite and much sought-after bass guitars with that same engineer’s mind and artistic soul he brought to Disney animated movies. His masterful...

Randy Fullmer, the wildly creative effects animator, visual effects supervisor, artistic coordinator and producer who contributed to films including Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Little Mermaid and The Lion King at Walt Disney Animation Studios, has died. He was 73.

Fullmer died July 10 at his home in Woodland Hills following a long battle with cancer, his family announced.

From 1983-84, Fullmer worked for Don Bluth Studios, creating special effects for Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace, the first video games to be produced on laserdisc. He later was employed at John Dykstra’s live-action special effects house Apogee and at Filmation, where he handled animation for such TV shows as Happily Ever After, BraveStarr, She-Ra: Princess of Power and Ghostbusters from 1985-87.

In 1987, Fullmer was hired by Walt Disney Feature Animation (now known as Walt Disney Animation Studios) for a three-month contract to animate the Toon Town section of Who Framed Roger Rabbit...

Randy Fullmer, a Walt Disney Animation Studios effects animator, VFX supervisor and producer who worked on such classics as The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, has died. He was 73. The studio said he died July 10 at his home in Woodland Hills, CA, after a long cancer battle.

Fullmer worked at the Disney toon studio for nearly 20 years, racking up credits that also include effects animator on Oliver & Company (1988) and The Little Mermaid (1989), effects supervisor on The Rescuers Down Under (1990), artistic coordinator on The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) and producer on The Emperor’s New Groove (2000) and Chicken Little (2005). He served as artistic coordinator on 1994’s The Lion King and as VFX supervisor on 1991’s Beauty and the Beast.

“Most people are good at one thing in their lives. Randy was good at a lot of things,” said Don Hahn, producer of Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King.

There wouldn't be "The Little Mermaid" without Howard Ashman. There probably wouldn't be many of the most beloved Disney movies without him. Ashman was credited as a lyricist on 1989's "The Little Mermaid," 1991's "Beauty and the Beast," and 1992's "Aladdin," but he also worked as a storyteller behind the scenes, whipping the movies into shape and helping create the framework of a Disney animated movie that the studio continued to use throughout the '90s.

Don Hahn, who produced "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King," said in his 2009 documentary, "Waking Sleeping Beauty," about the history of Walt Disney Feature Animation, "Howard is referred to by Roy Disney as another Walt. To us, and to our generation, he was a Walt Disney type." Hahn also directed the 2018 documentary "Howard" about Ashman's life and his work for Disney.

"The animation studio was basically shutting down," Jodi Benson, who voices Ariel in the original film,...

In a cost-cutting move, The Walt Disney Company is removing an expansive list of content from Disney+ and Hulu. The removal of series like Turner & Hooch, Willow, and Mighty Ducks: Game Changers did not go over well with Disney+ users who were still upset by the series cancelations. News of the impending removal of the 2018 documentary Howard sparked so much backlash that Disney backtracked on their previous decision and is now keeping the title on Disney+.

Howard chronicles the life of Howard Ashman, a songwriter responsible for songs in Little Shop of Horrors, and Disney's The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. Ashman, who is largely credited as a leader in Disney's Renaissance, was a gay man who lost his battle with AIDS in 1991 when he was only 40 years old. With Disney's live-action The Little Mermaid premiere just a week away and LGBTQ+ Pride Month commencing June...

Disney is walking back their decision to remove the Disney+ documentary Howard after online backlash. Directed by Don Hahn, Howard is a 2020 biographical documentary about the life of composer Howard Ashman. A long collaborator with fellow composer Alan Menken, Ashman was the musical mind behind some of Disney’s most iconic scores, including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Little Mermaid.

After initially deciding to remove the documentary, Disney has reverses their decision to yank Howard from Disney+, according to Deadline. Disney had previously announced that Howard would depart from the platform on May 26. After heated online backlash from Disney fans, including a full thread picked up by Deadline in a prior reporting, the House of Mouse has decided to keep Howard on the platform after all.

Days before the remake of #TheLittleMermaid hits cinemas, and only weeks out from the beginning of Pride Month, Don Hahn's superb documentary on lyricist,...

Disney is reversing its decision to pull Howard, the documentary about lyricist Howard Ashman, from Disney+. The film explores Ashman’s achievements, including co-writing songs for the Disney animated classic The Little Mermaid. Ashman, a gay man who also wrote songs for Beauty and the Beast, Little Shop of Horrors, and Aladdin, is one of the most celebrated talents in music, whose contributions to film are as legendary as the projects he’s worked on. When word got out that Howard is part of the list of titles Disney plans to pull from its Disney+ platform, people began expressing their anger online.

After yesterday’s uproar about several titles being pulled from the streamer, including Willow, The Mysterious Benedict Society, The Mighty Ducks, and more, Disney says it’s removing Howard from the list of titles set to disappear at the end of the month. “The list of titles coming...

Update, 11:25 Am: Disney+’s documentary Howard will not be removed from the service.

“The list of titles coming off of Hulu and Disney+ next week is still being finalized,” a rep for the company said, indicating that there could be additional changes.

As revealed by Canal+ last week, Howard was on the list of titles Disney had sent to its international partners, informing them that they will be taken off the platform May 26. The authenticity of the list was confirmed by Deadline.

Since the titles were made public yesterday, Disney had received backlash over the pending removal of Howard — about famous lyricist Howard Ashman, a gay man, who co-wrote the songs for Disney’s Little Mermaid animated classic — and its timing, on the eve of the release of the live-action Little Mermaid movie and LGBTQ+ Pride Month.

Previous, 10:28 Am: Disney is taking some heat following news yesterday that...

In 1994, The Lion King roared into theaters and became a foundational piece of modern pop culture. Still heralded as one of the best films ever released from the Walt Disney Animation Studio, The Lion King helped carry on one of cinema's most impactful winning streaks. Since then, it's become a mainstay of the Disney parks and has led to plenty of spin-off shows and films.

But while the eventual success of the film makes it a clear stand-out from the studio, Disney had far less confidence in the film during production. In fact, animators at the studio initially balked at the prospect of working on The Lion King, leaving it with far less experienced talent (or executive oversight) as another notable film produced at the same time. Here's why Disney initially thought The Lion King was going to be a box-office failure.

Related: Exclusive First Look: Disney Unveils Cinderella's...

Burny Mattinson, a Disney Legend who served as an animator, producer, director and story artist in his nearly 70-year career with the studio, died Monday at the age of 87 following a short illness. Disney announced his death on their official website.

The story goes that Mattinson, who was born in San Francisco in 1935, was transformed when his mother took him to see Walt Disney’s “Pinocchio” at the age of 6. He knew what he wanted to do. As Don Hahn, who produced some of Disney’s most beloved movies during the Disney Renaissance, said of Mattinson’s life: “His life could be a Disney movie: teenaged kid shows up at the Disney gate with his portfolio under his arm and stays for 70 years. He was our story sensei, a brilliant draftsman who showed us what it was like to grind on a story until it was right.”

Mattinson’s first...

Walt Disney Co. Archives director Becky Cline has spent the past several months shuttling between the studio’s Burbank lot and Philadelphia, where a sprawling exhibit is debuting in February as part of the conglomerate’s yearlong 100th anniversary celebration in 2023. After Philly’s famed Franklin Institute, Disney100: The Exhibition will embark on a global five-year tour. The 15,000-square-foot spectacle will showcase more than 250 items, including Mickey Mouse sketches through the years, the storybook seen in 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the snow globe from 1964’s Mary Poppins, not to mention Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar and Pixar paraphernalia.

None is more important than the contract signed by Walt Disney and his brother Roy O. Disney on Oct. 16, 1923, to make a series of six Alice in Wonderland-themed cartoons for distributor M.J. Winkler, who booked animated shorts to play before silent movies. The pact marked the founding of the Disney Brothers Studio,...

Every so often, Disney Animation veers from the path.

Veteran Disney producer Don Hahn said he called it “turning left at the castle.” His analogy was built on theme park geography: instead of heading through the castle to Fantasyland, you would veer left, into Adventureland – an area full of hidden danger, wild creatures and very few songs.

This week, Walt Disney Animation Studios turns left again with their 61st feature “Strange World,” a story set in a mythological realm that follows three generations – manly adventurer Jaeger Clade (Dennis Quaid), his more intellectual son Searcher Clade (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Searcher’s teen son Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White) – as they explore a world beneath our own full of bizarre, deadly creatures and equally odd geography. They’re there in an attempt to save our world but uncover a threat that could destroy both.

TheWrap talked to producer Roy Conli, director Don Hall and...

“Atlantis: The Lost Empire” producer Don Hahn had an anecdote about the ethos that drove that 2001 animated Disney film’s production. If other Disney animated films, the ones concerned with princesses and magic kingdoms, represent the Fantasyland area of a Disney theme park, the one you reach after passing through the castle, then he wanted “Atlantis” to be the Adventureland movie. This would be one where you turn left.

For “Strange World,” Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 61st (!) feature, they have decided to turn left again. “It’s funny, every time I walk down Main Street, I turn left,” said “Strange World” producer Ron Conli.

“Strange World” is the story of the Clades, led by the rugged adventurer Jaeger Clade (Dennis Quaid). After Jaeger goes missing on an expedition, his son Searcher (Jake Gyllenaal) grows up, maintaining the family name in a different way: he farms a powerful crop that has...

Ellen Pompeo on Friday made her first public comments about her reduced on-screen presence on Grey’s Anatomy next season. As Deadline exclusively reported last month, Pompeo will appear in only eight episodes of ABC’s top scripted series for the upcoming 19th season. She is using the time to star in and executive produce an eight-episode Untitled Orphan limited series for Hulu.

“[Grey’s is] still gonna be just fine without me — I’m still gonna do the voiceover,” Pompeo told Deadline today on the red carpet for the Disney Legends ceremony at the D23 Expo, confirming that she will still do the series’ narration as Meredith. She said she hopes her fans would “come with me” to check out the Hulu series, in which she plays the mom in a drama inspired by the true story of Ukrainian-born Natalia Grace and her U.S. adoptive parents who claimed that she was an...

Grey’s Anatomy stars Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey, along with blackish leads Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson and the late Chadwick Boseman, were honored as Legends Friday to help kick off D23 Expo: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event.

The ABC stars and the lead of Black Panther, along with Frozen‘s Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff and Josh Gad, Imagineer Robert Coltrin, the late Robert Price “Bob” Foster (who procured the land for Walt Disney World), producer Don Hahn, Imagineer Doris Hardoon and music producer Chris Montan were named Disney Legends for their “extraordinary contributions” to the studio’s legacy.

Disney D23 Expo 2022 Photo Gallery: Marvel, Star Wars, and More

Pompeo was celebrated first for her starring role in ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy. Dubbed a superhero in scrubs by host Tamron Hall, Pompeo took the stage and began with an anecdote about her daughter Stella and how she...

There’s going to be a lot more of Earth’s mightiest heroes and villains at Disneyland and a lot more interaction on Disney+, said Bob Chapek today, kicking off 2022’s D23 Expo.

Speaking at the start of the now traditional Disney Legends Awards ceremony at the Anaheim confab, the clearly pumped House of Mouse CEO told attendees that the just opened Avengers Campus at the theme park’s California Adventure will be adding a third attraction. “The Marvel team continues to expand its Cinematic Universe, and Avengers Campus is going to grow right along with it, Chapek said Friday. “So today, I’m excited to announce that the Avengers Campus at Disney’s California Adventure is going deeper into the Multiverse,” the pacing CEO added.

“To do that, we are expanding Avengers Campus—and the heart of this new area will be a sensational new attraction,” former Theme Park...

Sept. 7, Wednesday

Tom Hanks, Cynthia Erivo and Luke Evans premiere “Pinocchio.”

Walt Disney Studios lot, Burbank

“Cobra Kai” Season 5 kicks off with Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, Xolo Maridueña and Tanner Buchanan.

L.A. State Historic Park, Los Angeles

Jimmy Kimmel hosts the premiere party for “Chef’s Table: Pizza.”

Pizzeria Bianco, Los Angeles

Peacock premieres “A Friend of the Family.”

San Vicente Bungalows, West Hollywood

Brie Larson attends the premiere of Disney+’s “Growing Up.”

Neuehouse, Hollywood

Sept. 8, Thursday

David E. Kelley accepts the Creative Conscience Award in the field of television at Variety’s Showrunners Dinner.

Sunset Tower, Los Angeles

Sally El Hosaini’s “The Swimmers” opens the 11-day Toronto International Film Festival.

Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto

Sept. 9, Friday

“Disney 100 Years of Wonder” kicks off at D23 Expo with the Disney Legends Awards, honoring Anthony Anderson, Kristen Bell, Chadwick Boseman, Rob’t Coltrin, Patrick Dempsey, Robert Price Foster, Josh Gad,...

It's one of the tragic moments of adulthood. You sit down to watch a film you idolized in your childhood — and haven't seen in just as long — only to discover a far less magical or even entertaining experience. Luckily, that's absolutely not the case with the 1995 Disney classic "A Goofy Movie," which I recently treated myself to a rewatch of. I am happy to report that the movie is still as heartwarming and hilarious as I remember it. From the big laughs of the Bigfoot scene to the teary eyes I still get when Max and Goofy finally reconcile.

But from the very beginning, Disney had less than stellar expectations for "A Goofy Movie" compared to bigger features like "The Lion King" or "Pocahontas." In fact, it wasn't even developed by Walt Disney Animation Studios (then called Walt Disney Feature Animation) but rather by a subdivision called Disneytoon Studios that...

Kevin Lima's "A Goofy Movie" usually isn't listed as part of the Disney Renaissance. The film "wasn't even a B movie. It was a C movie," as Don Hahn (a producer on "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King") recalled to Vanity Fair in honor of the movie's 25th anniversary in 2020. Much of the film's animation was outsourced to Disney Animation's smaller outlets in Paris and Australia, as well as non-Disney studios in Canada and Spain. The whole thing might've been scrapped, too, had it not already been greenlit by the head of Disney's film division, Jeffrey Katzenberg, just prior to his departure in the mid-1990s.

I bring all this up not to trash "A Goofy Movie" (I would never!), but to point out how ironic it is this "C movie" would go on to develop a passionate following, rivaling those for any of the Disney Renaissance hits.

Black Panther–well, Chadwick Boseman–is now a Disney Legend. The Walt Disney Company has announced 14 new honorees as part of their Disney Legends brand. This 35th anniversary edition of Disney Legends includes actors, animators, Imagineers, and more.

The list: Anthony Anderson, Kristen Bell, Chadwick Boseman, Rob’t Coltrin, Patrick Dempsey, Robert Price “Bob” Foster, Jonathan Groff, Don Hahn, Josh Gad, Doris Hardoon, Idina Menzel, Chris Montan, Ellen Pompeo, and Tracee Ellis Ross.

Perhaps the standout name is Chadwick Boseman, one of just two members being honored posthumously (the other is Foster). Boseman passed away just over two years ago.

The hall of fame was established in 1987 and included just one honoree that year: Fred MacMurray, whose most notable Disney movie is The Shaggy Dog (1959), later remade with Robert Downey Jr., a member of the Class of 2019.

The honorees also join the likes of Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, George Lucas,...

Disney’s upcoming D23 Expo is just a few weeks away, and news is emerging about what fans can expect from this year’s event.

According to a press release, D23 — a.k.a. “the ultimate Disney fan event” — will kick off with an opening ceremony featuring the Disney Legends Awards and a sneak peek at the upcoming Disney 100 Years of Wonder celebration.

“For nearly a century, Disney has been entertaining and inspiring people around the world,” said Bob Chapek, CEO, the Walt Disney Company. “I can’t wait to give fans a first look at what we have in store for our hundredth anniversary, and how we’re using this occasion to celebrate all the fans and families who have welcomed Disney into their lives.”

Read More: Kristen Bell’s ‘Encore!’ Gets Debut Trailer At D23 Expo

The opening ceremony will feature musical performances, special guests and some surprises,...

Disney’s D23 Expo will kick off next month with a presentation of this year’s class of Disney Legends, the roster of which was announced today. Per the company, “The Disney Legends Award is given to an individual who has made an extraordinary contribution to the Disney legacy.”

This year’s honorees are Anthony Anderson, Kristen Bell, Chadwick Boseman, Rob’t Coltrin, Patrick Dempsey, Robert Price “Bob” Foster, Jonathan Groff, Don Hahn, Josh Gad, Doris Hardoon, Idina Menzel, Chris Montan, Ellen Pompeo, and Tracee Ellis Ross.

Tamron Hall will host the ceremony.

“For nearly a century, Disney has been entertaining and inspiring people around the world,” said Chapek in a statement today. “I can’t wait to give fans a first look at what we have in store for our hundredth anniversary, and how we’re using this occasion to celebrate all the fans and families who have welcomed Disney into their lives.

“The Inventor,” the animated family feature by Oscar-nominated “Ratatouille” scribe Jim Capobianco whose all-star voice cast is led by Marion Cotillard, Daisy Ridley, Stephen Fry and Matt Berry, has been sold by MK2 Films to a flurry of territories.

The stop-motion film, which charts the life of Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci, has pre-sold to a large part of the world, with deals in France (Kmbo), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), Hong Kong and Taiwan (Muse), the Philippines (Falcon), Former Yugoslavia (Karantanija).

MK2 Films has already sold to the U.K., German-speaking Europe, Greece, Italy, Scandinavia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Israel, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, Latin America, the Middle East and Indonesia. Further deals are in negotiation.

Penned and directed by Capobianco, “The Inventor” tells the story of Leonardo da Vinci (Fry), whose free-thinking ways clashed with Pope Leo X (Berry). He was sent far from Rome to the French court...

Exclusive: Triple Oscar nominee Tomm Moore has joined the creative team of The Inventor, the animated film being directed by Ratatouille writer Jim Capobianco.

Hand-drawn animation master Moore will direct the 2D sequences of the stop-motion film, working aside his frequent collaborator Fabian Erlinghäuser, who was an animator on Moore’s Wolfwalkers, the Apple TV+ movie that is vying for the Animated Feature Oscar this weekend.

The Inventor will encompass both 2D and puppet animation, the latter sequences to be directed by Capobianco, who also penned the screenplay. The $10 million movie is now in pre-production, with delivery scheduled for spring 2023. As Deadline previously revealed, voice cast include Stephen Fry, Daisy Ridley, Marion Cotillard and Matt Berry.

The story follows the life and times of Leonardo da Vinci, tracking how the insatiably curious and headstrong Italian inventor joins the French court, where he can experiment freely, inventing flying contraptions, incredible machines,...

Marion Cotillard (“La Vie en Rose”) is joining Daisy Ridley (“Star Wars”) and Stephen Fry (“Gosford Park”) for the voice cast of “The Inventor,” the forthcoming stop-motion animated family feature about the life of Renaissance master Leonardo Da Vinci. “The Inventor” is written and directed by Jim Capobianco, the Oscar-nominated scribe of “Ratatouille.”

Matt Berry, who currently stars in FX’s 10-time Emmy-nominated TV series “What We Do In The Shadows,” is also joining the cast.

Negotiations are underway for the remaining cast and will be announced shortly. MK2 Films is handling international sales while North American rights are handled by The Exchange.

“The Inventor” is the story of Leonardo da Vinci (Fry), whose free-thinking ways clashed with Pope Leo X (Berry), who sent the inventor far from Rome to the more enlightened but reluctant French court of Francis I, his sister Marguerite (Ridley) and his mother Louise de Savoy...

We are living, somewhat incredibly, in a golden age of Disney documentaries. Thanks largely to the introduction of Disney’s own direct-to-consumer streaming platform Disney+, there have been a flood of nonfiction content from the company, ranging from exemplary features like Disneynature’s Dolphin Reef and Don Hahn’s touching Howard Ashman biography Howard to illuminating long-form content like the Frozen 2 making-of series Into the Unknown and Leslie Iwerk’s outstanding Imagineering Story. (There’s also a bunch of great vintage material on the platform, including The Pre-Opening Report from Disneyland and Walt Disney’…...

One of the unexpected highlights of Disney+ has been its unstoppable documentary programming. From documentary features like Disneynature’s Dolphin Reef and biographies like Don Hahn’s recent (and totally wonderful) Howard, to the equally exceptional long-form documentary series like Into the Unknown and The Imagineering Story, Disney’s direct-to-consumer streaming platform has been totally unstoppable it when it comes to nonfiction content. And this hot streak looks like it’ll continue with National Geographic’s upcoming Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, announced today and set to premiere on September 25. The eight-episode series promises …...

Original Beauty and the Beast directors did not make a "red cent" from the 2017 live-action adaptation. Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale directed the 1991 animated classic and were given executive producer credit on the live-action movie, which earned over $1 billion at the global box office. Some scenes from the movie are lifted directly from the 1991 version that Wise and Trousdale oversaw, but they were not compensated financially by Disney.

"I didn't get a red cent from the new Beauty and the Beast," Kirk Wise said. Gary Trousdale confirms, "No, there was no financial to it. And the fact that we got credit was a surprise to me." Wise then says, "Me too! Thanks!" Wise and Trousdale had no idea they would be receiving executive producer credits on the 2017 take on the story. Trousdale had this to say about how he learned about the credits.

"I got invited to the premiere at the El Capitan,...

Another week of 2020, another week largely without movie theaters. Fortunately, it is a huge week for new movies making their way to streaming. While it may be from the comfort of home and not at a theater near you, there is no shortage of options when it comes to finding something to watch this weekend.

We have a brand new comedy from Seth Rogen, the latest from director David Ayer and an update to a classic tale. There is also a horror flick focused on killer crocodiles, a new documentary on Disney+ and a few recent acclaimed titles that are finally arriving on streaming services. Here at this week's streaming selections.

An American Pickle - HBO Max

if Ie 9>endif-->if Ie 9>endif-->An American Pickle"/>

It feels a bit like a broken record at this point in 2020, but here we have another big movie that was previously destined for...

The late lyricist Howard Ashman gave us the gift of many of the most-loved Disney songs of the modern era, teaming with composer Alan Menken to write “Beauty and the Beast’s” “Be Our Guest,” “The Little Mermaid’s” “Part of Your World” and “Aladdin’s” “Friend Like Me.” In the new documentary “Howard,” streaming on Disney Plus from August 7, director Don Hahn — who knew his subject well, having produced the original animated version of “Beauty and the Beast” — goes in for a look at Ashman’s life behind the music.

Hahn talks with Variety about the importance of remembering Ashman (pictured above working on “Little Mermaid” with actress Paige O’Hara) and making a documentary about his life, the art and his music with the people who knew him best, such as his sister and life partner.

What made you want to finally tell Howard’s story?

It hadn’t...

Disney has seen enormous financial success from their tactic of remaking their animated classics in live-action, but the response from critics and audiences alike has been much more mixed. It’s generally agreed that the new versions can’t top the original films, of course, but the relative creativity and entertainment value of the remakes is not the only controversial element about them. For instance, it’s known that the creators of the old movies don’t receive any fee for having their original works remade.

The latest filmmakers to talk about this are Gary Wise and Kirk Trousdale, the directing duo behind Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. They spoke with Collider and opened up about how they didn’t receive any money from the studio for the 2017 BatB reboot, which earned Disney a whopping $1 billion at the global box office.

as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Ashman was only 40 when he died of complications from AIDS in 1991. His life partner, architect Bill Lauch, picked up the posthumous Oscar that Ashman won for Beauty. Jeffrey Katzenberg, then propelling Disney’s animation renaissance, recalls seeing Ashman near the end, having lost his sight and weighing barely 80 pounds. It’s unlikely such a graphic depiction will ever surface on Blu-ray extras for the family-friendly blockbusters that Ashman created with composer Alan Menken — so cheers to Disney+ for presenting the revelatory doc.

There’s a moment in Howard, Don Hahn’s incredible documentary about the life of Oscar-winning lyricist Howard Ashman, who contributed unforgettably to The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, that is so quick you will probably miss it. It’s in a section of the movie that details Disney’s attempt to woo the lyricist and writer in the late 1980s, after his frustrating experience on the film version of Little Shop of Horrors and after his would-be Broadway hit Smile had a spectacular flameout. Hahn shows a letter from then-Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, …...

The most undeniably moving moments in Don Hahn’s tremendous 2009 documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty, which charted the return of Disney Animation’s cultural dominance after decades in hibernation, were those dedicated to lyricist Howard Ashman. Ashman, who provided lyrics to The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and part of Aladdin, contracted AIDS and his health began to fail. An unforgettable anecdote from the documentary detailed how the filmmakers, after a particularly rapturous test screening, visited Ashman in his Manhattan hospital room. The lyricist, who helped save Walt Disney’s beloved feature animation program as it teetered on the …...

One of the hidden strengths of Disney Plus — a streaming service whose subtler assets are indeed easily overshadowed by the library of blockbuster movies available — is its collection of entertainments that pay tribute to the history of its parent company. For die-hard fans, “The Imagineering Story” and “Prop Culture” pull back the aperture a bit and allow fans to feel a bit closer to the action, a mission that only really makes sense for a streamer with quite so precisely calibrated a brand identity.

“Howard,” a new documentary directed by longtime Disney producer Don Hahn and launching on the service August 7, is likeliest to appeal to diehards who’ve already familiarized themselves with what else is on offer there. But there’s stuff there to appeal to anyone who’s ever hummed along to “Under the Sea” or “Be Our Guest,” too. Telling the story of Howard Ashman — the lyricist...

Kcet picked up eight wins tonight at the Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards, including awards for local color, culture and sports programming. Kmex followed with five wins.

Kvea’s wins included best news series and live coverage of an unscheduled news event. ABC7 took the honors for best evening newscast. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic the awards were presented without audience in front of the Television Academy’s Saban Media Center in North Hollywood and livestreamed on YouTube.

Below is the complete list of winners at the 72nd Los Angeles Area Emmys, including a breakdown of wins by each outlet.

L.A. Local Color

Transformation (Broken Bread) Kcet

Juan Devis, Executive Producer

Roy Choi, Executive Producer

Host Emily Mraz

Producer Matthew Crotty

Producer Elizabeth Collins

Producer Natasha Phan

Producer Aaron Warzynski

Editor Jacqueline Reyno

Associate Producer James Mann

Director, Director of Photography

Jt Smith, Editor

Live Special Events – Programming

60th Annual L.

"Howard and Alan Menken had captured the imagination of a generation..." Disney has released the new official trailer for a documentary titled Howard, made by the acclaimed Disney veteran Don Hahn. The doc film tells the story of songwriter Howard Ashman, who penned the lyrics for the musicals Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast, before he died of AIDS at the height of the AIDS crisis in 1991. "You may not know his name, but you sure know Howard Ashman's music," states Hahn. "He's one of the greatest storytellers of the twentieth century who helped to revitalize the American musical and re-energize Disney Animation. He left us a songbook that still lives on in us today, yet his personal story has never been fully told until now." The film features interviews with Ashman's longtime musical collaborator Alan Menken, who also scored the film, Bill Lauch...

The new documentary “Howard” profiles the life and work of Howard Ashman, the legendary lyricist whose music and words on stage and in Disney films helped inspire a golden age of stories and musicals.

And along with the first trailer for the documentary film which shows behind the scenes footage of Ashman working with the voice actors for “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast,” Disney has unveiled that “Howard” will debut on Disney+ on Aug. 7.

“As a lyricist, the last great place to do musicals is in animation,” Ashman says in a clip in the trailer. “We knew something really special was happening, but what we didn’t know is that in nine months, Howard would be gone,” one of his Disney colleagues adds.

Also Read: Why 'Hamilton' on Disney+ Could Spark More Demand for Filmed Broadway Shows

“Howard” made its debut at the Tribeca Film...