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Updated: There has been another round of content removal from Disney+, this time in the Emea region, which consists of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. More than 120 titles have been taken off this week, primarily Disney Channel original movies and vintage Disney live-action films, as well as a few series, including Zeke and Luther, Pepper Ann, So Random and the first three seasons of Nat Geo’s Genius and ESPN/Nat Geo docs.

According to sources, the takedowns were a result of a library title review. There have been several content purges at Disney+ over the last year amid cost-cutting, most notably the removal of a slew of original series last May.

Here is a list of movie titles that are said to be gone from Disney+ in Emea, compiled by Drew Ryan.

A Tale of Two Critters

America’s Heart and Soul

Angry Sky (ESPN)

Babes in Toyland...

2023 may have been a complicated year for the film industry, but it was a great year for movies. So, hey: No pressure, 2024.

As we sit here in the January doldrums, we can only look at the months and ahead and hope. Will those massively anticipated sequels live up to the hype? Will the latest releases from bona fide masters be worth the wait? Will everything that is supposed to come out this year actually come out this year? The anticipation is killing us.

This is far from a comprehensive list of every intriguing movie hitting theaters in 2024, but it does represent the titles that have the /Film team's attention already. Naturally, we expect dozens of incredible surprises to emerge from out of nowhere, especially as the film festival season starts to kick off. And since we're not psychics, we had to stick to the movies that we know are coming out this year,...

Catering directly to my interests, the Criterion Channel’s January lineup boasts two of my favorite things: James Gray and cats. In the former case it’s his first five features (itself a terrible reminder he only released five movies in 20 years); the latter shows felines the respect they deserve, from Kuroneko to The Long Goodbye, Tourneur’s Cat People and Mick Garris’ Sleepwalkers. Meanwhile, Ava Gardner, Bertrand Tavernier, Isabel Sandoval, Ken Russell, Juleen Compton, George Harrison’s HandMade Films, and the Sundance Film Festival get retrospectives.

Restorations of Soviet sci-fi trip Ikarie Xb 1, The Unknown, and The Music of Regret stream, as does the recent Plan 75. January’s Criterion Editions are Inside Llewyn Davis, Farewell Amor, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and (most intriguingly) the long-out-of-print The Man Who Fell to Earth, Blu-rays of which go for hundreds of dollars.

See the lineup below and learn more here.

Back By Popular Demand

The Graduate,...

Disney has shared a new trailer for their upcoming Disney+ streaming service and it’s over 3-hours long! I don’t know if you want to spend over three hours seeing what Disney+ has to offer when it launches, but you have the option!

Disney+ also posted all of the films and TV shows coming to the streaming service on a super long Twitter thread, which I included below the trailer. As you’ll see there’s a ton of stuff that will be available that will make Disney fans happy. Gargoyles and several other classic 90s animated series are among them along with a lot of old weird films that have been pulled out of the Disney vault.

If you don’t want to watch the trailer or scroll through the Twitter feed, I shared the full list of titles for you. Check everything out below and let us...

Fists in the Pocket

Blu ray

Criterion

1965/ 1.85:1 / 108 min.

Starring Lou Castel, Paola Pitagora

Cinematography by Alberto Marrama

Directed by Marco Bellochio

The split-personality of world cinema was never more evident than in 1965 when Fists in the Pockets and Repulsion debuted alongside The Sound of Music and That Darn Cat. All four films dealt with fantasies of family life but only one suggested smashing the institution altogether. And that film was That Darn Cat (“sarcasm font”).

Hailed as one of the most audacious debuts in film history, director Marco Bellochio’s Fists in the Pocket premiered that summer at the Locarno Film Festival. Both Time and Newsweek raved and even Life Magazine, America’s favorite coffee table prop, confessed they were “stunned but exhilarated.” The movie received a more predictable reception from the usual suspects – The Christian Democrat Party called for its expulsion from the public eye.

Bellochio’s film about a deranged brood,...

Ron Miller, who served as president and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, has died at age 85 in Napa, Calif., the company confirmed on Sunday.

Miller, an Army veteran and star athlete at USC who played for the Los Angeles Rams, came to the company by way of his wife, Diane Disney, the daughter of company founder Walt Disney.

He served as a producer on 1960s and ’70s films like “Son of Flubber,” “That Darn Cat!” “Pete’s Dragon” and “Escape to Witch Mountain” — and helped drive the innovative computer animation in the 1982 sci-fi thriller “Tron.”

In 1978, he was named president of Walt Disney Productions and then promoted to CEO in 1983. He led the creation of Walt Disney Home Video, Touchstone Pictures and The Disney Channel...

Back in 1964 a lot of people still thought dolphins were fish, but by the time this TV show was finished, we all knew that our happy undersea friend was smarter than the average bear and lives in a world full of wonder. Ivan Tors’ grandly successful Florida-shot family show kept a lot of seagoing movie veterans in green seaweed, including both original ‘Creature’ Gill Men.

Flipper, Season One

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1964-65 / Color / 1:33 flat TV / 780 min. / Street Date August 29, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 39.95

Starring: Brian Kelly, Luke Halpin, Tommy Norden.

Cinematography: Clifford H. Poland Jr., Lamar Boren

Original Music: Henry Vars, song by

Written by: Jack Cowden, Ricou Browning, Peter L. Dixon, Laird Koenig, Stanley H. Silverman, Orville H. Hampton, Lee Erwin, Art Arthur, Jess Carneol, Key Lenard, Ivan Tors, Alan Caillou, Arthur Richards, Robert Sabaroff.

Produced by Ivan Tors, Ricou Browning, Leon Benson, Andrew Marton

Directed by: Ricou Browning,...

Robert Day, the veteran British director who in the 1960s worked on five Tarzan movies and guided Peter Sellers in the delicious comedy Two-Way Stretch, has died. He was 94.

Day, who also helmed two Boris Karloff horror flicks, died Friday on Bainbridge Island in Washington state, his family announced. He worked in the U.S. starting in the 1970s and retired in 1991.

Day was married to bubbly American actress and dancer Dorothy Provine (TV's The Roaring 20's, That Darn Cat!) from 1969 until her death in 2010.

Day directed Gordon Scott as the King of the Jungle...

Animals live among us, often with us, some despite our interference in their habitats. They’re independent organisms that are often subject to our rules. This is especially true when it comes to television.

How we use and portray animals on TV perhaps reveals more about ourselves than the qualities they contain. Are they brought in to round out a nuclear TV family, or do they have greater narrative significance? Do they have personalities or are they plot devices that advance the story, and then forgotten? Do characters regard them with any real feeling?

Read More: The Best TV Shows of 2016

IndieWire examined how the animal kingdom fared on our screens this year from a storytelling point of view, and determined which portrayals were the most significant. Because of this narrative aspect, we focused on two types: fictional animals whose characters were created for the purpose of the show, and non-speaking animals.

25. “Game of Thrones,” “The Winds of Winter”

This was a crucial season for “Game of Thrones” co-creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who, in their sixth year nurturing this beast into life, had to go off-book for the first time since author George R.R. Martin had been outstripped by the TV series. Although the pair pulled off an epic ninth episode — the signature stunner in seasons past — it was the finale that came together the best this year. The opening sequence alone is worth the price of admission because it certainly brings words like “cinematic” to mind. Set to a gorgeous score by Ramin Djawadi, the scene was deftly shepherded by director Miguel Sapochnik to create an almost sadistic amount of tension as we waited for Cersei’s green revenge to be unleashed. Once the catastrophic event occurred though, that was not the end of the dragon ride for us viewers.

Ryan Lambie Jun 26, 2019

Space horror in The Black Hole. Animated death in The Black Cauldron. The '70s and '80s were a unique period in Disney's filmmaking history.

When George Lucas started writing Star Wars in the early '70s, the space saga was intended to fill a void left behind by westerns, pirate movies and the sci-fi fantasy of old matinee serials. "Disney had abdicated its rein over the children's market," Lucas once said, according to Peter Biskind's book, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, "and nothing had replaced it."

Indeed, Disney was one of many Hollywood studios that Lucas had approached with Star Wars and they, just like Universal, United Artists, and everyone other than 20th Century Fox boss Alan Ladd Jr., had turned it down flat. Science fiction, the thinking went, was box office poison; even Lucas, who'd insisted that Roy Disney himself might have snapped...

Ryan Lambie Dec 7, 2016

Space horror in The Black Hole. Animated death in The Black Cauldron. Ryan looks back at a unique period in Disney's filmmaking history...

When George Lucas started writing Star Wars in the early 70s, the space saga was intended to fill a void left behind by westerns, pirate movies and the sci-fi fantasy of old matinee serials. "Disney had abdicated its rein over the children's market," Lucas once said, according to Peter Biskind's book, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, "and nothing had replaced it."

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Indeed, Disney was one of many Hollywood studios that Lucas had approached with Star Wars and they, just like Universal, United Artists and everyone other than 20th Century Fox boss Alan Ladd Jr, had turned it down flat.

Does anybody still care about great movies for small children? If so, here’s a good one. A big, furry green dragon named Elliot is the kind of playmate every lonely kid wants. It’s a non-musical rethinking of the old 1977 movie, made with taste, discretion, and plenty of heart.

Pete’s Dragon

Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD

Walt Disney Studios

2016 / Color / 2:39 widescreen / 103 min. / Street Date November 29, 2016 / 39.99

Starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, Oakes Fegley, Wes Bentley, Karl Urban, Oona Laurence, Isiah Whitlock Jr. .

Cinematography Bojan Bazelli

Film Editor Lisa Zeno Churgin

Original Music Daniel hart

Written by David Lowery, Toby Halbrooks based on screenplay by Malcolm Marmorstein based on a story by Seton I. Miller, S.S. Field

Produced by James Whitaker

Directed by David Lowery

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

I think I watched only about four minutes of the old Pete’s Dragon on TV long ago, before ditching out.

Cinephiles express their admiration for their favorite films in many different ways, but one creative couple from England has gone above and beyond the line of duty. David and Sarah have started the Instagram account Movie Cats where they recreate classic movie scenes only with cats in the starring role. So far, the two have staged scenes from “The Shining,” “Alien,” “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Ghost” and “American Beauty.” See the adorable photos below.

Read More: ‘Nine Lives’ Review: Kevin Spacey Is Transformed Into A Cat In This Neutered Family Comedy From Hell

“We have two cats (who are almost identical) named Willow and Tara, though Tara is featured in most of our movie cat pics,” David and Sarah told The Dodo this past Monday. “We started doing it as a picture question in our pub quiz’s film/TV round, and it went down really well so we made it a regular thing.

[Editor’s Note: Spoilers ahead for “The Night Of” season finale.]

A collective shriek of joy could be heard around the United States Sunday night, as our eight-week-long wait for the answer to one question was finally given: Yes, John Stone saved the cat.

Though there has been some debate over the metaphorical significance of the orange and white shorthair, it became clear early on in “The Night Of’s” season (series?) finale who, exactly, the furry feline represented: Naz (Riz Ahmed) — the former college kid on trial for murder who John Stone, “Attorney at Law,” was trying oh so desperately to save.

Read More: Review: ‘The Night Of’ ‘Serial’-izes ‘Law & Order,’ But It’s All About ‘The Verdict’

And he did! A mandatory staple of the legal drama, this case meant more to Stone than any of his others’, in part because — as said in a heartfelt closing argument — Stone believed Naz to be innocent. So, the second he...

Eight-year-olds, dude.

The first photo of pederast and ace bowler Jesus Quintana has officially surfaced since news broke that the character played by John Turturro in the Coen brothers’ “The Big Lebowski” was finally getting his own spinoff movie, “Going Places.” Birth.death.movies broke the news earlier this month that the film was already a few weeks into production, and on Friday, actress Susan Sarandon posted an Instagram of Turturro reprising the role.

Read More: ‘Big Lebowski’ Spinoff ‘Going Places’ Already Shooting, with John Turturro Directing and Starring as The Jesus

Sarandon co-stars in the film alongside Bobby Cannavale and Audrey Tautou. Cannavale plays a thief named Petey who is competing with Quintana for the affection of a woman (Tautou). Sarandon plays a criminal who just got out of prison after serving a long sentence. The dramatic comedy that was initially going to be titled “100 Minutes with Jesus” is...

Nic Pizzolatto may not be involved with “True Detective” season three — which itself is still far from a certainty — but his involvement with HBO is far from over. Along with Robert Downey Jr., the writer and producer is in talks with HBO for a new drama project. Variety first reported the news.

Read More: ‘True Detective’ Season 3: HBO Says, ‘It Is Not Dead’

Few concrete details are known about the project, though it looks to be related to the “Perry Mason” reboot that Downey Jr. was previously developing with Warner Bros. as a feature film for several years. (This project, whatever it is, will be a series.) The two will executive produce along with Susan Downey, with Pizzolatto writing and Rdj starring — his first television role, should it come to pass, since his high-profile role in Ally McBeal some 15 years ago.

Read More: HBO Signs Nic Pizzolatto, But Pushes...

What does HBO’s John Oliver know about predatory lending by used car dealers? A lot, actually. On Sunday’s episode of “Last Week Tonight,” Oliver and Keegan-Michael Key appeared in a sketch that breaks down just how disgusting the used car trade is.

Watch: Last Week Tonight’ Targets Journalism With Rose Byrne & Jason Sudeikis ‘Spotlight’ Parody

Posing as salesmen at “Crazy Johnny’s Used Cars,” the pair gives an overly transparent pitch to viewers about the nature of used car loans. “Is your credit so bad that giving you a high interest loan will basically trap you under a mountain of debt from which there is no reasonable hope for escape?” Oliver asked. “We don’t care!” Key then tries to sell viewers on a beat up sedan that has “four tires, up to one engine, and a beeping device which emits a sound that will haunt your dreams.

“Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver excels at drawing unexpected comparisons between people, places and things — often in the middle of one of his long-form rants — and last night’s episode of the HBO news talk series featured pretty stellar jab at Woody Allen couched in a series of jabs at Donald Trump.

Oliver was ostensibly reporting on another wild week in Trump’s campaign — one marked by a series of walkbacks, walkback walkbacks and maybe even an actual walkback walkback walkback — when he snuck in a dig at Allen and his latest film, “Cafe Society.”

Read More: ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’ Endorsements Video: Watch Praise For Tilda Swinton & ‘Pushing Tin’

“Anyone who wants to give their money to a Manhattan narcissist whose interests begin and end with the plight of white people, keep in mind that Woody Allen’s ‘Cafe Society’ is getting decent reviews right now,...

Above: 1965 Czech poster for Three Fables of Love (Blasetti, Bromberger, Clair, Berlanga, Italy/Spain, 1962). Designer: Karel Teissig.Two events provoked this article. First of all, last week I saw the wonderful 1963 Czech fable The Cassandra Cat (a.k.a. When the Cat Comes) at New York’s newest cinephile hotspot, the Metrograph. In this charming New Wave satire a cat wearing dark glasses is brought into a small town by a circus troupe and, when his glasses are removed, the townspeople are revealed in their true colors: namely neon shades of purple, yellow and pink, each representing their vices or virtues. The highlight of the film for me, aside from a psychedelic freak-out dance party in the middle of the film, comes when all the children of the town march through the street bearing large drawings of cats. Chris Marker would have loved this film.The second event was the...

“Scaramouch, Scaramouch will you do the Fandango?” 40 years ago today, Queen’s iconic-status-bound single “Bohemian Rhapsody” was released in the U.S. The tempo-shifting song jumps from power ballad to operatic to heavy rock and sounded not quite like anything else on the radio, clocking in at nearly six minutes. Record companies thought it would never get airplay. But it became an unconventional hit, scoring Queen their first number one single in the U.K. It reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. The stateside release followed an October 1975 debut in the U.K. American radio Rko managed to get a copy of the tape and started to play it in across their network, which forced the hand of Queen’s U.S. label to release the song in its entirety. The song has been covered and parodied by many artists, The Muppets’, Pink’s and Panic!

Clean-cut Disney actor who co-starred with cats, dogs, chimps and Herbie the Love Bug

Mickey Mouse apart, the figure who most represented Walt Disney Productions in the 1960s was the clean-cut actor Dean Jones. Jones, who has died aged 84, starred as the bumbling, somewhat bland, hero in five entertaining kiddie movies with animals in the title: That Darn Cat! (1965), The Ugly Dachshund (1966), Monkeys, Go Home! (1966), The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit (1968) and The Love Bug (1968). The last of these starred not strictly speaking an animal, nor an insect, but a white Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of its own, ostensibly owned by the unsuccessful racing car driver Jim Douglas, played by Jones.

Happily, Herbie – as the cuddly, anthropomorphic auto is christened – helps Jim win an all-important race through the Sierra Nevada mountains against his nemesis, the villainous Thorndyke (David Tomlinson) in his sleek Italian Thorndyke Special. Jones, who did...

Dean Jones, who starred in some of the most memorable live-action Disney flicks of the 1960s and '70s, died in Los Angeles on Monday of Parkinson's disease. He was 84.

Jones rose to stardom thanks to a handful of roles in successful Disney family films like "That Darn Cat!" and "The Love Bug," the latter of which introduced the world to Herbie, the Volkswagen Beetle with human-like tendencies. Jones was offered the lead role in 1965's "That Darn Cat!," opposite Hayley Mills, by Walt Disney himself, after impressing the studio head with his part on NBC sitcom "Ensign O'Toole."

He starred in many more Disney films, including "Monkeys, Go Home," "Million Dollar Duck," and "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo." Jones also had a small part in Elvis Presley's 1957 classic "Jail House Rock," and appeared in "Clear and Present Danger," ''Beethoven," and "Other People's Money," among others, including a...

Anyone who saw a lot of kid’s movies in the ‘60s and ‘70s remembers Dean Jones. He was always a likable presence and a welcome sight, especially in the Disney family-friendly sort of films he excelled in such as The Ugly Dachshund, Blackbeard’S Ghost , The Love Bug, Snowball Express, The Million Dollar Duck, That Darn Cat! The list goes on and on and it’s hard to believe he was 84! He was always so young-looking, sort of the Dick Clark of the movies! Dean Jones was 84 and had Parkinson’s disease.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

“Dean Jones, the affable actor who starred in such classic Disney family comedies as That Darn Cat!, The Love Bug and The Shaggy D.A., has died. He was 84. Jones died Tuesday of complications from Parkinson’s disease in Los Angeles, publicist Richard Hoffman announced. Jones’ film grosses exceeded $960 million, Hoffman noted. The actor...

Actor whose boyish good looks and all-American manner made him Disney’s top choice for almost a decade had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease

Dean Jones, whose boyish good looks and all-American manner made him Disney’s favourite young actor for such lighthearted films as That Darn Cat! and The Love Bug, died from complications resulting from Parkinson’s disease in Los Angeles on Tuesday. He was 84. His publicist, Richard Hoffman, announced his death on Wednesday.

Jones’ long association with Disney began after he received an unexpected call from Walt Disney himself, who praised his work on the TV sitcom Ensign O’Toole, noting that it had “some good closing sequences”. Jones, himself a former navy man, played the title role in the 1962 show.

Continue reading...

Actor whose boyish good looks and all-American manner made him Disney’s top choice for almost a decade had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease

Dean Jones, whose boyish good looks and all-American manner made him Disney’s favourite young actor for such lighthearted films as That Darn Cat! and The Love Bug, died from complications resulting from Parkinson’s disease in Los Angeles on Tuesday. He was 84. His publicist, Richard Hoffman, announced his death on Wednesday.

Jones’ long association with Disney began after he received an unexpected call from Walt Disney himself, who praised his work on the TV sitcom Ensign O’Toole, noting that it had “some good closing sequences”. Jones, himself a former navy man, played the title role in the 1962 show.

Continue reading...

Disney favourite Dean Jones has died at the age of 84.

The actor, best known for playing racecar driver Jim Douglas in Disney's Love Bug films, passed away earlier today (September 2).

Jones had been battling Parkinson's disease prior to his passing.

In a 12-year run with the Walt Disney Company, Jones became a familiar face to audiences with roles in the films The Shaggy Da, Blackbeard's Ghost and That Darn Cat!.

He would play racer Jim Douglas in Disney's Love Bug films throughout the 1970s, and even reprise the role for a short-lived '80s television spinoff.

Away from Disney, Jones briefly starred on Broadway in Stephen Sondheim's Company in 1970 and would later tour the religious one-man show St John in Exile across the Us.

He also stayed busy on the big screen in later years, playing the villain in '90s children's movie Beethoven as well as having supporting...

Update Thursday morning: Larry Kert was Tony-nominated, but didn’t win for Company. Dean Jones, the affable actor best known for leading roles in several family Disney films of the 1960s and ’70s including The Love Bug and That Darn Cat! — as well as creating one of Stephen Sondheim’s iconic leading roles on Broadway in Company — died Tuesday from complications related to Parkinson’s disease. He was 84. Born on January 25, 1931, in Decatur, Al, Jones began singing and…...

Dean Jones: Actor in Disney movies. Dean Jones dead at 84: Actor in Disney movies 'The Love Bug,' 'That Darn Cat!' Dean Jones, best known for playing befuddled heroes in 1960s Walt Disney movies such as That Darn Cat! and The Love Bug, died of complications from Parkinson's disease on Tue., Sept. 1, '15, in Los Angeles. Jones (born on Jan. 25, 1931, in Decatur, Alabama) was 84. Dean Jones movies Dean Jones began his Hollywood career in the mid-'50s, when he was featured in bit parts – at times uncredited – in a handful of films at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer In 2009 interview for Christianity Today, Jones recalled playing his first scene (in These Wilder Years) with veteran James Cagney, who told him “Walk to your mark and remember your lines” – supposedly a lesson he would take to heart. At MGM, bit player Jones would also be featured in Robert Wise's...

Dean Jones, the actor who appeared in such classic live-action Disney films as “The Love Bug” and “That Darn Cat,” died from Parkinson’s disease in Los Angeles on Tuesday. He was 84. Born in Decatur, Alabama, in 1931, Jones served in the Navy during the Korean war and attended Asbury University in Kentucky. A prolific actor in both film and television, Jones appeared in 46 films and numerous television series and specials. He also had a successful Broadway career, appearing as Dave Manning in the comedy “Under the Yum-Yum Tree,” a role he would reprise in the 1963 film adaptation...

Legendary Disney classic film actor Dean Jones has died of Parkinson's disease at the age of 84.

Jones is best remembered for his work in three bonafide family film classics - the original "That Darn Cat," "Blackbeard's Ghost" and the start of the "Herbie" franchise "The Love Bug". Jones starred in around 46 films along with appearing in numerous television series and on Broadway.

Amongst his work were the likes of "The Shaggy D.A.," "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo," "Clear and Present Danger," "Other People's Money," "Beethoven," "Under the Yum-Yum Tree," "Any Wednesday" and "The Million Dollar Duck" along with guest roles on "Murder She Wrote," "The Love Boat," "Bonanza" and the animated "Superman" series.

Source: Variety...

That darn cat! After photos of Taylor Swift carrying her cat Olivia Benson around NYC made headlines last week, the "Shake It Off" singer explained why the fluffy white pet has become the purr-fect arm candy. "The kitten freaks out about being put in the cat carrier," Swift, 24, told Access Hollywood at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas on Sept. 19. "So I was just like, 'Okay, all right, we're gonna just do this!'" Swift has used her adorable kitty as an accessory during several outings [...]...

From Oscar-winning to Homeland and more, here's what the cast of My So-Called Life have been up to over the past 2 decades...

Twenty years has passed since we were first introduced to the characters of My So-Called Life, twenty years! Where has the time gone? And more importantly when did I get so old?

While most of you won’t really care too much what I’ve been up to since the show finished, let’s take a look at what the actors have been up to in the years since the cancellation of what is frankly the greatest teen TV drama ever.

Claire Danes (Angela Chase)

After breaking out in My So-Called Life, Danes focused on her film career first with a leading role in 1995’s Little Women and then supporting roles in smaller but interesting films like Home For The Holidays, How to Make An American Quilt and...

A slew of classic Disney movies are hitting for the first time on Blu-Ray, including one double-pack release, and you’re going to want to make sure to pick these up. You haven’t paid attention to some of these titles for a while, and it’s about time you got the chance to catch them on Blu-Ray. The best part is that there’s a great mix of releases hitting. Bedknobs and Broomsticks is all but lost in the cultural consciousness, and it deserves a return. The Academy Award-winning movie from the year I was born is filled with a lot of fun and adventure, and like most Disney films, holds up well for a whole new generation.

The rest of the group covers a great spectrum, including two animated “big” titles, and a 10th Anniversary release. There’s a lot to expose your family to here, so check out all the info below,...

Catwoman is the ultimate cat lady in this fantastically fun Batman fan art created by Deviant Art artist caanantheartboy. It features Catwoman surrounded by a bunch of other famous cats. The artist lists all of the cats included in the illustration in the following note...

Behind the couch: Krazy Kat, Azrael (Smurfs), Bill the Cat, Felix, Mad Cat (with a Hello Kitty doll), Top Cat and Snowball II. On (and above) the couch: Streaky (who is orange, yes. My bad!) Mooch (Mutts), Stimpy, Mr Kat (Kid vs Kat), Sylvester, Puss in Boots, Figaro. The rest: Tom, Simon's Cat, Nermal, Garfield, Penelope, O'Malley, Marie (I wasn't gonna do All the Aristocats!), Horse (Footrot Flats), the Cheshire Cat, and Bucky and Scratchy behind Batman. The posters are That Darn Cat and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. (I also could have done The Cat from Outer Space, Le Chat Noir, and many others.

There's a huge, potentially franchise-starting movie that's been brewing just underneath the surface of mainstream movie coverage. It's a film from the good folks at Disney called "Tomorrowland," directed by "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol" director Brad Bird and starring George Clooney. Up until this point, the movie has remained incredibly mysterious. Now, HitFix claims to have obtained an official synopsis -- and it sounds nuts. Some (brief) background: In 2011, "Prometheus" screenwriter Damon Lindelof and Entertainment Weekly reporter Jeff Jensen dreamed up a project for Disney. It was supposedly based on a mysterious box that was found in the Walt Disney Archives, originally designated for the part of the company that would later become Imagineering (which designs and produces all the rides, shows, and restaurants for Disney). The box was labeled "That Darn Cat" (after the 1965 flick), but that label fell off, revealing another title underneath that read, simply: "1952." That would...

As you all know by now Damon Lindelof, Brad Bird, and George Clooney are developing an intriguing sci-fi alien invasion film for Disney under the name 1952. A few little details here and there have hit the internet, but for most of it we don't know what's true or not. Two things we know for sure are that the story centers on aliens and that the creative team is looking to recapture the spirit of Steven Spielberg's classic movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The second thing was confirmed by Lindelof and Bird when they tweeted out these two photos of a box marked 1952, and the contents of that box. For those of you who don't remember the story behind the box, here it is...

When Lindelof had a meeting to discuss the project with Disney’s head of production, Sean Bailey, the Disney exec arranged for Lindelof to...

Above: 1968 poster for Grand Prix (John Frankenheimer, USA, 1966).

Last weekend I came across a bizarre poster, which you can see below, for Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause: a late 60s Czech design which reimagines James Dean as a long haired, barefoot East European hippie. This got me digging into the work of its author on the estimable and essential Czech movie poster site Terry Posters (named in honor of Terry Gilliam). The artist Eva Galová-Vodrázková was born in 1940 and, after studying at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague, designed numerous film posters between 1966 and 1972 (Terry Posters has forty-two of them on their site). Her bio says she gave up poster design after “normalisation changes in the venture,” whatever that means, and has since worked as a textile designer. What attracted me to her poster work is a certain devil-may-care quality—evidenced in her Rebel—coupled with a powerful sense of composition.

Well, damn. It's been very busy and very big day over at Disney. With Michael Arndt now locked in for "Star Wars: Episode 7," another big project at the studio has nabbed a bona fide A-list star. George Clooney is in talks to star in Brad Bird's mysterious "1952." Penned by Damon Lindelof, details about the movie are being kept under lock and key, but it's apparently a "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind"-esque project will center on a man not unlike Roy Neary. The title was inspired by Lindelof's visit to Disney last year to pitch the movie when he was allowed access to some stuff in the archives, including a box from Wed Enterprises, Walt Disney's personal development lab (which later became the Imagineering section of the company). There was one box labeled "That Darn Cat!" that had been crossed off with "1952" written instead, and inside was...

George Clooney is in talks to join Brad Bird's upcoming alien sci-fi film 1952, which was written by Damon Lindelof and Jeff Jensen. There's still no other information on what the film is about other than what we've already reported.

From what we've heard the story will be set in the present day, and it centers around aliens making contact with Earth. Apparently, Bird and Lindelof want to recapture the spirit of 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, right down to centering it around a man in his late forties, like Richard Dreyfuss’s Roy Neary. It sounds like it could be really interesting, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out! I think Clooney is a great actor, and it would be cool if he ended up joining the project.

There's a fun and mysterious backstory behind this movie that you can read below,

When Lindelof...

Update: Vulture has corrected their story to say that “while it is true that 1952 is very much in the spirit of Close Encounters (and centers around a Roy Neary-like protagonist), it is not in fact about an alien encounter.”

Film fans love Brad Bird. He’s directed three of the greatest animated movies ever - The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille (the last two were made at Pixar and won him Oscars) – and made a successful live-action debut with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

Recently, he’s been developing a disaster film entitled 1906, about the infamous San Francisco earthquake with Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Pictures set to finance the film. They balked at the $200 million budget required for the film and asked him to look elsewhere. In the aftermath of Ghost Protocol, Bird asked Disney if he could bring back 1906 but they declined again, saying his success with Mission: Impossible...

A few months ago it was announced that Brad Bird would direct a new film written by Damon Lindelof called 1952. There was no information released at the time as to what this mysterious project would be about. The only other thing revealed at the time was that it would be a multi-platform project.

Thanks to Vulture we now have a better idea of what we can expect from this film. They say that the movie will be set in the present day, and that it centers around aliens making contact with Earth. According to their sources "Bird and Lindelof want to recapture the spirit of 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, right down to centering it around a man in his late forties, à la Richard Dreyfuss’s Roy Neary."

Sounds good to me! Close Encounters of the Third Kind is one of my favorite sci-fi movies ever, and like Super 8,...

Herbie Goes Bananas

Written by Don Tait, based on the novel Car, Boy, Girl by Gordon Buford

Directed By Vincent McEveety

USA, 1980, imdb

Listen to our Mousterpiece Cinema Herbie Goes Bananas podcast or read Josh‘s extended thoughts about the film.

*****

Some films acquire a bad reputation that sticks like a bad smell, driving potential viewers away before they ever see it. Everyone knows that Alien³ and Alien Resurrection are terrible even especially those who have never seen the film. This fate happens particularly to notorious bombs – especially to films that (temporarily) kill off franchises. There is a perverse feedback loop in place, the film bombed because no one went to see it, and since the film bombed it must be terrible, so no one wants to watch it.

But this is confusing quality with popularity. They can be linked, but films bombing may result from any number of factors...

A Cat In Paris was part of last November’s St. Louis International Film Festival. The following expands on the original 2011 Sliff review post.

This year’s Academy Awards are quickly becoming a distant memory, but we’re finally getting a chance to see one of the five nominees for Best Animated Feature. Like Chico And Rita, A Cat In Paris was not a wide release from the major Us animation houses like the other three. And they’re closer to the classic hand-drawn animation than the other nominees. I believe the these are well worth seeking out.

I was more than a little surprised by the animated film A Cat In Paris. From the stills I expected a sweet little cartoon cat zipping up the Eiffel Tower after dashing through a sidewalk bistro. It turns out that this films owes more to That Darn Cat than The Aristocats. We...

Here at Tmp, we’re a bunch of movie nerds...Seems like a no-brainer, but as such, we tend to have unique items on our Christmas lists. So if you’ve got a movie buff that you need to shop for this Christmas, maybe our own individual wishlists will aid you in finding that perfect gift.

Carla

The reason it took so long for me to write something down on my wish list is not lack of wanting something, but it is because I want everything. However, since we are not writing a novel, I did manage to narrow it down to two things:

I love Anthony Hopkins! He is one of my favorite, if not the favorite, older Hollywood actors. The man is undoubtedly a living legend in the film world. What Hopkins fan would not want an autographed photo from Silence of the Lambs? As a bonus, this...

I was more than a little surprised by the animated film A Cat In Paris. From the stills I expected a sweet little cartoon cat zipping up the Eiffel Tower after dashing through a sidewalk bistro. It turns out that this films owes more to That Darn Cat than The Aristocats. We get a sweet little story about a cute young girl and her kitty with elements of a sleek crime thriller. The film starts with a figure leaping from rooftop to rooftop under moonlit skies. Nico the cat burglar strikes again accompanied by his feline pal, Dino. After they’ve returned to his home with a bagful of stolen jewels, the two part ways. Dino returns to Zoe who lives with her widowed police superintendent Mom and housekeeper. Mother is busy with these night-time robberies and pursuing Victor the crime kingpin who murdered her policeman hubby ( which caused Zoe...

When you live in a small town that isn't usually in the rotation for movie productions, there's nothing more exciting than when Hollywood comes to town. When they shot the long-forgotten Disney remake of That Darn Cat (starring Christina Ricci and Doug E. Doug!) in my hometown in 1996, you'd better believe we clocked the production's every move. When I went to visit the set of The Help in Greenwood, Mississippi I witnessed the group of friendliest, most exciting neighbors you can imagine, even though trailers were blocking pretty much every road in the neighborhood. And now that The Avengers has set up shop in Cleveland, Ohio, the local paper the Plain-Dealer-- over at Cleveland.com-- has gotten in the business of documenting all the action. Over the weekend it wasn't that hard-- the crew was shooting a giant crowd scene that required extras to run screaming through the downtown streets...

Since at least the box office success of Michael Bay's first Transformers, the concept of adapting the "Voltron" anime-ted (specifically, nerd alert, the Lion Force) series into a feature film has been percolating around Hollywood. So, naturally, the same week of a Captain Planet project coming to light, and the start of Comic-Con 2011, there is also word of a brand new team joining together to make a Voltron movie actually happen. Relativity Media has hired the writers of Sahara and the forthcoming Conan the Barbarian to write a script for a product they want for a future summer blockbuster season.

Whether this movie actually comes to pass or not, I thought, as I did with the Captain Planet announcement, to mark the occasion by again doing the casting directors' job for them. Unfortunately, I exhausted most of my options for twenty-something talent in that post, so instead of the five/six human characters,...

There may be no excuse for appearing in Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties or Braddock: Missing in Action III, but is this right?

She may have earned a Golden Globe nomination for her TV work last year – and he may have invented a special pair of jeans for kicking people with – but history is already starting to turn against Jennifer Love Hewitt and Chuck Norris. According to Slate's comprehensive new study of Rottentomatoes aggregates, they are rated the worst actress and actor to have worked since 1985.

On the surface, it doesn't look like there's much to disagree with. Jennifer Love Hewitt, for example, has never starred in a film that has received a Rottentomatoes score of over 60%. Instead she's been content to ping backwards and forwards in pieces of dreck as diverse as Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit and Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties.

Mad Men @ the Movies investigates cinema references... a fancy excuse to talk about tv's best series.

Episode 4.5 "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword"

In this episode Scdp attempts to win the Honda campaign but Sterling still hates the Japanese from his WWII days. Meanwhile, it's Draper Vs. Draper again as Don (Jon Hamm) and Betty (January Jones returns.) hurl hate at each other. Tween daughter Sally tries to tune them out by misbehaving i.e. engaging in perfectly normal behavior like masturbating. Uh oh! In one sequence Sally cuts her own hair, sending her babysitter and her father into hysterics.

Don: Why would she do that?

Babysitter: She probably wanted to look older or like Hayley Mills. I don't know."Heaven to hear 60s child star Hayley Mills (a personal fav) referenced on Mad Men. Hayley is best remembered today for the back-to-back family friendly classics Pollyanna (1960) and The Parent Trap...