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Despite what plenty of Seo-chasing articles may try to tell you, there is no single perfect post-Thanksgiving meal movie that will suit every household. From those families diving deep into a shared tryptophan haze to those less traditional celebrants whose meals and festivities don’t look a thing like a Charlie Brown TV special,...

With the fourth Thursday of every November comes an opportunity to give thanks, as families across the United States gather around warm fires and hand-decorated tables to break seasonal bread. The festive tableau — loved ones pulled close by the promise of turkey, stuffing, sides, and pie — is synonymous with what little it seems still unites Americans these days. And yet, the actual experience of the divisive holiday (notorious for its deeply dubious history origins and penchant for forcing fun with problematic relatives) can be enough to send you fleeing from the dining room in a fit of stressed-out gravy sweats.

When you’re done navigating the metaphoric minefield that is kith and kin, why not find comfort in a different kind of holiday hearth? We’re talking about the glowing screens that keep cozy all year long. Whether you’re enjoying a festive holiday movie or something else, films help...

In 1994, David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Steven Spielberg -- three of Hollywood's biggest power players -- united to form a brand-new major motion picture studio called DreamWorks, something that hadn't been attempted in decades. The trio of execs had three stipulations: they wouldn't make any more than nine films a year, they would be allowed to make movies for other studios, and they would be able to go home in time for dinner.

For three years, the trio would wrangle contracts and make deals with various music, film, and television entities to make sure it was standing on solid ground and could handle being the outsize business entity they wanted it to be. In 1997, DreamWorks finally released its first three movies: "The Peacemaker," "Amistad," and "Mouse Hunt." The year after, the studio broke into feature animation with the bad-but-popular CGI insect film "Antz" and the highly acclaimed and very good "The Prince of Egypt,...

The renowned animation studio had recently brought a sequel to Chicken Run to Netflix and now the streamer has released the trailer for their new film, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. Four-time Academy Award-winning director Nick Park and Emmy Award-nominated Merlin Crossingham return with this new tale of revenge. The film is written by scribe Mark Burton and is produced by Richard Beek. The executive producers on board include Nick Park, Mark Burton, Sarah Cox, Peter Lord and Carla Shelley.

The official synopsis reads,

“Aardman’s four-time Academy Award®-winning director Nick Park and Emmy Award-nominated Merlin Crossingham return with a brand new epic adventure, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. In this next installment, Gromit’s concern that Wallace is becoming too dependent on his inventions proves justified, when Wallace invents a “smart” gnome that seems to develop a mind of its own. When it emerges...

Plot: In this next installment, Gromit’s concern that Wallace is becoming too dependent on his inventions proves justified, when Wallace invents a “smart” gnome that seems to develop a mind of its own. When it emerges that a vengeful figure from the past might be masterminding things, it falls to Gromit to battle sinister forces and save his master… or Wallace may never be able to invent again!

Review: Few words bring as much joy when paired together as Wallace & Gromit. Since they debuted in the 1989 short film A Grand Day Out, the cheese-loving duo have been the benchmark for claymation films and have inspired countless directors and animators. After three short films released through the mid-nineties, Aardman Animation’s signature creations were not seen until the 2005 feature film The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. With an all-star cast including Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter, that film won the...

‘Wallace and Gromit’ creator Nick Park is "a bit suspicious" of AI in the film industry. The 65-year-old animator was catapulted to success after the iconic British claymation series debuted back in 1989, though has now admitted he is concerned about the potential consequences of Hollywood becoming more reliant on technological machinery in its projects.Park told The Hollywood Reporter: "The authenticity is so key to the charm and to the humour. I have to question whether an AI computer will ever come up with a joke, will it ever come up with charm, will it understand what absurdity is, or irony?"The ‘Chicken Run’ creator added the movie business could be giving up "something deeply human" if it leaned too heavily on AI.He explained: "I feel there’s something deeply human that we could be giving up with this rush to AI."When we are talking about creativity,...

Sometimes I think we put too much pressure on Aardman Animation. They’re the filmmakers who brought us “Wallace and Gromit,” “Chicken Run,” “Arthur Christmas” and “Shaun the Sheep,” so they have a very long legacy of high-quality and hilarious movies. Even their underwhelming films, like “Flushed Away,” aren’t nearly as bad as the worst movies made by their competitors. So we expect Aardman — like we expect Studio Ghibli (or like we used to expect Pixar) — to knock it out of the park every single time, and that’s not fair. They’re only human. It would be no great tragedy if the long-awaited, second feature-length “Wallace and Gromit” movie wasn’t very good.

Fortunately, the long-awaited, second feature-length “Wallace and Gromit” movie is great. So that whole first paragraph was just a big misdirect and I apologize. (It kind of got away from me.)

“Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl...

After nearly 20 years, the bumbling, cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his long-suffering dog Gromit are back. Nick Park’s beloved claymation creations, introduced to the world in his 1989 Oscar-nominated short A Grand Day Out, return for their first outing since the 2008 short A Matter of Loaf and Death and only their second-ever feature-length film, following 2005’s Oscar-winning The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

The new feature, punningly titled Wallace & Gromit: Vengence Most Fowl, is a direct sequel to Park’s 1993 short The Wrong Trousers, which introduced the dastardly diamond-stealing penguin Feathers McGraw, a master thief and a master of disguise (he pulls a rubber glove over his head and pretends to be a chicken, fooling everyone but the sharp-eyed Gromit). Co-directed with Merlin Crossingham, who worked as an animator on Were-Rabbit, Vengence Most Fowl sees Wallace taking technology dependence a step too far. When Norbot, his A.I.-powered “smart gnome,” goes rogue,...

With Barbie setting the stage on fire, Mattel learnt how much potential their toys hold. Though it made waves for its story (and the acting genius of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling), the toy giant realized that nostalgia can guide them to a new era of success. Not long after the Ryan Gosling starrer’s success, Mattel has officially announced its decision to come up with another series around a toy that has brought them great fortune over the years – Pingu.

Mattel all set to ally with Aardman for new Pingu series Mattel plans to come out with its own Pingu series || Image by Pingu-Official Channel, via YouTube

Mattel has made its partnership with Aardman, who are known for churning out series of the likes of Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep, and Wallace & Gromit, for coming out with an animated Pingu television series.

Revolving around the penguin who hails from the South Pole,...

Wallace y Gromit regresan con una nueva aventura en Netflix. © Netflix

Netflix ha publicado el primer tráiler y póster de Wallace y Gromit: La venganza se sirve con plumas.

En Wallace y Gromit: La venganza se sirve con plumas, Gromit está preocupado por la excesiva dependencia que Wallace está desarrollando hacia sus inventos. Una preocupación que demuestra estar del todo justificada cuando Wallace crea un gnomo «inteligente» que parece tener voluntad propia. Cuando se descubre que una figura vengativa del pasado podría estar detrás de todo, Gromit tendrá que luchar contra fuerzas siniestras para salvar a su dueño y evitar que Wallace pierda para siempre la capacidad de inventar.

Dirigida por Nick Park (Chicken Run: Evasión en la granja), ganador de cuatro premios Óscar, y Merlin Crossingham (Morph), nominado a los Emmy, esta nueva entrega en stop-motion cuenta con un reparto de voces formado por Ben Whitehead (¡Piratas!), Peter Kay...

Aardman is determined to show fans that there is no clay shortage. The renowned animation studio had recently brought a sequel to Chicken Run to Netflix and now the streamer has released the trailer for their new film, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. Four-time Academy Award-winning director Nick Park and Emmy Award-nominated Merlin Crossingham return with this new tale of revenge. The film is written by scribe Mark Burton and is produced by Richard Beek. The executive producers on board include Nick Park, Mark Burton, Sarah Cox, Peter Lord and Carla Shelley.

The official synopsis reads,

“Aardman’s four-time Academy Award®-winning director Nick Park and Emmy Award-nominated Merlin Crossingham return with a brand new epic adventure, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. In this next installment, Gromit’s concern that Wallace is becoming too dependent on his inventions proves justified, when Wallace invents a “smart” gnome...

Exclusive: Aardman, the iconic UK animation studio behind Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit, has closed around 20 jobs as it grapples with the increased cost of production.

Deadline understands that Aardman is in the process of making less than 5% of its 425 employees redundant following a savings review undertaken by management.

A third of the redundancies were voluntary, while two roles remain in consultation. It is hoped that some of the individuals who have lost their jobs can return to Aardman on a freelance basis.

As part of the restructure, Aardman has created new roles to wring increased value out of its intellectual property. These roles include a senior licensing manager and sales executive.

The cost-cutting initiative comes as Aardman has filed its earnings for 2023, which reveal that the studio sunk to a pre-tax loss of £550,135. The company made a profit of £1.56M in 2022.

Aardman said the loss was largely because...

In its nearly 30 years of existence, DreamWorks Animation has had a remarkable trajectory marked primarily by the bulk of franchises it created, as much as through the quality of the films themselves. Consider that one of its chief competitors, Pixar Animation Studios, started making feature-length computer-animated films in 1995 and has made just 28 features in the intervening 30 years. DreamWorks? Well, it's made 49 features in just over 25 years. Some of these films are best left forgotten or have only been rediscovered over time courtesy of oddball memes (see: "Bee Movie"). But DreamWorks Animation, amidst the Trolls and boss babies, the chatty penguins of Madagascar, and silent horses who embody the spirit of the Cimarron, has made 10 genuinely solid movies. And with the arrival in late September of DreamWorks' "The Wild Robot," there's no better time than right now to rank those 10 films and see if the studio's latest title makes the grade.

After a summertime return to theaters that grossed over $53 million at the global box office, Laika’s acclaimed 2009 stop-motion animated film Coraline returns to theaters for a special Halloween engagement starting on October 31st.

In partnership with Fathom in the US and Trafalgar Releasing internationally, the film is offered in stunning, newly remastered 3D as well as 2D formats.

In addition to the U.S., the Halloween engagement of Coraline includes the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, Austria, and Ecuador, with more territories to follow. France and Italy will also begin their Coraline 15th Anniversary engagements this November.

Fans attending Coraline will be treated to an early glimpse of Laika’s upcoming film, Wildwood.

The 15th Anniversary theatrical re-release of Coraline this past August was an astonishing success, surpassing all estimates. Since its re-release on August 15th, Coraline has brought in over $53 million at the global box office.

It marks the...

For fans who missed Coraline‘s summertime return, fear not: Animation company Laika Studios will be re-releasing the beloved stop-motion pic beginning on Halloween.

The news comes following a huge global box office return for Laika, who is now partnering with Fathom in the U.S. and Trafalgar Releasing internationally, with more than $53 million grossed during the dark fantasy movie’s re-release in August for its 15th anniversary. The 2009 film will be offered in newly remastered 3D as well as 2D formats.

During the screening, viewers will also get a glimpse at Laika’s upcoming Wildwood. Beginning Oct. 31, the film will be available in the U.K., Ireland, Australia, Canada, Austria and Ecuador, with more territories to come. France and Italy will also see a re-release for the film’s anniversary in November.

“Everyone at Laika is elated by the global success of the Coraline re-release and we’re delighted...

Kids watch some terrible movies. I should know, I have two of them. A24, the independent film and TV studio that has become synonymous with quality, is out to change that.

On September 4, A24 published the 288-page “Hey Kids, Watch This!,” a collection of more than 100 movie recommendations for families. None of them, by the way, are A24 films. The curation was performed by a group of “discerning critics, animators, and directors,” according to a press release. IndieWire’s own chief film critic and reviews editor David Ehrlich contributed a primer on how to talk about movies with your kids.

“Hey Kids, Watch This!” covers both hits and deep cuts. How deep? Has your preschooler seen Yuri Norstein’s 10-minute short film from 1975, “Hedgehog in the Fog”? Right, mine neither. Are the ’70s not ancient enough for your young-Old-Hollywood head? How about the 100-year-old film “The Adventures of Prince Achmed” from German director Lotte Reiniger?...

Sometimes, trying to find movies that work for the whole family is difficult. They’re either too graphic or scary for the younger members of the family, or they’re too kiddy-ish for the teenagers. Netflix is bringing some great family movies throughout September 2024, though.

There is a mixture of animated and live action throughout the month. There are older and newer movies to check out, so there’s no need for kids to say “we’ve already watched this one” to get out of family movie night.

Here are the top picks of family movies throughout September 2024. And yes, some of the releases have happened today, Sunday, Sept. 1!

Sonic the Hedgehog

Yes, we start with the 2020 movie Sonic the Hedgehog. This is one that we weren’t sure what to think of going into it. Maybe having lower expectations helped it succeed so much.

Sonic finds himself in the human world,...

Whether a terrifying Postman Pat, a mortifying sex scene, or a brush with button-phobia, our writers report on the family viewing they will never forget

This summer, a new book of movie recommendations for children called Hey Kids, Watch This! will be published. It’s been produced by distributor A24, an outfit whose own titles – Uncut Gems, Midsommar, The Zone of Interest – are not immediately family friendly.

The book is correspondingly chewier than most. Yes, Free Willy features, but so does Hedgehog in the Fog, Yuri Norstein’s 10-minute short from 1975. It sings the praises of modern mainstream blockbusters such as Chicken Run, along with older, more niche titles such as Lotte Reiniger’s 1926 animation The Adventures of Prince Achmed.

The return of Chicken Run after a 20-year hiatus saw viewers flock to the movie, which was crowned the most-watched streamer title in the UK last year by Ofcom’s Media Nations report.

Aardman’s sequel Dawn of the Nugget starring Bella Ramsey and Thandiwe Newton drew an average audience of 7.5 million within the first 28 days of its release, according to the regulator’s annual report. The movie was met with a warm critical reception, coming more than two decades after the 2000 original.

Chicken Run landed around 1 million more viewers than Pixar’s animated pic Elemental, which was in second place and was Disney+’s only title in the top 10.

Having generated more than £1B ($1.3B) for the first time in the UK last year, Amazon Prime Video’s sole entrant was Clarkson’s Farm, with a most-watched ep of 5.6 million. TV shows were rated via their most-watched episode rather than taking the overall series.

Calling all amateur malacologists: With “Memoir of a Snail,” stop-motion director Adam Elliot (an Oscar winner for “Harvie Krumpet”) invites us to study snails of every shape and size, starting with a gastropod-hoarding outcast named Gracie Pudel (pronounced “puddle”), who withdrew from the world after an unhappy childhood in which she was bullied and orphaned and shipped off to Canberra to be raised by a pair of negligent swingers.

Fitting squarely on the shelf of grown-up films about misfit kids, Elliot’s latest — which comes 15 years after Sundance opener “Mary and Max” — finds the Australian auteur deeply committed to his dark and surprisingly moving brand of storytelling. Like Edward Gorey’s, his palette is nearly monochromatic; his characters tend to face the camera, à la Wes Anderson, as if posing for gloomy school photos; and his John Waters-esque humor is irreverent enough to encompass everything from disabilities to weird...

You could call Adam Elliot the Australian Nick Park. But while the British Wallace and Gromit creator and his Aardman studio have gone from award-winning claymation shorts to big-budget animation features made with the likes of Dreamworks (Chicken Run, Flushed Away) and Netflix (Chicken Run: The Dawn of the Nugget, the upcoming Wallace and Gromit movie), back in Melbourne, Elliot has kept things small.

His entire filmography: The three shorts Uncle (1996), Cousin (1999), and Brother (2000), two mid-length films Harvie Krumpet (2003) and Ernie Biscuit (2015) and his two features: Mary and Max in 2009 and Memoir of a Snail, together clock in at around 4 hours. You can become an Elliot completist in a single afternoon binge.

Three decades into his career, with an Oscar to his name (best animated short for Harvie Krumpet in 2004), Elliot continues to tell the same sort of stories: Semi-autobiographical dark and funny tales of outsiders, mostly living in 1970s Australia,...

Wallace And Gromit return in feature length special Vengeance Most Fowl, a new 70 minute film coming this Christmas.

It’s a commonly held view among both animation aficionados and film fans in general that The Wrong Trousers is one of the best animated films ever made. Thirty perfect minutes crammed with character, jokes and the most well directed train chase sequence every committed to film, it won a BAFTA and an Academy Award.

It’s perhaps no surprise that for their big return to the small screen, Wallace and Gromit will face off against their iconic foe, Feathers McGraw, once more in Vengeance Most Fowl. The BBC has confirmed that the new film will be bigger in scope than its previous four short films – A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave and A Matter of Loaf and Death – and will in fact be a feature film closer...

Welcome back to Origins, our recurring series that gives artists a space to break down everything that went into their latest release. Today, Another Michael take us through “Hub of Dreams,” a new track from their upcoming May 31st album Pick Me Up, Turn Me Upside Down.

Another Michael are in the midst of a prolific streak. After dropping their remarkable 2023 album, Wishes to Fulfill, they’re back a little over six months later with a companion album, Pick Me Up, Turn Me Upside Down.

Led by singer and songwriter Michael Doherty and producer/bassist Nick Sebastiano, the Philly band makes every song sound like a breakthrough. There’s a supreme openness in their guitar work, and all the while, Doherty’s melodies — often sung in rich harmony with Alenni Davis — are carefully designed and always satisfying. Doherty’s passionate, inimitable tenor ropes you in, and the band dazzles around him.

The Garfield Movie Image: Dneg Animation In this increasingly cynical age of recycled intellectual property, it’s probably not surprising that we would get a new cinematic adaptation of Garfield, especially given the original comic’s perpetual status as meme fodder for every online generation to rediscover. However, what’s...

The Garfield MovieImage: Dneg Animation

In this increasingly cynical age of recycled intellectual property, it’s probably not surprising that we would get a new cinematic adaptation of Garfield, especially given the original comic’s perpetual status as meme fodder for every online generation to rediscover. However, what’s most...

There’s something strange about the franchise reboot of the big orange tabby in The Garfield Movie. For one, the story completely sidelines the relationship between Jon Arbuckle and Garfield. Another issue is that all the characters are cardboard cutouts, and you know virtually nothing about them besides how Garfield came into Jon’s possession.

Perhaps most importantly, the trademark apathetic nature of the main character is non-existent. It’s as if the studios bought the brand name and turned the character into a clone of any fish-out-of-water animation adventure. That’s what’s wrong with The Garfield Movie. What makes the character great is washed away for a run-of-the-mill animated family film that you’ve seen nine lives over.

It’s purr-fectly predictable from start to its stagnant finish.

Harvey Guillén and Chris Pratt voice Odie and Garfield in The Garfield Movie (2024) | Image via Sony Pictures Suggested“Understand that it’s pretty embarrassing.

The British Film Institute has partnered with film animation studio Laika to start its event series Stop Motion: Celebrating Hand-Crafted Animation On The Big Screen, which will offer free screenings for children under 16 and include Laika’s five films to date: “Coraline” (2009), “Paranorman” (2012), “The Boxtrolls” (2014), “Kubo and the Two Strings” (2016) and “Missing Link” (2019), all of which were nominated for the Academy Award for outstanding animated feature.

The season, curated by BFI Southbank Lead Programmer Justin Johnson, will take place from Aug. 1 through Oct. 9. Additional titles playing on the big screen throughout the season will include “King Kong” (1933), “Jason and the Argonauts” (1963), “Chicken Run” (2001), “Corpse Bride” (2005), “Coraline” (2009), “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (2009) and “Anomalisa” (2015).

A free exhibition at BFI Southbank, Laika: Frame x Frame, will also run and showcase the art, science and innovation of the studio’s films. The exhibition will allow visitors an exclusive look at puppets, sets and artifacts from...

New Zealand’s University of Canterbury has signed a five-year exclusive agreement with the Aardman Academy, the training arm of the Aardman Animations, the British film and TV studio behind “Wallace and Gromit” and “Shaun the Sheep.”

The agreement enables the Christchurch-based university to become the only educational institution in New Zealand to specialize in Aardman’s unique version of stop-motion animation. It has the potential to upend the country’s animation industry.

The Aardman Academy was created at a time when the studio urgently needed more animators to produce “Chicken Run.” Released in 2000, the film went on to become the highest-grossing stop-motion film of all time. The Aardman Academy has since trained hundreds of world-class animators, directors, model makers and other specialists.

Training will be offered to animation students studying for the university’s Bachelor of Digital Screen with Honours degree. And it creates the opportunity to receive training...

Aardman co-founder Peter Lord has revealed details about the plot of the new Wallace And Gromit film, which will be broadcast at Christmas 2024.

There are few franchises as universally beloved as Wallace And Gromit. What began as Nick Park’s student film project grew into two of Britain’s most iconic animated characters.

So far, the titular heroes have starred in four short films – A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers – which won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film in 1994 and features arguably the best train chase sequence ever put on screen – A Close Shave and A Matter Of Loaf And Death. There’s also the 2005 feature film The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit, a series of even shorter films called Cracking Contraptions and a videogame, Wallace And Gromit: Project Zoo.

A new film has been in the works for a number of years, owing to the arduous production process of stop motion animation.

February is here, and the countdown has begun at Netflix as many major titles are on their way out the proverbial door. With “Dune: Part Two” finally heading to theaters at the start of March, the streamer is giving subscribers one more month to rewatch (or catch up on) 2021’s “Dune,” starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, and more. Plus, dive into other unfamiliar worlds with “Dredd,” “Snowpiercer,” and Prometheus.

Watch now before they’re gone: see The Streamable’s top picks for what’s leaving Netflix this month, and check out all the shows and movies leaving the streamer this February!

Sign Up $6.99+ / month netflix.com What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Leaving Netflix in February 2024? “Chicken Run” | Wednesday, Feb. 14

More than 23 years after its release, 2000’s “Chicken Run” still holds the record as the highest-grossing stop motion animated film of all time, beating all “Wallace and Gromit” features to top the list.

There’s quite a lot going on beneath the shiny, fun surface of this animated comedy, though some of the questions it deals with — animal mortality, the world’s fragile eco-system — might be too much for younger children to process. For older, smarter kids, it could be a gateway film, a way to turn young cinephiles onto Powell and Pressburger’s 1946 masterpiece A Matter of Life and Death, with which it shares a little DNA. It also, like the brace of Chicken Run movies, raises the subject of nature conservation in a way they will respond to, thanks to Bill Nighy’s deliciously machiavellian uber-villain and his killer horde of robot bees.

The star of the show is a stray cat played by British comedian Mo Gilligan, who also narrates the film with a Goodfellas-style voiceover. When we meet him, he’s at the end of his lives, having been abandoned by his owners,...

New seasons of “Bridgerton” and “The Night Agent” are coming to the world’s largest streamer in 2024, but what about “Stranger Things”?

Netflix takes its position as the leader of the streaming industry seriously. It frequently makes moves that no other streaming platform does, such as releasing viewership data for 99% of its shows, and this week it took another action few competing streaming services do: unveiling its entire TV, movie, and mobile game slate for the rest of 2024.

New seasons of “Bridgerton,” “Cobra Kai” and “Squid Game” will arrive on Netflix in 2024. Movie highlights include the new “Beverly Hills Cop” starring Eddie Murphy and Tyler Perry’s horror flick “Mea Culpa.” The schedule confirms there will be no new episodes of “Stranger Things” until at least 2025. Sign Up $6.99+ / month netflix.com

What Are the Highlights of Netflix’s TV Release Schedule in 2024?

What Are the Highlights of Netflix’s Movie...

The list of movies and television shows that Netflix is removing from the streaming service throughout the month of February 2024 have been revealed.

If you don’t know, each and every month, Netflix has to remove certain titles from the streaming service, likely due to the expiration of various deals with studios.

Head inside to find out what is being removed from Netflix beginning in February..

See the full list of titles that are leaving Netflix in February…

Leaving February 7

MTV Floribama Shore: Season 1

Leaving February 9

Prisoners

Leaving February 10

Father Stu

Goosebumps

Leaving February 14

Chicken Run

Prometheus

Real Steel

Leaving February 19

Operation Finale

Leaving February 23

Married at First Sight: Season 12

The Real World: Season 12

Leaving February 26

19-2: Seasons 1-3

Million Pound Menu: Seasons 1-2

Unsolved: Tupac & Biggie

Leaving February 27

American Pickers: Season 15

Leaving February 28

Babylon Berlin: Seasons 1-3

Morbius

Snowpiercer

The Last Black Man...

For more than 40 years, Aardman Animations has been producing classics like “Wallace & Gromit,” “Chicken Run” and “Shaun the Sheep.” Now, following in the footsteps of pioneers such as Peter Lord, David Sproxton and Nick Park, new recruits have come on board at the company’s headquarters on Spike Island in the port city of Bristol, in the West of England, replenishing its creative treasure chest.

Variety steps along the gangplank to meet some of the more recent additions to the crew: Dan Ojari and Mikey Please, the creators of Oscar-nominated “Robin Robin” (see here); kids’ comedy series “Lloyd of the Flies” creator and director Matthew Walker, and co-director and voice director Jane Davies (see here); and Lucy Izzard, the creator, writer and director of “The Very Small Creatures,” a BAFTA nominated preschool series (see below).

“The Very Small Creatures,” commissioned by U.K. pay-tv operator Sky, is a stop-motion series for one to three-year-olds.

The first 2024 issue of Film Junior magazine is available now – the film magazine for young film fans (and they write lots of it too!)

Introducing issue 15 of Film Junior magazine that’s now available for purchase. This time, we’re looking forward to the movie year ahead, celebrating the cream of upcoming family movies, and letting our young reporter interrogate the director of Aardman’s latest Chicken Run film!

If you’re new to the publication, it’s a 52 page print magazine aimed at younger film fans (around 7 to 14 years old), and it’s also mainly written by them too. The young writers come up with the majority of the ideas, the words are theirs, and they’re paid for their work.

We sell this magazine via subscription and mail order. We’re going to have news on the digital version shortly.

If there’s a young film fan in...

Following in the footsteps of Aardman Animations legends Peter Lord, David Sproxton and Nick Park, a new wave of creators are driving the company forward. While its celebrated franchises, such as Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Chicken Run are still much loved, and it has four Oscars wins with nine further nominations under its belt, Aardman is also focused on nurturing new talent, such as the creators of Oscar nominated short film “Robin Robin,” and series, such as “Lloyd of the Flies” and “The Very Small Creatures.”

Speaking to Variety from Aardman’s headquarters on Spike Island, Bristol, in the West of England, two of the creative minds behind “Lloyd of the Flies,” Aardman’s first CGI series, explain how the show evolved. In other articles, Variety speaks to Dan Ojari and Mikey Please, the creators of “Robin Robin,” and Lucy Izzard, the creator of “The Very Small Creatures.

Dan Ojari and Mikey Please, the co-writers and co-directors of Aardman Animations’ musical film “Robin Robin,” which premiered on Netflix in November 2021, and was nominated for an Oscar the following year, say that a spinoff is in the cards.

“We are currently working on more stories in the world of ‘Robin, Robin,’” Please tells Variety. “I think that’s all we’re allowed to say. But that would certainly be our hopes and dreams. We feel like there are loads more stories to tell in this world, so we’d love to do more.”

“Robin Robin,” whose voice cast includes Bronte Carmichael, Adeel Akhtar, Gillian Anderson and Richard E. Grant, centers on a robin who is raised by a loving family of burglar mice. As Robin grows up, her differences become more apparent. She sets out to pull off a daring heist in a bid to prove to her family...

Two decades after organizing a feathery union and flying the coop, the heroes of Chicken Run are making a triumphant comeback. The stop-motion classic’s long-awaited sequel, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, hits Netflix on December 15, 2023. In the trailer above , you can catch a glimpse of Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) and Rocky (Zachary Levi) as they welcome a new little adventurer into their lives.

Chicken Run made history in 2000 as the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time, and to date, it has yet to be bested. The follow-up will revisit the original cast of characters — along with the next generation, represented by The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey — as they face an all-new threat to their newfound peace. You can find out more about Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget below.

When is Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget’s release date?

Chicken Run:...

As 2023 came to a close, a pair of animated movies — Aardman and Netflix’s Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget and Illumination/Universal’s Migration — delivered stories featuring carefully designed chickens and mallards, respectively, that leaned into simplicity to be expressive.

Dawn of the Nugget is the sequel to famed British animation studio Aardman’s 2000 stop-motion hit Chicken Run, which was directed by studio co-founder Peter Lord and four-time Academy Award winner and Wallace & Gromit creator Nick Park, who designed the original flock. “He came up with this aesthetic, which is very simple. And if you look at Wallace & Gromit and then look at the chickens, they have this in common. They’re not very mobile. The chickens are kind of like bottle shapes with arms and legs,” says Lord. “Then they have this quite exaggerated mouth. Nick came up with this idea that lip sync was best served...

Jodie Foster is one of the most-celebrated former-child stars of the modern era, so it’s no wonder that she spends quite a bit of time thinking about the experiences of young actors who are just beginning to hit the scene. Now, in a new interview, she’s shared some of her thoughts regarding the ascendant Generation Z, revealing that, though she admires their yearning for “authenticity,” she feels that they need to “learn how to relax” and can be “really annoying, especially in the workplace.”

The comments come in a new interview with The Guardian, throughout which Foster discusses her 2023 film, Nyad, and touches on the journey of aging as a woman in Hollywood. When the subject of younger actors is brought up, Foster is asked what her advice would be. She replied: “They need to learn how to relax, how to not think about it so much, how...

Battle of the titans: Oppenheimer, Barbie, Poor Things and Killers Of The Flower Moon

Barbie, Oppenheimer and Killers Of The Flower Moon and leading the BAFTA race this year, with 15 nods apiece on the longlists announced today. With Poor Things on 14, the stage is set for a clash between titans, but there are plenty of other, smaller films which could still deliver surprise results.

The longlists, which were developed to clarify voter options and as part of an effort to improve diversity, will give way to shorter lists of formal nominations on 18 January. The winners will then be announced on 18 February, in a ceremony to be hosted by David Tennant.

Those lists in full:-

Best Film All Of Us Strangers Anatomy Of A Fall Barbie The Holdovers Killers Of The Flower Moon Maestro Oppenheimer Past Lives Poor Things The Zone Of Interest

Outstanding British Film All Of Us Strangers Chicken Run...

Netflix’s Top 10 Most-Viewed Films Weekly List ( Photo Credit – IMDb )

People seem to be shifting their focus from holiday-inspired movies to other films, as the list of Netflix’s Weekly Top-10 Most Viewed Films is here. Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, Tom Cruise’s TopGun: Maverick, Pretty Woman, and others have kept the viewers hooked to their phones and TV screens. Scroll below to find out which films have made it to the top ten charts for the last week of 2023.

Last week Zack’s sci-fi adventure movie grabbed the number one spot and is also sitting comfortably this week. The Tom Cruise starrer has been added recently, and the Top Gun sequel didn’t take much time to make a place on the weekly list. Julia Roberts is winning, with two of her films enjoying the top spots on the list.

Films...

Pictures: Netflix – Illustration by What’s on Netflix

A new year is just around the corner and if you’re wondering what new British productions Netflix has coming up for 2024 and beyond, you’ve come to the right place. Below, we’ll break down all the currently announced new British movies, series and documentaries in the works.

Please remember that this doesn’t represent every movie and series currently in development at Netflix. There are a few that we’re not allowed to mention just yet, including a hotly anticipated new series from a writer who has produced some excellent titles for Netflix so far.

There are also plenty of shows and movies that should probably be listed here but won’t be. That’s because of how entwined US and UK projects tend to be, with some more US-produced series like The Witcher also falling into the UK camp...

Netflix’s Top-10 Most-Viewed Films: Weekly List ( Photo Credit – IMDb )

Another week, and Netflix is also here with the list of Top-10 Most-Viewed Films. Zack Snyder’s much-awaited film Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire came out a few days back and has already made its place in the Top-10 Global list of the popular streaming platform. Films like The Super Mario Bros Movie, Leo, Family Switch, and others have also secured places on the list.

The film features Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunman, Charlotte Maggi, Ed Skrein, Anthony Hopkins, and Ray Fisher in crucial roles. People who have been fans of Snyder’s works, namely the Justice League, 300, and others, waited eagerly for it.

Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire by Zack Snyder earned the #1 position on Netflix’s Top-10 Most-Viewed Films list in its debut week, dethroning Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali’s Leave the World Behind.

Simple can be both efficient and effective and so it was when the plucky chucks of Chicken Run first hit the scene in 2000. The Aardman classic took PoW camp ideas - familiar from a thousand re-runs of The Great Escape at Christmas - and plonked them into a chicken farm, with the hens hatching plans to break-out. All of this is shown in a recap at the start of the sequel, which by dint of being more sprawling than the original, lacks the same sharply funny focus, although it's not without its moments.

Time has moved on and Ginger and Rocky (now voiced by Thandiwe Newton and Zachary Levi) and their feathered friends are living an idyllic life on a secluded island. They've also added to their brood and the first section of the film charts their daughter Molly (Bella Ramsey) from egg to the cusp of adolescence, when she is a.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol – Picture: Paramount Pictures

The holiday season is in full-swing and if you fancy settling down onto Netflix for a new movie to watch – you should probably be prioritising these excellent nine movies that will all be departing as we head into the New Year.

For a full list of what’s leaving Netflix throughout January 2024, check our guide of removals for the month which is the most comprehensive on the net!

Captain Phillips (2013)

Leaving Netflix: January 1st

Paul Greengrass’s superb biopic about the true story of the 2009 hijacking of the Maersk Alabama continues to stir much controversy. The controversy stems from the scrutiny of Richard Phillips, portrayed by Tom Hanks, and his decisions that led to the event. Regardless of these opinions, one cannot deny that this is a fantastically made movie.

As with most Sony Pictures movies on Netflix, you’ll a premium tier...

Welcome to your weekly rundown of the biggest stories from Netflix’s top 10 hourly figures drop for the week ending December 10th, 2023. Lots to cover again this week with titles covered including Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Yu Yu Hakusho, Leave the World Behind, Obliterated, Car Masters, and another look at the Big Netflix Data Dump

In case you didn’t know, every Tuesday, Netflix updates its top 10 stats page with 40 new hourly figures of the top movies and shows of the past seven days.

Note: In this report of Netflix’s hours viewed from December 11th, 2023 to December 18th, 2023, we’ll use “Complete Viewings Equivalent,” or Cve, expressed in millions. That means we divide the hours viewed announced by Netflix by the runtime of films or series. It allows for better comparisons between films and series, but it’s not an audience metric. It is the minimum number...

Rachel McAdams as Barbara Dimon and Abby Ryder Fortson as Margaret Simon in ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’ (Photo Credit: Dana Hawley)

The San Diego Film Critics Society’s 2023 nominees and winners are in step with the group’s reputation for marching to the beat of a different drummer. Barbie earned 12 nominations but was absent from the Best Picture category. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, which has only made a few appearances on awards lists, picked up eight nominations and was ultimately named the Best Picture of 2023.

The San Diego Film Critics Society’s winners were announced on December 19, 2023.

Best Picture

American Fiction

Winner: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

The Holdovers

Killers of the Flower Moon

Runner Up: Oppenheimer

Best Director

Kelly Fremon Craig, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

Runner Up: Greta Gerwig, Barbie

Cord Jefferson, American Fiction

Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer

Winner: Martin Scorsese,...

Picture: Netflix / Aardman Animations

Arriving 23 years after its predecessor’s release, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is the long-awaited sequel to the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all-time, Chicken Run, which scored a Golden Globe nomination & Critics’ Choice win for Best Animated Feature back in 2001.

Created by the legendary team at Aardman Animations, Dawn of the Nugget continues the studio’s strong Netflix production output, including recent Oscar nominees Robin Robin and A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon.

This new sequel catches up with the lead characters from the first film, Ginger & Rocky, several years after their daring escape from Tweedy Farms. Living in a peaceful island sanctuary created by Ginger, Rocky, & their fellow escapees, our leads have created their happy ending together including their smart & curious daughter Molly.

While life seems serene & complete for her parents, Molly yearns for more than her small island surroundings. But when the...

This post contains spoilers for "Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget."

Happy Chicken Farms. Happy Egg Co. Organics Happy Family. Happy Farms. The Happy Chicken Project. In the worlds of farming and agriculture, "happy" is an extremely popular word -- so much so that the new movie "Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget" avoided it entirely when naming their fictional chicken farm with a dark side. "Originally it was called Happy Land Farms, but we couldn't go there for legal reasons because so many food producers use 'happy' in their branding that it was just a minefield," director Sam Fell told /Film's Hannah Shaw-Williams in a new interview.

The farm where mama chicken Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) ends up is certainly not a happy one, as trailers for the film have already revealed that its owners have a plan to turn their resident fowl into chicken nuggets. There's brainwashing, fattening up,...