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When Will Finn's and John Standford's animated musical Western "Home on the Range" was released, it came with an elegiac announcement. Disney, you see, had been struggling throughout the early 2000s. The 1990s renaissance was over, and much of the studio's more recent output was either failing critically or commercially. Films like "Fantasia 2000," "The Emperor's New Groove," and "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" were only modest successes, while films like "Dinosaur" and "Brother Bear" were coming and going without much notice. The studio's clunky sci-fi epic "Treasure Planet" notoriously lost buckets of money, which didn't inspire confidence. It didn't help that DreamWorks was attracting huge animation audiences with films like "Shrek" — a notoriously anti-Disney movie.

As such, to appear competitive, Disney announced that "Home on the Range" was going to be the studio's last-ever traditionally hand-drawn feature film. After that, it was to be 100% CGI. Animation purists panicked, feeling...

For practically the past century, Disney has crafted some of the most beloved films on the big screen. Utilizing animated artistry and brilliant visual storytelling, The Walt Disney Company has enchanted and delighted entire generations.

That said, as much as we adore our favorite princesses and cartoon characters, there's something truly remarkable when the artists and filmmakers have free reign, resulting in some delightfully bizarre features. Disney+ has nearly the entire filmography of the animation studio and then some, but here are our picks for just how weird things can get at the house of mouse.

Fantasia (1940)

What better way to begin this list than with Disney's first art house film? Presented in "Fantasound" in 1940, Walt Disney's concert feature blended famous pieces of classical music with animation magic. Although this combo resulted in iconic sequences like "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," it also gave the artists permission to experiment.

Look at the visuals of "Toccata in Fuge,...

This weekend, director Barry Jenkins brings the story of Mufasa to life through the live-action style popularized by the 2019 The Lion King. It was an unusual choice to craft a prequel to the popular franchise but also provided some distance from the straight-to-dvd sequels of the 2000s. With Mufasa: The Lion King, we’re seeing a return to the Disney sequels and Disney prequels of the past. It’s no longer confined to animation, but with features like Maleficient, Alice in Wonderland, and Lightyear, Disney continues to expand its franchises.

What was a very uncommon aspect of Disney for its first sixty years became popularized in the 1990s. Three decades later, we’ve seen the House of Mouse continue to roll out these films. With Mufasa: The Lion King releasing this week, here are 10 of our favorite sequels and Disney prequels. Out of fairness, we’re only including a single entry from each franchise,...

Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki needs no introduction. The legendary animator and filmmaker has left his impression on the entire world with his anime movies that have earned him respect and accolades of the highest order. Thus, his opinions and feedback regarding other animated works are considered to be inspiring and motivational.

Hayao Miyazaki | Credit: Oscars/Yt

But the Japanese legend is not so easy to impress. He is quite blunt and straightforward while judging other works, and it is one of the main reasons why he is considered the greatest. However, his blunt response once forced the head of Studio Ghibli’s international division, Steve Alpert, to lie for him in front of Disney’s Burbank studio.

This was when he visited California and was asked to view some clips from the then-unreleased Fantasia 2000. Miyazaki hated the animation so much that he didn’t even mince his words.

Chris Sanders' and Dean De Blois' 2002 animated film "Lilo & Stitch" was released by Disney and was part of what might be considered a "low" period in the studio's history. Disney had a series of bangers in the 1990s, a period often referred to as the Disney Renaissance. That period came to an end in 2000 with the release of "Dinosaur," however, a technology experiment featuring life-like dinosaurs realized in CGI. That was followed by multiple expensive bombs, one right after the other, and almost all the films (from "Fantasia 2000" in 2000 through to "Bolt" in 2008) were costly misfires.

Only two from the period stand out. Mark Dindal's slapstick comedy "The Emperor's New Groove" and "Lilo & Stitch." The latter is deeply beloved by the children who saw it in 2002, and appreciate both its warmth and its weirdo edge.

"Lilo & Stitch" is a riff on "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," wherein a young child,...

Heigh-ho! Before Disney yet again tarnishes the beautiful animated memories of the classics that built the studio with a live-action remake, the studio is continuing its 100th-anniversary celebrations with a 4K restoration of the 1937 classic "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," their very first feature-length film. The restoration comes to Disney+ on October 16, 2023, and it's also available on 4K Uhd, including a special Disney 100 SteelBook, starting October 10.

This news comes after Disney released a 4K restoration of "Cinderella" earlier this year, which restored the original colors and the grandeur of the film and helped preserve it for new generations. For this new 4K restoration, the studio tapped the Walt Disney Studios Restoration and Preservation team as well as artists from Walt Disney Animation Studios, the same team who worked on the "Cinderella" restoration, which included artist Michael Giaimo (now the production designer for "Wish"), as well as legendary animator/director...

CGI animation has come a long way since Toy Story and is no longer limited to photorealism. It can be stylized and explore endless possibilities. The use of different animation techniques, such as cel-shading and inconsistent frame rates, can create unique and visually stunning films. CGI animation allows filmmakers to retain the iconic look of characters from books or comics, bringing them to life in a new way that stays true to their original design.

While animation is known primarily for its visuals, there's a world of untapped potential when it comes to CGI animated movies. Computer-generated animation is so ubiquitous these days, it's easy to forget that the medium is still in its relative infancy. Although it was far from the first appearance of CGI in a film, Toy Story broke new ground in 1995 by proving it was possible to animate an entire feature film using computerized techniques, and...

The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced the full lineup for their 2023 festival, which will run in person from Oct. 25 to Oct. 29. The festival will feature the world premiere of Rob Reiner’s “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life” and the world premiere of Matthew Brown’s “Freud’s Last Session,” starring Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode.

Other titles include Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers,” Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction,” Jeff Nichols’ “The Bikeriders,” Mahalia Belo’s “The End We Start From,” Christos Nikou’s “Fingernails,” Michel Franco’s “Memory,” Jessica Yu’s “Quiz Lady” and J.A. Bayona’s “Society of the Snow.”

AFI previously announced that Sam Esmail’s “Leave the World Behind,” starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali and Ethan Hawke, will open the festival on Oct. 25. The Leonard Bernstein biopic “Maestro,” directed by and starring Bradley Cooper, will close the festival. “Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story” is the Centerpiece film.

Casting director Russell Boast, producer Annabelle K. Frost, producer Nana Greenwald, writer-director Tamar Halpern, animator David Kuhn, producer-director Sheldon Larry and broadcast journalist May Lee have been hired as full-time faculty at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts.

The new faculty members have worked on some of the most prominent film and television projects of the past 30 years, including the Harrison Ford starrer The Fugitive, David Fincher’s Seven and Disney’s Pocahontas. They will assume their new roles on Monday, Aug. 28, at the start of the 2023-24 academic year.

“This is an awe-inspiring group of teachers, whose range of experience adds a wealth of valuable knowledge to our already-impressive faculty,” said Stephen Galloway, dean of Dodge College. “I can only wish I’d had professors like this when I was in film school.”

Russell Boast, CSA, head of casting and co-head of the Screen Acting program at Dodge College,...

This year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival looks to break records with a wider international reach and greater studio participation than ever before. Already set to overtake last year’s attendance, the French lakeside fest, runs June 11-17 and had run up 13,300 guests by late May — among them a U.S. delegation more than 700 strong.

“[This year marks] the most important U.S. presence ever at Annecy,” says artistic director Marcel Jean. “We’re taking in historical players such as Disney, DreamWorks and Pixar who will still come, as well as global platforms such as Netflix, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery. And [we’re welcoming] a number of big titles.”

Disney, celebrating its 100th anniversary over the course of the year, plans a special screening of “Fantasia 2000” before offering Annecy’s famously boisterous and youthful crowd a first look at the upcoming animated musical “Wish.” Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Discovery will present behind-the- scenes peeks...

Celebrating six decades as the animation industry’s premier international showcase and cementing a growing position as Hollywood’s preferred French getaway, the Annecy Intl. Animation Festival revealed its 2023 program in Paris on Thursday, unveiling a formidable selection of world premieres and industry debuts.

If only for the breadth of this year’s official selection, Annecy looks set to for its most fulsome and abundant edition.

Among the 11 titles competing for this year’s Cristal – Annecy’s top prize – Jérémie Périn’s sci-fi drama “Mars Express” and Jim Capobianco & Pierre-Luc Granjon stop-motion Leonardo da Vinci epic “The Inventor” will make their world premieres. Other eagerly anticipated titles include “Chicken for Linda!” from Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach, “Four Souls of Coyote” from by Áron Gauder, and “The Inseparables” by Jérémie Degruson.

Titles like Liu Jian’s “Art College 1994” and Sepideh Farsi’s “The Siren” will arrive in the idyllic French...

In the 23 years since “Fantasia 2000” became the first studio movie to get a theatrical release in IMAX, the format has been associated primarily with expensive spectacles like “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Avengers: Endgame.” But March 14 — Pi Day — sees the IMAX premiere of an independent film shot on a $60,000 budget. To celebrate its 25th anniversary, Darren Aronofsky’s “Pi” screens in IMAX auditoriums around the country, preceded by a live-streamed Q&a with Aronofsky, cinematographer Matthew Libatique, and other special guests at the Tcl Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

“When we sold ‘Pi’ 25 years ago in Sundance, we truly never imagined this day would come,” Aronofsky told IndieWire. Back then, Aronofsky and Libatique chose to shoot their film on 16mm black and white reversal stock, both for economic and aesthetic reasons.

“It was a relatively rare stock to shoot, but the contrast and grain it could achieve were unparalleled at the time,...

(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)

The Movie: "Fantasia"

Where You Can Stream It: Disney+

The pitch: "What you're going to see are the designs and pictures and stories that music inspired in the minds and imaginations of a group of artists." This is how Deems Taylor, the live-action Mc for "Fantasia," sets up Disney's third classic animated feature.

The most random thing caused me to rewatch "Fantasia" this week for maybe the first time since before the turn-of-the-millennium sequel, "Fantasia 2000," was in theaters. It...

The post The Daily Stream: Fantasia Is Pure Music and Pure Cinema appeared first on /Film.

Disney+’s “Sketchbook,” streaming now, is a fascinating and emotional look at the artists behind your favorite Disney characters.

The set-up is simple: each episode has an animator instructing you on how to draw a Disney character. Their instructions are informative and easy to follow, but the real treat of each episode is getting to know the animators a little better. You hear them talk about coming to the studio and navigating various productions, all the while offering helpful hints and gentle encouragement.

One of the very best episodes involves Eric Goldberg, the animator behind the Genie in “Aladdin” (the character he instructs you how to draw), Louis in “The Princess and the Frog” and Phil in “Hercules,” among many others. (He also co-directed “Pocahontas” and directed two segments of the underrated “Fantasia 2000.”) Incredibly, he stuck with the studio after it almost exclusively switched to computer animation, providing 2D...

Many of us were introduced to some of the great works of classical music by the Disney film "Fantasia," or if you're a little younger, "Fantasia 2000." The 1940 film (called "The Concert Feature" while it was being made) was a series of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music. The entire performance is conducted by Leopold Stokowski, with music critic and composer Deems Taylor as the Master of Ceremonies stringing the performances together. Even if you've never seen either film, it's very likely that you've watched one segment. That's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," in which Mickey Mouse acts as the apprentice to sorcerer Yen...

The post The Big Difference Between Disney's Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 appeared first on /Film.

Disney Plus has been a hit huge since it launched late last year, but it’s come under fire from some quarters for its overzealous censorship. For instance, the bizarrely poor CGI covering Daryl Hannah’s behind in Splash or an actress’ barest hint of cleavage in an episode of The Wizards of Waverly Place. The latest peculiar example of this includes a bunch of family-friendly films being blocked on the streaming site’s Kids’ Profile.

If you have kids and Disney Plus, you’ll be familiar with the Kids’ Profile option, which allows you to set up a profile for your child within your account that filters out the unsuitable material and leaves all the suitable stuff. However, CinemaBlend has discovered that a number of titles which 99.9% of parents would agree they’d let their young ones watch are removed on the Kids’ Profile.

There may be more, but...

Ann Sullivan, a longtime animator who worked on iconic Disney films including The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas and The Lion King, has died at 91 from complications due to Covid-19, according to multiple reports.

Sullivan passed away Monday at the Motion Picture and Television Fund (Mptf) nursing facility in Woodland Hills, California, making her the third resident at that nursing facility to die from coronavirus complications.

“There are good days and bad days. This was one of the bad days,” Mptf president and CEO Bob Beitcher told Deadline.

“I expect there will be more before we get through the tunnel. We’ve...

(Revisiting the Renaissance is a bi-weekly series in which Josh Spiegel looks back at the history and making of the 13 films of the Disney Renaissance, released between 1986 and 1999. In today’s final column, he discusses the 1999 film Fantasia 2000.) Ambition is the great historical throughline of the Walt Disney Animation Studios. The […]

The post ‘Fantasia 2000’ and the Final Gasps of the Disney Renaissance appeared first on /Film.

Disney Animation Studios has hired four directors, two new and two returning, to create some new original content for the company. Returning are Josie Trinidad, who has previously worked on the art and stories for The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph and its sequel, and Zootopia; and Marc Smith, who did animation for Hercules, Tarzan, Fantasia 2000, The Emperor’s New Groove, Chicken Little, Tangled, Big Hero 6, and Zootopia.

The new directors are Carlos Lopez Estrada (Blindspotting), and Suzi Yoonessi. Variety reports that Walt Disney Animation’s chief creative officer Jennifer Lee, who wrote the Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen films, is looking to continue to tell original stories while continuing to diversify the types of films they make.

Here’s what Lee had to say about the upcoming projects and new directors on board:

“We aim to have Walt Disney Animation Studios serve as the premiere home...

When Walt Disney put his plans for Fantasia into action, his original plan was to make Fantasia a regular event that was constantly changing and evolving. New pieces of music, new styles of animation, and new additions every time the film series evolved. It would be less of a film and more of an event.

Related: Disney Movies That Were Way Ahead Of Their Time

Unfortunately, Walt's vision never came to pass, but we did get a sequel to the original Fantasia in 1999. Fantasia 2000 is arguably a new and improved concert feature for a more contemporary audience. The film features a wider variety of music and even different styles of animation featuring CGI graphics. This was what Walt wanted, and we're here today to see how the different sequences of the film compare. This is Fantasia 2000 ranked.

The era of Disney films known as the Disney Renaissance had the animation studio turning out some of its most successful stories including The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, and Mulan. This period of iconic classics lasted from 1989 to 1999, and as the new millennium dawned, so did a new period of animation.

We’re here to see how every theatrically released film created since the 2000s by Walt Disney Animation Studios stacks up. This means any movie that fits the criteria — from Fantasia 2000 to 2018’s Ralph Break the Internet — is fair game. It also means all those direct-to-video animated sequels won’t be making the list and neither will films created by Pixar.

Related: 10 Actors We Forgot Voiced Our Favourite Characters

We’ll be basing our scores on the star rating from IMDb. This ranking system uses the votes of registered members to create a weighted average score. If...

Simon Brew Nov 13, 2019

Fantasia, for all its merits, isn't many people's favorite Disney film. But in the early '90s, it became the biggest selling VHS ever...

This article comes from Den of Geek UK.

I don’t think I’m going out on much of a limb to suggest that everyone has a favorite Disney animated movie. Mine is Beauty and the Beast, for an abundance of reasons, not least that it caught me off guard and I wasn’t really expecting the utter treat I got. Yours is likely different.

But also, for all its merits, there are few people, I’d suggest, who list Fantasia as their top choice. Sure, I believe lots of people admire it, and there are segments of the film that remain cherished: "The Sorcerer’s Apprentice" sequence is an obvious standout. It’s also bold, ambitious and full of beautiful work. Yet...

Simon Brew Feb 23, 2017

Fantasia, for all its merits, isn't many people's favourite Disney film. But in the early 90s, it became the biggest selling VHS ever...

I don’t think I’m going out on much of a limb to suggest that we all have a favourite Disney animated movie. Mine is Beauty & The Beast, for an abundance of reasons, not least that it caught me off guard and I wasn’t really expecting the utter treat I got. Yours is likely different.

But also, for all its merits, there are few people, I’d suggest, who list Fantasia as their top choice. Sure, I believe lots of people admire it, and there are segments of the film that remain cherished: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice sequence is an obvious standout. It’s also bold, ambitious and full of beautiful work. Yet how many watch it on a loop? Furthermore, how...

Disney has its fair share of detractors, but few of them would point to the animation studio’s craft when criticizing the occasional sameness of its fairy tales and princess stories. Video essayist Jorge Luengo Ruiz has put together a six-minute video highlighting some of the best shots from more than 40 animated Disney offerings, from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” all the way to last year’s “Moana.” Both the video and a list of the featured movies are below. (via Film School Rejects)

Read More: ‘Inner Workings’: How Disney Innovated the Oscar-Contending Hybrid Short (Exclusive Video)

Read More: How Disney’s Animated ‘Zootopia’ Became the Galvanizing Movie of 2016

“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937)

“Pinocchio” (1940)

“Fantasia” (1940)

“Dumbo” (1941)

“Bambi” (1942)

“Cinderella” (1950)

“Alice in Wonderland” (1951)

“Peter Pan” (1953)

“Lady and the Tramp” (1955)

“Sleeping Beauty” (1959)

“One Hundred and One Dalmatians” (1961)

“The Sword in the Stone” (1963)

“The Jungle Book” (1967)

“The Aristocats” (1970)

“Robin Hood...

Though Walt Disney Animation Studios has existed in some form for almost 90 years, there is no more important period in its history than the Disney Renaissance, which lasted for the final 15 years of the 20th century. This is the era when more than a handful of Disney’s recent financial, if not full-throated creative, triumphs were released, from the more modestly successful The Great Mouse Detective to The Little Mermaid to The Lion King to Fantasia 2000. (The term “Disney Renaissance” was coined by fans, not in-house, so the definition of when the period extends from can, and should, be stretched to include both the 1986 Sherlock Holmes-esque adaptation that convinced Disney executives to keep funding animated projects and the 1999 “sequel” to Fantasia, which is a fitting tribute to the 1940 classic.) The Disney Renaissance, despite encompassing so many different films, is best identified by a series ...

In the ’50s and ’60s, the Ussr frequently used dogs for orbital space flights in order to determine whether human spaceflight was possible. If you ever wanted to see a cute animated version of their exploits, look no further than “Space Dogs: Adventure to the Moon,” the sequel to the global hit “Space Dogs 3D.” The film follows Pushok (Samuel Witwer), a teenage astronaut determined to find his missing astronaut father. Pushok stows away on a Us rocket ship to the moon, but soon finds he is not alone, as he’s reunited with his mom and encounters a macho monkey and a baby alien. Together, the furry heroes learn the true meaning of teamwork as they join the search for Pushok’s dad. Starring Alicia Silverstone and Ashlee Simpson as Belka and Strelka, the first dogs in space, “Space Dogs: Adventure to the Moon” is a fun,...

Can studios really expect theater audiences to keep coming back to old franchises decades after their original release? Looking at data over the last couple decades, the answer has become a resounding yes. This is an in-depth look at why that is.

We all know that sequels are rarely better than the original film. And sequels of sequels tend to be even worse. Audiences are aware of this fact, which is why traditionally sequels usually gross less in theaters than the original film. If audiences don’t respond to the sequel as well as the original film, they are less inclined to see it more than once, or tell their friends to go see it.

It becomes a matter of diminishing returns; studios try to eke out as much business from one franchise before it no longer makes financial sense to release another sequel. And with each sequel making less money,...

The Simpsons is paying tribute to Disney characters in the past way ever. Veteran animator Eric Goldberg, known for his work on classic Disney flicks such as Aladdin, Pocahontas and Hercules, animated The Simpsons' couch gag for the Sunday, April 24 episode. In the opening sequence, Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart and Maggie all take on various Disney characters. Homer has a Jungle Book inspired look, Marge is straight out of Snow White, Lisa is Cinderella, Maggie is the classic Mickey Mouse and Bart takes on Fantasia Mickey. There's classic Disney whimsy while sticking with the Simpsons style viewers have come to know and love. Goldberg's other credits include Fantasia 2000, The Emperor's New Groove,...

75 years ago today, Disney took a risk with the opening of its experimental animated film, “Fantasia.” The third feature film made by the House of Mouse, “Fantasia” was released as a limited-run roadshow attraction, starting on November 13, 1940. The New York Times review published the following day declared it to be a film that “really dumps conventional formulas overboard and boldly reveals the scope of films for imaginative excursion.” Images of Mickey Mouse set to music by Paul Dukas, hippos dancing to the tune of Ponchielli, and centaurs and cupids backed by Beethoven have all become iconic in the decades since its release. The film has further secured its pop culture status with “Fantasia” video games, a follow-up feature called “Fantasia 2000,” and with a spot on AFI’s list of the greatest 100 American films. One “Fantasia” segment will soon get the live action treatment: the nightmarish “Night on Bald Mountain...

"Fantasia" wasn't a huge hit when it was first released 75 years ago (on November 13, 1940).

Since then, however, over the course of multiple re-releases, the Disney feature has earned a reputation as a masterpiece for its blend of lushly recorded classical music and dazzling Technicolor animation. It eventually became a huge success in both theaters and on home video and spawned several sequels and spinoffs, not to mention parodies by other studios.

Still, as many times as you've enjoyed the ballet-dancing hippos or Mickey Mouse's botched attempt at using magic to shirk drudgery, there's a lot you may not know about "Fantasia." Read on, and watch out for those magic mushrooms.

1. The germ of the film began when Walt Disney bumped into legendary Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski (pictured) outside Chasen's restaurant in Hollywood. Disney told Stokowski of his idea to make one of his trademark "Silly Symphony" shorts out...

With Poe’s richly sinister writing and Christopher Lee’s talent, this film should be a treat – but it has the visual flair of a malfunctioning Xbox

How enticing the work of Edgar Allan Poe must be to a producer. So rich in allegory, so fruitful for visual ingenuity and so inexpensive out there in the public domain! Animator Raul Garcia’s 70-minute anthology of five Poe stories, Extraordinary Tales, has its moments, and will be a welcome respite for any middle schooler sitting through a boring lecture. But if we were ever asked if we wanted a second viewing, we’d have to quoth the raven: nevermore.

Garcia, whose work in animation departments range from The Smurfs TV show to Fantasia 2000, unites the individual short films with a peculiar framing device. Between each chapter we check in on a conversation between Poe’s soul, represented by a raven...

Does Hollywood try to remake/sequelize/franchise-extend every single one of its successful movies? Sometimes it feels that way, but there’s a little more nuance to studio practices than that. If you’re looking for meaning in this summer’s blockbuster season – not always easy – you could call it Dr. JurassicMax or How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Reboot. Rebooting franchises isn’t as common, well-received, or lucrative as you might think. Today let’s look briefly at the history of the reboot – and how this summer changed it.

First, what technically counts as a reboot? One school would say that anytime the cast shuffles, it’s a reboot, meaning we’re now on the second reboot (and third iteration) of Spider-Man films. That’s pretty rare; far more often, duration between films is the deciding factor, and it just doesn’t feel right to slap...

John C Reilly has confirmed that he's signed up to make Wreck-It Ralph 2...

It's been rumoured for some time, but it looks as if the cat is now firmly out of the bag: Wreck-It Ralph 2 is on the way.

Walt Disney Animation Studios was said to be considering the film following the success of director Rich Moore's original film. It hadn't made a sequel before though, outside of The Rescuers Down Under and Fantasia 2000. But last year, Frozen 2 was announced, and there's believed to be a Big Hero 6 sequel in development too.

Rich Moore meanwhile has been working on co-directing Zootopia for Disney, which arrives next March. When he's done with that, though, it looks like Wreck-It Ralph 2 may be next.

Not that it's him who's confirmed the project. Instead, the news was broken by John C Reilly, at Ireland's Galway Film Fleadh. He confirmed at the...

Salma Hayek can breathe easy now. Her passion project "Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet" is finally coming to the big screen. Directed by Roger Allers ("The Lion King"), "The Prophet" is a collaborative animated tale featuring individual "chapters" from animation legends such as Tomm Moore ("The Secret of Kells" "Song of the Sea"), Joan Gratz (Academy Award winner for "Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase"),  Bill Plympton ("Guard Dog and Your Face"), Paul and Gaetan Brizzi ("Fantasia 2000") and Mohammed Harib ("Freej"), among others.  It's based on Gilbran's 1923 book and features a voice cast including Hayek, Liam Neeson,  Quvenzhané Wallis, John Krasinski, Frank Langella and Alfred Molina.  The film's score is by Oscar winner Gabriel Yared ("The English Patient") and it also includes additional music from  Damien Rice, Glenn Hansard ("Once") and Lisa Hannigan.  So, yes, that's a lot of pedigree talent in the mix. "The Prophet" debuted to positive reviews at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival,...

Sequels and spinoffs are all the rage on the big screen these days, but the news that Disney is moving forward with a Frozen 2 still comes as something of a surprise considering the studio has been reticent to pump out theatrically-released follow-ups to its biggest hits - only The Three Caballeros, The Rescuers Down Under, Fantasia 2000 and Winnie the Pooh are part of the Disney Animated Canon.

However, throughout the '90s and '00s Disney had a lucrative side-business in direct-to-video sequels that were turned around quickly and cheaply and made the studio a fast buck. Many execs felt that these cheapened the originals and John Lasseter put the brakes on them, although the recent Tinker Bell films (branching out from Peter Pan) have their roots in this release model.

Digital Spy revisits 13 of Disney's most unnecessary straight-to-video sequels below:

Aladdin: The Return of Jafar (1994)

The very first...

It's definitely happening: Disney is pressing ahead with plans for Frozen 2...

Walt Disney Animation Studios hasn't made a sequel to one of its 'classic' animated films - at least not a proper one (we don't count the mainly straight to video/DVD shovelware) - since 1990's The Rescuers Down Under (unless you count Fantasia 2000). But that's about to change.

Surprising not many people, Disney has formally confirmed that Frozen 2 is happening. This does come a few days after directors Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck downplayed talk of a follow-up, although they didn't outright deny it. Now we know why.

The original Frozen took $1.27bn at the global box office, and is by distance the biggest animated film of all time in cinemas. There are already plans for a Broadway show - that Jennifer Lee is writing the book for - and a short film, Frozen Fever, is to play...

London-based visual effects company to open animation unit in Montreal and begin production on 3D feature Charming.

UK digital visual effects company Cinesite is to create a slate of family animation features with 3Qu Media, the new CG-animation production company headed by Shrek producer John Williams and Henry Skelsy, managing partner of Fulton Capital Management.

The first project will be Charming, an irreverent animated comedy that re-imagines the tales of Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty who discover they are all engaged to the same prince.

The film will be produced by Williams and directed by Ross Vemokur (Animal Crackerz).

Williams said: “We believe Charming can be a big commercial success and we hope this will be the beginning of a long time feature animation association between 3Qu and Cinesite’s super talented artists, technicians, and production team.”

Cinesite MD Antony Hunt said: “Feature animation is a natural extension of our talent and infrastructure.

“This deal is...

Ed Sullivan. Jack Nicholson. Robert De Niro. Groucho Marx. Rodney Dangerfield. William F. Buckley. Peter Lorre. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arsenio Hall.

Those were just some of the impressions that Robin Williams performed in the guise of the almighty blue Genie in Aladdin. Perhaps another comedian could’ve supplied similarly outrageous voices, but no one could’ve infused that dynamic, shape-shifting character with so much heart and humor. For many fans of a certain age, Genie was the Robin Williams character that immediately popped into their heads when the sad news broke yesterday that the Oscar-winning actor had died tragically in California...

When the news broke that Robin Williams had taken his own life, at the age of 63, it left the world reeling. This was a man whose boundless exuberance and seemingly unlimited creativity could turn the biggest sourpuss into a sloppy bundle of uncontrollable giggles. (His more dramatic turns left their own sort of impact, and were, perhaps, closer to the man Williams really was than the jittery funnyman.) For those of us that grew up at a certain time (and many more after us), our first exposure to Williams wasn't by seeing him perform at all -- it was by hearing his words come out of a giant, glowing blue Genie, in Disney's immortal animated classic "Aladdin."

This might be the role that Williams is best remembered for, just because it's the one that reaches the widest possible audience -- little kids and grandmothers alike can sing along to "Friend...

Cannes -- One of the more unexpected events at this year's Cannes Film Festival for me happened on Saturday night. I went to what I thought was going to be a screening, but which turned out instead to be a presentation hosted by Salma Hayek for the work-in-progress version of an animated anthology film based on "The Prophet," the internationally acclaimed book of poetry by Kahlil Gibran. Ultimately, we ended up seeing less than half of the film, but Hayek's enthusiasm and the finished footage that we did get to see made a strong case for not only how much this film means to her personally, but also what a beautifully crafted experience the end result promises to be. If you're an animation fan, this is going to be a fascinating collection of voices and techniques from around the world, all in service of this beautiful, profound piece of work...

As we continue on, I need to once again clarify that if this list was “Joshua Gaul’s 50 Favorite Movie Musicals,” it’d be a quite a different list. But, if my tastes determined what is definitive, I’d be asking you all to consider Aladdin as a brilliant piece of filmmaking and wax nostalgic about my love for Batteries Not Included and Flight of the Navigator (not for the musicals list, of course). Much to my dismay, my tastes are not universal. I’d like to think my research methods are.

courtesy of themoviescene.co.uk

30. Annie (1982)

Directed by John Huston

Signature Song: “Tomorrow” (http://youtu.be/Yop62wQH498)

Originally a 1924 comic strip, the beloved stage musical about a red-haired orphan girl was brought to the big screen in 1982 and directed by John Huston (yes, that John Huston – director of The Maltese Falcon and The African Queen, not to...

Tim here. Tomorrow, Darren Aronofsky’s longstanding passion project Noah finally opens, continuing the unexpected trend which has found 2014 turning the Year the Biblical Epic Came Back (what with Son of God in February, and Ridley Scott’s Exodus set for December). Compared to a lot of the A-list Bible stories, Noah and his ark haven’t been seen in the movies too terribly often, but there have been filmed versions of the tale stretching back at least to 1928, when Michael Curtiz directed a part-talkie version that contrasted the traditional story with a tale of soldiers in World War I (I haven’t seen it, but it sounds kind of terribly amazing).

But the whole history of Noah movies would be too daunting to talk about in one short post, so I’m just going to focus my energies on the last time that a major studio turned their attention to the story.

“I think we’re all glad that they changed the name to Fantasia,” states Steve Martin dryly during his introduction of Fantasia 2000 regarding the film’s predecessor, which was originally called The Concert Feature. (Fantasia may be a slightly cooler-sounding title, but it’s not much more inviting to the average audience member than The Concert Feature.) That single line of dialogue represents the key to the creative struggle at the heart of Fantasia 2000, a perfectly entertaining film with no identity of its own. Though Martin is funny in his few moments on screen (all of the celebrity introductions in this new film are mildly charming in their own way, though they vary in tone from Martin’s wacky fourth-wall-breaking humor to regal sincerity, as with Angela Lansbury’s climactic appearance), the fact that a recognizable comedian needs to be one of our ushers into a world of...

The concept of the work of art that is unappreciated by the masses immediately, but gains a passionate and overwhelming following decades later is almost as old as time itself. A book, or piece of music, or painting, or sculpture, or film is unveiled to an indifferent public, save a few devout fans, and is only revived once newer generations approach it with fresh eyes. So many films we now consider to be the greatest of all time were not as warmly received (if they were received warmly at all) upon their initial release. Some classics, such as Citizen Kane and Vertigo, benefit now primarily from home media releases, repeated airings on Turner Classic Movies, and the impassioned voices of critics and historians to emphasize to general audiences how important and daring and dramatically satisfying these films truly are. Then there are the films that received a second wind of...

The opening and closing images in the Toy Story trilogy are one and the same: a picture-perfect blue sky with a couple of carefully placed, nonthreatening fluffy clouds in the middle. While both are computer-generated facsimiles, the former is a facsimile of a facsimile: the comforting wallpaper in the bedroom of a little boy named Andy Davis. The latter is closer to the real thing, greeting the teenage Andy as he drives off to college and out of the lives of the toys with whom he populated his imagination for over a decade. As the series opens, the 6-year old Andy, a suburban Christopher Robin of sorts, proves in the confines of his tiny room, overstuffed with plush animals, board games, action figures, and other toys, that his world of make-believe is limitless. As the series closes, Andy ventures into the known unknown of the real world, secretly wished an...

San Francisco Symphony salutes Alfred Hitchcock: Halloween movies and Hitchcock movie music (photo: San Francisco Symphony and Cary Grant in ’North by Northwest’) The San Francisco Symphony will celebrate Alfred Hitchcock movies and their music scores beginning at 8 p.m. on Halloween eve, October 30, 2013, at Davies Symphony Hall. During Hitchcock Film Week, the San Francisco Symphony will perform the scores for Hitchcock’s Psycho, The Lodger: A Tale of the London Fog, and the world premiere presentation of Vertigo’s full score performed live, in addition to excerpts from To Catch a Thief, Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, and North by Northwest. Alfred Hitchcock’s granddaughter Tere Carrubba will introduce the Psycho presentation on October 30. Hitchcock received his fifth and final Best Director Academy Award nomination for this cheaply made — but highly successful — 1960 thriller starring Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, and Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee Janet Leigh.

Exclusive: Liam Neeson, Salma Hayek, John Krasinski, Frank Langella, Alfred Molina and Quvenzhané Wallis have all joined the voice cast of Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet, the animated feature film written and directed by Roger Allers, whose animation credits include directing Disney’s The Lion King and Open Season and whose writing and storyboard work encompasses such films as Aladdin, Beauty And The Beast, and The Little Mermaid. The film is being produced by Hayek, Clark Peterson, and Ron Senkowski. Participant Media and Doha Film Institute are financing and are exec producers. Allers’ script was inspired by The Prophet, the iconic book that is one of the biggest sellers in history, north of 100 million copies in over 40 languages since it was first published by Alfred Knopf in 1923. Allers is directing the narrative story, while individual chapters based on Gibran’s poems are being helmed by animation directors from around the world,...

IMAX and The Walt Disney Studios, a division of The Walt Disney Company today announced an agreement to produce and distribute the latest IMAX® 3D cinematic space spectacle from acclaimed filmmaker Toni Myers, who has been crafting mind-blowing movie experiences for IMAX audiences for more than 40 years.

This marks the first time IMAX and The Walt Disney Studios are jointly producing a film together. The companies have previously collaborated on the distribution of numerous films from the groundbreaking release of Fantasia 2000 to the recent successful opening of Oz The Great and Powerful.

Myers’ upcoming 3D film, which is still untitled, will use IMAX’s extremely high-resolution photography and videography to offer breathtaking, illuminating views of our home planet from space, exploring the astonishing changes that have occurred on Earth in just the past several decades.

Made in cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), the film will...

IMAX Corporation and The Walt Disney Studios today announced an agreement to produce and distribute the latest IMAX® 3D cinematic space spectacle from acclaimed filmmaker Toni Myers, who has been crafting mind-blowing movie experiences for IMAX audiences for more than 40 years. This marks the first time IMAX and The Walt Disney Studios are jointly producing a film together. The companies have previously collaborated on the distribution of numerous films from the groundbreaking release of Fantasia 2000 to the recent successful opening of Oz The Great and Powerful . Myers' upcoming 3D film, which is still untitled, will use IMAX's extremely high-resolution photography and videography to offer breathtaking, illuminating views of our home planet from space, exploring the...

The Rescuers Down Under

Directed by Hendel Butoy and Mike Gabriel

Written by Jim Cox, Karey Kirkpatrick, Byron Simpson, Joe Ranft

Starring Bob Newhart, Eva Gabor, George C. Scott

The level of faith the Walt Disney Company places in its own products never ceases to be amazing if inexplicable. Each era at this massive corporation is so categorically different from what came before, well back into when Disney was still a struggling film studio desperately trying to pay the bills with its shorts or, at the time, a handful of massively ambitious feature-length animated films. Thus, the faith placed in the product has always shifted. However, the Mouse House’s modern era, beginning in 1984, when Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the late Frank Wells began their tenure in various high-level positions, has been concurrently maddening and glorious to behold. Whether we like it or not, Disney fans are something of...