Animation

If you thought Tim Burton had a delightfully twisted imagination based on his feature films such as "Edward Scissorhands" and "Beetlejuice," you ain't seen nothing yet. MoMA opens a blockbuster show tomorrow with a cornucopia of more than 700 items, including weird sculptures, black-velvet paintings, Polaroid photos and sketches covering four decades — almost none of which have ever been shown publicly. "A lot of stuff was just for projects and thought processes," says Burton, who allowed curators ...

A lot of stuff was just for projects and thought processes   -Tim Burton

 

The Walt Disney Co.'s newest princess doesn't arrive in movie theaters for another month, but she is already easy to find at Walt Disney World. Theme-park guests can meet Tiana, an African-American princess, and watch her perform in a musical riverboat show. They can buy Tiana dolls, undergo Tiana makeovers, and eat Tiana's Magical Kisses -- bite-sized, white-chocolate-covered graham crackers.  

Planet 51 is one of those movies with no real, natural audience, a family comedy that is not really for kids with humor too mild to appeal to many adults. A gentle riff on the alien invasion movies of the '50s, it is an amiable trifle about a U.S. astronaut who lands on what he thinks is an uninhabited planet in a far-off galaxy. The astronaut ultimately finds himself in the unaccustomed role of 'feared alien' on a planet full of green people who seem to exist in an alternative 1950s universe.  

Oprah has made the decision to end her TV talk show. It's amazing that she has had this show running for 25 years! Her shows have always been informative, entertaining, and timely.  

Animated movies have been one of the year's major bright spots at the cineplex. Thanks to a new rule, the HFPA can nominate five (previously three), any one of which could break out to make the Oscar's list. Classic Precursor: "Armageddon" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" breed a wonderful monster.  

Black Friday is approaching, fellow readers. No, I'm not talking about some sort of economic free-fall or any apocalyptic event that we might see in 2012 . I'm talking about the shopper's paradise/nightmare that is the day after Thanksgiving, where all the hot holiday items are paraded about with slashed prices galore.  

Listen up hi-def humbugs and Blu-ray Scrooges! This is the year you'll not just want, but need, to buy a new hi-def plasma screen and a shiny black Blu-ray player for Christmas (and/or whatever other holiday you choose to celebrate with lavish gifts). Why?  

BIZARRE'S favourite actor STEPHEN GRAHAM has landed yet another massive movie role. Scouser Stephen, Liverpool's second most talented Stevie G, will play RINGO STARR in a Disney remake of the Fab Four's 1968 animation film Yellow Submarine. Boss!  

When you're making an animated film, one of the big differences is that you can add scenes, change dialogue and re-write as you're going along because you only shoot a little bit of the movie each day. Mr. and Mrs. Fox "on set" shooting a scene in the supermarket. So, with Fantastic Mr. Fox , about half-way through the shoot, I had this idea for a scene between the two characters played by Jason Schwartzman and my brother, Eric Anderson.