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In 1989, Steven Spielberg was trying really hard to get into the animation game. He had served as executive producer on films like Don Bluth's "An American Tail" and Robert Zemeckis' "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," steering both of them to great success. He also founded his own animation studio, Amblimation, that year, hoping to continue his track record of making striking, original, and successful animated features. By 1989, though, Spielberg and Bluth had suffered a falling out, and new projects didn't come easily. As a result, Amblimation only ever made three features: "An American Tail: Fievel Goes West," "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story," and "Balto."

Spielberg has better success on television, overseeing a new wave of animated shows that ushered in a new generation of entertainment. 1990 saw the debut of "Tiny Toon Adventures," a fourth-wall-breaking comedy series featuring a new collection of "kid" counterparts to well-known Warner Bros. characters. That show...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Bam

My ten-film Manoel de Oliveira retrospective Mirror of Life begins, with numerous restorations making their North American premiere.

Japan Society

One of Ozu’s greatest films, Early Spring, plays on 35mm this Friday.

Roxy Cinema

Eraserhead and An American Tail screen, the latter for free.

Anthology Film Archives

The Rules of the Game and The Flowers of St. Francis play on 35mm in Essential Cinema.

Film Forum

A René Clair retrospective continues, as does Luis Buñuel’s Él and Godard’s A Woman Is a Woman; Betty Boop and Friends screens on Sunday.

IFC Center

Hideaki Anno’s Love & Pop plays in a new restoration; Stop Making Sense, Mulholland Dr., Lost Highway, Sorcerer, and Funny Games (the good one) show late.

Nitehawk Cinema

Hanna and a print of Westward the Women screen early on Saturday and Sunday.

Metrograph

Donnie...

Quick LinksKathleen Kennedy Was Inspired by Steven SpielbergKathleen Kennedy Was Hollywood's Most Successful Producer Before LucasfilmKathleen Kennedy Helped Save Jurassic Park TwiceIn a Male-Dominated Industry and Fandom, Kathleen Kennedy Took Control

The rumor that Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down from Matt Belloni's sloppy reporting on Puck has since been debunked by the Lucasfilm CEO herself. In an interview with Deadline, Kennedy clarified, "The truth is, and I want to just say loud and clear, I am not retiring. I will never retire from movies. I will die making movies. That is the first thing that's important to say. I am not retiring."

There is no question that Star Wars would not continue to exist without Kennedy's leadership. Yet, as a prominent and powerful woman in Hollywood, she has often been the target of bad faith criticism by everyone from Belloni to anonymous, mask-wearing YouTube outrage grifters. But even before...

Editor's note: Kathleen Kennedy has since given a clarification interview with Deadline, where she said she is not retiring at this time. She is 71, and Kennedy has been in discussions of what a succession would look like. However, at the time of writing, she's not leaving Lucasfilm yet. The commentary in this article about people weirdly celebrating still applies.

Kathleen Kennedy is a woman who needs no introduction. She is one of the most prominent and game changing people who has ever worked in Hollywood. From some of her earliest production jobs like in 1979 as an assistant for the film 1941 to helming one of the biggest media franchises of all time in a Galaxy far, far away, she has built a career spanning over 45 years. And according to The Hollywood Reporter, she is looking to retire at the end of the year.

I could not be happier for Kathleen. I...

Few animation companies have the longevity and cultural sway as Walt Disney. The studio’s meteoric rise is the quintessential American dream, and its films are as ubiquitous as water. Classics like The Lion King, Sleeping Beauty, and Mulan have entranced audiences worldwide for decades. Yet, no company is without its issues. Back in the 1980s, Disney was embroiled in its so-called “Dark Era.” Its films had lost their charm, and audiences sought their family-friendly thrills elsewhere. The studio’s beloved storytelling had stalled; its profits stalled. The animation department was especially hard hit, and only two of the period’s films have since joined the company’s pantheon of classics. The Fox and the Hound debuted in 1981; The Great Mouse Detective hit theaters half a decade later.

While there were many reasons for the studio’s brief decline, one of the most prevalent was its unfortunate tendency to bleed talent.

The Goonies, the adventure film from 1985 directed by Richard Donner under Steven Spielberg's production, is rising to the top of Max's most-watched films. By the time of writing, it remains in the sixth spot on the list, and it's the only movie from the 1980s to make the list during a time when Christmas movies almost exclusively enter the top 10.

The Goonies follows a group of teenagers who have an extraordinary opportunity to save their homes from being demolished. Young Mikey Walsh grew up with the pirate stories his father always told him. But they were just stories, right? However, when he and the rest of his gang of teens, the Goonies, explore the attic, they find a treasure map.

Mikey convinces the rest of his friends to go looking for the loot that could give them financial backup to save their homes in the Goon Docks area of Astoria.

Perhaps the definitive image of “The Brutalist,” found near the opening of the film and featured heavily in its marketing, is an undulating, upside-down shot of the Statue of Liberty as a boat full of newly-arrived foreigners celebrate its presence. For them, it marks the end of a long journey, but in a signal to the audience, director Brady Corbet and cinematographer Lol Crawley tell us that very few are aware of what fresh horrors await on these new shores.

The immigrant experience, whether it be in depictions of dangerous crossings or the strife of settling in a new place far from what is known, has long been examined by filmmakers. Some have done so as a way of tracing their own family history, like in the case of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather: Part II,” or as a form of understanding someone else’s plight in the instance of the animated documentary “Flee.

Netflixs new animated film Spellbound has immediately claimed a place at the top of the streamer's global movie chart, but has taken a big hit in its review scores after sparking controversy over its depictions of divorce. The family movie has become the subject of many complaints from angry parents who are not happy with the films message that divorce is okay.

While the movie has been praised for its vibrant animation and a star-studded voice cast, which includes Rachel Zegler, Javier Bardem, Nicole Kidman, and John Lithgow, a significant number of reviews on Rotten Tomatoes have slammed the movie for having what they believe are inappropriate themes for children to be subjected to at a young age.

Spellbound tells the story of Ellian, a young princess voiced by Rachel Zegler, who embarks on a magical adventure to save her kingdom of Lumbria. After her parents are transformed into monsters by a mysterious spell,...

Tom Hanks is out promoting his new film, the Robert Zemeckis-directed Here, but speaking with CinemaBlends ReelBlend podcast, the actor said one role, in particular, brought him to tears. Fans of Hanks probably have countless moments when his acting has made them choke up, but for him, it was a specific moment while making Apollo 13, the 1995 film directed by Ron Howard.

Hanks recalled being on the recording stage for Apollo 13, the docudrama based on the 1970 Apollo 13 lunar mission that never made it to the moon. While speaking about how a movie's musical score can impact a moment in film, Hanks said a particular time on the stage he was brought to tears.

Related Bill Murray Missed Out on Starring in This '80s Classic (& He Still Regrets It)

Bill Murray was once considered for Bob Hoskins' career-defining role in Who Framed Rabbit, only to wind up missing...

Producer Roy Lee gives a hopeful update on the Dragon's Lair movie at Netflix, an adaptation of the 1980s arcade game of the same name set to star Ryan Reynolds.

To kick off their San Diego Comic-Con panel "Producers on Producing," a panel exploring the ins and outs of film production, Collider spoke with producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Akiva Goldsman and Roy Lee on their various projects, from Constantine 2, I Am Legend 2 and The Thing series. In the midst of these updates came one about Dragon's Lair, giving fans of the franchise a little hope after four years of development.

Related Black Mirror: Bandersnatch Isn't the Choose Your Own Adventure We Wanted

Netflix's Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is certainly ambitious, but falls short in its interactive storytelling.

It's been a hard-fought battle to get the film made. After almost a year of negotiations, Netflix picked up the rights to...

The Dark Age of American Animation For close to a century now, Disney has been synonymous with American animation at large. If you go back and watch a Disney animated feature from the 1940s or ‘50s, you’ll notice just how fluid and lushly drawn the animation itself often is and how it manages to hold up to the test of time. Even a more modest production from that period proved magnificent, like ‘Lady and the Tramp’, which was so lavishly produced that it was shot in ultra-wide CinemaScope. Contrast the Disney output of this period, basically up to the time of Walt Disney’s death in 1966, with the animated Disney ventures that came afterward. While movies like ‘Robin Hood’ and ‘The Rescuers’ are not exactly bad per se, the jump from hand-drawn animation to computer animation is noticeable. Things to do: Subscribe to The Hollywood Insider’s YouTube Channel,...

Non-Disney animated musicals are diverse classics, deserving recognition for their box office success, critical praise, and artistic legacy. All Dogs Go To Heaven, Corpse Bride, and South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut are standout non-Disney animated musicals with unique stories and impact. Films like FernGully, The Road To El Dorado, Anastasia, Sing, An American Tail, and The Prince Of Egypt prove Disney doesn't monopolize animated musical excellence.

When considering the best animated musicals, it is inevitable that Disney will automatically come to mind, but in reality, there are countless animated musicals not made by Disney, that are truly outstanding watches. These musicals are diverse in their stories and music, and all of them are staples of many generations' childhoods, just as Disney's best movies were. Though some of these films are seemingly inspired by Disney, while others are completely and utterly unique, all of these non-Disney animated musicals are some of the best musicals,...

Pop quiz: which director said the following? "I have much more fun making an animated movie. You can make an $18 million animated feature look like a $100 million live-action movie. You can animate anything — the universe, all of creation. It’s the last frontier of the imagination." The answer is Steven Spielberg, the producer of box office sensations An American Tail (directed by Don Bluth), Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (directed by Robert Zemeckis), and The Land Before Time (also Bluth). The answer to when Spielberg made this statement is in 1991 to The Morning Call, when he was promoting the upcoming sequel to An American Tail, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West. This second installment in the misadventures of Fievel Mousekewitz (Phillip Glasser) was the debut animated feature from Amblimation, Amblin Entertainment (which Spielberg co-founded) and Universal Pictures's joint animation studio.

Steven Spielberg requested some scenes from Don Bluth's The Land Before Time be removal for being too scary for children. Many classic children's movies, including Disney's The Black Cauldron and Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal, have included dark and scary elements to balance out the fun. Don Bluth believes that a good children's story should have a good villain and a scare moment.

Don Bluth is an icon in the world of animated feature films of the 1980s and beyond. From The Secret of Nimh and An American Tail to Anastasia and Titan Ae, the filmmaker and animator has been instrumental in Hollywood across his career – even if that sometimes meant him going against the grain. One of those occasions led to Steven Spielberg stepping in to remove some scenes from the classic movie The Land Before Time, which were subsequently destroyed for being “too scary for children.

As DreamWorks Animation shifts to a new production-sharing model with Sony Pictures Imageworks (“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”), we get a taste of the studio’s indie vibe at its best with “Orion and the Dark” (co-produced with Netflix and currently streaming). It’s an imaginative fantasy-adventure about confronting adolescent fears, thanks to the mind-bending script by Charlie Kaufman (“Anomalisa“).

“I think Kaufman’s whimsy and humor are brilliant for this family film space,” producer Peter McCown told IndieWire. “I think it’s a great match and I hope that he continues in this space.”

Kaufman spent about a year adapting Emma Yarlett’s 2014 children’s picture book about a fear-conquering adventure involving the titular adolescent and Dark, his nemesis, setting it in ’90s Philadelphia and making Orion (Jacob Tremblay) a neurotic, artistic fifth grader and Dark (Paul Walker Hauser) a hulking, insecure figure with an existential crisis. Dark invites Orion...

Browsing through the Hanna-Barbera catalog of animated series, one will find numerous timeless classics, like Johnny Quest, Wacky Racers, The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, etc. And within the expansive line-ups of cartoons created by the company, many have become lost to time or mostly forgotten; whether it be The Snorks or Jabberjaw, not all of them hold the same iconic status. However, within the forgotten catalog that hosts 249 stand-alone series, a few gems deserve to be revisited, or better yet — remade.

Pirates of the Dark Water, running for three seasons from 1991-92, is one such title. Set on the alien world of Mer, the fantasy/adventure cartoon series follows Ren, who is preordained to save the world from destruction. Ren and his companion swashbucklers face various challenges, including constant clashes with the villainous pirate lord Bloth. It is an exciting premise for a cartoon series that boasts a longer plot than many cartoons at the time,...

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

Until "The Little Mermaid" arrived in 1989 and ushered in another golden age for Disney animation, the '80s were not an otherwise great period for the storied studio. That opened the door for other studios and creators to swoop in and steal some of Disney's glory. Enter Don Bluth, one of animation's most heralded creators, who cut his teeth at Disney before going out on his own. Bluth, with the backing of Universal Pictures, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas, directed "The Land Before Time," one of the most beloved '80s animated films around.

Bluth helped fill the void after Walt Disney passed away, directing movies like "The Rescuers" and "Pete's Dragon.

Halloween is a night of fanciful terrors, its macabre machinations ticking, turning, clicking and clacking inside of its youthful acolytes’ imaginations as it ushers in the one day a year where life, death and everything in between is allowed to stalk the moonlit streets. There are a multitude of October tales that attempt to capture the holiday’s uncanny spirit, but few stories manage to embody the enigmatical ghostliness of Halloween’s mystifying soul more completely than Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree (1993).

Initially pitched as an animated film in the late 1960s, Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree was first published as a novel in 1973. It would take another 20 years to see Bradbury’s story realized on screen due in large part to the friendship, dedication and artistic prowess of writer and producer David Kirschner. A true disciple of October 31st’s many unearthly goings on, Kirschner’s belief...

DreamWorks Animation has found a new home at Universal Orlando Resort, as the theme park announced the impending arrival of a DreamWorks Animation-themed land set to debut in 2024.

The theme park said Thursday that guests will “share special moments with their favorite characters like Gabby from ‘Gabby’s Dollhouse’ and explore themed, interactive play spaces and attractions that bring popular franchises like ‘Shrek,’ ‘Trolls’ and ‘Kung Fu Panda’ to life in the most imaginatively fun ways.”

The area will take over what was formerly known as Woody Woodpecker’s KidZone, over by E.T. Adventure. You can tell from the concept art (above) that they are utilizing some of the preexisting structures and attractions for the new land – in particular Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster has been seemingly rethemed to a “Trolls”-indebted attraction. You can also see a Shrek and Donkey meet-and-greet area, which used to be a staple of...

Cynthia Weil, a Grammy-winning lyricist of notable range and endurance who enjoyed a decades-long partnership with husband Barry Mann and helped write “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”, “On Broadway”, “Walking in the Rain” and dozens of other hits, has died at age 82.

Weil’s daughter, Dr. Jenn Mann, said that the songwriter died Thursday at her home in Beverly Hills, California, “surrounded by her family.” Mann, the couple’s only child, declined to cite a specific cause of death.

Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, married in 1961, were one of popular music’s most successful teams, part of a remarkable ensemble recruited by impresarios Don Kirshner and Al Nevins and based in Manhattan’s Brill Building neighborhood, a few blocks from Times Square. With such hit-making combinations as Carole King and Gerry Goffin and Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, the Brill Building song factory turned out many of the biggest...

Cynthia Weil, the celebrated songwriter who helped craft timeless hits like the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” the Animals’ “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” and Chaka Khan’s “Through the Fire,” died Thursday, June 1. She was 82.

Weil’s daughter, Jenn Mann, confirmed her death, though no cause was given. “My mother, Cynthia Weil, was the greatest mother, grandmother and wife our family could ever ask for,” Mann said. “She was my best friend, confidant, and my partner in crime and an idol and trailblazer for women in music.

Cynthia Weil, who teamed with husband Barry Mann to write such pop classics as “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” “On Broadway,” “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” and dozens of other hits for the likes of the Drifters, the Ronettes, Dolly Parton and B.J. Thomas, died Thursday. She was 82.

Weil’s daughter, Dr. Jenn Mann, said via publicist Sarah Schlief: “My mother, Cynthia Weil, was the greatest mother, grandmother and wife our family could ever ask for. She was my best friend, confidante and my partner in crime and an idol and trailblazer for women in music.”

Weil and Mann, who were married for 62 years, were among the most important songwriters in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll. They won a pair of Grammys and were Oscar-nominated for Best Song for “Somewhere Out There,” the Linda Ronstadt-James Ingram duet from An American Tail. The couple would share...

Christopher Plummer’s final performance is coming to digital release! According to Variety, the Oscar-winning actor will be playing Rizzo in the upcoming animated epic, Heroes of the Golden Mask. The trailer and description can be viewed below.

Charlie, a wise-cracking, homeless, American orphan is magically transported to the ancient Chinese kingdom of Sanxingdui, where a colorful team of superheroes need his help to defend the city from a brutal conqueror. Charlie joins the heroes, and secretly schemes to steal the priceless golden masks that grant them their powers.

Heroes of the Golden Mask is directed by Sean O’Reilly, who will also be voicing the role of Thurman. Joining O’Reilly and Plummer are Ron Perlman (Hellboy) as Kunyi, Patton Oswalt (Ratatouille) as Aesop, Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Wish Dragon) as Li, Byron Mann (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) as Jiahao, Keifer O’Reilly(The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers) as Charlie, and Osric Chau...

As the daughter of Chucky franchise special effects artist Tony Gardner, director Kyra Elise Gardner offers a unique perspective on the killer doll’s lasting impact in the Screambox Original documentary Living with Chucky.

Child’s Play creator Don Mancini and franchise alumni Brad Dourif, Jennifer Tilly, Fiona Dourif, Alex Vincent, Christine Elise, Billy Boyd, John Waters, Tony Gardner, David Kirschner, and more spill their guts along with such notable fans as Marlon Wayans, Abigail Breslin, Lin Shaye, and Dan Povenmire, among others.

Here are 9 things I learned from Living with Chucky.

1. Gremlins helped pave the way for Child’s Play.

A lifelong horror fan, Don Mancini wrote the first Child’s Play script — originally titled Batteries Not Included, then Blood Buddy — while attending UCLA. “I realized that no one had ever done the living doll thing as a full-fledged feature where you treat the doll as a character who can actually emote...

Growing up, my parents never shielded me from the horrors of antisemitism. I suspect a lot of it was my dad's doing. He would often tell us about his childhood in New Jersey, where many of his fellow students (including his first girlfriend) were Jewish and a number of his teachers were actual Holocaust survivors (as you could tell from the numbers tattooed on their forearms). As such, my siblings and I wound up seeing "Schindler's List" pretty much as soon as it became available on VHS. Mind you, as young as we all were at the time, my parents didn't throw us in the deep end of the pool right away. We had seen the "Indiana Jones" movies many times by then and watched films like "An American Tail," so the concept of antisemitism had, in ways obviously more accessible to kids, already been drilled into our heads.

I...

"The Little Mermaid" saved Walt Disney Feature Animation in 1989. It earned rave reviews from critics like Roger Ebert, who wrote that "the magic of animation has been restored to us." It won an Academy Award and a Grammy for the hit song "Under the Sea." Best of all, the film popularized animated musicals; not just animated films with songs, but films with songs that expressed motivation and character as aptly as the animation did. Lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken, responsible for the off-Broadway legend "Little Shop of Horrors," brought their hard-won expertise to a project that was floundering on the rocks. The results didn't just set the standard for the Disney Renaissance; they set the standard for its competition. For the first time in many years, Disney took the lead as opposed to ceding ground to challengers like Don Bluth. Not every film in the coming years would be successful,...

Forrest Gump is Andrew Scott Bell’s origin story, in a manner of speaking. When his parents bought the two-disc soundtrack, packed with cuts from Bob Dylan and Creedence Clearwater Revival, he gravitated most to the final track, “Forrest Gump Suite,” by composer Alan Silvestri, who is also known for What Lies Beneath, Castaway, and Avengers: Infinity War, among countless other works.

“I remember hearing the track and lightning sparks going off in my brain,” he tells Bloody Disgusting. So, he listened to it over and over again until he learned how to play it on piano. “I’ll never forget how to play it,” he adds.

From upstate New York, Bell grew up in a very religious home. Being a “weird queer kid,” he found himself taking dance, ballet, and piano lessons. “When I was very young, I landed on art and drawing, and I was really into that.

The "dinosaur phase" is pretty much a rite of passage for every child. If you're a man-child like me, your "dinosaur phase" has gone well into adulthood (no shame). Personally, I've never outgrown my sense of wonder and awe at prehistoric beasts. They're like fantasy creatures that you only read about in books — except they were real! Nowhere is my passion for paleontology more profound than when it comes to dinosaur movies. A milestone movie for me and millions of other millennial moviegoers was the "Jurassic Park" franchise, especially the original.

While the "Jurassic Park" franchise may be the king of dinosaur movies, it's not the only time prehistoric beasts have stomped on the big screen; they've entertained us for decades. Some dinosaur movies are genuinely great films, while some are so bad they're good, but all of them are awesome. I'm going to share some of my favorite dinosaur movies,...

When Halloween comes around each year, you’d have to twist your bones and bend your back to avoid “Hocus Pocus.” The film regularly wins cable movie telecast ratings each October. Disney theme parks have an annual “Spelltacular” centered around the Sanderson Sisters. It’s even getting a sequel, “Hocus Pocus 2,” set to hit Disney+ next week.

But if Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy are effectively Halloween royalty, why, you may wonder, did it take 30 years to get a second film? Well, “Hocus Pocus” wasn’t always the cultural touchstone it is in 2022.

When “Hocus Pocus” hit theaters in 1993, it was panned by critics — Roger Ebert’s one-star review said it was “like attending a party you weren’t invited to, and where you don’t know anybody, and they’re all in on a joke but won’t explain it to you.” And the movie flopped at the box office,...

Great film scores are inseparable from the movies they were made for. Who can think of "Jaws" without John Williams' famously dread-inducing two-note theme springing to mind? Or imagine "Psycho" absent Bernard Herrmann's screeching violin? And what better way to get yourself hyped up to perform even the most unremarkable of tasks than by listening to Howard Shore's grandiose leitmotifs for the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy?

Shore's music for Peter Jackson's J.R.R. Tolkien adaptation runs the gamut in terms of tone and emotion; from the cozy, comforting vibes of "Concerning Hobbits" to the bombast and bravado of "The Bridge of Khazad-dûm," the terror of "The Passage of the Marshes" and "Shelob's Lair," and, of course, the gentle heartbreak of "The Grey Havens." Like everything else in Jackson's movies, however, its score could have gone in a very different direction. Indeed, prior to hiring Shore,...

From an early age, animator Don Bluth was a great admirer of Disney and has said in interviews that as a child, he would practice drawing by copying old Disney comic books. This childhood activity led to him being hired by Disney to work on their feature film version of "Sleeping Beauty" in the mid-1950s. After a stint doing missionary work and animating for various TV shows, Bluth returned to Disney in the mid-'70s to work on the company's version of "Robin Hood." Bluth worked on various animated features for Disney, eventually rising to the role of animation director for the 1977 film "Pete's Dragon." Over the course of working for Disney, however, Bluth became kind of disillusioned with the way the company owned all of their animators' work, and how animators were all trained to draw and animate the same way. Bluth left Disney in 1979 to form his own production company.

Don Bluth is one of those directors whose films I find inseparable from my memories of childhood. Just as Disney Animation was hitting a low point in the 1980s, Bluth was churning out animated classics like "The Secret of Nimh," "An American Tail," and "The Land Before Time." These are daring movies full of darkness and whimsy, marrying gorgeous hand-drawn imagery with stories about animal abuse, the plight of Russian-Jewish immigrants traveling to 19th-century America, and the beginning of the end of the age of dinosaurs. His next film after those three, 1989's "All Dogs Go to Heaven," is a parable about no less a topic than the meaning of existence.

Bluth's output mellowed as he struggled to compete with Disney's animation renaissance, yet he held onto his underlying weirdness for as long as he could. He started off the '90s directing strange animated musicals like "Rock-a-Doodle" (a movie...

There's nothing like a Don Bluth animated film. From the wide-eyed whimsy of his characters to his confusing, dreamlike sequences, the work of this animation icon has delighted (and terrified) audiences since the release of "The Secret of Nimh." Some 40 years later, Bluth's filmography has grown to contain some of the most fascinating hand-drawn animated projects Hollywood has ever seen. From nostalgic classics like "An American Tail" and "The Land Before Time" to truly odd flops like "A Troll in Central Park" and "Rock-a-Doodle," the list goes on and on. That begs the question, which films rank as the best examples of Bluth's talents?

From the not-so-great to the ones that continue to make us smile, we'll dive deep into Don Bluth's theatrically released feature films. Sure, there are projects he worked on outside of that specific medium (including direct-to-video projects and video games) To correctly examine this filmmaker, it's...

Preparing for an upcoming flight isn’t just limited to packing your clothes and toiletries — have you thought about how you’re going to keep yourself entertained? The idealist in all of us might say we’re gonna read that book we’ve been putting off, but depending on the length of your flight, that may be easier said than done. If it’s on the longer side, it can be easy to get distracted and start to really feel the minutes crawling by.

The good news is that in recent years,...

Nehemiah Persoff, who appeared as Barbra Streisand’s rabbi father in “Yentl” and had roles in hundreds of films and TV series including “Some Like It Hot” and “Twins,” died Tuesday in San Luis Obispo, Calif. He was 102.

His death was confirmed by his daughter, Dahlia Reano. Beyond prolific, Persoff racked up almost 200 credits in film and TV in a career that began in the very earliest days of television.

Persoff broke through in the 1959 movie “Some Like It Hot,” in which he played mobster boss Little Bonaparte. (The actor had been the last surviving member of the cast.) Early in his career, he was known for playing villainous tough guys, such as in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Wrong Man,” starring Henry Fonda, and “Al Capone,” starring Rod Steiger, in which he had a substantial role as Johnny Torrio, the mobster who mentored Capone only to be replaced by him.

Nehemiah Persoff, an actor who went from the uncredited role of a cab driver in On The Waterfront‘s iconic “coulda been a contender” scene to become one of the busiest character actors in television and film for five decades, died Tuesday at a rehabilitation facility in San Luis Obispo, California. He was 102.

Persoff had retired from acting in recent decades after suffering a stroke and other health issues. His death was reported to Deadline by a family friend.

Born in Jerusalem, Palestine, Persoff and his family moved to the United States in 1929, and after serving in the U.S. Army in World War II he relocated to New York to pursue a career in theater. He became a member of the famed Actors Studio in the late 1940s, studying with Elia Kazan, who would pay him a reported 75 to play the silent cab driver in Waterfront.

Persoff was also performing...

Chicago – In the continued reopening the Chicago Jcc Jewish Film Festival has put together a hybrid event … in person and online from March 10th-27th, 2022. One of their centerpiece films available to stream is “Jews of the Wild West.” Filmmaker Amanda Kinsey has put together an overview of the Jewish influence in the 19th Century taming of the America West, through immigration and commerce.

“Jews of the Wild West” contains much history and many surprising stories about the Jewish immigrants who settled westward during the 19th Century. Stories involving an early silent film cowboy star, a brand name born (Levi Strauss) and a leader emerging (Golda Meir), among others, highlight this colorful and lively story of America’s melting pot.

’Jews of the Wild West,’ Directed by Amanda Kinsey

Photo credit: Electric Yolk Media

The film’s writer/director Amanda Kinsey. an independent filmmaker, five-time Emmy Award winning producer and fourth-generation photojournalist.

Director Don Bluth began his career working on several productions for Disney's animation department, notably as animation director on "The Rescuers" and on "Pete's Dragon," but also as a character animator on films like "Robin Hood" (1973) and "Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too." It was when he was working on the 1981 flick "The Fox and the Hound" that Bluth's career at Disney began to sour. Arguing with the Disney brass as to how to train new animators, and who should retain artistic control on a project, Bluth ended up quitting the studio...

The post How Disney Successfully Prevented Anastasia's Success appeared first on /Film.

All past and future seasons of the Ryan Murphy shows “American Crime Story” and “American Horror Story,” as well as all three seasons of “Pose,” will soon be available to stream on Hulu.

While all 10 past seasons of “American Horror Story” are currently available on Hulu, both “American Crime Story” and “Pose” had previously only been available on Netflix due to a deal between Netflix and 20th Television.

All three seasons of both “American Crime Story” and “Pose” will become available on Hulu on March 7, while all future seasons of both “American Horror Story” and “American Crime Story” will then stream exclusively on Hulu after their linear premieres on FX.

“American Horror Story” has been renewed through Season 13 at FX, with Season 11 due to debut this fall. “Pose” ended its critically-acclaimed three-season run in 2021, and the most recent season of “American Crime Story” also aired in 2021.

The move comes after...

An underrated Disney classic, "The Great Mouse Detective" was released in 1986. Though it was a modest commercial success, the film was soon overshadowed by another mouse-centric movie. Former Mouse House animator and Disney's main competition at the time, Don Bluth (along with Steven Spielberg), released "An American Tail" shortly thereafter. Although "The Great Mouse Detective" has largely faded into obscurity, it's definitely a major highlight of Disney's so-called "Dark Age."

The film is based on the series of children's books, "Basil of Baker Street" by Eve Titus and Paul Galdone, which are themselves a riff on the Sherlock Holmes books by Arthur Conan Doyle....

The post How The Great Mouse Detective Was a CGI First For Disney appeared first on /Film.

"An American Tail" is not only one of the highest-grossing animated films of all time, but it also serves as Steven Spielberg's entry into the world of animation. After the success of "An American Tail" and director Don Bluth's follow-up "The Land Before Time", Spielberg decided to go all-in on animation — founding the short-lived Amblimation studio and producing hit cartoons including "Tiny Toon Adventures" and "Animaniacs".

But "American Tail's" success nearly led to a lawsuit from the creator of another mouse-centered tail.

Prior to "An American Tail's" release, Art Spiegelman was hard at work crafting his graphic novel masterpiece "Maus." Upon reading the description of "An...

The post Why Steven Spielberg's An American Tail Was Accused of Plagiarism appeared first on /Film.

This Is Us‘ dads have a rough go in this week’s episode… and a flash-forward confirms what we already knew: that at least one of ’em has even tougher times ahead.

“Four Fathers” focuses on Jack, Kevin, Toby and Randall’s experiences as dads under duress. But while most of the stories in the episode are typical how-to-succeed-in-the-ever-shifting-sands-of-parenting affairs, Toby’s is a sadder look at how stressors start to pull a marriage apart.

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Will Ryan, the veteran voice actor known for breathing life into such classic Disney characters as Willie the Giant and Peg-Leg Pete, who also once served as the president of international animation organization Asifa, died on Friday afternoon following a short battle with cancer. He was 72.

Ryan’s passing was confirmed to Deadline by his CelebWorx agent, Nery Lemus.

Born on May 21, 1949, Ryan embarked on his career in the 1980s, finding a breakthrough role in the pteranodon Petrie from Universal’s animated dinosaur classic, The Land Before Time. He’d go on to amass more than 100 screen credits in his nearly four-decade career, nabbing nominations from the Annie Awards and the WGA Awards, and winning a Behind the Voice Actor Award. Ryan was also nominated for an Emmy in 1998 as the producer of Outstanding Children’s Program contender The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, from Nickelodeon and The Jim Henson Company.

From a recording of Hamilton dropping on Disney+ to In the Heights hitting the big screen, Lin-Manuel Miranda has been having a moment bringing his onstage work to a broader audience. Now, he's making his feature-length directorial debut with Netflix's Tick, Tick… Boom! (out Nov. 19), paying homage to his musical theater roots by adapting Rent creator Jonathan Larson's autobiographical musical of the same name. Starring Andrew Garfield as Larson, the film follows the legendary composer as he contemplates his career choices before his 30th birthday. Here's what you should know about the life that inspired the musical, a life that was tragically cut short at age 35.

Larson, who became worried about his career while waiting tables in New York City, first performed Tick, Tick... Boom! as a solo act in 1990. The musical centers on Jon, or Larson, as he starts to hear a ticking sound just before his 30th birthday.

FX chairman John Landgraf told reporters during a virtual executive session for the Television Critics Association summer press tour that his famous deep dives on the state of the television industry will be much more specific to FX going forward.

“One of the things you’ll note is that my presentation today was very focused on the FX brand and FX programming,” Landgraf said. “I think it’s just factually accurate to say that is where I am focused. For many, many years I have been involved in the distribution process and running linear channels, and there was a major restructuring at the Walt Disney Company, and the running of the linear channels exists elsewhere in the company. I run a brand that markets, commissions, publicizes, programs, and produces original programming. I think that’s one of the reasons you’re seeing my focus change somewhat. I’m going to...

FX has renewed Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Stories” for a second installment, FX Entertainment President Eric Schrier said Friday at FX’s second (of three) TCA (Television Critics Association) day. Season 2 of the anthology series will debut in 2022.

The “American Horror Story” spinoff debuted in July as the most-watched FX on Hulu series to date. That boast counts just four series, however, the others being “Devs,” “Mrs. America” and “A Teacher.” Still, first place is first place.

The Season 1 finale of “Stories” will premiere Thursday, Aug. 19. Meanwhile, “American Horror Story: Double Feature,” which is the 10th season of “AHS,” is set to premiere Aug. 25 at 10 p.m. on FX. Keeping the partnership alive, the show will be available to stream the following day on FX on Hulu.

“American Horror Stories” is a weekly anthology series featuring a different horror story each episode. The 20th Television show is executive produced by Murphy,...

Ryan Murphy may have left FX for Netflix, but his franchises will haunt the cable network forever. FX has ordered not one but two spin-offs of the prolific producer’s “American Story” anthology franchise: “American Sports Story” and “American Love Story,” the network announced Friday during the Television Critics Association summer press tour. Additionally, FX revealed that the fourth installment of “American Crime Story” will focus on Studio 54.

Both anthology series, “American Sports Story” and “American Love Story” are about exactly what you think they are. Similar to how “American Crime Story” dramatizes a different real-life crime every season, “Sports” will cover a real sports figure and will re-examine his/her story “through the prism of today’s world, telling that story from multiple perspectives,” according to FX, while “Love” will tell “sweeping true love stories that captured the world’s attention.”

The first installment of “Sports” (should we point...

FX and 20th Television have announced the expansion of Ryan Murphy’s “American Story” franchise, which already includes “American Horror Story,” “American Crime Story,” and the recently launched “American Horror Stories.” Two new spinoffs are being developed titled “American Love Story” and “American Sports Story” from producers Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Nina Jacobson, and Brad Simpson.

“When Ryan Murphy came to us with these two spinoffs and the stories for ‘American Sports Story’ and ‘American Love Story,’ we immediately jumped at the opportunity,” said FX Chairman John Landgraf in a statement. “What began with ‘American Horror Story’ has spawned some of the best and most indelible programs of our generation, most notably ‘American Crime Story’ which created a beautiful partnership between Ryan, Brad, Nina, and Brad. Their alchemy and the way in which they construct these stories is done with such care, such clarity and such dimensionality that creates the...

Ryan Murphy’s American Story banner is expanding further with the greenlight of two new spinoffs. FX and 20th Television have closed a deal for American Sports Story and American Love Story spinoff limited series from Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson. The series orders were announced Friday during FX’s TCA day.

FX Day @ TCA: Deadline’s Full Coverage

American Sports Story is a scripted anthological limited series focusing on a prominent event involving a sports figure and re-examines it through the prism of today’s world, telling that story from multiple perspectives.

Written by Stu Zicherman (The Americans), the untitled first installment is based on the podcast Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc from the Boston Globe and Wondery. The limited series charts the rise and fall of NFL superstar Aaron Hernandez and explores the connections of the disparate strands of his identity, his family, his career,...

Ryan Murphy is expanding his “American Story” universe with two new spinoff limited series, “American Sports Story” and “American Love Story,” and development on a Studio 54-themed fourth season of “American Crime Story,” FX revealed Friday ahead of its virtual panels at the Television Critics Association press tour.

The first season of “Sports Story” will focus on Aaron Hernandez, while the debut installment of “Love Story” will follow John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette.

Both series will be produced by “AHS” studio 20th Television and FX Productions and executive produced by Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson.

See the descriptions for the two new series below, provided by FX:

American Sports Story

American Sports Story is a scripted anthological limited series focusing on a prominent event involving a sports figure and re-examines it through the prism of today’s world, telling that story from multiple perspectives.

The...