Disney buys 'Star Wars' studio,

Entertainment giant is planning a new trilogy in the legendary franchise that began with the original "Star Wars" movie in 1977, while Lucas himself said that "the time for me to get Star Wars to a new generation of filmmakers."
"Star Wars 7" will be released in 2015, "with more feature films are expected to continue the saga of Star Wars franchise and grow in the future," said Disney, announcing a deal to buy an innovative production company Lucasfilm.
In a conference call with investors, Disney said it plans a new trilogy of films eight and nine, and then a "Star Wars" films will be made every two or three years.
Deal "brings together a world-class portfolio of content, including Star Wars, one of the greatest family entertainment franchises of all time, with a unique and unparalleled creativity of Disney," said Disney chief Robert Iger.
"Lucasfilm reflects the extraordinary passion, vision, and the history of its founder, George Lucas," said Iger, head of the global entertainment giant Disney, which is based in Burbank, near Los Angeles.
The transaction is valued at $ 4.05 billion - based on the current share price - with Disney to pay about half in cash and issue approximately 40 million shares at the closing price. Lucasfilm is 100 percent owned by Lucas.
Lucas, who runs his company from its base in San Francisco, said: "Over the last 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures was to see Star Wars is passed from one generation to another.
"It's time for me to get Star Wars to a new generation of filmmakers. I always thought Star Wars could not live without me, and I thought it was important to create a transition in my life."
The first "Star Wars" movie came out in 1977, and there were two of the trilogy - three films and three prequels 1977-1983 from 1999-2005 - while the brand has expanded into theme parks and great hands merchandising.
The film earned some $ 4.4 billion in global box office for the past 35 years, and offer a "virtually limitless universe of characters and stories, continuing to ride the film's release," said Disney.
"The franchise provides a steady source of high quality, branded content with a global appeal and is well suited for new business models, including digital platforms," ​​he added.
The acquisition comes after the absorption of the Disney Pixar animated film and comic book character-driven giant Marvel Studios.
The proposals had been "demonstrated the unique capabilities of the company to fully develop and expand the financial capacity of a high-quality creative content with compelling characters and stories," said Disney.
Lucas will be succeeded as head of Lucasfilm his current co-chair, Kathleen Kennedy, who will report to Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said in a statement Disney.
"I am confident that under the leadership of Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy, and a new house in the Disney organization, Star Wars, of course, to live and thrive for many generations," said Lucas.
"Reach Disney and Lucasfilm experience give the opportunity to break new paths in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, entertainment and consumer goods," he added.

European Animation Industry: Strategies, Trends and Opportunities 2012 - Updated 2012 Edition

 “European Animation Industry: Strategies, Trends and Opportunities 2012”
Animation studios in European countries such as France and Spain have emerged as the market leaders in Europe. This is in part driven by the proactive steps taken by the governments of these countries by offering a range of tax breaks. The European animation studios started partnering to produce animation content for Television. These alliances resulted in content suited for local population. This is particularly seen in countries such as France, UK, Germany and Spain.
However the European animated feature film industry is still has not achieved the popularity and global appeal of their American counterparts. The feature film industry is more expensive and riskier. However this medium has attracted the interests of animators in Europe, who have been building on their capabilities of producing animation content for TV. International marketing is a key area for improvement for European animation studios. There are very few European films with trans-national success. This is partly due to the diverse cultural backgrounds. However this is undergoing change with a small number of local European productions enjoying European and global success. This includes films such as Chicken Run, Belleville Rendezvous etc.

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

Voice cast: 

Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, Andy Richter, Frances McDormand, Bryan Cranston, Martin Short, Jessica Chastain.

Run Time: 90 Minutes

Directors:

Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath and Conrad Vernon

Story-Line:

Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman are still trying to get back to the Big Apple and their beloved Central Park zoo, but first they need to find the penguins. They travel to Monte Carlo where they attract the attention of Animal Control after gate crashing a party and are joined by the penguins, King Julian and Co., the monkeys and a new arrival: a performing llama. How do a lion, zebra, hippo, giraffe, four penguins, two monkeys, three lemurs and a llama travel through Europe without attracting attention? They join a traveling circus.

Voice-Cast:  

Ben Stiller as Alex, Chris Rock as Marty, David Schwimmer as Melman and Jada Pinkett Smith as Gloria are as usual perfect. Frances McDormand is fetchingly brutal as Captain Chantel DuBois. Jessica Chastain is aesthetical as the voice of Gia. Bryan Cranston is good as the voice of the fierce Vitaly.  Sacha Baron Cohen adds the surplus of madness. Martin Short is apt as the overactive Stefano.

Technical-Stuff:

Directors Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath and Conrad Vernon were spot on visually; 3D effects were just mind blowing.  But directors didn’t put their total efforts in narration; there were slight lags in between. Captain Chantel DuBois scenes were not fully developed. Story is fine. Screenplay by Eric Darnell and Noah Baumbach was good and entertaining. Script lagged a bit in the second half. After “Madagascar” in 2005 and the sequel, In 2008, another four years are drawn into the country “Madagascar 3″ is by no means a quick shot and you can view the technical brilliance realized work well: the detail and brilliant colors of the animation is amazing and the very high speed with the start, the filmmakers here, impressive. In particular, the chase through Monte Carlo offers unforgettable spectacle. Dialogues were good, especially funny one liners. The music (Hans Zimmer) and visuals is top notch for animation. The way light is used from light sources was particularly well done for an animation of this style, which was just eye-popping, and whirling effects. Editing is crisp.

Review 

A circus of performing critters provides the dramatic hook for the usual wise-cracks, and a boo-hiss pantomime villainess generates much-needed dramatic tension.

The setting lends itself perfectly to 3D and directors Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath and Conrad Vernon have a ball contriving outrageous set pieces. The camera swoops as Merman and Gloria teeter on the high wire, Alex tumbles acrobatically on the trapeze and Marty soars out of the barrel of a giant cannon.

Animals ricochet around the screen at dizzying speed and pyrotechnics explode to the infectious beat of Katy Perry’s self-empowerment anthem, Firework.

Eye candy is plentiful but there’s an inescapable feeling that the flimsy narrative has been tailored to the 3D and the higher ticket prices commanded by the eye-popping format.

You could cheerfully distil the plot into 10 minutes - the remainder of Darnell, McGrath and Vernon’s upbeat adventure is glossy, feel-good packaging adorned with rump-shaking musical interludes from Sacha Baron Cohen’s lord of the lemurs.

Alex (voiced by Ben Stiller), Marty (Chris Rock), Melman (David Schwimmer) and Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) hanker for a return to New York’s Central Park Zoo.

They leave Africa and head first to Monte Carlo to reunite with the penguins, where the gang has a close encounter with tenacious animal control officer Captain Chantel DuBois (Frances McDormand) and her scooter-riding cronies.

Alex and co seek refuge on a circus train and persuade Vitaly the tiger (Bryan Cranston), Gia the jaguar (Jessica Chastain) and Stefano the sea lion (Martin Short) that they are performing animals too.

Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria nervously train alongside the professionals, knowing they must impress a big promoter in Rome in order to secure a booking in the Big Apple.

En route, Alex purrs affectionately for Gia and the lion helps Vitaly to revive his show-stopping solo dive through a flaming ring.

“It is impossible,” growls Vitaly, referring to his daredevil act.

“That’s why people loved it,” smiles Alex.

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted is undemanding escapist froth.

McDormand gleefully chews the computer-generated scenery and the script pokes fun at our European neighbours, such as when Mason the chimpanzee quips, “Labour laws are a little more lenient in France. They only have to work two weeks a year!”

Apart from Alex, who enjoys a romance that defies Mother Nature’s grand design (lions roam Africa and Asia, jaguars stalk the Americas), other characters embark on journeys that are literal rather than emotional.

Kids will love the slapstick and high-octane action but parents may find the tomfoolery as tame as the four-legged heroes.

Randy Newman is one of the year a film for the original game ("our friendship will never die") does not know that "Pixar" is an examination of data word 15 years later . The story of Game 3 only game more than expected in every moment of birth. It is clear that we now have a maximum in the structure of Pixar, but the expectations placed in this film is larger than usual. The film is the result of the disclosure was an absolute movie Wall-E and even, in other words, the result is the story of an extraordinary game and the story of Game 2 films. More emotional, and the story of a game where it all began for "Pixar" are some truly engaging characters. One thing is certain: Toy Story 3 will not be thrown into a half-pullstring.

Andy has exceeded play. Molly's little sister thought a shame that even at all, but they are there, and some of them anyway, in the chest in his room. What few of them yet - Weezy party, Bo also - and to use deceptive tactics to obtain the care that is now without her, and expressed its satisfaction, once the sheriff of Andy doll Woody (Tom Hanks) organizes every word in the bookmark. I knew that Andy was preparing to go to college and play, and that this day would come ("It would be fun, just in time, which lasts!" Woody said cheerfully at the end of Toy Story 2), and fell to nothing unless an existential crisis.

To be removed from the side of the road in a trash bag is full. Although Woody insists on loyalty to Andy and the other - Buzz (Tim Allen), Jessie (Joan Cusack), is important, Rex, Slinky, Paul] and Mr. and Mrs. Potato diving in the contributions box, with Barbie doll Molly consolation (Jodi Benson, Ariel the mermaid below).

They meet in a day care center in Sunnyside, which, for all but Woody is like a paradise of game, full of happy children and families Turquoise saturated fresh rainforest in Venezuela. They meet Ken Doll (Michael Keaton), walking hangers members cheap plastic Barbie drew a figure that the power of Sunnydale, the nose and the scent of velvet strawberries, take a lot, eat Huggin - lots of short-term (Ned Beatty) - keep abreast of new charges Council tracks waiting for the children. Woody, none of this, while returning to Andy, while life is not as sunny Sunnydale imagined playing.

You can be sure that the creators of Toy Story have closely followed the child. It is directed by Lee Unkrich (co-director of Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo), who also writes, with John Lasseter (director of Toy Story and Toy Story 2) and Andrew Stanton (writer for itself). The main script credit goes not only for new talent by Michael Arndt, who began work on Toy Story 3, two years ago, Little Miss Sunshine (who wrote the script) rolled on the screens.

Like Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3 is also the story of a dysfunctional family class, and honors the memory of the video characters - a permanent state of excitability Rex, the Buzz and Jesse sexual tension is nothing wrong, and Thurs pressure is still alien triplets barely Mr. Potato Head - but also gives them something more interesting to do. Mr. Potato Head done without the potato is one of the funniest extended sequence in the film "Pixar Buzz Light year, and the default state of the illusion of space saved - peak repeated in a series - to be more beautiful in Spanish.

They are, of course, sharing 104 minutes of screen time with a colorful assortment of new characters, no doubt a boon for people who have complained about the lack of opportunities for more goods. Most of them funny, many of which end of the box in the game: big doll with the child the evil eye fell Fisher Price Chatter Phone emphasis informant New York, and cymbal monkey is very psychotic, the resonance. There are toys to suit the voice of Whoopi Goldberg, Bonnie Hunt, Flight of the Conchords Christine Gal Chal, sounds familiar "Pixar's" Jeff Garlin, the type of Richard, and Timothy Dalton (as Hedgehog, the formation of Stanislavsky take part in the performance to be a game a bit more serious). In a nice touch, and the doll Totoro - glimpsed in many cases, higher John Lasseter office - also appears in the role that does not speak, and memories, sepia-tinged laughter, the clown is a riot.

When it comes to film music, Michael Giacchino, and probably written the best song "Pixar (" conjugal life "from the top), and give rise to any finding other than the physical and Thomas Newman ( Nemo, Wall-E), but Randy Newman has always been perfect for her role as Toy Story volatile. record of its history a great game 3 - in particular the manner in which witnesses to a cacophony of mother - who turns touching, frightening and fun.

Toy Story 3 is also the logical culmination of the following March to amplify the powerful feature and the first two films (and perhaps less important at the top of the wall-E). From now on, the story of Game 3 became very emotional and very intense - the result seems to be the fate of Newman Road, knocking on the door - the terrible sin for a critic to steal the strength of the film proposal is expected to play. Suffice it to say, is proof of what we love these characters as the history of Game 3 breaks your heart like you would not have been broken before.

Toy Story 3 is full of poignant observations on growing up, family and mortality, but perhaps in a more thorough investigation of a series of Toy Story, especially in this series is the way that captured the special relationship between child and toy. He joined the ranks - It should be noted that there are many lines, and said: - value threequels (children and even grand return of a serious moment). Toy Story Trilogy - sounds good, right? - Is it destined to become one of film trilogies of all time, and Pixar have done, as is always the case, it looks like a breeze.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

"Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time’’ is based on a video game, but its roots go further back than that. What would the movies be without enthusiastically corny B-flick swashbucklers to fill theaters on a lazy summer day? All you need are some fancy period sets — cardboard then, CGI now — a handsome young star declaiming stiff Classics Illustrated dialogue, a starlet to bicker and swoon, and a respected older actor in need of ready cash as the dastardly prince/vizier/regent. Add sand, swordplay, a few camels, and presto: stalwart action product, ridiculous but functional.

Which is to say that Jake Gyllenhaal as the doughty Prince Dastan is just the latest in a long line of earnest, tunic-clad sides of beef. In fact, his potted British accent — this is ancient Persia, after all — can stand with Tony Curtis’s Bronx yawp in 1951’s “The Prince Who Was a Thief’’ for sheer what-the-hell period absurdity. But to expect more from a movie that doesn’t even take itself very seriously is probably a mistake.

For one thing, “Prince of Persia’’ has been stitched together from so many other movies that it plays like an attack of multiple déjà vu. Stray bits of “Star Wars,’’ “Pirates of the Caribbean,’’ “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,’’ and “Robin Hood’’ pass by like flotsam, and the overwhelming tone is good-natured but alarmingly generic. You’ve seen “Lord of the Rings’’? Here’s the CVS brand.

Dastan is the adopted son of Sharaman (Ronald Pickup), king of Persia, and please don’t spoil things by referring to the country’s modern name (shhh, it’s Iran). A former street urchin, he’s now a kind-hearted sort given to bare-knuckles bouts with his soldiers while the king’s natural sons Tus (Richard Coyle) and Garsiv (Toby Kebbell) busy themselves with expanding the empire. (Those names! They sound like the whims of a desperate Scrabble player; you keep expecting a consul named Etaoin Shrdlu to turn up.)

Off in the corner plotting evil deeds is the king’s brother, Nizam. Ben Kingsley appears to have researched this role by studying Max Von Sydow’s hambone Ming the Merciless in 1980’s “Flash Gordon,’’ and, truthfully, that’s probably the only sane approach. Nizam engineers a coup and pins the blame on Dastan, who hits the road with only a comely virgin priestess named Tamina (Gemma Arterton) and her glowing dagger for company.

Up to now, “Prince of Persia’’ has offered sniggeringly bad dialogue (“It’s said the princess of Alamut is a beauty without equal’’), lots of athletic Iron Age parkour, and a pointed subplot about the Persians’ assault on a holy city in search of weapons of minor destruction — swords, mostly — that aren’t there. As Dastan and Tamina get to know each other in their wanderings, though, the movie loosens up and starts to have fun. The central romance is rehashed Han Solo and Leia, but Alfred Molina as a scruffy bandit leader with a stable of racing ostriches gets the funniest lines and knows exactly what to do with them.

That glowing dagger turns out to be a time travel device key to Nizam’s plans, and “Prince of Persia’’ eventually wends its way toward a big, noisy, Jerry Bruckheimer climax in which Dastan must save the world from turning into a giant catbox. The problem is that all blockbuster apocalypses look pretty much the same by now, and this one leans more heavily than it should on the video-game template of getting the hero from point A to point B by solving mazes and such. Gyllenhaal has turned in an acceptably pro performance so far (it consists mostly of keeping a straight face), but even he seems to check out of the proceedings late in the game.

“Prince of Persia’’ is truly silly, formulaic stuff, without an original thought in its over-produced head. No actual Persians were harmed (or even consulted) in its making. So why did I enjoy myself as much as I did? In part by laughing at the movie — sometimes you take what you can get — but also because pulp this unembarrassed can have a verve, even an innocence, that’s unusual these days. It’s the rare junk that knows its name.

Despicable Me (2010)

Despicable Me (2010)



Lunar Toons and Cookie Capers
Is there a meaningful distinction to be drawn between exercising the imagination and just making up a bunch of stuff? When it comes to children at play, probably not: the pleasure of inventiveness matters more than the quality of the particular inventions. But children’s entertainment, made by grown-ups at great expense in anticipation of even greater profit, is another matter. The difference between inspired creation and frantic pretending is the difference between magic and mediocrity, between art and junk, or to cite a conveniently available example, between “Toy Story 3” and “Despicable Me.”
Directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud and produced by Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment — a new player in the lucrative and competitive world of feature animation — “Despicable Me” cannot be faulted for lack of trying. If anything, it tries much too hard, stuffing great gobs of second-rate action, secondhand humor and warmed-over sentiment into every nook and cranny of its relentlessly busy 3-D frames.
The movie relies on the funny voices of popular television and movie performers (many of them associated with other properties in the NBC Universal corporate family), most notably Steve Carell, who whimsically adopts a quasi-Russian accent in the role of Gru, a supervillain. Gru is equipped with a disapproving, emotionally distant mother (Julie Andrews); a wisecracking nemesis named Vector (Jason Segel); a grouchy old scientist sidekick (Russell Brand); and a swarm of cute little yellow minions, whose mostly nonverbal chirping and squeaking provide a heavy, derivative dollop of cuteness and merchandising opportunity.
And just in case those industrious little doodads (they look like extra-strength pain-reliever capsules with eyes and limbs) weren’t cute enough, the film supplies three adorable orphans with old-lady names who melt Gru’s stony heart not long after he adopts them.
Do you want to know why? It has to do with his plan to swipe a shrink-ray gun from Vector and use it to steal the Moon. Vector has a weakness for cookies, and the three little girls — a brainy, sensible older one named Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), a tomboy named Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Elsie Fisher), a baby-faced pixie who is crazy for unicorns — sell his favorite kind door-to-door for the benefit of Miss Hattie (Kristen Wiig), the keeper of their Dickensian orphanage.
Are you choked up yet? Are you laughing yet? You might be before the picture is over, but only because the alternative would be the kind of snarling fury that would make you feel bad about yourself. “Despicable Me,” its title notwithstanding, means no harm and tries so hard to be likable that you may hate yourself for hating it. Its vision of evil is a man with a pointy nose, an exotic accent and a turtleneck sweater who wants to snatch the Moon because his mommy never loved him enough. Gru is an underachiever, a perpetual second-place finisher behind the smug Vector, with his family connections, his track suits, his modernist mansion and his repertory of inane, done-to-death catch phrases (“Boo-yah” and “That’s what I’m talkin’ about!”).
It’s difficult not to see some of Gru’s inferiority complex reflected in the movie itself, which labors mightily to distinguish itself in a terrain dominated by Pixar and DreamWorks Animation. The tender bond that forms between Gru and his adoptive daughters, cemented with bedtime stories and spontaneous trips to a 3-D-maximizing amusement park, strives for a Pixaresque purity of feeling, while the winking, occasionally crude humor and pop-culture allusiveness, as well as Gru’s grumpiness, veer toward Shrekland.
Gru’s grand criminal scheme, which involves skittering robots baked into the cookies and then ever larger and more elaborate gizmos and flying machines, is as hectic and desperate as “Despicable Me” itself. The filmmakers seem motivated above all by the terror that if things slow or quiet down for even a second, the audience will either fall asleep or throw a tantrum. And so the projectiles (aren’t you glad you paid that extra fee for the 3-D “experience”?) keep coming, interrupted by wisecracks and snippets of teary sincerity.
The few moments of genuine visual or verbal wit — a bit of delicate minion slapstick that recalls the antics of Scrat in the “Ice Age” movies; a line reading that showcases Mr. Carell’s unparalleled deadpan — only highlight the paucity of real originality or artistic confidence. So much is going on in this movie that, while there’s nothing worth despising, there’s not much to remember either.
“Despicable Me” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). It has some action scenes that might rattle very young children.
DESPICABLE ME
Opens on Friday nationwide.
Directed by Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin; written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, based on a story by Sergio Pablos; edited by Pamela Ziegenhagen-Shefland and Gregory Perler; music by Pharrell Williams and Heitor Pereira, songs and themes by Mr. Williams; production designer, Yarrow Cheney; art director, Eric Guillon; produced by Chris Meledandri, Janet Healy and John Cohen; released by Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment. Running time: 1 hour 28 minutes.
WITH THE VOICES OF: Steve Carell (Gru), Jason Segel (Vector), Russell Brand (Dr. Nefario), Kristen Wiig (Miss Hattie), Will Arnett (Mr. Perkins), Danny McBride (Fred McDade), Jemaine Clement (Jerry the Minion), Miranda Cosgrove (Margo), Jack McBrayer (Carnival Barker/Tourist Dad), Dana Gaier (Edith), Elsie Fisher (Agnes) and Julie Andrews (Gru’s Mom).

Animation Song (USA)