EW's Special Coverage

Family Entertainment

Jun 18 2013 05:04 PM ET

On the scene at the 'Monsters University' premiere with Billy Crystal, Sean Hayes, and more

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Image Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Disney and Pixar transformed Hollywood Boulevard into the tailgate of any monster’s dream, Monday night. The blue carpet was bedecked with stately Monsters University columns and arches, the attendees all wore Monsters U royal blue, and a marching band and some acrobatic cheerleaders kicked off the evening with a custom Monsters U chant. Sulley and Mike Wazowski clearly made the right choice when it came to their higher education.

EW was on the scene and spoke to some of the cast and crew, new and old, about the film, the new characters to look forward to, and how to make a wholesome college film.  READ FULL STORY »

Jun 18 2013 12:00 PM ET

Witness a winter wonderland in a teaser trailer for Disney's 'Frozen' -- VIDEO

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Image Credit: ALL CROPS: IM

Great news for fans of Narnia’s winter world – Disney has got the family movie for you this holiday season.

Frozen, loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale The Snow Queen, will find a young girl named Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell) trapped in a kingdom of eternal winter. She teams up with a mountain man (Jonathan Groff) and a sidekick reindeer on a journey to find Anna’s sister (Idina Menzel), whose powers are responsible for turning the kingdom into a 24/7 freezer, and put an end to her spell. With that vocal cast – and music by Book of Mormon Tony-winning songwriter Robert Lopez – adult fans may be most excited to check out the soundtrack while accompanying kiddos to the family-friendly film.

In a teaser short for the movie, viewers don’t get a song, but do get their first glimpse of the winter wonderland and a battle that must be all-too-common in the great white tundra: A silly fight over a carrot nose between a snowman and a reindeer.

Check it out below: READ FULL STORY »

Jun 18 2013 09:00 AM ET

New Disney Channel Mickey Mouse shorts give the mouse a retro look -- EXCLUSIVE VIDEO

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Mickey Mouse is back in the house!

The beloved Disney icon is getting another surge of fame with the release of brand-new animation aimed at kids 6-14 that will air on Disney Channel. Kicking off Friday, June 28 the roll-out of comedy cartoons will include new shorts featuring Mickey — as well as Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy and Pluto — and will be both old-fashioned, with retro 2-D animation, and feature a few “contemporary touches” as well.

In one Mickey Mouse short, “Yodelberg,” Mickey longs to visit Minnie atop her mountaintop chalet but quickly realizes that the threat of avalanche has made the trek up the mountain more challenging than usual. Check out an EW exclusive clip of that short below: READ FULL STORY »

Jun 17 2013 07:08 PM ET

Recess Monkey thinks small with new video

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After nine albums the Seattle-based band Recess Monkey just can’t stop dropping lyrical lessons on their young fans. On Deep Sea Diver, their latest album which comes out June 18,  Jack Forman, Drew Holloway and newcomer Korum Bischoff bring the the group’s famously infectious uptempo sounds underwater. And in their new video for the single ‘Shrimp,’ they rap (that’s right, rap) about  loving yourself no matter your size.

Watch the newest video below.

READ FULL STORY »

Jun 17 2013 03:33 PM ET

Egg-citing news about an all-new Furby line -- EXCLUSIVE

Dah-ay-loh-oo-tye, Furby fans (and anyone who spent 1998 cowering in fear of their Furby)! There’s big news on the horizon for Hasbro’s recently relaunched electronic pet — and though we don’t have much information about the “next generation” of furry toys, we do know that a new line is coming, and it has a name: Furby Boom. Here’s a teaser image:
READ FULL STORY »

Jun 17 2013 09:00 AM ET

'Jack the Giant Slayer': Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell ... a deleted scene! -- EXCLUSIVE CLIP

A classic fairy tale gets the modern-day action-movie treatment in Bryan Singer’s Jack the Giant Slayer, which stars X-Men actor Nicholas Hoult as the titular adventurer and Eleanor Tomlinson as the princess who catalyzes his trip up the beanstalk. (She’s been whisked into the clouds by the enormous plant.)

The film is filled with lavish CGI, romance, and a bit of edge, as you’ll see from this deleted scene starring two royal guards. (Let’s go ahead and call them Mulder and Scully.) Warning, kids: This is what happens when you don’t believe in magic.
READ FULL STORY »

Jun 16 2013 09:00 AM ET

'Sofia the First' creator talks making TV from a dad's perspective

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Image Credit: Disney Junior

People aren’t shocked to hear that Sofia the First creator and executive producer Craig Gerber has two young children. They are, however, “constantly surprised” to learn that those kids are sons (3 and 5 years old) rather than daughters — though to Gerber, that shouldn’t matter. Being a father has had an indelible effect on his creative process; read on to see how his experience has shaped Disney Jr.’s hit show. As for how the Gerber clan plans to celebrate this weekend’s holiday? “You’d have to ask my family,” he told EW with a laugh. “It shouldn’t surprise most dads to know that I’ll probably be the last to know what the plans are for Father’s Day.”

As told by: Craig Gerber

Disney Jr. was looking to do a show about a young princess, but they hadn’t figured out the right characters or story yet. So they approached me to see if I had any ideas. Even though I only had one son at the time, I was very interested in creating a show that I could enjoy with my children, and that would also be informative for my son. I just had to figure out a great story that girls — and boys — would enjoy watching.

Looking at my son and what he was going through at school with his friends, I noticed that both boys and girls enjoyed role playing — pretending to be other people or other creatures. I saw girls playing with pretend swords, and I saw boys dressing up like princesses in preschool. And it occurred to me that a fantasy world appeals to kids of all ages, and both genders. The secret for Sofia was to create a show that had a fantastic world with a lot of adventure and fun and friends.

READ FULL STORY »

Jun 15 2013 12:00 PM ET

The 'Kickin' It' crew's farm days- EXCLUSIVE VIDEO

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Image Credit: Isabella Vosmikova/Disney XD

Forget life on the lam — it’s life on the farm for the Kickin’ It crew.

In a new episode from the third season of the Disney XD comedy starring Leo Howard, the gang witnesses a robbery by the notorious criminal Benny the Blade and agree to testify against him. But after Benny escapes from jail and seeks revenge, the gang enters the witness protection program and is sent to a farm in the middle of nowhere.

Watch the group discuss where they’d like to wind up for witness protection below: READ FULL STORY »

Jun 14 2013 05:14 PM ET

Scott Baio just wants to be normal in 'See Dad Run' clip -- EXCLUSIVE VIDEO

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Image Credit: Evans Ward/Nickelodeon

Scott Baio just wants to be a normal guy — or, at least, his TV show character does.

See Dad Run stars Baio as David Hobbs, an actor who played the perfect TV dad on a long-running sitcom. After the show ends, Hobbs switches parenting roles with his wife, Amy (Alanna Ubach), who returns to her work as a soap opera actress. David must make the adjustment from a picture-perfect TV dad to an improving real-life dad of three kids.

In this week’s episode, his son Joe is in the spotlight after a heroic action but finds it hard to go back to being a regular Joe when his 15 minutes of fame end, so David tries to show him being “normal” can be fun — even if it means sometimes giving up celebrity perks.

Watch below as Baio’s Hobbs sneaks into a basketball game with his son:
READ FULL STORY »

Jun 13 2013 04:30 PM ET

'Wendell & Vinnie' deals with 'tricky' lesson on lying with guest star Lisa Kudrow

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Image Credit: Robert Voets/Nickelodeon

A trio of celebrated actors guest star on the newest episode of Wendell & Vinnie. Lisa Kudrow (Friends), Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation), and Thomas Lennon (Reno 911!) all appear on the Nickelodeon show tonight, making for a ”very surreal” time for Jerry Trainor, who plays Vinnie.

“It’s weird… I wish I could tell my younger self, ‘Yeah you’re gonna work with her one day. You see what they’re doing? You’ll be doing that one day, and it’ll be really great. It’ll be super fun.’ But then where’d the surprise be?” Trainor told EW, adding that Kudrow is “super sweet and super nice and effortlessly funny.”

Wendell & Vinnie creator Jay Kogen has known Kudrow since the two of them were in junior high school, and they finally had the opportunity to work together when Kogen wrote this guest role for the Friends alum. In tonight’s episode, Kudrow plays Natasha, a rival memorabilia collector to Vinnie. When the two collectors fight over a movie prop at a storage unit auction, Vinnie gets his young nephew Wendell to tell a lie to the prop’s owner about how much the prop and the movie it’s in means to him. Wendell — a well-behaved kid who’s much more mature than his goofball uncle — wants Vinnie to realize that he shouldn’t make him lie, so to get his uncle’s attention, he sells a prized possession of Vinnie’s to Natasha.

READ FULL STORY »

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