Image Credit: Pixar
Spoiler alert: She just kept swimming!
Disney•Pixar announced today that Finding Dory, a sequel to the Academy Award-winning Finding Nemo, will dive into theaters Nov. 25, 2015. As the name implies, the film will focus on Ellen DeGeneres’s memory-challenged blue tang fish Dory. Like the first Finding flick, Dory will be directed by Pixar veteran Andrew Stanton; reports of Stanton’s involvement in a Nemo sequel first surfaced last summer. READ FULL STORY »
When last we saw dyslexic demigod Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman), the son of Poseidon and his two best friends, Annabeth (a daughter of Athena, played by Alexandra Daddario) and Grover (a half-man, half-goat satyr, played by Brandon T. Jackson), were riding high after successfully tracking down Zeus’s stolen lightning bolt. But in this upcoming sequel to Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief, the trio find themselves tasked with completing another mythological labor — one that will take them all the way to the Bermuda Triangle, a.k.a. the titular Sea of Monsters.
As the second Percy Jackson movie begins, all is not well at the demigod safe haven known as Camp Half-Blood. The wicked Cronus — father of Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon — is threatening to rise again and exact his vengeance on those who overthrew him. Only one thing can stop him: the Golden Fleece, a prize once sought by Jason and his Argonauts. Though Percy’s journey to capture the fleece won’t be easy, it will at least be populated by tons of colorful characters — including Stanley Tucci as wine god Dionysus and Nathan Fillion as the tricky messenger god Hermes. Catch the trailer below.
What’s a girl to do when she wants to course-correct her dysfunctional family? How about getting in some enforced family time by drugging and restraining those crazy parents? That’s what the eldest daughter in the new dark comedy Family Weekend resorts to, enlisting the aid of her two siblings for two days of reeducation. Hyper-intense competitive jumprope champion Emily is a bit of a departure from the role most will recognize actress Oleysa Rulin from, that of quiet composer Kelsi in the High School Musical trilogy. Kristin Chenoweth plays her comically cold workaholic mom. With it’s R rating for sexual content and some drug use Family Weekend‘s not a movie to take the kiddies to but it could be good one to view with your older teens. It definitely was a good bonding experience for Rulin and Chenoweth who talked with us about the drawbacks to jumping rope for hours on end, the fun of singing with co-star Matthew Modine on set, and why Michigan in winter isn’t for them.
EW: Had either of you heard of competitive jumproping before reading this script?
Oleysa Rulin: I had no clue and I don’t think I’ll ever jump rope again. You’re not meant to jump for 12 hours straight.
Kristin Chenoweth: [Laughs] I don’t blame you. She was so amazing at it. I had actually seen a documentary called Jump. I was like, people dedicate all their time to jumping rope? But then again I was a cheerleader, so there you go. Pot calling kettle….
With just a few months to go before Disney’s Planes hits theaters, we’re getting our first look at the new winged animated characters.
Planes follows the story of Dusty (voiced by Dane Cook), a single-propeller plane who “dreams about the world beyond his town of Propwash Junction. Despite clear physical limitations and a nagging fear of heights, Dusty enlists in the Wings Around the Globe rally to compete against the world’s greatest flying machines,” according to USA Today. The film will also feature the voices of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, John Cleese and Teri Hatcher, as well as Top Gun alums Val Kilmer and Anthony Edwards.
Check out photos of all the different planes below:
Dane Cook as Dusty:
Image Credit: Disney
Stacy Keach as Skipper:
Image Credit: Disney
It doesn’t speak nonsense as it flies, but Universal Pictures is gearing up for the release of Despicable Me 2 with a coast-to-coast tour of an enormous, bright yellow Minion blimp.
Dubbed the “Despicablimp,” the huge balloon is kicking off its journey with an appearance at the Kids Choice Awards this Sunday in Los Angeles. From there it will journey 20,000 miles across the country, stopping at various cities. Sightings will also be tracked on the map on the blimp’s official site. You can even enter to win a ride aboard the Despicablimp, and tickets to the premiere.
For a look at the creation and triumphant first flight of the huge Minion, check out this video:
Maybe we can get just a “hoy ba boi!” or something out of it? Despicable Me 2 hits theaters July 3.
Read more:
‘Despicable Me 2′ trailer: The return of the minions
‘Despicable Me 2′ trailer: Minions, car submarines, and adorable quotes galore! — VIDEO
DreamWorks
On the surface, The Croods, DreamWorks Animation’s latest film, is about a primitive family facing the destruction of their known world during the fictitious Croodacious period. At its heart though, it’s about a father and daughter having to adjust how they see each other, while dealing with the introduction of new ideas. And creating that dynamic was no easy task, according to directors Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco.
“It was a bit of a trick because we had never worked with a family before,” says Sanders. “The main characters are Grug (Nicolas Cage), Eep (Emma Stone), and Guy (Ryan Reynolds). Each of those characters are in opposition to one another at the beginning of the story but by the end of the movie they’ve come to see each others’ point of view. Balancing those forces was something that took quite a while. It was a very difficult endeavor to make this family work. The reward is that we launched a family.”
Both Sanders and DeMicco say that their cast’s ability to keep the characters likable is a large part of why this particular family works.
“Nic helped us so much with his performance because the really tough thing is that Grug’s got this slightly aggressive quality and all these rules, and keeping him sympathetic sometimes [happened with] just a shot here or there,” says DeMicco. “But his heart is in the right place every frame of the film. He just was in way over his head.”
“Guy was a character we wanted to be smarter than [the Croods]. He had the world’s first imagination. He’d seen millions of things. He had a great advantage over them. We wanted him to be frightened of them at the beginning. And then appalled by them. Then he warms to them. I think that’s something that Ryan really pulled off,” he says. “Even when he’s being standoffish he’s got a certain charm to him. It doesn’t feel like he’s being elitist or snobby. “
“I’d say the same thing is true for Emma,” says DeMicco of Stone’s portrayal of a rebellious teenage girl. “On top of the normal challenges a voice actor faces when doing an animated film, those being there’s no one to act off of and there is no set to immerse you in the proper mood, the added pressure for Emma was to perform a role that was empathetic and likable. And all of our actors did that.”
The movie has it’s fair share of tense moments, including its emotional ending. But the directors aren’t worried that it will be too much for young audiences because of how they frame it.
“Between balancing that comedy and drama, when we knew there were situations where kids might be a little worried, we had was some big release on the other side of it that really allowed the audience, especially the kids, to get the signal that they were okay and the tone was changed,” says DeMicco.
Without giving anything away, there is a somewhat dark scene toward the end but the directors felt it was important to push the envelope just a bit to get the emotional payoff.
“It’s something that my very favorite movies did. Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast. I worked on Beauty and the Beast and we worked on that last scene very hard, specifically to make it look as if they’d gone too far and there’s no way this was going to work out,” says Sanders. “So we timed the moment when the Beast said I love you to come right before the last petal fell off the rose. So technically he said it but we still went to the rose and saw the petals fall off because we wanted to convince the audience that all was lost. And my very favorite movies always went as far as they could.”
Read more:
EW Review: ‘The Croods’
FIRST LOOK: Emma Stone as cavegirl in DreamWorks Animation’s ‘The Croods’ — EXCLUSIVE
Dreamworks’ answer to Disney’s Cars – and every superhero story that begins with a life-changing, mutation-causing disaster — just got a new trailer.
Turbo, the animated movie about a snail who wishes he were speedy kicks things into high gear when a highway accident sucks him into the engine of a sports car. One dash of nitric oxide, one journey through this snail’s changing anatomy, and one power up ballad later, we’ve got ourselves a very speedy snail — who by the way is voiced by Ryan Reynolds.
Check out the new trailer, which hit the web today, below:
Don’t be fooled by the creepy Gollum image: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a family movie, says Andy Serkis — the actor and voice behind Gollum. He’s in good company too. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit for children!
With its PG-13 rating (MPAA: “for extended sequences of intense fantasy action violence, and frightening images) the film is likely not for children of all ages, but if you didn’t get a chance to preview the film in theaters, you can check it out in the comfort of your own home. The fantasy epic is currently available for purchase on Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray, and DVD. Each version includes more than 130 minutes of bonus content, and access to stream a live first look at The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug on March 24.
Check out what Serkis has to say about the merits of family movies after the jump, and why the adventures of Bilbo Baggins should be shared with the whole family.
Image Credit: Universal Studios
Nothing warms our hearts like little Agnes and the minions. iTunes premiered the new trailer for Despicable Me 2 today and it reveals a lot more about the plot of the movie.
Gru is busy living a happy domestic life with his adopted children, until he’s called to action and asked to save the world. Since he knows how a super villain thinks, he’s the perfect person to stop a new bad guy.
Steve Coogan, Kristen Wiig, Al Pacino, (of course) Steven Carell, and many more lend their voices to the film which comes out July 3. READ FULL STORY »
Everett Collection; GKIDS
Every week EW’s Dalton Ross and his wife, writer Christina Kelly, have a… um, lively discussion about what movie they should watch with their two children (Dale, 12, and Violet, 10) that weekend. Now they make their cases publicly and you get to vote on the choices and settle the argument. The power is in your hands, people. Last week, Dalton ‘s pick of School of Rock rocked Christina’s selection of Spellbound. Read on and then vote for what film they should watch this weekend. READ FULL STORY »
