Arts & Entertainment Videos and News

No Feet of Clay at the Box Office for Wallace and Gromit

Wallace and Gromit's new movie is a top box office draw in both the United States and the United Kingdom. They are also getting overwhelmingly positive reviews in their first full-length feature and their first film since 1995. Google tracks mostly positive reviews for "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit."

"Wallace and Gromit are arguably the two most delightful characters in the history of animation," writes Chicago Sun Times critic Roger Ebert.

In the new movie, Wallace and his savvy dog Gromit have a new humane pest control business, and are hired by village gardeners to save prize vegetables from "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," hence the film's title. Wallace has always been a clutz who has to be rescued by his smart dog. This time, he flicks the wrong switch on his bunny rehabilitation machine, and unleashes a long-eared monster.

With all the renewed fascination with Wallace and Gromit, National Public Radio's "Fresh Air" has revived interviews conducted in 2000 with Peter Lord, chairman and co-founder of Aardman clay animation studios, and with Nick Park, director and producer of the series. Park has won three Academy Awards for his animated movies.

• Video Clips of Wallace and Gromit
• NPR interviews with Wallace and Gromit creators in 2000
• Google tracks reviews for "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit."
• Rent Wallace & Gromit movies from Netflix (Free when you join Netflix and enter code: Friend63). 

Michael Jackson Should Take PR Lessons From Willy Wonka

Tim Burton's new remake of the 1971 children's film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (video clips) had a great opening weekend, perhaps because family moviegoers had few other alluring choices. The film grossed a quite nice $55.4 million in three days. Since it cost about $100 million to make, perhaps it will be profitable.

But once potential audiences hear just how weird the movie is, the "gross" reference may turn from a noun or verb to an adjective. Johnny Depp (video clips) as Willy Wonka does a startling impression of Michael Jackson, complete with pale skin, girl-ish haircut, white gloves, and plastic, possibly sinister smile. In fact, now that Jackson has been acquitted of child molestation, his marketing consultants should try to do a subtle tie-in with this movie as part of Jackson's comeback to respectability. Message: Jackson's not a malevolent abuser, but just a misunderstood man(?)-child like Willy Wonka who had a difficult childhood. In Wonka's case, his father was a dentist who hated candy, and was determined to raise a son with perfect teeth. Like Jackson, Wonka is a recluse who lives in something like Neverland -- in his case, a chocolate factory -- and his expressed desire is to create pleasing things for children the world over.

Based on the popular book by Roald Dahl, the movie is about a candy magnate who launches a worldwide lottery for children to win a tour of his mammoth factory. Five children -- four of them appallingly bratty -- and the adult companion of their choice, receive this opportunity of a lifetime. The hero of the story is Charlie (Freddie Highmore), one of the "deserving poor," who just feels incredibly lucky to have won a tour of the chocolate factory. He's such a good boy, who always obeys and honors his elders that he chooses Grandpa Joe, who once worked in the chocolate factory, as his companion.

Anthony Lane in The New Yorker writes that Depp's character “is what Macbeth would call a cream-faced loon, and far more of a child than the actual children around him. There is no doubt that he despises them, and that raises questions as to why he has lured them, with promises of candy, into his edible home."

Even with the hints of pedophilia, the movie ultimately sides with family values, as Charlie teaches the great and powerful Willy a thing or two about integrity.

Google’s aggregated movie review system gives Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 3.6 stars out of 5, with 24 positive reviews, eight neutral reviews, and three negative reviews.

'To Kill A Mockingbird' Author Makes Rare Public Appearance

Harper Lee, author of the wildly popular 1960 novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird," hasn't made a public appearance since a few years after the book appeared. But her friend Veronique Peck, the widow of actor Gregory Peck, lured Lee out of seclusion briefly last week. She came to the Los Angeles Public Library, appearing before 600 people, to accept the library's literary award.

Now 79, Lee graciously accepted the award from the widow of the man who played Atticus Finch, the central character in the screen version of her book. Lee won a Pultizer Prize for the book, and Peck won an Oscar for Best Actor in 1962. But Lee remains a woman of few public words. All she would say was, "Thank you all from the bottom of my heart," according to the Associated Press.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" is one of the most popular books in high school literature classes, and the movie is still an often-rented classic. Told from the point of view of Finch's daughter, "Scout," it's a coming-of-age story about racial prejudice in the American South, loss of innocence, and one person's ability to stand up for what is right.

Veronique Peck called Ms Lee a "a national treasure....She's someone who has made a difference with this book. All the kids in the United States read this book and see the film in the seventh and eighth grades and write papers and essays."

She described Atticus Finch as her husband's "favorite role" and said he felt that "in his professional life, it was probably the best performance he ever gave." "My husband used to get thousands and thousands of letters from teachers who would send them to him," she said.

The awards banquet raised $700,000 for computers, computer training and literacy programs at the  LA Public Library.

Drill Deeper:

• "To Kill a Mockingbird" video clips
• "To Kill a Mockingbird" Google search
• Harper Lee interviews in the 1960s
• "To Kill a Mockingbird" movie reviews (7 reviews, 4 positive.)
• Rent "To Kill a Mockingbird" from Netflix. ((Free when you join Netflix and enter code: Friend63.)

Fourth Harry Potter Film Emphasizes Teenage Complexity, Growing Pains

The hype on the fourth Harry Potter film, not scheduled to be released until November, has already begun. Sneak previews of portions of the movie, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," have begun, the director and the stars of the show are giving interviews.

Daniel Radcliffe, who will again play Harry, told itv.com he loves the fact Harry is still an awkward teenager around girls. Harry's "pathetic about the whole romance thing, he's rubbish, which is great, because he's sort of, he's a hero who's absolute, he's, he's no good with girls, he's no good with dating, he doesn't know how to be around girls, which is great because he's a character for anyone who's ever been awkward with a girl. Which is probably every male anywhere in the world."

Emma Watson, who plays Hermione again, says her character is "on edge, for so much of the film because she's, I think she's more of a mother figure towards Harry, and she just spends most of her time worrying about him. She kind of has a boyfriend in this film, which is for Ron and Harry is a bit of a shock, really, especially for Ron, who's only just realised that she's a girl."

In Goblet of Fire, the young wizards are "much more complicated," says director Mike Newell. "In the first three films, their characters were defined by what they were up against: a werewolf, a basilisk, a dementor. But this time, the story is how they're developing as people. So the school's Yule Ball is a torture to Harry and Ron because they have to ask girls out, and they don't know how."

• Hundreds of Harry Potter video clips
• Goblet of Fire trailer and official site

Can Disney Remain Mecca for Children in 21st Century?

For American children, Disneyland or Disneyworld have almost represented the promised land. To take a child on a pilgrimage to either the California or Florida themepark has seemed almost obligatory. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Disneyland. The company that has been a giant in the entertainment industry for half a century now frets over keeping its edge for the next half-century.

With changing demographics, and an explosion of competition, from dazzling home entertainment to an array of theme park options, the company realizes that children are no longer impressed with a talking mouse, but indeed "are born with a mouse in their hands," as one Disney expert put it. The Orlando Sentinel is exploring the future of the Disney empire in a series of articles.

"The percentage of U.S. children younger than 14 has shrunk from about 28 percent in 1970 -- just a year before the Magic Kingdom opened -- to about 20 percent today. Population forecasts also show that by 2010, the over-45 population is expected to grow about five times faster than people 19 and younger," reports The Sentinel's Debbie Salamone.

She quotes Judy Randall, president of Randall Travel Marketing, a travel and tourism research firm based near Charlotte, N.C., who observed: "This generation doesn't want to go see Cinderella. They want to be Cinderella."

Disney seeks to "keep our entertainment relevant to the way kids are growing up today," Marty Sklar, principal creative executive of Walt Disney Imagineering, the company's in-house think tank, told The Sentinel's Richard Verrier. That means participatory entertainment, or "frenetic, multisensory and interactive."

Disney's biggest competition comes from video games. "Many kids are saying, 'Why should I go to Disneyland? I'd rather play my video game at home,'" Martin Lindstrom, a branding expert who has consulted for Disney, told The Sentinel. "We never heard that before."

Newer Disney theme parks, such as EuroDisney, are not attracting the kinds of audiences that Disneyland and Disney World have done. Some think the company has lost its creativity and innovation. Even Roy Disney, Walt Disney's nephew, has blasted Disney management for building new theme parks "on the cheap."

Roy Disney

• Disney Online

• Video clips of Disney

• Orlando Sentinel articles.
• SaveDisney.com, Roy Disney and the "Save Disney" movement.

Mary Poppins Revival

A new generation has the opportunity to enjoy the sweetness of Mary Poppins, or grab some lemons to offset the saccharine sweetness of it. Forty years after the movie's original release, a two-set DVD is out.

"The DVD reminds audiences of what a marvelous time kids can have with words, catchy sayings and nutty songs. The word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, became a household name that Julie Andrews can actually say backwards (she does it on one of the extra features), and that kids still say today. How did that word come about?" writes Diana Saenger on the Classic Films web site.

Actress Julie Andrews, who starred as Mary Poppins, told CBS News: "I cannot believe that it's 40 years since we started to make that movie. The thing that staggers me is how good all the special effects are. Today, all the technology is so much easier and 40 years ago it wasn't as easy to do all this wonderful stuff. But it doesn't show. You don't see a single chink that doesn't work. There's not a crack in the armor anywhere. And Disney - they were so ahead of the times."

The movie was nominated for 13 Academy awards, winning five including Best Actress.

• Google search on "Mary Poppins"
• Yahoo search of video clips on "Mary Poppins"
• 40th anniversary DVD of Mary Poppins on Amazon.com

Spider-Man, Catwoman, Other Movies Provide Parables for Preachers

August 10, 2004...In an effort to be more relevant to their congregations, especially young people, more and ministers are drawing theological points for their sermons from the movies, Time magazine reports. Film-going, along with card-playing and dancing, were once forbidden as sinful by the stricter and more conservative denominations. But in recent years, churches have all but given up on eliminating those pervasive secular temptations. Recognizing that religions are unlikely to win many converts by focusing only upon the negative influences of media, a number of ministers are seeking to draw moral lessons from contemporary movies.

"The unearthly success of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ helped movie execs recognize that fervent Christians, who spend hundreds of millions of dollars on religious books and music, are worth courting," writes Richard Corliss. "Publicists hired by studios feed sermon ideas based on new movies to ministers. Meanwhile, Christians are increasingly borrowing from movies to drive home theological lessons.
Clergy of all denominations have commandeered pulpits, publishing houses and especially websites
to spread the gospel of cinevangelism."

So, a church in New York City has an eight-part series on "God in Film." One session is called "Catwoman: Discovering My True Identity." Spider-Man, according to Erwin McManus, pastor of Mosaic, a Baptist-affiliated church in Los Angeles, is about Everyman, every one of us, seeking to be heroic. "The problem is, we keep looking for radioactive spiders, but really it's God who changes us."

Several web sites have been created to help ministers find Christian messages in pop-culture films:
there's www.movieministry.com, which even includes sermon ideas; www.ministrtyandmedia.com; and
www.hollywoodjesus.com. "Being a Christian used to mean you didn't go to Hollywood movies," says David Bruce, who runs the website hollywoodjesus.com. "Now it is seen as a missionary activity."