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What are the 100 greatest movies of all time? Well, that’s an incredibly difficult question to answer. After all, art is subjective and tastes vary incredibly across the globe. But, I’ve taken on the impossible task and gathered the 100 movies that I think constitute the 100 greatest movies of all time! Take a look below.

Related “I look forward to making great movies together”: Tom Cruise Might Have Hinted Mission Impossible Retirement After Latest Deal With WB for New Franchise The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time 100. Being John Malkovich (1999) A scene from Being John Malkovich (1999) Directed by Spike Jonze

In 1999 acclaimed actor John Malkovich took on the difficult task of playing himself in Spike Jonze’s incredibly bizarre, self-referential comedy. With John Cusack and Cameron Diaz playing against type as bumbling losers who find a doorway into the consciousness of Malkovich, this ground-breaking comedic effort feels fresh and hilarious upon repeated viewings.

“Inside Out 2” roared into cinema in June, becoming Pixar’s highest-grossing film in a debut weekend of all time, while its current worldwide haul at this time of writing stands at just over one billion.

The first movie — one of the most ingenious films of this century — took audiences inside the head of young Riley as she navigated a move to a new city while her emotions tried to guide her through the move in her head. This second film brings back those emotions as Riley goes through her teenage years. But Joy and Sadness and the gang have to deal with several new emotions in headquarters, including Anxiety, Embarrassment, and Ennui.

But while the film marches towards $1 billion at the box office, could it also be marching towards awards glory? Well, animated flicks don’t get the justice they deserve when it comes to the Academy Awards. So often,...

Animated flicks don’t get the justice they deserve when it comes to the Academy Awards. So often, animated movies are some of the most original, memorable, and well-told stories of the entire year yet they are, more often than not, confined to the category of Best Animated Picture.

“Snow White and the Seven Dwarves,” “Fantasia,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “The Lion King,” “Toy Story,” “Finding Nemo,” “Wall-e,” “Shrek,” and last year’s Best Animated Picture winner, “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” are just a handful of all-time classic movies that aren’t great animated movies, they are great movies period. Despite this, however, we have only had three animated movies in Oscars history that have been nominated for Best Picture.

“Beauty and the Beast” was the first animated movie to do so, landing a Best Picture bid in 1991. Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, “Beauty and the Beast...

According to Empire, Rob Marshall's "The Little Mermaid" -- a live-action/CGI remake of John Musker and Ron Clements' 1989 animated film of the same name -- will feature a brand new song called "For the First Time," to be sung by the titular mermaid Ariel (Halle Bailey) as she makes her first sojourn onto dry land after being transformed into a human. It was co-penned by Disney legend and award-winning songwriter Alan Menken, the Egot maestro who co-wrote the songs for the animated "Little Mermaid" movie with Howard Ashman, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Broadway superstar and songwriter behind the Disney-released animated films "Moana" and "Encanto."

Menken's return is a big deal. In 1990, he won two Academy Awards for "The Little Mermaid," taking home trophies for the film's score and for the song "Under the Sea" (for which Ashman was also awarded the Oscar). Menken and Ashman's ballad "Kiss the...

Martin Short and Shania Twain are set to play the world’s most famous candelabra and teapot. The two stars have joined ABC’s upcoming December 15 “Beauty and the Beast” 30th-anniversary special, along with David Alan Grier, Rizwan Manji, Jon Jon Briones, and Leo Abelo Perry.

Short, the Emmy and Tony winner who currently stars in Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building,” will portray the flirtatious French candelabra Lumière, voiced in the original 1991 Disney film by Jerry Orbach. Five-time Grammy-winning country singer Twain will play the teapot Mrs. Potts, whose original voice actor, Angela Lansbury, died last week. Perry, who made his film debut this year in the Disney+ remake of “Cheaper by the Dozen,” will play Potts’ son Chip. Grier, who won a Tony last year for his performance in “A Soldier’s Play,” will portray the majordomo clock Cogsworth, while Jon Jon Briones will play village inventor Maurice,...

Exclusive: Ziki Nelson, the writer, director and creator of Iwájú’, has signed with Newmation for management.

Based on an original concept from Nelson and his Pan-African entertainment company Kugali, Iwájú’ is the first ever African animated comic book series for Disney+. The upcoming series described by Disney as a “first of its kind collaboration” is set in neo-futuristic Lago. The sci-fi project, which is currently in production, will explore themes of class, innocence and challenging the status quo. It is scheduled to debut on the Disney+ streaming platform in 2022.

“I am so thrilled to welcome Ziki to Newmation,” said former CAA motion picture agent David Neumann, who launched the company last year. “Our clients span six continents and we pride ourselves on having global reach as a company. As a filmmaker from Lagos Nigeria, I think Ziki’s talent as a filmmaker is pioneering and his voice as a storyteller is universal.

Former CAA motion picture agent David Neumann has launched Newmation, a management company for film and TV animation creators.

Neumann’s initial clients include Oscar winner Hugh Welchman (Loving Vincent), Anita Doron (The Breadwinner) and Gary Trousdale (Beauty and The Beast, Hunchback of Notre Dame). At CAA, Neumann represented Hollywood talent like David Yates (Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts), Welchman, Arlene Klasky and Todd Komarnicki (Sully).

Newmation is launching as the global demand for animation content grows, Neumann insisted.

“It is an honor to work with these talented filmmakers and I can’t wait to share our unique projects with ...

Former CAA motion picture agent David Neumann has launched Newmation, a management company for film and TV animation creators.

Neumann’s initial clients include Oscar winner Hugh Welchman (Loving Vincent), Anita Doron (The Breadwinner) and Gary Trousdale (Beauty and The Beast, Hunchback of Notre Dame). At CAA, Neumann represented Hollywood talent like David Yates (Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts), Welchman, Arlene Klasky and Todd Komarnicki (Sully).

Newmation is launching as the global demand for animation content grows, Neumann insisted.

“It is an honor to work with these talented filmmakers and I can’t wait to share our unique projects with ...

David Neumann, a former agent at CAA based out of the agency’s New York office, has launched his own management and production company focused on animation called Newmation.

Newmation is launching with a specific focus on managing those in the animation world on animated film and TV projects, capitalizing on animation production continuing remotely as live-action projects are still slowly trickling back due to the Covid-19 pandemic. And back at CAA where he worked for one year, Neumann was tasked by Kevin Huvane in growing CAA’s Global Animation Initiative.

Neumann’s initial client list at Newmation includes Oscar winner Hugh Welchman (“Loving Vincent”), Anita Doron (“The Breadwinner”), Gary Trousdale, Andrew Chesworth and Shaofu Zhang (“One Small Step”), Malenga Mulendema (“Mama K’s Team 4”) and Gustavo Steinberg (“Tito and The Birds”), as well as studio outfits Taiko Studios and Breakthru Films.

“I am so thrilled to announce the launch of Newmation.

Disney is in early development on a live-action “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” movie, based on Disney’s animated film and Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel “Notre-Dame de Paris.”

Playwright David Henry Hwang is attached to write the script, with Mandeville Films and Josh Gad set to produce. Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz will pen the music.

“Hunchback” — the story of the bell-ringer at the Notre Dame Cathedral and his friendship with the gypsy Esmeralda — has been adapted multiple times into features, most notably the 1939 Charles Laughton and 1996 Disney animated versions. The animated movie, directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, grossed $325 million worldwide.

“The Hunchback of Notre Dame” follows Disney’s highly successful strategy of rebooting its animated titles into live-action films, including “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Jungle Book,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and the upcoming “Aladdin,” “The Lion King,” and “Dumbo.”

Hwang won a Tony Award for “M. Butterfly,...

Brendon Connelly Jul 27, 2017

Disney is potentially looking to The Hunchback Of Notre Dame for its next live action take on an animated movie.

Even while Beauty And The Beast is warming up the shelves in Sainsbury and Aladdin is filling up the UK's sound stages (while Mulan pre-production continues in parallel with the complex VFX work needed for The Lion King), Disney continues to pillage its attic full of toys even further. Another 'brand deposit' movie seems to be on the way, once again taking an older, already-loved property and finding new ways to sell it to us, even as our nostalgia for the original is being simultaneously rekindled.

See related The Handmaid’s Tale episode 9 review: The Bridge The Handmaid’s Tale episode 8 review: Jezebels The Handmaid’s Tale episode 7 review: The Other Side

This time it's The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, previously realised as Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale's undervalued,...

Simon Brew Nov 13, 2019

We consider why Beauty and the Beast remains Disney’s finest animated feature film to date…

This article comes courtesy of Den of Geek UK.

The current trend in the corridors of Disney, as you probably well know, is to take some of its classic animated movies--lots of them actually--and turn them into live-action films in various guises. It's had success with this too. And few have been more successful than Bill Condon's slavish, and uninspired, remake of Beauty and the Beast. The first Disney Renaissance film to make the jump to "live-action," it paved the way for Aladdin and The Lion King in 2019.

Enjoy a Free Trial of Disney+, courtesy of Den of Geek!

For me though, the 1991 animated version is a flat-out classic, and the new version inevitably doesn’t top that. But what about it makes it so special for me? You might just regret asking that.

Few questions feel as stale as the following: Is the Disney Princess feminist? It's become profoundly boring to scavenge for an answer, so common is this refrain that arises each holiday season since Peggy Orenstein’s barnstorm of an essay. It will no doubt be a talking point upon the release of Moana later this year. The "Disney Princess" has congealed into a homogenous, lumpen unit of capitalist excess, so much that each character’s particular idiosyncrasies often become obscured in such discussions.Belle, the heroine of Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale’s Beauty and the Beast (1991), is a headstrong bibliophile with a peripatetic mind; she spends the beginning of the film longing to be elsewhere. “There must be more than this provincial life,” she screams in the film’s opening number, which economically introduces us to the townspeople who fawn over her. Belle, voiced by Paige O’Hara, occupies...

He’s a charming character, a fascinating player in cinema history. Absolutely essential viewing for Disney fans and those interested in animated filmmaking. I’m “biast” (pro): big animation fan

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Did you know that Comic-Con awards prizes to movies? I had no idea. But it sounds like pretty much the biggest no-brainer ever that Floyd Norman: An Animated Life won Best Documentary there this year. Anyone who was a kid in the 20th century knows Norman’s work, whether they know it or not: he was an animator and/or a story creator on so many cool things that you won’t believe one man could have spread himself around so much. A very incomplete list of where you have seen Norman’s work and felt his influence: Disney’s animated features Sleeping Beauty,...

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From Flushed Away and Hunchback to Titan A.E. and Sky High - the family movies that don't get the love they deserve...

When I sit through a film such as Zootropolis, Rango, Frozen, Wreck-It Ralph, Eddie The Eagle or Coraline, I can’t help but be thankful somebody has bothered. As a parent as well as a movie lover, I’ve grown to really dislike family movies that just turn up to act as a surrogate babysitter for 90 minutes, with no intention of becoming anybody’s favourite film. The films I'm going to talk about are the family movies therefore that I think both try and do something a bit more, yet continue to fly under many people's radar.

A bonus mention before we get going, and number 26 in the list, much to my surprise: Alvin & The Chipmunks 4. I was expecting next to zero from it, courtesy...

Mr. Peabody and Sherman were the stars of one of last winter's most popular animated films. It was a well-deserved and long overdue promotion, since the characters got their start in 1959 as supporting characters in the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon universe. Well, the tables have turned. In the new 3-D Blu-ray of Mr. Peabody & Sherman, which arrives Oct. 14, the clever squirrel and not-so-clever moose return for another crazy adventure titled "Another Fine Moose You've Gotten Me Into," or "The Man In The Iron Moose!" Of course, if Rocky and Bullwinkle are back, then Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale can't be far behind.

In order to help celebrate the 55th anniversary of Rocky and Bullwinkle, 20th Century Fox and Dreamworks Animation have created an all new animated short featuring the beloved characters that will be a part of the upcoming Mr. Peabody & Sherman blu-ray release. However, fans attending Sdcc this year will get the chance to watch the entire short at the event. Come inside to find out when!

From the press release:

In celebration of the 55th anniversary of Rocky and Bullwinkle, join Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and DreamWorks Animation for the U.S. premiere of an all new Rocky and Bullwinkle short that will appear on the upcoming release of Mr. Peabody & Sherman on Blu-ray and DVD on October 14, 2014. Join the director Gary Trousdale (Beauty and the Beast) and executive producer and Bullwinkle Studios president Tiffany Ward (daughter of Jay Ward) in a discussion about the film and the legacy...

There are people out there who have never seen The Princess Bride. They walk among us, holding down jobs, contributing to society, and generally living happy, semi-fulfilled lives. But whisper a perfectly-timed “mawage” in their direction during a wedding, and the resulting blank stare or awkward chuckle will expose an inconceivable pop-cultural blind spot. Someone failed them when they were growing up.

In many ways it’s too late for them, but we can still save the next generation. The 55 Essential Movies Kids Must Experience (Before They Turn 13) is a starting point. This isn’t a list of the 55 “best” kids movies,...

Disney’s quest to re-imagine the contents of its back catalogue continues, with confirmation that Bill Condon will direct a live-action version of the studio’s 1991 Oscar nominated animated feature, Beauty And The Beast. The great modernisation of Disney classics has thus far been well-received by audiences, who embraced updated versions of Alice In Wonderland and The Wizard Of Oz (aka Oz the Great and Powerful), and most recently carried Maleficent to a $170 million opening weekend. With this latest project, the studio is clearly hoping to capitalize on that success.

The story – based on the traditional fairy tale first published in 1740 from the pen of Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve – has been filmed many times since Jean Cocteau’s 1946 version, La Belle et la Bete. Disney’s own 1991 animation of the tale was directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale from a screenplay by Linda Woolverton. Billed as a musical romantic fantasy,...

As we continue on, I need to once again clarify that if this list was “Joshua Gaul’s 50 Favorite Movie Musicals,” it’d be a quite a different list. But, if my tastes determined what is definitive, I’d be asking you all to consider Aladdin as a brilliant piece of filmmaking and wax nostalgic about my love for Batteries Not Included and Flight of the Navigator (not for the musicals list, of course). Much to my dismay, my tastes are not universal. I’d like to think my research methods are.

courtesy of themoviescene.co.uk

30. Annie (1982)

Directed by John Huston

Signature Song: “Tomorrow” (http://youtu.be/Yop62wQH498)

Originally a 1924 comic strip, the beloved stage musical about a red-haired orphan girl was brought to the big screen in 1982 and directed by John Huston (yes, that John Huston – director of The Maltese Falcon and The African Queen, not to...

Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Written by Tab Murphy

Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise

Us, 2001

One of the biggest complaints of animated films in North America is that they are undoubtedly targeted solely at children. While Disney and Pixar may occasionally slip adult jokes in to their films, the films are still marketed to children. On weekends when animated films open, it is assumed that they will be successful because they are targeted at kids going with their families. This is why many flock to the films of Studio Ghibli as examples of animated films for adults. However, shortly after the end of the Disney Renaissance (the films between The Little Mermaid and Tarzan), Disney released their most mature film since The Black Cauldron: Atlantis: The Lost Empire.

The film opens with a quote from Plato about the fall of the continent of Atlantis followed by a cataclysmic scene of its destruction.

Today's MPAA ratings bulletin includes a new PG-13 rating for the Kevin Costner starrer Draft Day as the studio appealed the original R-rating for brief strong language, which has now been changed to PG-13 for what's described as "brief strong language and sexual references". Riveting, rightc Also included is the rating for yet another Tyler Perry movie, this one Tyler Perry's Single Moms Club, which stars Perry alongside Nia Long and an R-rating for the festival favorite Blue Ruin, which Radius-twc is expected to release this year. And finally, a family-friendly rating for the animated Mr. Peabody & Sherman as well as a rating for a new Rocky & Bullwinkle short film, which will play in front of Peabody & Sherman. The short was directed by Gary Trousdale (Beauty and the Beast) and features the voice work of June Foray (the original voice of Rocket J. Squirrel) and Tom Kenny ("SpongeBob SquarePants") as Bullwinkle Moose.

©A.M.P.A.S.

The moose is loose. DreamWorks Animation is giving audiences a dose of nostalgia in 2014 with an all new short film Rocky & Bullwinkle, featuring the legendary June Foray as the voice of Rocket “Rocky” J. Squirrel.

This original and updated short will bring everyone’s favorite moose and squirrel back to the hearts of fans around the world while introducing the duo to a new generation.

Also in 2014, the studio will release Mr. Peabody and Sherman on March 7, reintroducing characters who initially appeared on the original Rocky & Bullwinkle Show.

“For an incredible 83 years, June Foray has left a tremendous imprint on the entire entertainment industry,” said Executive Producer Tiffany Ward. “Her amazingly indelible performances have enchanted generations and earned her a permanent place in the annals of popular culture.”

The original Rocky & Bullwinkle Show (originally titled Rocky and His Friends) began airing on November 19, 1959 with supporting...

Rocky and Bullwinkle are back. Dreamworks Animation is producing a brand-new short film featuring the lovable duo that will screen in front of the forthcoming animated comedy "Mr. Peabody & Sherman," the studio announced Monday. Directed by Gary Trousdale ("Beauty and the Beast," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame") and written by Thomas Lennon & Robert Ben Garant ("Night at the Museum"), the new effort will feature the voice talents of June Foray (a.k.a. the original voice of Rocket J. Squirrel) and Tom Kenny ("SpongeBob SquarePants") as Bullwinkle Moose. Along with "Mr. Peabody & Sherman," the film is slated for release on...

The first trailer for the long-gestating DreamWorks animated feature adaptation of Mr. Peabody & Sherman was released just over a week ago, showing off the voices of Ty Burrell, Stephen Colbert, Leslie Mann, Allison Janney, Mel Brooks, and many others in the revival of the '60s cartoon. Now comes news that legendary animation director Gary Trousdale (Beauty And The Beast, The Lion King) is making the first Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon in 50 years to accompany the movie, working with Reno 911! co-creators and family film writing partners Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, and featuring June Foray as Rocky and Tom ...

The last time someone tried to bring Jay Ward's cult cartoon characters Rocky and Bullwinkle to the screen, the result was the less-than-successful 2000 flopbuster, which all involved – particularly Robert De Niro – would probably rather forget. DreamWorks Animation will be hoping for better luck with an animated short film aimed for release sometime next year.Featuring the original voice of Rocket “Rocky” J. Squirrel, June Foray, and SpongeBob’s Tom Kenny as moose pal Bullwinkle, the new short is most likely tied to the release of DreamWorks’ Mr. Peabody And Sherman, which utilises the moose and the squirrel’s cartoon stable mates (see the latest trailer below).No information has been released about the plot, but it'll probably see our heroes going up against villains such as Cold War troublemakers Boris and Natasha. We do, however, know that Beauty And The Beast’s Gary Trousdale will direct from a script...

The moose is loose. DreamWorks Animation is giving audiences a dose of nostalgia in 2014 with an all new short film Rocky & Bullwinkle, featuring the legendary June Foray as the voice of Rocket “Rocky” J. Squirrel. This original and updated short will bring everyone’s favorite moose and squirrel back to the hearts of fans around the world while introducing the duo to a new generation. Also in 2014, the studio will release Mr. Peabody and Sherman on March 7, reintroducing characters who initially appeared on the original Rocky & Bullwinkle Show.

“For an incredible 83 years, June Foray has left a tremendous imprint on the entire entertainment industry,” said Executive Producer Tiffany Ward. “Her amazingly indelible performances have enchanted generations and earned her a permanent place in the annals of popular culture.”

The original Rocky & Bullwinkle Show (originally titled Rocky and His Friends) began airing on November 19, 1959 with supporting segments which included Peabody’s...

Disney makes me a very happy man by releasing Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Atlantis: Milo's Return on Blu-ray. The 3-Disc Special Edition includes both movies on a single Blu-ray and separately on regular DVDs. Recognized as Walt Disney Feature Animation's first science fiction film, it underperformed at the box office despite good word-of-mouth from audiences. An extended life on video and DVD has garnered it as one of Disney's most overlooked gems of a bygone era.

In Atlantis: The Lost World, historian Milo Thatch leads a crew of the world's greatest archaeologists and explorers in a search for the lost city of Atlantis. They travel through the depths of the dangerous sea aboard the submarine Ulysses. Only expecting to unearth ruins and artifacts, the team is astonished to find the ancient city still thriving with life.

This is one of my all-time favorite animated Disney features. It's a masterful...

How much are you willing to spend on a Blu-ray combo pack if you don’t get any special features? I’ve posed this question in so many words in past Disney Blu-ray Roundup columns, and it’s perhaps never felt more pressing than today, specific to three of their four new releases. (We’ll get to Oz the Great and Powerful a bit later on.) One of Disney’s more prevalent decisions relative to home media in the last few years has been releasing as much of their older feature content as possible, as quickly and simply as possible. There are quite a few Disney full-length animated features that don’t yet have Blu-ray releases, but by the end of 2013, that number will be dwindling close to zero. Today, Disney releases three films from directly after their Renaissance period of the 1990s: The Emperor’s New Groove, Atlantis: The Lost Empire,...

Beauty And The Beast 3D

Review by LondonFilmFan

Stars (the voices of): Paige O’Hara, Robby Benson, Richard White, Jerry Orbach, Angela Lansbury, David Ogden Stiers | Written by Linda Woolverton, Roger Allers | Directed by Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise

With the immense box office success of The Lion King‘s 3D conversion last year, it was only a matter of time before similar films followed suit. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is highly regarded as an animated classic, so who is to argue with a 3D theatrical re-release then? Well, this reviewer volunteers (may as well add “as tribute” since this unpopular opinion just might spell my end). Over twenty years after its initial release, there seems little reason for the film to be occupying cinema space again.

While the hand-drawn animation has an uneven charm, there isn’t much that holds up visually when compared with modern animation.

Ben Foster, Contraband According to Deadline.com, this four-day Martin Luther King holiday weekend the North American box office could reach $165 million — or up about 4% compared to last year. Considering the disappointing returns in late 2011, a modest increase is good news indeed for the jittery Hollywood studios. Helping things out are the Mark Wahlberg crime thriller Contraband, which earned an estimated $9 million on Friday and may reach $30 million by Monday evening. Box Office Mojo was expecting the film to bring in only $18.5 million. Anyhow, if those early estimates are correct, that's a solid start for a movie that reportedly cost $25 million (not including marketing/distribution expenses). A remake of Óskar Jónasson's 2008 Icelandic hit Reykjavik-Rotterdam, Contraband was directed by Baltasar Kormákur, the original film's star-producer. In addition to Wahlberg Contraband features Kate Beckinsale, Giovanni Ribisi, Diego Luna, Ben Foster, Lukas Haas, Caleb Landry Jones, and J.K. Simmons. Disney's 3D-ification of...

Chicago – It is a tale as old as time, and a film almost as old as I am. After the success that Disney had bringing “The Lion King” back to theaters this past September, it is no surprise that they have decided to bring four more films back to the theaters, starting with the classic tale “Beauty and the Beast,” which was first released in November of 1991. And while it is exciting to see these films again on a large screen with surround sound, I can’t help but wish the third dimension could have been kept out of this one.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

The classic story of a young girl who is forced to live with a beast-man in a giant castle as a trade for her father’s life, the story of “Beauty and the Beast,” is one of the most brilliant ever seen in a Disney film. The film...

Box office pits 3D Beauty and the Beast against Contraband, Joyful Noise. Disney's Beauty and the Beast, reincarnated in 3D should top the box office charts this weekend, playing in 2.625 theaters. Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers and Angela Lansbury voice the main cast of the Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise-directed film which first saw theaters back in 1991, and went on to capture two Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Score and Best Music, Original Song. Universal Pictures' Contraband action thriller helmed by Baltasar Kormákur, finds 2,836 theaters, with a cast including Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Giovanni Ribisi, Ben Foster, Caleb Landry Jones and Lukas Haas. Pic should take second place with relative ease over Paramount's current number one horror The Devil Inside, running in its sophomore weekend.

Box office pits 3D Beauty and the Beast against Contraband, Joyful Noise. Disney's Beauty and the Beast, reincarnated in 3D should top the box office charts this weekend, playing in 2.625 theaters. Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers and Angela Lansbury voice the main cast of the Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise-directed film which first saw theaters back in 1991, and went on to capture two Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Score and Best Music, Original Song. Universal Pictures' Contraband action thriller helmed by Baltasar Kormákur, finds 2,836 theaters, with a cast including Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Giovanni Ribisi, Ben Foster, Caleb Landry Jones and Lukas Haas. Pic should take second place with relative ease over Paramount's current number one horror The Devil Inside, running in its sophomore weekend.

Box office pits 3D Beauty and the Beast against Contraband, Joyful Noise. Disney's Beauty and the Beast, reincarnated in 3D should top the box office charts this weekend, playing in 2.625 theaters. Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers and Angela Lansbury voice the main cast of the Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise-directed film which first saw theaters back in 1991, and went on to capture two Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Score and Best Music, Original Song. Universal Pictures' Contraband action thriller helmed by Baltasar Kormákur, finds 2,836 theaters, with a cast including Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Giovanni Ribisi, Ben Foster, Caleb Landry Jones and Lukas Haas. Pic should take second place with relative ease over Paramount's current number one horror The Devil Inside, running in its sophomore weekend.

There is an inexorable, inexplicable quality about some great movies, as there is about great art in general. Sometimes, yes, we can pinpoint exactly what makes a movie work so well, why it becomes one of our favorites, why it wins awards, why critics love it, or why it makes millions of dollars at the box office. The script is insightful, the direction is incredible, the visuals are eye-popping, the performances are immense powerhouses of talent. These are easy ways to calculate what makes a movie work, but sometimes, we see a movie and we just like it. Sometimes, you can’t put your finger on one element about a movie that burrows itself under your skin, but you love it all the same.

Now, don’t get me wrong: Beauty and the Beast has a lot of clearly standout aspects to it, but I don’t know that I...

I imagine something that matters most to many of the people fortunate enough to work for the Walt Disney Company, especially those in Walt Disney Feature Animation, is the legacy they get to not only leave behind, but create. Sure, most of those people will never get the same kind of recognition that Disney himself or, these days, John Lasseter gets from the adoring public, but the legacy they leave behind can be just as powerful or important. There are a few really good modern examples of this; two directing duos were involved with some incredibly influential films, even though theirs are not household names. John Musker and Ron Clements directed Aladdin and The Little Mermaid, the movie that pretty much singlehandedly saved Walt Disney Pictures from mediocrity, embarrassment or, even worse, obscurity.

But Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale are the duo I want to focus on for just a bit.

We’ve shared the best films of 2011 and now it is time to move on. 2012 has arrived and we’ll countdown our most-anticipated later this month, but first we have a taste of what to expect in January. Infamous for the dumping ground of the year, there is certainly a lot of crap left off (Contraband, One For the Money, Underworld 4, etc), but with a few limited releases and some promising big-budget films, this is actually shaping up to be a strong month.

As always, please look at our previous Films To See lists to be alerted of limited releases expanding in your area. And as the VOD market expands, look forward to titles like Kill List, The Innkeepers, and Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie hitting the format bu check back for their inclusion in future lists as they get theatrical bows.

See:

10. Declaration of War (Valérie Donzelli; Jan.

Be our guest... in 3D! Disney has released an official poster via Yahoo to tease the 3D re-release of Beauty and the Beast, which it looks like will finally happen on January 13th next year. We've been hearing about this 2D-animation-converted-to-3D re-release for a few years now, I previewed footage way back in 2009, but The Lion King got the actual 3D release first, now it's finally time for Belle and the Beast to make their triumphant return to the big screen. Beauty and the Beast was directed by Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise and won two music Oscars and was even nominated for Best Picture. Take a look! It's a tale as old as time... This new poster is much more conventional compared to the original artistic version from the 1991 release. Beauty and the Beast's original team of filmmakers, including producer Don Hahn (also of Waking Sleeping Beauty) and...

Beast (Robby Benson), Belle (Paige O'Hara), Beauty and the Beast The Lion King 3D, a movie originally released in standard format back in 1994, has become the sleeper hit this early fall in North America. Whereas most new releases are bombing right and left, The Lion King 3D has brought in nearly $80 million domestically (it'll pass that mark today) and about $20 million internationally since its rerelease two-and-a-half weeks ago. No one needed an Mba or facsimile to predict that Disney — and likely other studios — would be rereleasing old 2D movies converted to the 3D format. Next in line for Disney are Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and the Pixar titles Finding Nemo and Monsters, Inc. As per The Hollywood Reporter, Beauty and the Beast 3D begins its limited theatrical run on January 13, 2012. Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, and featuring the voices of Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Angela Lansbury,...

Disney don’t often make terrible films: even those counted as the worst in the stable are still head and shoulders above 90% of the other animated releases that enter the market under a different banner, and it’s only a matter of relativity when it comes to classifying what is a good Disney and what is a bad. In some cases though, no such debate even gets off the ground.

Most of those cases involve those films which fall within the Classics “vault”, and there are some which excel even in that auspicious company. Beauty and the Beast is firmly one of the finest. Aside from being a watershed moment in the genesis of Disney’s animation, thanks to that still astounding ballroom scene, and it’s CGI innovation, it is a richly rounded, beautifully drawn story that has some of the most compelling characters in the canon, including the best human villain,...

First off, I have to tell you that this page may load slow. We're making an awful lot of calls to the Amazon Api here, and that's bound to monkey with things. If you have no idea what that means... it's shiny. Please note also that, for the same reason, you may find, depending on traffic, that not all of the Amazon details will load properly. I apologize for that, it's just the nature of the beast, and the fact that the Api wasn't really meant for such things. If you refresh, it will probably fix.

You may have heard me mention this giveaway quite a while ago, and it's taken me a long time to figure out what sort of format to put things in, and I kept added things. Eventually it became too much to really give any kind of run down on the items, so I decided...

Disney Animation Studios and Pixar chief creative officer, John Lasseter, chats to us about animation, making Cars 2, and the British rain…

John Lasseter is tired. He's been doing interviews all day for Cars 2 by the time we turn up in the graveyard slot. A spent cup of coffee by his side, at one point he looks like he might nod off on us. He wouldn't be the first.

But then we start talking animation and it's as if fresh jolts of energy are rippling through his body. His infectious enthusiasm for the art comes forth, and we settle down for a chat about it, and his new film, Cars 2...

The last film director that I can remember was so senior in a movie studio was Joe Roth, who was heading up Disney in the 1990s.

That's interesting, yeah.

And Joe Roth couldn't make films himself while he was heading up Fox,...

Seemingly lost in the recent history of Disney, Simon salutes what he argues is one of its finest and most interesting animated films: The Hunchback Of Notre Dame…

In 1995, Toy Story changed modern day animation. There’s no question about it. Released to ecstatic reviews, and equally ecstatic box office returns, it pretty much instantly had two ramifications. Firstly, it gave audiences a real thirst for CG-animated movies. And secondly, it suddenly left hand drawn features, in the eyes of some, looking like yesterday’s news. Whichever hand drawn movies were released in 1996 were going to be in serious trouble.

The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, then.

To some within the no-doubt labyrinthine headquarters of Walt Disney Pictures in the 1990s, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame was not a welcome project. It did less than a third of the box office business of The Lion King had done two years earlier,...

Plus: His Take on the Nearly Endless Development Process & Why Everyone Gets Uptight About the Movie's Englishness Disney and Rocket Films' "Gnomeo & Juliet," opening nationwide this Friday, has had a storied production history that could be its own compelling film. The story of star-crossed lawn ornaments was set up as a joint Disney/Rocket Films production in the first part of the aughts, under the supervision of "Beauty and the Beast" co-director Gary Trousdale, with Kate Winslet and Ewan McGregor attached (they're now replaced by Emily Blunt and James McAvoy). The project fell apart, only to regain steam and…...

The Annie Awards, Animation's Highest Honor, went all the way for DreamWorks Animation's "How to Train Your Dragon!" The fun, animated film, originally received 15 nominations and won 10 trophies including Best Animated Feature.

Given by the International Animated Film Society, the 38th annual Annie Awards was not without controversy. Apparently, Disney and Pixar announced they would no longer participate in the annual awards because of their concerns over how the event is judged.

The studios claimed the Annie Awards have always been slighted towards DreamWorks Animation. And this year, both DreamWorks film ("How to Train Your Dragon") and TV ("Kung Fu Panda Holiday") topped the Annie Awards.

"Dragon," featuring the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrara, Jonah Hill, and Craig Ferguson, beat Annie contenders such as Universal's "Despicable Me," Disney's "Tangled," Sony Pictures Classics' "The Illusionist," and Pixar's "Toy Story 3" for best animated feature. (Check out...

The directors of Disney’s latest animated movie, Tangled, spend some time with us for a detailed chat about the making of the film…

A bit of history, first. The story of Rapunzel is one that Disney first looked at for an animated feature back when Walt Disney was alive. Walt Disney couldn't crack it, and over the years, others came and had a go.

Eventually, it was decided to press ahead with the film as a CG movie to be directed by legendary Disney animator, Glen Keane. However, Keane suffered a heart attack early on in the production (returning to the film months later as Animation Director), giving new directors Byron Howard (Bolt) and Nathan Greno two years to bring the film in.

And that's roughly where we started our conversation...

You know how to set yourselves up on this one. You came to the film after production had started.

With awards season is underway comes the 38th Annual Annie Award nominations, which recognize the year’s best work in animation. Since the creation of the animation-specific Oscar category in 2001, the Annies have predicted the Academy Award winner every year except 2006 and 2008.

Unfortunately, the award has been tainted by controversy after CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg reportedly bought each DreamWorks Animation employee a membership in the International Animated Film Society, Asifa-Hollywood, skewing the voting in the studio’s favor. This likely resulted in a surprise sweep by DreamWorks Animations’ Kung Fu Panda at the Annies in 2008-2009 over Pixar’s eventual Oscar winner, Wall-e.

Disney Studios has since pulled its official support of the event and submissions for the awards, though individual animators are able to submit their films themselves. As a result, the rules were changed for individual achievement categories, but Disney sought a neutral committee of animators from every studio to propose and approve guidelines.

Shrek The Halls

DVD

Directed Gary Trousdale

Starring Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas

Paramount Home Entertainment

Release Date: November 4, 2008

This 22-minute holiday tale, which originally aired on television in November 2007, takes place after the events of the animated motion picture Shrek the Third, and finds the big green ogre Shrek (Mike Myers) living happily ever after with his true love Fiona (Cameron Diaz) and their little green ogre babies.

While life's been good for the big guy, he still doesn't really know how to get into the Christmas spirit, and at first, Shrek doesn't want to be bothered celebrating, but to make Fiona happy, he tries to be festive. Of course, the ever-pestering Donkey (Eddie Murphy) overdoes it and brings all the fairy tale creatures for party at Shrek's home, much to the ogre's dismay.

It turns out that Shrek doesn't know how to celebrate the...

The contenders of the 38th Annual Annie Awards have just been announced. In TV category, "The Simpsons" grabs four nominations, including a nod for Best Animated Television Production along with "Futurama", "Kung Fu Panda Holiday", "Scared Shrekless" and "Star Wars: The Clone Wars". The Simpson is nominated for episode "The Squirt and the Whale", and "The Clone Wars" is nominated for episode "Arc Troopers".

Next, the "Simpsons" leads Bob Anderson vying for Directing in a Television Production, thanks to its "Treehouse of Horror Xxi". Anderson is facing off Peter Chung ("Firebreather"), Duke Johnson ("Frankenhole: Humanitas"), Tim Johnson ("Kung Fu Panda Holiday") and Gary Trousdale ("Scared Shrekless").

The "Simpsons" music worked for "Elementary School Musical" by a team consisting of Tim Long, Alf Clausen, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement gets nominated for Music in a Television Production, and scribe John Frink is up for Writing in a Television Production for...