Sizzle Reel Shows Off World of Planes

Disney released this new sizzle reel yesterday for Planes, the non-Pixar Cars spinoff flying into theatres August 9. Big on visuals, which are pretty good; light on story, as expected. Watch—

Musical Teaser Trailer for Blue Sky's Rio 2

20th Century Fox has released the first, very musical teaser for Blue Sky's Rio 2, opening in theatres April 11 next year. I fear the young ones will play this on a loop. Watch—



The sequel to 2011's Rio will find Jewel, Blu and their three offspring leaving their urban "domesticated life" for a journey to the Amazon, where they 'encounter menagerie of wild characters'.

Rio 2 will reunite the director and entire cast of the original, including Anne Hathaway and Jesse Eisenberg, and adds the voices of Andy Garcia, Rita Moreno, Bruno Mars, and Kristin Chenoweth.

Angry Birds Movie Flocks to Sony Pictures

Sony Pictures Entertainment announced today that it has acquired the rights to distribute Rovio Entertainment's upcoming feature based on its massively popular Angry Birds gaming franchise. The CG film is set to project on screens worldwide on July 1, 2016.

Developed in-house by Rovio, the Angry Birds movie is being produced by Despicable Me producer John Cohen and executive produced by David Maisel, executive producer of Iron Man. No director, writer, or cast has announced yet, but "many more announcements" are slated for the coming months.

It must be said that Disney missed a big opportunity in not bringing in the hostile fowls. As Rovio loves pointing out, Angry Birds and Bad Piggies games have been downloaded more than 1.7 billion to date.

Minions are Everywhere on New Despicable Me 2 Poster

Here's the new poster for Universal/Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me 2, coming to theatres July 2. That's a lot of Minions. (via Rope of Silicon)

Opinion: Princess Merida Makeover Controversy is Ridiculous

On Saturday, before a crowd of thousands at the Magic Kingdom, Princess Merida of the Clan DunBroch was proclaimed an official Disney Princess, joining Belle, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and crew. To mark the investiture, Disney gave the Pixar character a slightly different look in some stylized artwork, as shown above.

Innocuous, right? Wrong, if you believe the critics who have manufactured a controversy which has now reached the mainstream. It's not a makeover; it's "a blatantly sexist marketing move based on money."

That quote is from Brave co-director Brenda Chapman, since exiled from Pixar, who has publicly railed against the redesign, signing an online petition (one of nearly 129,000 signatures) and writing a 'piece-of-my-mind' letter to Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger to protest the "atrocious" treatment of the character.

The problem, apparently, is that the "new" Merida is 'too skinny, too sparkly, too sexy'. Too pretty, you might say.

As much as I don't wish to be the Armond White of this issue (or do I?), I'm here to say that Disney committed no crime in dolling Merida up as a Disney Princess, except maybe blurring the lines between its animation studios. The makeover doesn't cross any boundaries of taste.

In my male opinion, Merida was already aspirationally beautiful in the movie and that did not make her a bad role model for girls—an attractive woman can still have a brain. Nothing in this version implies otherwise.

Most children won't even understand what the supposed problem is. Chapman herself, while venting to the Marin Independent Journal, concedes that 'little girls will say they like it because it's more sparkly'. Maybe that's why the artists who illustrated this version did it: it is sparkly.

So Merida doesn't have her bow and arrows with her now. Maybe she's dressed up for Scottish prom or something. Do you expect her to take her weaponry with her? She still looks feisty and independent. And I don't believe the allegation that she's lost twenty pounds.

There are few things I find more absurd than adults—who should really know better—being up in arms over a family-friendly animated character or film, jumping on anything they can have a debate about. (Remember when WALL-E was accused of being both environmental and anti-fat propaganda?)

There are a lot more important issues out there, including many that actually impact children's futures. Talk about that!