New episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars are back on television this Wednesday at 8:00pm with the debut of “The Landing at Point Rain” on Cartoon Network. Unless Lucas finally gets his ass in gear on that long-promised but little delivered live-action Star Wars TV show, or unless those wild rumors about a new trilogy turn out to be true, this is pretty much your only way to get a Star Wars fix. Eat it up.

“The Landing at Point Rain” sounds as if it’s more than just a standard Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode. Director Brian Kalin O’Connell says of it, “George [Lucas] wanted ‘Landing at Point Rain’ to be as intense as any live-action movie about the assault on Omaha Beach”

Below we have a clip from “The Landing at Point Rain”. Here’s a taste of what you’re in for after the jump. read this entry »

Clone Wars has done so well on Cartoon Network, that while they wait for the new season they’re bringing an old season back… but with a bonus. Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Decoded is a full slate of 22 enhanced episodes from season one of the CG-animated series.

Here’s how they explain the enhancements:

Using text windows to provide in-the-moment insights into all aspects of the sweeping galactic conflict—from trivia to background on characters and storylines—Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Decoded enhances each episode with exclusive content created by the Lucasfilm Animation talent responsible for the show itself.

So basically it’s Star Wars Pop-Up Video. Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Decoded premieres Friday, May 1, at 9 p.m. ET/PT only on Cartoon Network. Here’s a clip from the first episode: read this entry »

They’re taking their sweet time, but the Astro Boy movie is finally close to being released. Well close relatively speaking. You’ll have to wait till October 3rd. Meanwhile, the movie’s second trailer has arrived. Take a look:

Family Guy, always ready and willing to geek out, is staging a Star Trek: The Next Generation reunion. In the episode airing this Sunday, March 29th: “Stewie builds a transporter and beams the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation to his bedroom so they can spend a fun-filled day together in Quahog.”

Fox has just sent us the first ever pic from the episode, featuring the entire Next Gen cast in animated form. Patrick Stewart, Levar Burton, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, Wil Wheaton, Denise Crosby, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes all show up, lend their voices, and get animated. Here’s the pic:

Imagine WALL-E. Now imagine WALL-E stripped of all subtlety and artistry; then rewritten as a preach screed by shrill, humanity-loathing environmentalists hellbent on brainwashing America’s kids into believing that mankind is the root of all evil. Do that, and you’d have the first trailer for Battle for Terra.

It’s a computer animated film set in a distant future where the human race has been forced to abandon Earth. Their only hope is to find a new home on the planet Terra. To do it, they decide they have to wipe out all the cuddly, huggable, native creatures. Someone should probably tell whoever wrote this that Terra is generally accepted as another name for the planet Earth. Whoops.

I love science fiction when it’s used to say something substantive and I’m not at all opposed to the idea of using it to make a point about the importance of caring for the environment. But there’s a right way to do it and a wrong way. This is the wrong way. Luckily, at least the space battles look pretty cool. So it’s got that going for it. Watch the Battle for Terra trailer after the jump. read this entry »

At first glance, WALL-E is a complicated science fiction tale, set against a grand post-apocalyptic backdrop. But it’s an illusion. More than any other recent film by the geniuses at Pixar it’s a kids’ movie, maybe their most simplistic and accessible yet. If WALL-E were a book, it’d be in the children’s department emblazoned with a title like “My First Science Fiction Story” and there would probably be a page for coloring somewhere before the back cover. They’ve taken a fairly ambitious sci fi concept and made it the perfect window for kids into a broader world of imagination and perhaps even activism. Does it have some appeal for adults? Sure. It’s still smart sci fi, just told in the most straightforward, easy to understand way possible. They’re happy to have you in the theater, but mostly they want your 8-year-old son or daughter. So maybe for adults there aren’t a lot of surprises, but that doesn’t mean you won’t revel in the Pixar-perfect execution of another story well told.

It happens in a far off future where mankind has turned Earth into a trash dump. I mean that literally. There’s no attempt at a complicated explanation for how our planet got screwed up. Basically we ruined the Earth by littering. It’s something kids can understand, why bother getting lost in a more complex problem like global warming? Man’s solution to the overabundance of garbage was to abandon the Earth, and live life roaming the stars inside spacefaring pleasure cruisers. Now, 700 years since our departure from Terra, the human race has morphed into a bunch of overweight layabouts. Basically we’re all starfaring, super-fat babies.
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Disney’s WALL-E is going retro with some really incredible, 50s style poster artwork created specially for the film. The four incredibly cool posters below are available for sale over on Acme Direct… where they don’t come cheap. But what you’re getting here isn’t some cheap promotional one sheet, but real, beautiful, geektastic artwork.

Check out all four posters after the jump:

read this entry »

Imagi and Summit Entertainment have announced the complete voice cast of their animated Astro Boy movie. Announcement after the jump:

read this entry »

Fox’s big animated movie this summer is a sci fi flick about monkeys. The plot sounds a lot like Farscape… except for the monkeys of course. NASA sends a bunch of chimps into a wormhole, on the other side the chimps find an alien civilization which they try to rescue from an evil dictator.

The movie’s first official, domestic poster is here. Take a look:

I feel like every time I write about this movie I have to explain it. Yes, it’s Star Wars. No Ewan McGregor isn’t in it. It’s animated Star Wars. Yes it’s a movie. No not a made for TV movie. A real movie. Computer animated. You know, like The Incredibles.

Now this Star Wars movie, whatever it is has a poster. Maybe it’ll make it all a little clearer.