Fans of How to Train Your Dragon need not fret. Netflix has not abandoned Dragons: Race to the Edge. While they do not always explain how they schedule their programming, this streaming service may have decided to time the next releases of episodes on Feb 17th with Dark Horse Comics’ own book, The Serpent’s Heir by Dean DeBlois, due to hit shelves a few days prior, on Feb 15th.
The graphic novel can be a quick read, and while it is unlikely to tie into events in the television series, both chapters are worth following. DeBlois’ tale will tie in with the third and final film. For more detail, please look at a previous entry here, and we can all guess what’s to come next.
Shout! Factory and Planeta Inform Film Distribution will soon be distributing the Russian-made computer animated film, Quackerz (Крякнутые каникулы) throughout North America. Directed and co-written by Victor Lakisov and produced by Rome Animation & Film Studio and A-VFX Studio, this comedy will get a strategic rollout across major entertainment distribution platforms and in packaged media in 2016 through Shout’s kids & family entertainment imprint, Shout! Factory Kids.
“We are looking forward to theatrical release of Quackerz in the domestic market as well as in the international territories. We’re extremely grateful to Shout Factory’s team for introducing our film to the US and Canada audience. I hope this partnership will become fruitful and long-lasting,” said Ruben Atoyan, Executive Producer of Rome Animation Studio.
Not everyone may have realized that Book 3: Changes was quietly broadcasted over the summer months and for those who have managed to see it, to wonder how this quadrilogy will end will not take long. Next month, Book 4: Balance will be streaming online starting October 3rd on Nick.com with new episodes releasing every following Friday.
Thankfully fans will not have to wait a full year to discover how Korra’s legacy will shape the post-modern world she’s living in. Book 3 dealt more about socio-political malcontent that series antagonist Zaheer has been spreading the seeds of dessent to, and Book 2 was about bringing the spirit world closer to the mortal realm. Anyone who has seen the finale saw that these two series have something in common.
If this newest season is going to stitch altogether elements from these previous story arcs, hopefully series creators Brian Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino did not rush this final season into release because of the leak that happened in early Summer.
Perhaps Nickelodeon is not wanting to discard this product for good. They would do well to help create original programming that appeals beyond their intended audience.
Arriving Sept 5th in select theatres across the States is Thunder and the House of Magic, a wonderful family film about a ginger cat just needing some love. But when he stumbles into a “haunted house” occupied by a misanthropic rabbit, a scrappy mouse and other talking animals (along with some strange robots that look like they can easily belong in a Tim Burton film), maybe what he needs more is a new family. The movie begins suggesting the feline is abandoned by his human owners. The reason why suggests that they have moved and at their new home, wherever that may be, there is no room for Thunder.
To rain on his parade includes meeting a human antagonist intent on selling the abode that this cat has found. But to find out more, perhaps the curious will have to head either to New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, Houston, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, San Francisco and Washington, DC to see it on the big screen, search this title out at Wal-Mart or hit VOD to watch this movie. Shout! Factory is handling the distribution of this product from Studiocanal. Brainstorm Media will be handling the online distribution.
In Canada, there will be some form of release planned for later in the year.
Thunder and the House of Magic is written by James Flynn, Domonic Paris and Ben Stassen, based on an original story idea from Ben Stassen. The film is produced by Caroline Van Iseghem and Ben Stassen, executive produced by Olivier Courson and Eric Dillens, and features original music by Ramin Djawadi. The 85-minute film is produced by nWave Pictures in association with Studiocanal and Anton Capital Entertainment. The voice cast includes Murray Blue, Doug Stone, George Babbit, Danielle Gray and Grant George.
More plot details are unveiled in a new trailer for the coming DreamWorks AnimationPenguins of Madagascar film due in theatres November 2014. There’s a mysterious serum codenamed Medusa that’s labelled as doomsday level dangerous. Just what it does is unknown, but if the name is any indication, perhaps it will turn everyone to stone.
Fortunately Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private are not dumb enough to toss the sample around. It’s safely stored in Rico’s stomach, and when it reemerges, the team think that’s a mission done. Not so. The trailer speaks for itself in the hilarity that ensues in a movie that no doubt parodies the entire spy film genre. It gets sillier than any Austin Powers film.
That also includes questioning why some master villains, namely Dr. Octavius Brine (aka Dave, voiced by John Malkovich), must go into huge soliloquies into explaining why his plans are so grandiose. Quite simply, he’s in it for revenge against the penguins. No detail is offered as to exactly why, but as the new promotional poster implies, maybe there is some history that will unfold in this “untold story.”
But fans will have to wait for Turkey Day in the USA to find out.
Audiences who went to see Mr. Peabody and Sherman on the big screen were treated to an animated short, Almost Home, which will lead into DreamWorks Animation’s next animated adventure, simply titled Home. It is scheduled to be released on November 26 in North America and December 5 in the United Kingdom.
The story is based on Adam Rex’s book, “The True Meaning of Smekday,” which will be getting a sequel, “Smek for President,” set to be released October 14th. In both the book and film, the focus may be on Tip, a eleven-year-old girl, who must learn how to survive on her own when her mother gets abducted.
The film may be different since the short introduces Captain Smek (Steve Martin), the bearded leader of the Boov race, as the main protagonist. This gentle loving species is looking for someplace safe from all their enemies, but when the entire universe seems to be against them, is anyplace safe? After many landings in hostile worlds with not-so-friendly native populations nipping at them, this guardian of the peace (if he can be called that) finally finds a planet which looks safe. But for everyone on the planet Earth and a teenage girl named Tip (Rihanna) who will meet Smek, just what will happen between the two sounds like an action-adventure comedy in the making.