Well this was unexpected. While Power Rangers is pretty present on YouTube and Tubi, it seems a trade has been made. Every season outside of the Ninja Steel and Dino Fury sagas is now streaming on-demand on Prime Video, no purchase on digital marketplaces necessary. Heck, Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie happens to be there right now as well. I don’t know how long it has been like this, but it’s a good thing it happened because the 17 seasons that were on demand on Pluto TV are gone as of September 1. And it’s not alone, as Transformers TV has been shut down as well. What Hasbro is actually planning with this as a step is unclear, but it comes as a surprise.

Many who care are probably wondering “Wait, wasn’t the Forever Kids channel 24/7 Power Rangers for like years at this point?” Indeed it was, joining with solely Mighty Morphin in May 2022 before a 30th anniversary-timed expansion to the other 16 seasons up to RPM in August 2023. What does the schedule look like now? Well it seems Wildbrain dominant, with Tales from the Cryptkeeper, Sabrina: The Animated Series and Sabrina’s Secret Life, while also featuring Beyblade: Metal Fusion, The New Pink Panther Show, All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series, and the 1986 Teen Wolf animated series. Was this how it was before the Power Rangers takeover? Who knows.

Transformers TV features nearly every Transformers series to air on American linear television, whether it’s G1, Beast Wars, Beast Machines, Armada, Energon, Cybertron, Animated, Prime, the 2015 Robots in Disguise, Rescue Bots, and Cyberverse. All of these are still available on Tubi. The channel also remains on other FAST platforms. I’ve reached out to Pluto TV to figure out whether this is standard expiration stuff or if there’s something more to it. The method of update is to be determined.

While these franchises with roots in Japan are gone, it seems they’ve been traded for anime. Building on the recent arrival of English-dubbed and subtitled versions of Vinland Saga and Dororo, Inuyashiki: Last Hero and Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress have been added while One-Punch Man and Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple have been made available for the first time in free streaming with English dubs. There is also now broader dub access to what’s already been here, namely Naruto, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Inuyasha, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead and Captain Tsubasa.

New channels It’s Anime, an English-dub-focused lineup spanning current series, catalog favorites, and fresh simulcasts, and Big A Anime, a curated lineup of acclaimed anime series and films, including Vinland Saga, Dororo and the Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress franchise, alongside fan-focused programming including Anime Showdown and specials from major anime and pop culture events have also been added. “Anime is one of the biggest genres for young audiences today, and it’s only growing,” said Will Gurman, Pluto’s Senior Vice President of Content Partnerships & Programming. “Expanding dub access opens the door for viewers who might not otherwise try anime, while our deeper catalog keeps growing for the fans who’ve been with the genre for years. We’re building a destination that works for this big and growing audience.”

Source: Animation Magazine

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Disney+ is saying yes to Animorphs, Casper, Eragon and Pokémon, less to Marvel and Star Wars, but no to Power Rangers and now we can add Gargoyles to the no list. Indeed, the latest attempt to free Goliath and co., a live-action series from Annabelle writer Gary Dauberman and what was James Wan’s pre-Blumhouse merger Atomic Monster is not going forward after three years stuck in early development.

Original series co-creator Greg Weisman gave the update during a panel at Fan Expo Canada, though some sources are framing it as a Comics Online interview, about the series’s status. “Well, I know the live-action side of it is, uh, the Atomic Monster had the license to develop a live-action Gargoyles for Disney+, and that’s dead. I have no idea about animation, but there are no current plans for live-action.”

The original series saw Scottish gargoyles placed under a curse a thousand years prior, broken by the marvels of modern New York skyscraper architecture thanks to said castle being bought by David Xanatos. Now awakened, they take on the responsibility of protecting the city however possible. The logline for new version read: “Goliath is the last of a heroic race of gargoyle warriors who once lived among mankind. Free from a centuries long curse that turned him into stone, Goliath struggles to solve the mystery of his past while watching over modern-day New York City alongside police detective Elisa Maza.”

In a sea of Disney Afternoon programming that included DuckTales, Goof Troop, Bonkers, Darkwing Duck, TaleSpin, and The Shnookums & Meat Funny Cartoon Show, Gargoyles was a standout for its more complex storylines, enthralling and darker tones, being seen as Disney’s answer and a peer to X-Men and Batman: The Animated Series. The series’s cast featured Keith David, Salli Richardson, Jeff Bennett, Bill Fagerbakke, Thom Adcox-Hernandez, Ed Asner, Frank Welker, Bridgitte Bako, Marina Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes.

Source: What’s On Disney Plus

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Turns out, “Weird Al” Yankovic is just as much an archivist as we all hope to be, just as pained by lost media as we are. On Monday, the musician announced that he received permission to finally release Al’s Brain, more formally Al’s Brain: A 3-D Journey Through the Human Brain with “Weird Al” Yankovic, an 11-minute 3D educational short film from 2009 that was seen by a very limited audience, made available on his YouTube channel.

Proclaiming on Bluesky, the singer wrote, “‘Lost media’ no longer! I finally got permission to upload “AL’S BRAIN,” an 11-minute educational 3-D film attraction which ran at the Orange County and Western Washington fairs, and hasn’t been seen publicly since 2009.” The Orange County fair was in Costa Mesa, while the Western Washington fair was the Puyallup Fair. He followed this up on Tuesday by excerpting the music video for “The Brain Song” found within.

The short sees Al, wearing one of his signature Hawaiian shirts, presenting himself in a Mr. Wizard, Beakman, or Bill Nye-style laboratory, taking questions about brains from such wonderful cameos as Fabio, Sir Paul McCartney, and Al’s mother-in-law Sally, while managing to squeeze in sketches featuring Thomas Lennon and Patton Oswalt, who were both featured in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, and Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. The animated Norm the Owl, who provides brain facts of his own, is voiced by Billy West, the Futurama star and Elmer Fudd voice who served as narrator on The Weird Al Show, while Bob Bancroft, best known to Parks & Recreation fans as Frank, one of the accountants who found Adam Scott’s Ben Wyatt hilarious, plays the boring human professor.

Of course, the 3-D aspect of Al’s Brain didn't make the transition to 2-D YouTube, but it’s still fun. Said 3-D was used in such manner as Al exposition while floating in the open in front of greenscreen curtains, whacks a paddle ball into the screen for “a gratuitous 3-D shot”, and the iron rod through the skull of Phineas Gage, which Al dons a bald cap to portray. Of course, it all culminates in “The Brain Song” which will have you never taking your “funky neurons” for granted again.

Source: The A. V. Club

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The Victorious spinoff Hollywood Arts, premiering October 15 on Netflix and starring Daniella Monet reprising her role as Trina Vega, has sung its first major post-pilot guest star, while revealing a familiar face behind the camera as well. The streamer has announced that Party101 creator and DJ Matt Bennett, who rose to fame playing Robbie Shapiro on the original series as well as the first spinoff Sam and Cat, will be reprising his role here as well. In addition, Nathan Kress, who played Freddie Benson in almost every episode across both iCarly series, confirms he directs a couple of episodes.

Bennett’s Party101 is a massive nostalgia‑driven throwback touring dance and singalong party celebration of late‑2000s and early‑2010s kids‑TV pop culture. Essentially his way of being able to monetize the music Disney Channel and Nickelodeon produced in the 2000s and 2010s from their shows and movies, even if he can’t sing or produce the music like some of his Victorious costars have, and that’s not just about Ariana Grande. While his starting Party101 leaves his most recent acting credit in 2022, there was not infrequency before then. Notably, he appeared in two of Grande’s videos, for “One Last Time” and “thank u next”, which also featured Monet and Elizabeth Gillies, whose Dynasty reboot he guest starred on and is indeed that 2022 acting credit. Specifics on what Robbie’s role will be in his guest spot were not given, but some of the photos shared reveal he has his guitar, but no Rex, the puppet he was ventriloquist to who was voiced by creator Jake Farrow.

Hollywood Arts sees Trina return to her alma mater to substitute for her sister’s eccentric teacher Erwin Sikowitz, played by Eric Lange, who appears in the premiere episode. Tori herself is now a global popstar. Trina’s initial hope is to jumpstart her own struggling acting career through well-connected “nepo baby” students, but she unexpectedly discovers a knack for nurturing young talent. That new generation of ambitious and talented students consists of Emmy, played by Alyssa Miles of Hanging out with Alyssa and Xavier, a tech producer secretly harboring a passion for performing; Emmy’s self-serious, floppy-haired brother Oscar, played by Martin Kamm of Unsung Hero, who is struggling in the shadow of her rising stardom at school, the silly and ditzy Pepper played by Emmy Liu-Wang of Raven’s Home, who is greatly loyal to her friends; Qwest played by Peyton Jackson of Young Dylan, a musical genius hiding his talent behind a fraudulent basketball scholarship; and Jen Z played by Erika Swayze of School Spirits, a sharp-tongued, neglected rich girl.

In a 2022 interview with Z100 New York, Bennett said "Yes, I'll be Robbie forever, but you know I'm part of a legacy... We're a comfort show. People have fallen asleep to Victorious... I'm cool to honor it you know... It's something you can only dream of..." If you’re wondering what kind of friendship Robbie and Trina had that could ever make Trina pulling him back to the school an option for whatever does (if it’s even that kind of scenario), they actually had quite a bit. Aside from being trapped in an RV by a too-closely-parked car on one of the hottest summer days, one might recall Robbie was the school’s theater critic tasked with reviewing Trina! or the duo accidentally injuring Festus and having to run The Grub Truck. He’s even the robber in the staged life-saving incident that allows Trina to be reenrolled in Hollywood Arts after failing her audition for Helen.

Kress is actually very familiar with Nickelodeon shows being sold off to Netflix. In fact he was part of the first show this ever happened to, Pinky Malinky which he starred on as JJ Jameson with Lucas Grabeel and future Moon Girl Diamond White. It actually left Netflix in July. Since the cliffhanger end of the iCarly revival, which also has his most recent directing credits, Kress has been doing more conventions, and starred as Chuck E. Cheese in the animated film A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas. Posting the first look images he’s in, he wrote to his socials, his first tweet since June, “So incredibly honored to have the opportunity to direct this wonderful and RIDICULOUSLY talented team over at Hollywood Arts for a couple episodes. The infectious energy on that set, the love of the craft, the music... the MUSIC, you guys. I can’t tell you how excited I am for you to see what we’ve been working on.”

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It’s time to duel? On October 8, 2021, Netflix released the 23rd animated Pokémon movie, Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle to non-Japanese audiences, over nine months after its COVID-delayed Christmas 2020 release domestically. With diminished box office returns and the subsequent disappearance of Ash Ketchum-led movies, even for the alternate continuity created by 2017’s I Choose You!, following the retirement of Ash as main character of the anime in March 2023, it was believed, and accepted, that there would never be another animated Pokémon movie again. But then came Sunday’s closing ceremonies of the 2026 Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco, California. The exciting weekend saw champions emerge across the video games (through Champions), the trading card game, Go, and for the final time, Unite. The closing ceremony always comes with news, with the main games usually getting moves or in 2023’s case the hint toward the Stellar type. But the next mainline games, Winds and Waves aren’t releasing until next year, presumed deep and distant enough that no new information was expected, and those expectations were met. So what better way to surprise than indeed ending the drought with a new movie, potentially movie series, Pokémon: Wild Card, with the first film set for release next year.

What makes it a potential film series? The teaser calls it for 2027 and beyond, which indicates a great commitment that has been in the works for quite a while. Unless the “beyond” refers to a staggered international release that crosses over into 2028? Surely not, right? Anyway, Wild Card is an entirely new story centered around the Pokémon Trading Card Game and follows an aspiring hooded Pokémon TCG player and Mimikyu, the Disguise Pokémon, the Ghost/Fairy-type introduced in Generation VII’s Alola region who wears Pikachu-esque rags. “For the first time in seven years, a new Pokémon movie is on its way,” The Pokémon Company president and CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara said, adding that the main character is “battling and striving to be a champion.”

The film will be produced by STORY inc. and animated by CloverWorks, one of Japan’s top animation studios whose assignments included Spy X Family and Bocchi the Rock, and is announced for release in 2027. It will be directed by Katsuhiko Kitada, whose credits include The First Slam Dunk, Attack on Titan, and Naruto: Shippuden, with Akemi Hayashi of Banana Fish and Lazarus as character designer.

No distribution model has been confirmed, though theatrical is assumed for Japan at the very least. In the United States, Pokémon had managed to get three consecutive years of theatrical releases, though that stretch is I Choose You! and The Power of Us as Fathom Events followed by the 2019 Hollywood blockbuster Detective Pikachu from Legendary Pictures, with mostly TV and direct-to-video premieres since 2003’s Heroes, with Pokémon The Movie: White—Victini and Zekrom being the single December 2011 weekend limited theatrical release exception thanks to Cinedigm, before Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution became a Pokémon Day Netflix release in 2020, months prior to confirming their Journeys pickup.

2027 is shaping up to be quite the year, with not only the next generation of mainline games, but a new stop motion animated series, Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d & Pichu, will premiere on Disney XD and Disney+, returning the franchise to Disney territory after a very similar gap to the movie drought. Watch the teaser below.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event was huge, especially the Disney Entertainment Showcase, and even two weeks later there’s still plenty to cover from it, and that starts now. The Star Wars portion and Star Wars: Starfighter director Shawn Levy welcomed star Ryan Gosling back to the Disney family by pulling out footage from his days on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club, corny as one could get in the most literal of ways. He even walked out to the stage in his varsity jacket before switching into a new one inspired by his Starfighter character, revealed to be named Kade Auberon, featuring an inverted symbol on the back of said jacket. The first footage from the film was also shown exclusively to the audience.

“I owe a lot to Disney,” Gosling said. “Had they not looked far and wide and come to my hometown, I would not be here today. And now here I am 30 years later… I’m back and it’s changing my life again.” Offering hints at the character’s journey, Gosling describes Kade as “A guy from the wrong side of the galaxy, whose fate is intertwined with the fastest starfighter ever built.” Auberon is a cynical rogue confronted by his mysterious past, hurled into a dangerous adventure across the galaxy that puts him on a crash course with destiny. But he’s also got some swagger to him. Flynn Gray’s character walks into a rusty garage, and finds a spaceship, right when Kade enters and says, “Didn’t I tell you not to touch anything?” A new logo, which actually brings back the original Star Wars logo was also revealed.

“I am so honored to release this film on the same weekend that the original film opened 50 years earlier,” Levy said of his film inspired by American car culture. “Starfighter embodies the themes of hope, family and adventure that have always been core to Star Wars, but our story takes place in a period of time that has never been seen before which has been a privilege to create and explore."

Set for release on May 28, 2027, Star Wars: Starfighter also stars Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Amy Adams, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, and Daniel Ings, written by Jonathan Tropper, scored by Thomas Newman, produced by Levy and Kathleen Kennedy, and executive produced by Gosling, Dan Levine, Mary McLaglen, and Josh McLaglen. “This Star Wars story is firmly rooted in character, brought to life by these amazing actors,” Levy said, “and all within an adventure that’s filled with humor, danger, spectacle and the joyous spirit that has been the beating heart of this 50 year legacy that we all love so much.”

Tropper soon spoke to Deadline on their Crew Call podcast while also fresh off the finale of his Apple TV limited series Lucky, revealing that Levy got to choose his own writer, thus the reteam. “What we wanted to do was to tell a story that was free of (Star Wars) mythology. We were out ahead in the timeline, and we wanted something with as few barriers of entry as possible for new fans and viewers,” he said. “This isn’t a Skywalker saga movie… we’re not dealing with the history of the Rebellion, the First Order, the Resistance or the Empire, we’re kind of beyond all that” he says, “It’s a simpler movie.”

Sources: Star Wars, Deadline (1, 2)

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So after so heavily covering the casting, I never got around to covering the trailers for the sixth Scary Movie film, which went the Halloween, Scream, and Candyman routes by going unnumbered and brought Shawn and Marlon Wayans, Anna Faris and Regina Hall back into the mix as Ray Wilkins, Shorty Meeks, Cindy Campbell. But it was released on June 5, and with David Ellison promising 90-day windows from a film’s theatrical run to their Paramount+ arrival starting on a year with a notoriously thin film slate, it’s going from Scream 7 to finding Scary Movie as the next film. And it is very much adhering, as it was announced August 19 that it will be arriving on the streamer on September 3.

To compare window lengths, Scary Movie’s direct opening competition was Amazon MGM Studios’s Masters of the Universe. The latter ended up going to Prime Video more than 6 weeks sooner on July 22 at just 47 days. While its box office results weren’t great, it is decidedly thriving since it made its streaming debut. It was very much indeed a glorious return for the Wayans family and the Scary Movie franchise as a whole, bringing in over $231 million at the worldwide box office on a $108.3 million domestic and $123.1 million international split, on a budget of only $30 million, buoyed by a $105.5 million global opening weekend, $54 million of which was domestic and decidedly victorious over the Nicholas Galitzine-starrer. These results made Scary Movie the first pure R-rated comedy, as in not an action comedy or from the Deadpool trilogy (I don’t know why those caveats exist but they were provided) to cross $100 million since 2017’s Girls Trip.

The logline reads “The Core Four are back in the killer’s crosshairs and no horror movie IP is safe when the team reunites to slash through reboots, remakes, requels, prequels, sequels, spin-offs, elevated horror, origin stories, anything with the word legacy in it, and every “final chapter” that absolutely isn’t final. Nothing is sacred, no trope survives and every line gets crossed.”

Directed by Michael Tiddes and written by Marlon, Shawn, Craig, and Keenen Ivory Wayans and Rick Alvarez, who also produce, the film also saw the returns of Dave Sheridan as Doofy, Lochlyn Munro as Greg Phillippe, Cheri Oteri as Gail Hailstorm and Chris Elliott as Shorthand, and added even more Wayans, like the familiar Kim as Nurse Ratchett, Damon Jr. as Agent Underwood and the up and coming Gregg, whose mother is Diedra Wayans, as Brenda’s son Brad, the clear analogue to Mason Gooding’s Chad Meeks-Martin.

Those appearing in the franchise for the first time but aren’t Wayans are Olivia Rose Keegan and Savannah Lee Nassif as Sara and Tuesday Campbell, Cindy’s estranged daughters that parody and parallel Sam and Tara while also taking Tatum’s daughterly position (and a bit of Jenna Ortega and her titular Wednesday role), Cameron Scott Roberts as Jack Kirsch, Sara’s not-the-killer boyfriend and very clear Jack Quaid as Richie Kirsch parody, Kenan Thompson as Jermaine Jackson, Heidi Gardner as Agent Berger, Underwood’s partner, Deon Cole as Pastor Prime, Sydney Park as Dei Meeks, Brad’s nonbinary twin and the subway attack victim given the pronouns joke in the trailer, and the Mindy of the movie, Benny Zielke as Greg’s transgender son Jess, and Ruby Snowber as Brad’s girlfriend Elle, with appearances from Anthony Anderson, Shaquille O’Neal, Teyana Taylor and Carmen Electra as themselves.

Executive producers include Jonathan Glickman, Thom Zadra, Alexandra Loewy, Marc Weinstock, Marsha L. Swinton and Neil H. Moritz.

Source: Paramount Press Express

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Came back when it mattered, I saw you. I remembered I loved you, and now the toys are gathering again to stream on Disney+, as Pixar’s Toy Story 5 is now set to head to the streamer on September 23. In addition, after the initial music video for Taylor Swift’s original song “I Knew It, I Knew You”, written and produced by her and Jack Antonoff and released closer to the film, featured footage of Jessie and Buzz’s relationship over the course of her first three movies, a new music video for the piano version features footage from the new film focusing on her arc is now available to watch on YouTube, Disney+, Spotify, and Apple Music.

Toy Story 5 released in theaters on June 19, which with a 96-day window actually brings the film to the streamer a week sooner than is typical, but maybe September 30 is too close to the Halloween pivot and might put a dent in its week 1 numbers had they not moved it up. While the film was made available on digital marketplaces on August 18, about a 60-day window, the Disney+ arrival comes one day after its release on 4K UHD and Blu-Ray Disc. This means that despite being released four weeks after The Mandalorian and Grogu there will be just a three-week gap between their Disney+ arrivals.

When Bonnie, now voiced by Scarlett Spears, is gifted the addicting tablet Lilypad, voiced by Greta Lee, Jessie, voiced by Joan Cusack, and Buzz Lightyear, voiced by Tim Allen, must call back Woody, voiced by Tom Hanks to make sure Bonnie won’t completely abandon playing with toys. However when Bonnie ends up shamed for her toys at a sleepover, a mishap lands Jessie and Bullseye to a farm that might just have the connections Bonnie needs, and the closure for Jessie. Loved by critics and and audiences, the film has become the highest-grossing in the series, a rounded $1.13 billion on a $478.5 million domestic and $650.7 million international split, buoyed by a $159 million domestic opening.

The cast for Toy Story 5 also includes John Ratzenberger as Hamm; Wallace Shawn as Rex; Blake Clark as Slinky Dog; Annie Potts as Bo Peep; Jeff Bergman and Anna Vocino as Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Bonnie Hunt as the wise rag-doll Dolly; Kristen Schaal as Trixie the triceratops; Tony Hale as Forky, Melissa Villaseñor as Karen Beverly, John Hopkins as Mr. Pricklepants, and Keanu Reeves as Canadian daredevil toy Duke Caboom, Mykal-Michelle Harris as Blaze, who lives on a farm close to Jessie’s heart, and closet toys including Ernie Hudson as her Combat Carl, Conan O’Brien as Smarty Pants, Craig Robinson as cheerful talking GPS hippo Atlas, Shelby Rabara as the excitable camera toy Snappy; and Matty Matheson as the tech-fearing toy Dr. Nutcase. The film is directed by Andrew Stanton and co-directed by Kenna Harris, written by them from his story, and it is produced by Lindsey Collins and Jessica Choi.

Source: Variety

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Is this one of the biggest heads at Warner Bros. getting out before the potential Paramount merger squeezes him out as a redundancy? Sam Register is exiting his long-running role as president of Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe this week as his contract expires, Warner Bros. TV Group head Channing Dungey announced in a memo to staffers on Tuesday afternoon. Dungey described that she and Register “mutually agreed not to renew his contract.”

“It’s time for me to move on to the next chapter in my life, and I’m grateful to have Channing’s support as I exit Warner Bros Animation,” Register said in his statement. “It’s been an amazing ride and I want to extend my sincere thanks to all the great people I’ve worked with — we’ve built some incredible things together. I wish you all the best moving forward, and I’m excited to explore all the possibilities in my future.”

In her memo, Dungey acknowledged that Register’s exit likely comes as a surprise, with the search for his successor now underway. She called him “a great talent”, thanking him for his contributions. In the meantime Matt Matzkin will continue to lead business operations, while creative department heads Jay Bastian for current series, Jason DeMarco for anime and action series, Audrey Diehl for kids and family series, Sarah Fell for Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe, Peter Girardi for alternative and adult programming and Sammy Perlmutter for long form and specials, will lead their respective departments.

Register’s 30+ year animation career began with Cartoon Network in 1994, developing and producing animated series such as Teen Titans, Chowder, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Star Wars Clone Wars, Transformers Animated, and Ben 10. He also launched Cartoon Network’s first website in 1998, and continued introducing Puffy AmiYumi by creating HiHi Puffy AmiYumi himself. He then joined Warner Bros. Animation in 2007, first joining the studio as a producer and rising through the ranks as executive vice president of creative affairs in 2008. He was promoted to president in 2014, and added Cartoon Network Studios to his oversight in 2020. That was a time when Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe was still Cartoon Network Studios Europe (the rebrand happens in 2021), therefore probably collected that with it. It’s why he’s come up as an executive producer so often in my coverage. If you think of any Warner Bros. Animation show or movie, including the theatrically-released Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim and The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, in his tenure, his name is likely on it.

Source: Variety

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It’s Pokémon’s World Championships weekend at the at the Moscone Center and Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco, California, which means fans are enjoying the first Video Game Championships competition to play out on Pokémon Champions rather than the current mainline games, alongside the championships for Pokémon Go, Unite, and the trading card game. This year, the PokemonXP event brings a panel-filled convention-type experience to the festivities, and it has allowed fans to experience a bit of news in the franchise before the traditional closing ceremony spot. Coming out of the “Behind the Scenes with Aardman” panel with director Tom Parkinson, creative director Natalie McKay, and creative lead James Young came a new trailer for the franchise collaboration with the claymation juggernaut, Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d & Pichu, and that it will bring new Pokémon projects under the Disney umbrella for the first time in 7 years, premiering on Disney XD and streaming globally exclusively on Disney+ in 2027.

The trailer sees unlikely heroes Sirfetch’d and Pichu engaged in their gallant quest to protect Pokémon across Galar. While their missions might rarely go as planned, their noble deeds forge their friendship as they step bravely into the unknown. Peril, alliances, rivalries, extraordinary Pokémon, and endless laughs await. The duo imagine bouncing around on Falinks, the Wooloo rolling around, a roaring Obstagoon, a laughing Hatterene, battling a Karrablast, there’s an Alcremie in a tree, an Escavalier that also laughs but heartily. They seek an Appletun’s help getting an Impidimp out of a tree. As their fantasies end, they resolve to march on before Sirfetch’d is struck with the 2027 signpost. Head of Story Pete Browngardt said the series wrapped a year ago as he marveled at his work getting out there.

This is actually a part of a broader distribution deal that includes broadcast rights to the original Ash Ketchum-led Pokémon anime back to linear television, starting with a 13 hour marathon of The Beginning on August 6 on Disney XD, all episodes brought to Disney+ the next day. “Pokémon has that rare ability to mean something to longtime fans while continuing to feel completely relevant to young audiences today,” said Ayo Davis, president, Disney Kids & Family. “This new series Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d & Pichu brings Aardman’s signature stop-motion artistry with a bold, playful new perspective to this beloved world, giving audiences a fresh way to experience the characters they know and love. Along with Pokémon the Series: The Beginning, these series are powerful additions to Disney XD and Disney+.”

The presence of The Beginning can’t quite be exclusive, as the fuller first season still exists on Netflix and Pokémon TV, and both seasons of The Beginning were added to Tubi at the start of July, alongside Pokémon: The First Movie, Pokémon the Movie 2000, Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You!, Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us, Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution, and the entire Sun & Moon series. They joined the Black & White and XY series and the latter’s movies. However, it seems the idea that the full Ash-era library will make it there, much like the days, from 2016 to 2020, that Disney XD was the U.S. home of Sun & Moon and the series library to that point was present on Watch Disney XD and successor DisneyNOW. Sun & Moon is also the current Pokémon series available on Hulu, alongside the Diamond and Pearl movies, making them available on Disney+ through bundled integration. This deal seems likely to bring it over to the Disney+ side at the very least in a shared capacity. The main anime moved to Netflix later in 2020, encompassing Ash’s final series Journeys and the first series after him Horizons, while also being home to another stop-motion animated series, Pokémon Concierge starring Karen Fukuhara, Josh Keaton and Lori Alan. It is unclear if whatever becomes of the future of the dub distribution of the main anime will move off of Netflix and into the the Disney ecosystem but it seems like an announcement is bubbling.

“These stories, full of adventure and heroism, all told from the perspective of Pokémon is made even more exciting through the lens of the incredible filmmakers at Aardman,” said Phil Rynda, Pokémon’s director of original animation. “Audiences will be delighted getting to know the Sirfetch’d & Pichu, and wonderful cast of Pokémon, featured in this series. Aardman has brought Galar to life in a way that makes you feel like you can smell the air, touch the tree bark, and want to adventure alongside our series heroes.”

Sources: Pokémon, The Hollywood Reporter

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August 28 means a lot of things to a lot of people. For many, it’s the anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech. Depending on one’s hobbies, it might carry a secondary significance, like the anniversary of the premiere of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers or Chadwick Boseman’s death. But for fans of the NBC and Netflix supernatural drama Manifest, the significance of 828 is more Lost-like, as it is the number of the fateful flight by which the series’s events take off, and they have clung to it ever since. In past years, Netflix used the occasion to announcing they had indeed picked up the series, reviving it for season 4 on the day in 2021, and then in 2022 releasing the season’s premiere date and trailer, with both announcements also coming at 8:28 AM Pacific. This year, three years after Manifest’s end, they unlocked a new future, announcing the greenlight of a spinoff Arrivals: A New Manifest Mystery, featuring a new cast of characters and storylines.

Arrivals comes from Manifest creator, executive producer and showrunner Jeff Rake and co-executive producers Margaret Easley and Laura Putney; now all serving as the co-creators, executive producers and showrunners. The logline tells that when a mysterious plane crash-lands in Denver, the passengers emerge with no memory of who they are, where they came from, or why they’re here. A young social worker and a novice Homeland Security agent team up with the new arrivals in an attempt to stop a humanity-ending catastrophe, discovering along the way that they are all part of the very puzzle they’re trying to solve. This logline doesn’t quite make clear what exactly the spinoff’s connection to the original series would be, including whether it would keep the 828 flight number.

This was the first time the streamer acknowledged the spinoff, but rumors of such started soon after the second part of that fourth and final season released in June 2023. The project was in development by the end of 2024, and opened a writers room by the end of last year. Meetings with directors began earlier this month.

Manifest began with a turbulent but routine (and amnesia-free) 2013 flight with a much safer landing for Montego Air Flight 828 in New York. Though it was a few hours for everybody onboard, divine passage made it that for everyone on the ground, five years had passed. “When the idea for Manifest first crash-landed in my head, I never imagined where it would lead. What started as a wild concept became something much bigger – a story that connected with millions of people around the globe,” Rake said of the series starring Josh Dallas, Melissa Roxburgh, Athena Karkanis, J.R. Ramirez, Luna Blaise, Ty Doran, Parveen Kaur, Daryl Edwards, and Holly Taylor. “And thanks to Netflix, we were able to finish the journey and give those fans the ending they deserved.”

Teasing Arrivals, Rake said “But the world of Manifest has more stories to tell. To now bring fans a brand-new mystery from that world is quite simply beyond my wildest dreams… Laura Putney and Margaret Easley have been my trusted colleagues for over a decade. Their contribution to the Manifest mothership cannot be overstated. It was a no-brainer to make them my partners on this spinoff. Together we’ve set out to create something bold, surprising, deeply human, and full of the kind of big ideas that spark conversations long after the credits roll. We can’t wait for a whole new audience – and longtime Manifest fans – to discover Arrivals.”

Dallas “can’t wait” for the series, Edwards congratulated the co-creators, and Roxburgh also shared the news in her stories. Original series executive producers Robert Zemeckis and Jack Rapke of Compari Entertainment; Len Goldstein of Tall Baby Productions and Jacqueline Levine all maintain their roles here.

“We are thrilled to expand the Manifest universe with Arrivals, led by the original creative team of Jeff Rake, Margaret Easley, and Laura Putney,” said Jinny Howe, Netflix’s Head of Scripted Series for the United States and Canada. “Their return ensures the creative continuity essential to this franchise, allowing us to honor what made the original a phenomenon while introducing a fresh perspective for fans worldwide.”

Source: Deadline

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It hasn’t even been two weeks since My Adventures with Superman wrapped up its third season on Adult Swim’s Toonami block, its second since making said block its home. With cable television and anime licensing in their own unique sorts of disarray, it’s always a wonder how the vacancy will be filled before the block is ready to premiere its next original. Well, after two five-episode blocks of My Adventures with Superman, DC fans will only have to wade through four weeks of the network premiere of short-lived Max series Scavengers Reign in three episode chunks before that next original comes: Get Jiro! the next new animated series from DC Studios, taking that coveted midnight slot on October 3, with “next day” (read: a few hours later) postings to HBO Max. In addition to the premiere date, a trailer violent enough to be red band for a television show was also released.

Set in the near future, Get Jiro focuses on Jiro, a mysterious sushi master with a great disdain for soy sauce in a Los Angeles where master chefs, rivals Bob and Rose rule the town and customers will murder for coveted restaurant reservation, so he enters a bloody culinary war to begin plotting his recipe for revenge. There’s eye gouging, face grating, blowtorching and face stomping all to show just how violent the war is. The series was developed by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka, who co-wrote A24’s Sharper and served as producers on NBC’s Superstore. Get Jiro! is indeed the latest series Warner Bros. Animation and DC Studios, with single 22-minute stories like My Adventures with Superman and Batman: Caped Crusader is not your typical DC fare. It’s based on the New York Times best-selling DC/Vertigo graphic novels written by famed chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain, who died in 2018 at the age of 61, and Joel Rose, and illustrated by Langdon Foss and Alé Garza.

In June, it was announced at SXSW London that Bosch star Titus Welliver, Alison Pill, and Justin Kirk had joined the series, already long-known to be starring Brian Tee as Jiro. Tanaka, Gatewood, Jordan Blum and Sam Register serve as executive producers.

Vertigo is the label whose source material brought us Lucifer, iZombie, The Sandman, Dead Boy Detectives, Sweet Tooth, and the probably overlooked 2022 HBO Max miniseries DMZ, starring Rosario Dawson and Hoon Lee, all largely divorced from mainline superhero fare. John Constantine is a well-known Vertigo and DC Black Label fixture, but he debuted before the label existed and has spent way more time with DC’s superhero side, especially now after the Arrowverse and direct-to-video animated movie universes that public perception will likely associate them going forward.

“We at Adult Swim were huge fans of Bourdain and Rose’s graphic novels, so when our partners at WBA first mentioned it, we were all in,” says Adult Swim president Michael Ouweleen. “Like everything Bourdain did, this story starts with food and then generously reaches out into all directions to cover culture, obsession and what makes humanity problematic but, in the end, inspiring. What you get is a wildly original, cinematic series, the kind of thing that we feel is right at home on Adult Swim.”

“Bourdain’s whole mantra was just food brings us together… and then there’s a lot of blood and violence in between [in Get Jiro], but ultimately that’s the takeaway,” Tanaka said at his SXSW London appearance. “Everybody’s needs are being met digitally, whether it’s sex or travel, you can put on goggles and go anywhere, but the one thing you cannot do is eat and taste food, and because of that, chefs have become the most powerful people in Los Angeles,” he then explained of the plot. “They’re like gangsters as they take each other out. The comic starts where [Jiro] lands in Los Angeles, and he starts playing everyone against each other. As the series continues, we see that there’s a whole method to his madness, and the entire thing is like him creating a recipe for the grand finale. A lot of food, mayhem and violence happens.”

Given the Bourdain of it all, the food scenes had to be completely on point. “We really needed to make sure, obviously, that we got the food right,” Tanaka remarked. “We got this guy named Matt Goulding, who was a coworker and a very good friend of Bourdain’s. He would read every script, look at every animatic and watch every episode.”

Describing the show’s different cinematic influences, Tanaka revealed “Kurosawa was a big part of the comic, it feels a lot like Yojimbo. We’re dealing with such a cinephile [in Bourdain], and Brian and I are also huge lovers of cinema, so we wanted to make sure that every episode had a very cinematic flair.”

He then went onto how much the world grows through adaptation “We had to expand on what was already there, which includes creating a couple of new characters, some extra storylines. There’s one [new] villain, and we’ll just refer to him as the cannibal, that hopefully people will enjoy, but mostly it was about taking the characters that were already there and just deepening them and finding more about them.”

Due to the violent nature of the trailer, it’s age-restricted and won’t be playable on the embed. Do click on Watch on YouTube below.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline

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André 3000 and Scooby-Doo are back together. 25 years after co-writing the song “Land of a Million Drums” with Big Boi in their OutKast days, along with Killer Mike and Sleepy Brown for the 2002 live-action Scooby-Doo film, the musician is now bringing his acting talents to the franchise. He has been announced to join Netflix’s live-action Scooby-Doo: Origins series set to premiere in 2027 alongside Cathy Moriarty in unrevealed recurring roles.

Benjamin has racked up a considerable amount of acting credits, but might be best known (again, acting-wise) for voicing Sunny Bridges in the Cartoon Network series Class of 3000. He was a series regular playing Fredwynn on AMC’s Dispatches from Elsewhere. His films include Semi-Pro, Four Brothers, Charlotte’s Web, and playing Jimi Hendrix in Jimi: All Is by My Side. Oscar-nominated for her role in Raging Bull and known for playing Catherine Crittenden in Casper, Moriarty played opposite Jim Belushi as Coach Wittenberg’s wife Tish on three episodes of Hey Arnold! Her most recent role that might be close to recognizable would be doing a few episodes of the Showtime series City on a Hill. As far as films go, her most recognizable recent credits go all the way back to The Bounty Hunter, Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure, and Analyze That.

The Mystery Inc. portion of the cast for Scooby-Doo: Origins consists of Tanner Hagen as Shaggy Rogers, Maxwell Jenkins as Fred Jones, Mckenna Grace as Daphne Blake, Abby Ryder Fortson as Velma Dinkley, and Frank Welker as the voice of Scooby, with Paul Walter Hauser as the only other announced series regular. In June, it was announced Peter Macon, Sara Gilbert, Bruce McGill, Rusty Schwimmer, Maxwell Simkins, Jona Xiao, Dani Deetté, Elysée Sanvillé, Alex Isles, Avery Kristen Pohl, Pamela Mitchell, Ross Kimball, Wynn Everett, and Sauriyan Sapkota. No character details have been revealed, kept as secret.

The logline specifically describes “During their final summer at Camp Ruby-Spears, old friends Shaggy and Daphne become entangled in a haunting mystery involving a lonely Great Dane puppy who may have witnessed a supernatural murder. Alongside pragmatic townie Velma and the enigmatic new kid Freddy, the group is pulled into a chilling investigation that threatens to unravel the secrets each of them is hiding.”

Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg are set to serve as showrunners and writers on what’s being described as a “modern reimagining of the iconic mystery-solving group of teens and their very special dog”, where they will also serve as executive producers. The eight-episode series from Midnight Radio, Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television has André Nemec and Jeff Pinkner also executive produce via Midnight Radio. Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Leigh London Redman executive produce for Berlanti Productions via the company’s Warner Bros. Television deal. Toby Haynes serves as an executive producer and directs the first episode.

Source: Deadline

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Dan Stevens truly pops up everywhere, and now he’s being rebuilt for a new mantle. The Legion star has now been cast as Alex Murphy, the titular RoboCop in Prime Video’s upcoming RoboCop series based on the 1987 movie directed by Paul Verhoeven where Peter Weller originated the role.

Stevens quickly emerged as the leading candidate after the Amazon MGM Studios and Blumhouse Atomic Monster series from showrunner Peter Ocko was greenlit last month. Its premise sees that a giant tech conglomerate persuades the city to place a powerful robot on its police force: a robot implanted with the consciousness of Murphy, a beloved fallen officer.

“Peter Ocko has crafted a vision that honors the soul of what made the original so enduring while building something entirely fresh and urgent for today,” Amazon MGM Studios’ Head of Global TV Peter Friedlander said at pickup about the series, which takes a contemporary look at the questions the original film posed “about technology, identity, and who corporations really serve,” as James Wan put it at the time.

The original RoboCop film was followed by two numbered sequels in 1990 and 1993, with the latter starring Robert Burke, and the 2014 remake Robocop, starring Joel Kinnaman. Of the four previous television series, two were animated. The first was in 1988 of the same name and the second ten years later subtitled Alpha Commando. The live-action series were Canadian, the first in 1994, also simply called RoboCop and it was as aimed at children as the first animated series was. The other was a 2001 miniseries subtitled Prime Directives, consisting of four feature-length episodes.

Stevens recently wrapped production on MGM+ and the BBC’s series adaptation of John le Carré’s Legacy of Spies. His other previous television credits beyond the FX series include his breakout on Downton Abbey, Netflix’s Zero Day with Robert De Niro, and the animated comedies Solar Opposites and Among Us, the latter based on the popular Innersloth video game. He is in currently working on Dexter: Resurrection’s second season, playing Owen Stark the Five Borough Killer. He also stars in The Terror: The Devil in Silver, the latest installment of which debuted on AMC+ and Shudder this spring and will have its linear release on AMC in September. Stevens reteams with Adam Wingard for Onslaught, which will be released on September 4, and will also be reprising his role as Trapper in Godzilla x King: Supernova, which Wingard chose Onslaught over due to schedule friction and releases in March 2027. Stevens also has Babies, directed by Lauren Miller Rogen, which will have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. His previous film credits include being the Beast in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast remake, as well as roles in Colossal, Marshall, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, Abigail, and voice roles in The Sea Beast and Studio Ghibli films Earwig and the Witch and The Boy and the Heron.

Source: Deadline

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Tonight, the razzle dazzle is a little dimmer. We stand for a fallen one, til all are one. Prolific voice actor Peter Cullen, voice of Optimus Prime in dozens of American-made Transformers projects, from the original The Transformers series all the way through the Michael Bay-started films including its most recent, 2023’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, as well as Eeyore in probably as many if not more Winnie-the-Pooh projects, died Wednesday, August 26, at the age of 85. He was also a prominent voice in the Cartoon Network era of the Toonami block’s promos because of his beloved Transformers role.

Peter's family released a statement saying "Peter Cullen passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loving family - and held in the hearts of his many friends and countless fans worldwide. His family asks that you honor his remarkable legacy by serving your communities and leading others with compassion, integrity, and loyalty and always remember 'be strong enough to be gentle.'"

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Peter Claver Cullen was born in Montreal on July 28, 1941 as one of four children to American parents Muriel and Henry, a longtime newsprint executive with the International Paper Sales Co., spending a memorable part of his childhood on a relative’s farm. His Optimus Prime voice, as he has told many a time, was him channeling his brother Larry, a decorated U.S. Marine who served in Vietnam from 1965-68. Peter graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada as part of its first class in 1963, studied acting -and Shakespeare for a summer in Stratford, Ontario, and was a member of the repertory company at The Crest Theatre in Toronto for a year. He was a Montreal radio announcer for CKGM and in his first TV role, played astronaut Commander Bi Bi Latuque on the local CFCF kids series The Buddies in 1967. Then came CBC radio comedy Les Anglaises, which was part of Funny You Should Say That, the series being about a French Canadian man and his English Canadian wife. Cullen’s Hollywood endeavors began on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour that same year, beginning a run in sketch comedy that included Sonny & Cher and The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Comedy Show.

His work as Eeyore began with The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and extends all the way to a 2017 episode of Disney Jr.’s Doc McStuffins. Playing Optimus Prime against Frank Welker as arch-nemesis Megatron has led to lifelong friendship. On the original series, Cullen also voiced Ironhide, Streetwise, Wingspan, Slugslinger, and Nightstick. His performance in the first season of The Hub Network’s Transformers: Prime, which ran for three seasons, 65 episodes, and a finale movie Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising from 2010-2013, earned him a Daytime Emmy nomination, and he earned a Lifetime Achievement Award at the second Children’s and Family Emmys in 2023, which was presented to him by Welker. His last series as Optimus Prime is the Machinima web series Power of the Primes, while his last performance as the character was actually on a “Transformers Night” episode of The Masked Singer in 2024. As IGN alum Eric Goldman put it “He took a cartoon character based on a toy robot who turns into a truck and infused him with genuine gravitas, wisdom, and kindness.” Cullen was involved with NASA and the Optimus Prime Spinoff Award, which is presented each year to youngsters studying space, science, technology and math. “The phenomenon of Transformers itself is mind-shaking,” he said. “Being a part of it is not only historical, it’s a part of your life that says, ‘Gee, I’m glad.’ I did something in my life that stood out, and I’m really grateful for that. Humbled by it.”

Cullen is notably the first ever English voice actor for Nintendo’s Mario, for segments of the Saturday Supercade cartoon. He also voiced Red Skull across both ‘80s Spider-Man cartoons, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, where he also voiced Hulk and Mysterio, and had characters in both Lion Voltron and Vehicle Voltron, formerly simply known as Voltron: Defender of the Universe: Coran and King Alfor in the former and James Hawkins in the latter. He is in fact the second Alfor voice to die in as many days, as Tim Curry, who voiced him in the The Third Dimension series died on Tuesday. If there’s a third voice Cullen is definitely known for, it’s the cheese-obsessed mouse Monterey Jack on Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers, however that only lasted for the first season of 13 episodes. He also did the vocalizations for the titular Predator of the original movie, and narrated Toonami’s first original series, IGPX.

While he was claimed to be in a specialized retirement that excepted Eeyore and Optimus Prime gigs, Cullen would end up recurring on Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as Yokai Councillor #1 and Invincible as Thaedus, the latter in episodes as recently as this year. Fathom Events is holding 40th anniversary screenings for The Transformers: The Movie from September 17 to 21, calling it an apology tour as the film notoriously traumatized its initial child audience with the toy shelf-clearing death of Optimus Prime. This may make for impromptu tribute screenings.

Speaking of tributes, at the time of publishing, those from industry peers haven’t started to roll out so widely, so to speak, but Grey DeLisle, who voiced Arcee in 2018’s Bumblebee posted to Instagram “Arcee will miss you”, while O’Shea Jackson posted a clip of Shia LaBoeuf’s Sam Witwicky screaming out for Optimus. Adult Swim posted “Rest in power, Peter Cullen. One of one. You will be missed.”

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, TMZ

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He didn’t get to finish his career quite how he wanted to, but Tim Curry has taken his final bow. The British actor who began on stage, shooting to fame as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show and its 1975 film version The Rocky Horror Picture Show, leading to a prolific career in film, television, and voice acting, has died at the age of 80. He never married nor had any children.

Police responded to his house at 11:23 PM Pacific Tuesday night to a death investigation at his home, dispatch audio reveals, with Los Angeles Fire Department called earlier in the night over a medical emergency before Curry was pronounced dead at the scene. “Throughout his life, he refused to be boxed in or confined to others’ expectations,” the announcement reads. “Across five decades, he moved fluidly between comedy, horror, drama, and music, delighting himself and his legion of fans with his countless dynamic personas. … He is, depending on who you ask, the definitive Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the definitive Pennywise, the man who made a butler’s death-scene monologue in Clue an all-time comedic bit, or simply ‘that unforgettable voice’ from a beloved cartoon of someone’s childhood.

“Few actors can claim to have left as many distinct fingerprints on pop culture,” the statement continues, “and though he suffered a debilitating stroke in 2012, he continued adding to his achievements as an artist and, most recently, a writer. Though widely known for his inimitable, flamboyant characters and colorful stage performances, his greatest legacies to those who knew him were his curious, expansive mind and generous, gentle heart, both of which remained open and filled with anticipation until his final breath.”

Timothy James Curry was born on April 19, 1946, in Cheshire, England, exactly three months younger than Dolly Parton, who died on Tuesday. His father, a Methodist Royal Navy chaplain, died when Tim was 12 from a stroke. Curry began his professional acting career in a 1968 West End production of Hair shortly after graduating from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. While an exact cause of death is unknown, Curry had a severe stroke in the summer of 2012 that required the use of a wheelchair, as he faced short-term memory issues as well as mobility issues, particularly in his left arm and leg. As recently as last September, Curry confirmed he was still unable to walk. His stroke occurred just a few months after the death of Ian Abercrombie, whom Curry was chosen to succeed as the voice of Emperor Palpatine on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which he served for seasons 5 (mixed with some Abercrombie) and all of 6. His own death now comes three months after Tom Kane, the show’s narrator and voice of Yoda, died succumbing at the age of 64 to complications of a 2020 stroke. The two co-starred on the 1998-2004 Nicktoon The Wild Thornberrys, where Curry was the eventually heavily-memed patriarch Nigel, and Kane the monkey Darwin, whom daughter Eliza, voiced by Lacey Chabert, could speak to with her gift that allows her to talk to all animals.

Following Rocky Horror, Curry would go onto another film adaptation of a stage musical, as con man Rooster Harrigan in Annie. He would appear as the caked-in-makeup arch-villain Darkness in Ridley Scott’s fantasy Legend, and the butler Wadsworth in Clue. Further credits include The Hunt for Red October, The Worst Witch, The Three Musketeers, and as Plaza Hotel concierge Mr. Hector in Home Alone 2, a film that has lost two other stars in Catherine O’Hara and Brenda Fricker this year, but to many dismay and frustration, not the orange felon. He also appeared in spoof movies like Loaded Weapon 1 and Scary Movie 2, while delightfully entering the Muppet space as Long John Silver in 1996’s Muppet Treasure Island, and film adaptations of classic TV including as Russian terrorist Major Vladakov in 1997’s McHale’s Navy, Gomez Addams in the direct-to-video Addams Family Reunion, and Roger Corwin, head of communications-satellite company Redstar in 2000’s Charlie’s Angels.

His live action TV work included a starring role as villain Bill Sikes in the 1982 Oliver Twist TV movie and a 1989 record industry arc on CBS’s Wiseguy, and very memorably Pennywise the Clown in the 1990 miniseries version of Stephen King’s horror novel IT. His attempts to lead live action longform series were not so successful, with 1997’s Over the Top, with Annie Potts and Steve Carell, and 2002’s Family Affair remake both short-lived.

His foray into voice work with that very distinct British charm and flair began for film with FernGully: The Last Rainforest in 1992, which led to films like The Pebble and the Penguin, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, Scooby-Doo! and the Witch’s Ghost, Bartok the Magnificent, and Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties. It is through his Nigel Thornberry role that Curry was able to complete appearing in all three Rugrats movies, 1998’s The Rugrats Movie as Rex Pester, 2000’s Rugrats in Paris: The Movie as a sumo singer, and 2003’s Rugrats Go Wild! serving as a crossover between Rugrats and Thornberrys. He also returned to Scooby-Doo! for Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King, voicing the Goblin King where the character’s daughter, Fairy Princess Willow was voiced by Hayden Panettiere, who died on August 16 at the far too soon age of 36.

Once set to voice The Joker on Batman: The Animated Series, his television voiceover work would become ubiquitous, capturing a Daytime Emmy voicing Captain Hook on the short lived Peter Pan and the Pirates on Fox Kids, where he also voiced Konk on Pirates of Dark Water. He even dabbled in American tokusatsu as the voice Kilokahn on Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad, which adapted Gridman. His major recurring roles included MAL on Captain Planet, Mighty Max, Zimbo on Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, King Alfor and Prince Lotor on Voltron: The Third Dimension, the Atrocimator on Turbocharged Thunderbirds, Pretorius on The Mask, Dr. Anton Sevarius on Gargoyles, Leichliter on Hey Arnold!, The Sorcerer on Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja, and probably most memorably Professor Finbarr Calamitous on The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. He also voiced G. Gordon Godfrey on Young Justice, recast with James Arnold Taylor when the show was revived after his stroke. His last voice role before the stroke was as Auntie Whispers on Over the Garden Wall. He also did video games, with his most famous non-licensed title being as Premier Anatoly Cherdenko in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 through motion video. His hammy, scenery-chewing line deliveries gave “I'm escaping to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism... SPACE!” a life on its own on the internet

He served as narrator, The Criminologist on Fox’s 2016 TV remake The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again, where Laverne Cox played Dr. Frank-N-Furter. “[Curry] would come to rehearsals when he himself wasn’t rehearsing and just sit in the middle of the room and tell us industry stories and make us laugh,” Ryan McCartan, who played Brad to Victoria Justice’s Janet said at the time. “Having him there as a godfather of the whole thing was such validation for us to advance confidently. His presence made a huge difference.” Curry’s last Rocky Horror performance was on Halloween in 2020, for virtual livestream political fundraiser event organized by The Democratic Party of Wisconsin ahead of Election Day, which Seth Green, Colleen Ballinger, Rosario Dawson, Wilmer Valderrama, as well as Lance Bass as Rocky.

Luke Evans, who recently concluded a seven-month run in The Rocky Horror Show on Broadway playing Frank-N-Furter, called Curry “a force, a bright fierce flame, an exquisite charm,” on Instagram and shared a letter he wrote to him three weeks ago: “I just want to say thank you. For your fearless performance, for creating something so enduring, and for inspiring generations of actors to be a little braver than they thought they could be.”

Patricia Quinn, who starred as extraterrestrial maid Magenta, expressed her heartbreak after she, Barry Bostwick, and Nell Campbell, the latter two having been Brad Majors and Columbia, had been with Curry for what was ultimately his final public appearance in November 2025, a special screening in New York City for the film’s 50th anniversary, saying “I am in shock and utterly saddened and heartbroken by the news of Tim’s passing.”

Richard O’Brien, who wrote the musical and played butler Riff Raff in addition to writing the musical, reacted with an “exceptionally sad heart and misted-up eyes. Tim Curry was a wonderful man by nature who was also a wonderful performer and understood the difference between such delightful achievements. He never sought attention and never put himself before the roles that he played. He was, in short, a good egg and class act. It was both a privilege and delight to have known him and worked with him.” The show itself wrote on its socials with a Curry photo, “Remembering the legendary Tim Curry, who first brought Frank-N-Furter to life. We are heartbroken by his passing and grateful for the unforgettable legacy he leaves behind. Thank you, Tim, for giving the world a little more freedom, a little more fearlessness, and through the tears in our eyes, the courage to BE IT. We love you.” The “BE IT” refers to one of the show’s most famous catchphrases: “Don’t dream it, be it.”

The Muppets official social media accounts posted “Few humans have earned the title of honorary Muppet more than the legendary Tim Curry. As a performer he was unparalleled – witty, charming, unnerving, and deeply funny. We will always consider it one of our greatest treasures to have been part of Long John Silver’s crew. Thank you for everything, Tim.”

“My last conversation with Tim Curry was about life and love and laughter,” Curry’s Clue costar Michael McKean wrote on Twitter. “The grim physical state he found himself in has now ended, a blessing. Our blessing was that we had Tim Curry in our lives. RIP, my friend.” Lesley Anne Warren wrote on Instagram: “My dear companion in crime, the brilliant, hilarious, hysterically funny , magician of artistry has left us. What an unbelievable joy to have shared a sound stage with him and to engage with such a master talent. I adored him. Bless his wild and inspired soul. Love you Tim”

Josh Gad wrote alongside a photo of Curry on his Instagram story: “Another day, another legend. Goodbye Tim. Thank you for your immense gifts. Ugh.” Hank Azaria reflected on their Spamalot work with the passing. Danielle Harris, who voiced elder daughter Debbie Thornberry, wrote on Instagram “How lucky I felt to share the stage with him for 7 years. I recorded with Tim more than anyone on the cast and my face would literally hurt from laughing leaving the recording studio. I would get so excited when I’d pull into work and see his car in the parking lot. Tims uncanny humor and naughty wit was like no other and I just absolutely adored him. Tim has undoubtedly left a mark on all of our lives forever. He will be missed❤️”

YouTuber Doug Walker “could talk forever about the amazing performances, humor, and all around mesmerizing presence” Curry had, reflecting on reading the actor’s memoir, Vagabond, released last October, and how it focused on a life philosophy of exploring one’s own contradictions, calling it possibly why he played villains and sympathetic characters so wonderfully, helping balance out his big and bombastic performances, also allowing him to show a more vulnerable side. He concluded with “Rock on Tim, and thanks for the madness.”

After Wednesday’s performance from the current Rocky Horror revival, Paul Soileau, Jake Shears, and Luke Evans performed a special rendition of “I’m Going Home.” Curry's final role overall was a cameo in the 2024 horror film Stream.

Sources: Deadline (1, 2, 3), TMZ, Variety

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How sweet is it that Netflix is expanding its theatrical presence? The streamer has set Charlie vs. the Chocolate Factory for a wide global release in theaters on November 5, 2027, before arriving on the streamer on December 22, reinforcing a strong candy and Christmas association thanks to many British traditions, running nearly the entire holiday season. Sony Pictures Entertainment will handle international distribution for the theatrical release.

Announced back on August 12, the Netflix Animation Studios film’s cast has been more fully revealed, featuring a return to the franchise for Helena Bonham Carter, as she played Charlie Bucket’s unnamed mother in the 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film directed by her then-partner Tim Burton, and Nicola Coughlan, Christopher Chung, Kate Winslet, Charithra Chandran, and Samson Kayo joining the previously announced Kit Connor as Charlie Paley and Taika Waititi as Willy Wonka. Netflix promised new characters and a few familiar faces, but identified no roles for this crop of casting. As the logline had told “Wonka (Waititi) has spent the years since the infamous Golden Ticket contest behind bars — and not the chocolate kind — for the crime of turning a child into a blueberry. Having served his time, he returns to his factory determined to add a little sweetness to a bitter world. But one thing stands in his way: Charlie Paley (Connor) and his friends. Facing eviction, this next generation of so-called “rotten” kids hatch a plan to break into the factory, steal a priceless Wonka Bar, and save their homes. Like the children who came before them, however, they soon discover that the fantastical world inside the factory may be more than they can chew…” Jared Stern and Elaine Bogan direct, and Aron Warner and Timothy Yoo produce, while Waititi is an executive producer.

November 5 to December 22 makes a 47-day theatrical window for the movie, a Thursday to Tuesday stretch that matches the length for La Bola Negra, while Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew gets the full 49-day run. This basically marks an overflow to the 6-week window Ted Sarandos previously committed to when currying favor during their pursuit of Warner Bros. by about a week. In May, David Fincher’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood sequel The Adventures of Cliff Booth assumed Narnia’s abdicated theatrical Thanksgiving slot, getting two weeks in IMAX, while its Netflix arrival is December 23, the same Christmas corridor.

The film isn’t missing out on merchandise tie-ins either, getting Ferrero Group, who are the owners of the Wonka candy brand since 2018, involved, launching Wonka range with ten seasonal and limited-edition products across chocolate, sugar confectionery, ice cream, and cereal in the United States and certain European markets, including the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany. As far as toys are concerned, Moose Toys was recently announced as the master toy partner, with its line launching in 2027 closer to the film’s release.

Source: Deadline

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There have only been two episodes of The Simpsons to air in August: “Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?” which aired as the season 3 finale instead of the season 4 premiere on August 27, 1992, and “Lard of the Dance” which aired as the season 10 premiere on August 23, 1998. In both instances, they were to give boosts to Fox’s new premiering comedies, Martin for the former, and That ‘70s Show (and Holding the Baby, apparently? Whatever that is) for the latter. However, since May, we’ve known that “Yellow Mirror”, the third and final season 37 Disney+-exclusive episode, would be the third with that distinction, and now, ahead of its premiere on Wednesday, August 26, the episode’s trailer and key art have been released. This is considerably better than some previous exclusive episodes that had their trailers released on the episode’s release day.

It is so weird to see TVLine get exclusives these days after they were turned into a ScreenRant-like content farm these days but yeah, they laid claim to exclusivity in receiving these promotional materials. The logline, as previously reported tells “A defective lamp reveals a heartbreaking truth about what Homer believes is reality, and an AI-powered tablet befriends and controls Maggie. The Simpsons struggle to find the light through two dark tales of the curious and bizarre…” The episode is written by Carolyn Omine.

The trailer begins showing Maggie’s first encounter with the tablet, a birthday party for Marge’s mother, where Marge keeps her entertained with it, Homer realizing “You found the baby’s off switch!”. It also reveals that the intro sequence will be interrupted by Bart falling into the chalkboard during that gag to give a more Rod Serling-esque intro to the episode. Technology turns on the residents of Springfield, with robodogs preventing escape as a cutesy but villainous AI named Hailey announces, “Hello, humans. Why don’t we settle down and use our incarcerated voices, OK?”. In the other story, Homer’s entire timeline is changed while still in high school, but he has memories of his family, able to draw them on his notepad. When he tells Barney that life as he knew it never existed, he gives a typical-for-him response: “Well, that sucks. On the bright side, it’s fishstick Friday.” He, Lenny and Carl talk The Empire Strikes Back as roommates, while we see Maggie’s entrancement with Hailey, who has ambitions of world domination, and Fat Tony might blow up.

While Bart falling through the shattered mirror is the centerpiece of the key art, its shards include the family passed out, teenage Homer blowing his chance with Marge, the robodogs, Hailey touching Maggie’s cheeks, and more, with one shard showing something the trailer did not: a more grizzled adult Homer on a cartoons panel, so he might end up an animator in the gone wrong timeline.

While the release of “Yellow Mirror” does mark the end of the “Summer of the Simpsons and its Disney+-exclusive episodes for season 37, season 38 premieres just over a month later on Sunday, September 27. We will be seeing more Disney+-exclusive episodes for it, but there’s currently no way to know when they will be released, as the two seasons that thus far have them have not released them on a consistent schedule. And next year, the position this week in the year has is the week before The Simpsons returns to theaters with its second feature film, The New Simpsons Movie, releasing September 3, 2027.

Source: TVLine

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September 2 is definitely Mandalorian Day on Disney+. As previously announced at different times, both the theatrical film The Mandalorian and Grogu and the latest Lego special would be released that day, but a limited podcast, Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu Official Podcast, will premiere on Disney+ at 9 PM Eastern that night with both of its episodes.

The “A LEGO Star Wars Conversation with Shelby Young” panel on the Star Wars stage at the D23 Fan Event and Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center saw her discuss her experiences across various LEGO Star Wars projects, as well as debut the official trailer for the special, which is a comedic retelling of all three seasons of the live-action series, revisiting its stories in new and unexpected ways. In the Mandalorian special in particular, Young voices Anzellans and Jawas.

While they did not wrangle in Pedro Pascal for it, Gavin Hammon steps in as Din Djarin, The Mandalorian; David Acord reprises as Grogu as well as MA-13; Amy Sedaris does as Peli Motto; Bill Burr as Migs Mayfield; David Pasquesi as Mok Shaiz’s majordomo; Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan Kryze; Emily Swallow as the Armorer; Giancarlo Esposito as Moff Gideon; Matthew Wood as Bib Fortuna, a Kowakian Monkey Lizard, and more Jawas; Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand; Nick Nolte as Kuiil; Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano; Taika Waititi as IG-11 and IG-12; Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett; Timothy Olyphant as Cobb Vanth; Andre Sogliuzzo as Mythrol and Stormtroopers; Carl Lumbly as Greef Karga; Eric Bauza as Luke Skywalker and EV-9D9; Flula Borg as The Client; Marti Matulis as Vane; Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Carson Teva; Steve Blum as Zeb Orrelios and Stormtroopers; and Trevor Devall as Dorian Shard, the Dark Trooper and a Pit Droid.

The special is directed Chris Buckley, whose previous work includes LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy, and written by Simpsons veteran and F Is for Family co-creator Michael Price. The executive producers are Price, James Waugh, Josh Rimes, Jacqui Lopez, Jill Wilfert, Jason Cosler and Keith Malone, and the producers are Daniel Cavey and Dan Langlois.

Taking fans fans behind the scenes of the movie, guests for The Mandalorian and Grogu Official Podcast include director, co-writer, and producer Jon Favreau, co-writer, producer and Lucasfilm President and CCO Dave Filoni, Academy Award-winning composer Ludwig Göransson, and stars Pascal, Sigourney Weaver, and of course Grogu himself. Shot on the movie’s Adelphi Base Bar set, the creative team discusses what made the film so special. The video versions will be available on Disney+ and YouTube, while the audio versions will be available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Amazon Music, SiriusXM, iHeart Radio and TuneIn.

Source: Animation Magazine

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When Disney revealed the schedule for D23, there was one item on the schedule pertaining to the Muppets, and even that had a somewhat surprising name attached: Seth MacFarlane. A man who has created Family Guy, American Dad!, Ted, and The Orville, piping all sorts of songs there as they are littered with Muppets references across dozens of episodes, while crooning through the Great American Songbook was quickly revealed to be collaborating with them for a new album, Seth MacFarlane Sings The Muppets, releasing on September 18 from Verve Records and Republic Records.

Featuring 14 songs from across Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper and The Muppets Take Manhattan, the album went up for preorder on reveal day, releasing the first single, the Kermit the Frog classic “Bein’ Green”, originally written by Paul Williams, Joe Raposo and Jeff Moss and performed on Sesame Street’s 87th episode in its first season. On the tracklist, it is preceded by “Together Again” from Manhattan Melodies within The Muppets Take Manhattan, with “Somebody’s Getting Married” from the same film in the second slot, and “Couldn’t We Ride?” from The Great Muppet Caper, which is where fifth song “Hey a Movie!” comes from. “Right Where I Belong” takes us back to The Muppets Take Manhattan, while “I’m Going to Go Back There Someday” originates from The Muppet Movie but had a Muppets from Space soundtrack-only re-record that might be the closest the film gets to any sort of presence here, and it’s of course not even that recording.

“Happiness Hotel” comes from The Great Muppet Caper but “Rainbow Connection” probably needs no introduction to any of the lovers and dreamers. Normally, neither “Movin’ Right Along” from the same film, its immortalized in gif form too, but this is the only track on the album with a featured artist, Victorious and Dynasty star Liz Gillies. The pair released an EP, Songs from Home at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a full holiday album We Wish You the Merriest, and a guest appearance as Alana Fitzgerald on the season 20 Family Guy episode “All About Alana” inbetween. “Steppin’ Out With a Star” comes from The Great Muppet Caper and “I Hope That Somethin’ Better Comes Along” from The Muppet Movie, but the final two tracks are songs MacFarlane has already recorded and released in official capacities. Rather different ones at that, “Halfway Down the Stairs” was performed by Robin on the tenth episode of The Muppet Show as well as Top of the Pops. MacFarlane as Peter Griffin sang it during the episode within season 17’s “You Can’t Handle the Booth”, when stuck in the banister in an acknowledged homage. And finally, “The First Time It Happens” from The Great Muppet Caper was previously covered on his 2017 album In Full Swing.

“Songs from Sesame Street, The Muppet Show and the Muppet films became bona fide standards,” said MacFarlane in a statement. “My friend and the arranger of this album, Andrew Cottee, and I are contemporaries, and we both had fond memories of all those great Muppet songs from that era. We both loved the idea of creating an album in which we selected our favorites and recorded them in the style that might have come out of orchestrators like Nelson Riddle and Billy May, had these songs existed in the golden era of arranging.”

“The music of The Muppets was an obvious choice for a new recording project with Seth,” Cottee shared in a statement. “The whole process of selecting the songs, arranging, recording and hearing the full mixes was a joy, and I hope that comes across to everyone who listens to this album.” Seth MacFarlane Sings The Muppets wasproduced by Joel McNeely, was recorded at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California, with a collection of musicians from London and Los Angeles conducted by John Wilson.

The D23 Muppets panel Seth was part of was “The Muppets Musical History”, essentially promoting the album, and he was joined by special guests Williams, and famed movie critic Leonard Maltin and Jessie Maltin, but no Muppets joined in. There, they discussed all manner of Muppet musical moments, and the entire panel is available on YouTube thanks to LaughingPlace, because everything was apparently allowed to escape.

Source: Billboard

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