By JOSHUNDA SANDERS
Sometimes, cartoons are about more than just fun for the kids – a fact that Pixar has taught us with its eleven films. What Pixar has contributed to computer-generated films has been both uplifting and inspiring, and to Robert Velarde, author of “The Wisdom of Pixar” it has also brilliantly infused virtue in its movies.
To read the rest of Joshunda Sanders’ interview with Robert Velarde, author of “The Wisdom of Pixar,” go to the Post’s partner site statesman.com.
Opening Friday, ‘Ramona and Beezus’ stars Joey King and Selena Gomez, respectively, as the title characters.
The actresses discuss the similarities and differences between themselves and the characters they play (Gomez saying she is more like Ramona than that imaginative eight-year-old’s sister) as well as their relationships, on and off set. King, who like Ramona has two sisters, said she now thinks of Gomez as a member of her family.
Click here for reviews and local show times of the movie version of the children’s classic.
Alice remains the queen of the box office.
Johnny Depp and Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” took in $34.5 million to remain the No. 1 movie for a third-straight weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The Disney release raised its domestic haul to $265.8 million and its worldwide total to $565.8 million after just three weekends in theaters, a huge result for a film playing in the typically slow month of March.
“You rarely see this kind of domination by one movie at this time of year,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. “Normally at this time of year, films don’t make this kind of money, and they don’t hold in this long.”
“Alice in Wonderland” easily beat a rush of new movies led by 20th Century Fox’s family film “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” which opened at No. 2 with $21.8 million. The movie is adapted from Jeff Kinney’s cartoon novel about a sixth grader maneuvering through the intricate social structure at his middle school, which includes its own “cooties” game known as the “cheese touch.”
“I think cheese touch equals magic touch at the box office,” said Chris Aronson, head of distribution at 20th Century Fox.
Debuting at No. 3 was Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler’s action comedy “The Bounty Hunter” with $21 million. Released by Sony, the movie follows a bounty hunter chasing his ex-wife, a reporter with an arrest warrant over her head after she misses a court date while pursuing a story.
“We had figured an estimate in the high teens, so 20-plus million is a good number for us,” said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony.
Jude Law and Forest Whitaker’s action thriller “Repo Men” flopped with a No. 4 opening of $6.2 million. The Universal release features Law as a repo man on the run in a future where organs are bloodily repossessed if patients miss their payments.
In narrower release, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning’s Joan Jett music drama “The Runaways” opened weakly with $803,629 in 244 theaters, averaging $3,294 a cinema.
That compared to an average of $9,229 in 3,739 theaters for “Alice in Wonderland,” $7,085 in 3,077 theaters for “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” $6,831 in 3,074 cinemas for “The Bounty Hunter” and $2,440 in 2,521 locations for “Repo Men.”
Released by Apparition, “The Runaways” stars Stewart as Jett and Fanning as singer Cherie Currie as they opened doors for women rockers in the 1970s with an all-girl band.
Ben Stiller’s comic drama “Greenberg” premiered strongly in limited release, pulling in $120,432 in three theaters for a huge average of $40,144 a cinema.
Released by Focus Features, “Greenberg” stars Stiller as a neurotic whose mean tongue jeopardizes a budding romance with his brother’s personal assistant (Greta Gerwig).
James Cameron’s science-fiction blockbuster “Avatar” remained in the top 10 three months into its run. The 20th Century Fox release pulled in $4 million to raise its domestic total to $736.9 million. Worldwide, “Avatar” has taken in $2.67 billion.
“Alice in Wonderland” continued to lift overall Hollywood revenues, which came in at $130 million for the weekend, up 23 percent from the same weekend last year, when the thriller “Knowing” debuted at No. 1 with $24.6 million.
So far this year, domestic revenues are at $2.43 billion, up 10.3 percent over 2009′s, according to Hollywood.com. Factoring in higher ticket prices, movie attendance is 8.2 percent ahead of last year’s.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. “Alice in Wonderland,” $34.5 million.
2. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” $21.8 million.
3. “The Bounty Hunter,” $21 million.
4. “Repo Men,” $6.2 million.
5. “She’s Out of My League,” $6 million.
6. “Green Zone,” $5.96 million.
7. “Shutter Island,” $4.8 million.
8. “Avatar,” $4 million.
9. “Our Family Wedding,” $3.8 million.
10. “Remember Me,” $3.3 million.
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On the Net:
Leave it to the animators to throw a real curveball into the Oscar nominations.
On a day where there were very few surprises, one of the biggest was among the five choices for best animated picture. Along with the likely favorite, Pixar’s Up, and Disney’s Princess and the Frog, Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox and the Henry Selick/Neil Gaiman darkfest Coraline, they announced The Secret of Kells.
I’m pretty sure I wasn’t alone in being puzzled.
Read the full story
FOR KIDS 6 AND OLDER:
ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL — There’s not much of a movie here as the Chipmunks enroll in high school. There is very mild sexual innuendo and a few crude expressions. One Chipmunk is briefly menaced by a bird of prey. A lady’s wheelchair bumps down stairs, injuring her.
THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG — Kids 6 and older ought to be utterly taken with Disney’s new animated feature. When Tiana and the prince, as frogs, are pursued by hungry gators, it is briefly scary. One animal character dies.
FOR KIDS 8 AND OLDER:
THE SPY NEXT DOOR — A sorry absence of charm and humor, plus a torturously contrived plot make The Spy Next Door a painful experience for adults. Kids between 8 and 12 may get some enjoyment from its mix of slapstick and derring-do, nonetheless. Jackie Chan plays Bob Ho, a secret agent on loan from China to the U.S. government. There are numerous martial-arts stunts and fights with blades and fists. The kids are put in danger. The boy is forced to use mild sexual innuendo in a way that doesn’t suit his preteen age. There is rare, mild profanity.
Roy E. Disney, nephew of Walt Disney and longtime Disney exec, was the driving force keeping his uncle's vision alive. (AP)
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The Walt Disney Co. announced that Disney died in Newport Beach, Calif., after a bout with stomach cancer.
Although he generally stayed out of the spotlight, Roy Disney didn’t hesitate to lead a successful campaign in 1984 to oust Walt Disney’s son-in-law after concluding he was leading the company in the wrong direction.
Nearly 20 years later, he launched another successful shareholders revolt, this time against Michael Eisner, the man he’d helped bring in after the previous ouster.
Read the full story
Disney’s “The Princess and The Frog” has made a lot of news for its groundbreaking animated princess, Tiana, their first of African decent. But there’s a lot of tradition here as well, and a lot that will remind moviegoers, even the little ones, of past fantastical films. There’s the rich, old-school hand drawn animation, and story and visual elements that recall the self-reliant spunk of “Beauty And The Beast”‘s Belle, the fast-talking side characters similar, say, to “Aladdin”‘s Genie or “The Lion King”‘s Timon, and the shadowy Hell beasts that dragged Tony Goldwyn’s evil villain into the dark ominous netherworld in “Ghost.”
We’ll get to that later.
Max (Max Records) gets close to one of the Wild Things. (Warner Bros.)
Movie Listing: Showtimes, locations, more
Children can be jerks.
Let me clarify that. Children can be cute, wonderful representations of all that is pure and angelic in the world. And in an instant, that same little angel takes off its halo and pops you with it.
This is the truth of childhood that writer-illustrator Maurice Sendak’s work always has told: In every child is all the imagination, emotion, anger, purpose and joy of an adult, but without the fetters of conventionality or good manners to tamp it down. In In The Night Kitchen, Chicken Soup With Rice, Alligators All Around and especially Where The Wild Things Are, he celebrates the beauty that is the often maddening, imperfect sum of being a kid.
Although there are technically a couple of weeks of summer left, the films of fall are upon us. Now is when movies get serious, when Hollywood starts thinking about Oscar. You’ll still find plenty of zombies and ninjas at the multiplex in the coming weeks, but we’ve decided to concentrate on films that might attract a serious adult audience (and, yeah, we figure you want to see the Michael Jackson concert film and the sequel to Twilight, too. After all, we do.)
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