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There are 172 demons in the town of Willard’s Mill, and it’s up to retired sheriff Stan Miller (John C. McGinley) to stop them. There’s only one problem: Stan would rather take a nap. There is no rest for the recently retired, though, and Stan has even more undead mayhem to deal with in the new episodes of IFC’s Stan Against Evil. The second season of the horror comedy series premieres tonight on IFC, and this past summer, Daily Dead and a group of other journalists had the great pleasure of visiting the Atlanta set to see Stan’s demon-slaying arsenal and favorite recliner in person.

Nestled on a quiet neighborhood street just outside of Atlanta, the two-story home looks like a peaceful place, with its sprawling front porch and red and white colors giving it the appearance of a tranquil farmhouse. But while this home may...

NBC’s Marlon this Wednesday drew 5 million total viewers and a 1.2 demo rating, dropping just a handful of eyeballs versus its premiere episode while holding steady in the demo.

Those numbers mark the most-watched Week 2 of a new summer comedy in 13 years (since Fox’s Method and Red) and equal the highest rating in 10 years (since CBS’ Creature Comforts).

Opening the Peacock’s lineup, America’s Got Talent (10.5 mil/2.0) ticked down just a bit week-to-week, dominating the night as usual.

RelatedFall TV: Your Handy Calendar of 100+ Premiere Dates

Over on CBS, Big Brother (6.1 mil/1.7) ticked down to tie Wednesday lows for this season,...

Downward Dog is an extremely funny web series, though it’s a very specific brand of observational comedy. ABC has now attempted to expand the theory to a sit-com and the result is something of a primer on the difficulties of the attempt.

The original falls into a category with things like Creature Comforts, but instead of putting the dialog of real people into the mouths of stop-motion zoo animals in order to make it seem that said animals are talking about their living conditions, Downward Dog delivers relationship woes that we might easily imagine come from therapy recordings as though they are a dog’s take on his confusing relationship with his owner, Nan.

It’s hilarious, but like Creature Comforts, it isn’t likely to split your sides. It’s funny because the dog is saying all the same things we’ve heard, or felt, but the perspective...

Aardman co-founder Peter Lord grabbed a ball of clay before his conversation last week at the Fmx International Conference on Animation, Effects, Vr, Games and Transmedia in Stuttgart, Germany, and slowly molded a puppet of Morph, Aardman’s first creation, while discussing 40 years of stop-motion glory at its animation studio in Bristol, England.

From “Wallace & Gromit” to “Creature Comforts” to “Shaun the Sheep,” Aardman will be firmly dedicated to the hand-crafted technique of stop-motion as long as audiences continue to embrace it. For Lord, who co-founded Aardman with school chum David Sproxton before adding animator-director Nick Park to the creative team, it’s all about the comedy of manners and empathy.

Here are Lord’s five rules for stop-motion animation:

1. Never forget the importance of Ray Harryhausen.

When Lord was ten years old, he saw “Jason and the Argonauts” and was so amazed at the brilliance of stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen...

Aardman Animations and Studiocanal are planning to produce a sequel to the Oscar-nominated 2015 children’s film Shaun The Sheep Movie, to be directed by the first film’s co-director Richard Starzak, Deadline reports. What’s not immediately apparent, though, is that this not merely a follow-up to a successful film, but an expansion of a 27-year-old complex expansive universe of short films, feature films, and TV shows known as the Aardmaniverse. The fact that you’re probably not even familiar with that term really just goes to show how little respect this umbrella of droll storytelling gets. Named for studio Aardman Animations, the shared universe is an ever-expanding outgrowth of British stop-motion animator Nick Park’s 1989 short films Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out (about a man and his dog) and Creature Comforts (in which human interview subjects are replaced with animated animals).

In his third Wallace ...

Perhaps sensing that everyone will be sick of looking at him by the tail end of 2017 (what with the multiple Oscar nominated transformations, the actual Oscar, and that new Fantastic Beasts franchise), Eddie Redmayne will give his ginger mug a wee break from gigantification on the big screen. Instead he'll be leading the voice cast of Aardman's Early Man which just went into production for release in 2018. The best part of the news is that Nick Park will be directing and he's been absent from that particular chair for too long. (His last feature was 11 long years ago, the Oscar winning Curse of the Were Rabbit.)

You can pencil it in for a Best Animated Feature nomination right now (albeit two years from now) because Aardman has quite a track record of delights (sorry Flushed Away!). They've got a heavy shelf of awards to prove it including Oscar nominations for...

Leading out of the well-watched America’s Got Talent, NBC’s Mr. Robinson on Wednesday debuted to 4.6 million total viewers and a 1.2 demo rating, ranking as broadcast’s most watched summer comedy debut since 2007 (CBS’ Creature Comforts) and the No. 2-rated since 2009 (trailing only Undateable).

The series’ second half-hour however slipped to 3.8 mil and a 1.0. TVLine readers gave the comedy an average grade of “C-.”

RelatedMr. Robinson: Does NBC’s Musician-Turned-Teacher Comedy Sing?

Agt opened the Peacock’s line-up with 6.9 mil/1.4, slipping two tenths week-to-week but drawing the night’s largest audience. With a weaker lead-in, Last Comic...

The Minions co-director talks to us about voicing the minions, their universal language, and what the future holds...

Pierre Coffin is one of the men you have to blame for the minions. He lends his voice to the little critters, and has co-directed the two Despicable Me movies to date, as well as the incoming Minions standalone feature. He spared us some time to chat about the project...

Can you tell us at which point you realised the minions were going to take over your life? The moment when you realised you had something with them? When you made the first Despicable Me, it must have felt like a bit of a bubble, but then suddenly it becomes apparent you've really clicked with something...

For me that moment was when I did the teaser for Despicable Me 2 with the Minions doing 'banana'. And when I saw all these people just mimicking the choreography,...

Youngsters and oldsters alike…here is the reel deal: The New York International Children’s Film Festival (Nyicff) will be making its presence known in the upcoming days. On tap for the 18th annual event will be a noted variety of creative animated films and shorts for all ages to enjoy and relish. The New York International Children’s Film Festival promises to serve up an array of animated showcases that boasts all styles and formats that should prove imaginative and appealing to our past and present childhood memories.

Please note that the Nyicff will run its operation from February 27, 2015 to March 22, 2015. Additionally, the majority of these impressive feature-length and short films have experienced critical acclaim overseas. Therefore, the impact of the Nyicff’s cinematic selections should be rewarding for ardent fans of animated film fodder designed to capture the spirit of its enthusiastic viewers.

Among the films being displayed...

The big screen version of Shaun the Sheep sees our four-legged hero going on the lamb in an intricate off-farm adventure that will further swell the Brit studio’s flock

Baa-hind the scenes on the Shaun the Sheep movie: ‘In a good week we can shoot two minutes’

In retrospect, turning their immensely successful TV series into a feature film seems like a no-brainer on the part of Aardman, the Bristol-based animation house who have steadily progressed into a major global force over the two-and-a-half decades since the appearance of their Oscar-winning short Creature Comforts in 1989.

Having pushed out 130 seven-minute episodes since 2007, and sold to dozens of territories all over the world, Shaun has astutely turned its non-language-specific articulation and predilection for slapstick and visual comedy into the kind of show that can entertain Moroccan toddlers as easily as metro passengers in Beijing. It’s what you might call the Mr Bean equation.

Addressing grief and loss in a format that will call to mind Aardman's Creature Comforts, director Fiona Dalwood and producer Jonno Katz have released their acclaimed stop motion animated short film Good Grief online. Good Grief is a short stop motion animated documentary that explores the lessons we learn from dealing with grief and loss. Five real people share their true stories of losing something precious and what it has taught them about living. Made in 2012, Good Grief has screened at 19 festivals worldwide and won numerous awards. Inspired by the loss of her own mother and the grief that ensued, director Fiona Dalwood went about finding out how the experience of loss transforms us. With a shoestring budget and months of hard work,...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Today, a very special animated feature is sneaking into theaters nationwide, one that is totally worth your time and attention (especially if you've already seen "The Lego Movie" in 3D). It's a movie called "The Wind Rises" and it's based on the life story of Jiro Horikoshi, a Japanese designer and engineer who was responsible for the Zero jet plane, an instrumental in the Japanese efforts during World War II (a fact that has made the animated film somewhat controversial, at least in some circles).

A work of transcendent beauty, "The Wind Rises" is a love letter to aviation, to the spirit of adventure, and to the basic truth that inside all of us is the chance to change the world. It is (supposedly) the last feature film to be directed by Hayao Miyazaki, largely regarded as Japan's Walt Disney, a master animator and storyteller whose work contains a singular,...

This could be the most ingenious mix of animation and the documentary style since Nick Park’s Creature Comforts. Is it technically a documentary? I don’t know, but I’m calling it one for now. “Mockumentary” doesn’t seem to fit, and anyway the film will be dealing with a genuine investigation into the circumstances of Vincent Van Gogh‘s death. The expert talking heads here are from long ago. They are the people whose portraits were famously painted by the artist (including Postman Joseph Roulin and Adeline Ravoux), and their testimonial dialogue is based on actual letters and diaries and other artifacts telling of what they knew of him, much of which comes from his own words. There is likely some fictionalizing involved, but that’s fine. Docs aren’t always fact-exclusive. Loving Vincent is like time travel by cinema, and I’m certain it’s going to be an incredible trip. From...

Interview Simon Brew 17 Oct 2013 - 06:38

For his debut feature, director David Soren came up with Turbo. He talks to us about it, and his early days working on Toonstruck...

DreamWorks Animation is a company in a bit of a flux. Its run of big box office successes took a slight stumble with the excellent Rise Of The Guardians, recovered with the slightly underwhelming The Croods, and stuttered again with Turbo, which arrived in cinemas in the Us over the summer. But it stands a better chance of breaking through in the UK, and rightly so: Turbo is a fun, lively movie, and we get to talk to its director, David Soren, about the project. Before that though, a videogame he worked on once upon a time...

Can we start with the videogame Toonstruck?

Ha, Toonstruck, yeah!

I remember that being a computer game that felt really quite out of its time.

Clio Barnard's The Arbor charted the troubled life of working-class playwright Andrea Dunbar. Her new film, The Selfish Giant, about two boys who scavenge to survive on a Bradford estate, has been called 'a Kes for the 21st century'. Here she talks about the appeal of the margins

Back in 2010, when Clio Barnard was shooting her first feature film, The Arbor, on the Buttershaw estate in Bradford, a young local lad caught her eye. "I first saw him when he was just 14, when I went to Buttershaw to do a workshop at a school," she recalls. "There was just something about him that was different from the other lads I met. He was a bit volatile, but enigmatic too and he really made his presence felt. When I went to Brafferton Arbor [the street on which The Arbor is set] for the first time, there he was, wearing his rigger boots and really dirty clothes. It was pure attitude,...

On Thursday evening at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverly Hills, the Academy invited movie fans to join in the celebration of the work of this year’s Oscar nominees in the Animated Feature Film category. Although not pictured above, director Tim Burton was on hand for the panel discussion hosted by actor Rob Riggle (Hotel Transylvania, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax).

The nominees discussed how their films were developed, talked about their creative processes, and presented clips illustrating their techniques. All were adamant in saying that animated films are not cartoons and that there is place for both stop-motion and CGI in the genre.

The Animated Feature Film nominees are:

Brave

Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman

This is the second nomination for Mark Andrews and the first in this category. He made his feature directorial debut with Brave.

After interning at Disney, Andrews worked as a story-board artist on several films.

Head Over Heels, an 11-minute film made on a shoestring budget in Britain is up against Disney for an animation Oscar. Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park loves it – but can it beat the favourite?

Call it the Wallace & Gromit effect. A quirky British film called Head Over Heels could be about to upset the natural order in Hollywood and beat Disney to the coveted animation Oscar.

Just like A Grand Day Out, Nick Park's first, much-loved 1989 animation, Head Over Heels was made at the National Film and Television School (Nfts) and is now set to make a similar impact overseas. It is the only student film in contention for an Oscar next week.

Describing the animation, directed by Timothy Reckart and produced by Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly, as "one of those stand-out little gems that doesn't come around that often", Park said: "It's a cleverly conceived but simple idea.

Is Bruce Willis's skin really dry, or are we seeing things?

Actually, animator Lee Hardcastle has gone and turned John McClane into John McClay, reimagining the "Die Hard" franchise in claymation. Called "A Good Clay to Die Hard," the "Wallace & Gromit"-style take on Bruce Willis's classic action franchise makes blood, guts, and guns look incredibly pasty, although not without its share of action-packed, endlessly explosive sequences that doesn't stray from the original.

Plus, he's in Russia! That's right: John McClay's all up in the Motherland, and he's ready to nuke the sh*t out of it. (And, hey, if that's not your thing, look up "Creature Comforts" on YouTube instead, and stick with talking zoo animals.)...

Aardman says its pre-school programmes Timmy Time and World of Invention continue to 'recoup quicker than expected'

The creator of Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep has more than doubled its turnover in the UK, thanks to the success of two Hollywood blockbusters.

Profits from Arthur Christmas and Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists were not included in the results for Aardman Holdings, although the jump in revenues – from £53.5m in 2010 to £66.8m in 2011 – does include upfront fees from Sony Pictures, the company's Hollywood producer.

Aardman, which has published its annual accounts, said a new series of its pre-school programmes Timmy Time and Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention, both shown on the BBC, had been well-received and "continued to recoup quicker than expected".

However, fewer episodes of Timmy Time had been sold to other European countries, resulting in revenues from the EU falling from £4m to £1.8m. UK revenues,...

I’m a sucker for Aardman Animations’ films, and have been ever since I first set eyes on Nick Park’s unforgettable short Creature Comforts more than twenty years ago. The Pirates! Band of Misfits, directed by the studio’s co-founder Peter Lord, has the same qualities that always make their work so appealing: a distinctly British sense of humor, and amusing character designs—in clay. While even the folks at Aardman have embraced computer technology as a filmmaking tool, there is something uniquely appealing about sculpted clay figures like the Pirate Captain (voiced by Hugh Grant) and his self-described “luxuriant beard.” Audiences naturally...

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CGI-heavy animated films may be more familiar to today's audiences but stop-motion is very much alive and kicking, according to Aardman Animation.s Daz Burgess . one of the animators on up-coming feature The Pirates! Band of Misfits.

.As long as there are companies like Aardman, there will still be stop-motion films,. Burgess said, adding that respected directors such as Tim Burton (The Corpse Bride) and Henry Sellick (Coraline) continue to favour the medium.

Based on a series of novels by Gideon Defoe, The Pirates! Band of Misfits tells the story of the Pirate Captain (voiced by Hugh Grant) and his attempts to win the Pirate of the Year Award as he deals with a maniacal Queen (Imelda Staunton) and a love-struck Charles Darwin (David Tennant).

It.s been seven years since Aardman Animation.s last stop-motion feature . Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit, on which Burgess also worked . and much has changed.

We love the guys at Aardman Animation – who’ve given us Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, and the upcoming Pirates!: Band of Misfits – and they’re back with a new super short claymation piece that features some of your favorite DC Comics characters. The Cartoon Network commissioned this minute-long clip as part of the promotion for their upcoming DC Nation. This is the first in a series of pieces, which was inspired by the studio’s Oscar-winning short, Creature Comforts. The conceit is that the studio takes regular interviews with real people and uses them as the dialogue track for the claymation sequence. Creature Comforts used interviews conducted at a zoo as the basis for the film, but this new DC piece has kids being kids. As such...

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If you're familar with Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, or the academy award winning short film Creature Comforts, then you are familiar with Aardman Animations. According to Blastr, their claymation styling and snarky British humor is back in this block of shorts they are doing for Cartoon Network's upcoming block of programming, DC Nation. Watch it below.

 

DC Nation - Aardman by redruger

If you have children or aren't above watching cartoons (I'm not) DC Nation is slated to have chibi style Teen Titans, Green Lantern, Beware of The Batman, Young Justice, and a Live Action Blue Beetle?! Sounds like I won't be doing anything those nights! Check out the teaser trailer below.

The song by the way is Skrillex's "Kill Everybody In The World".

 

Email Me: [email protected] Twitter: @MickJoest

 ...

Whatever you're doing right now, stop it and watch this. Because I can virtually guarantee that this is better.As part of their upcoming DC Nation, The Cartoon Network has enlisted the help of the UK's Aardman Animation - the creators of Wallace And Gromit and Chicken Run - to create a series of claymation shorts based on DC Comics heroes. The idea is cribbed straight from Aardman's Oscar winning short Creature Comforts - in which interviews with random people at a zoo were used as dialogue tracks for conversations with clay zoo animals - but seeing this done in a superhero context is just brilliant. The character designs are pretty great as well. Take a look below!...

This will be the first short in a series from Aardman Animation. It's done in the style of the Oscar winning Creature Comforts. Basically average members of the public (in this case children) are interviewed and their answers become the musings of a bunch of clay zoo animals (in this case kid versions of DC characters).. DC Nation - Aardman by redruger Depending on whether you're familiar with Aardman's style may depend on your enjoyment of that. I loved it anyway!

This will be the first short in a series from Aardman Animation. It's done in the style of the Oscar winning Creature Comforts. Basically average members of the public (in this case children) are interviewed and their answers become the musings of a bunch of clay zoo animals (in this case kid versions of DC characters).. DC Nation - Aardman by redruger Depending on whether you're familiar with Aardman's style may depend on your enjoyment of that. I loved it anyway!

Aardman Animation's latest handmade extravaganza is taking to the high seas. Leo Benedictus visits their studios and finds out why stop-motion beats Jack Sparrow

One ordinary day in 1970, a BBC producer called Patrick Dowling, who was working at the time on the children's TV series Vision On, had a visit from a colleague in religious programming. The colleague explained that his son David, with his friend Peter – both of them still at school – had made a short animated film. Crude and formless, composed on the kitchen table from snipped-out photographs and pastel scrawls, it nevertheless caught Dowling's eye. Shortly afterwards, when he met the boys, he gave them 100ft of film and suggested that they go away and make something interesting. What Peter Lord and David Sproxton made, with a little help here and there, was the British animation industry.

Today, the company they started, Aardman Animations, is a name to conjure with.

Update (July 7, 2011): The soundtrack is now available to download on Amazon and iTunes, while the physical CD will be still be released on August 2. Check out audio clips from all tracks on the album below.

Varese Sarabande has announced the details for the soundtrack release for J.J. Abrams’ Super 8. The album features the original score by Michael Giacchino, including one cue not contained in the film. As reported in May, the soundtrack was originally supposed to come out on June 28, but the release date has been pushed back a few times and is now set for August 2, 2011. To pre-order the CD, visit Amazon. Super 8 is produced by Steven Spielberg and stars Elle Fanning, Amanda Michalka, Ron Eldard, Kyle Chandler and Noah Emmerich. The movie has been released on June 10 and is currently still playing in theaters. For more information, check out the official movie webpage.

Amazon.com...

The Wallace & Gromit digital comic has a hit a million downloads worldwide, publishers Titan have announced.

The comic was launched as a free iPhone app in November 2009 and has taken the charts by storm, hitting No1 in the UK, Us and Canada free books app store and No3 overall in the free apps chart.

Titan comics editor Andrew James said: "We are really proud that we are the first UK comics publisher to get a million downloads on iTunes, but we aren't stopping there. The new Titan Comics app for iPhone and iPad demonstrates our cutting-edge technology and our diverse range of top-quality comics."

To celebrate this, Titan is releasing new Wallace & Gromit comic adventures via its iPhone and iPad app, including the Wallace & Gromit daily strips originally printed in The Sun.

To download the free app, go to the iTunes store then search Titan Comics.

Wallace & Gromit are the...

“Guilty Pleasures” just about sums them up, but if you happen to be a fan of the output of director Brian Yuzna and producer Julio Fernandez’s now retired Fantastic Factory label, then count yourself in luck as Arrow Video will be releasing a four-film set in the UK on April 18th entitled – you guessed it – Fantastic Factory Presents!

From the Press Release:

From Arrow Video comes an essential collection of four of the biggest hit features from the Fantastic Factory, the specialist horror, sci-fi and fantasy genre label created by cult writer, director and producer Brian Yuzna (Beneath Still Waters; Bride Of Re-Animator; Society) and Spanish producer Julio Fernandez (Rec; Perfume; The Machinist).

This exclusive four-disc box set includes Brian Yuzna’s Beyond Re-Animator and Faust: Love Of The Damned, along with Arachnid, directed by Jack Sholder (A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge), and Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt,...

The Arbor

DVD & Blu-ray, Verve Pictures

After an Oscars night that was the very definition of playing it safe, it's well worth watching a film like The Arbor to remind yourself that there are no rules in cinema, and still plenty of different, fascinating ways to tell a story. First-time director Clio Barnard interviewed the family and friends of writer Andrea Dunbar. She was best known for the Rita, Sue And Bob Too screenplay and for her breakout play, also called The Arbor, scenes of which are interspersed throughout the film. Rather than just show the interviewees as talking heads, Barnard had actors lip-synch to the soundtrack in and around The Arbor, part of a Bradford housing estate where Dunbar grew up. What results is neither drama nor documentary, instead it's almost like a Ken Loach version of Creature Comforts. Having actors mime the words works incredibly well – it sounds...

All you DVD collecting horror fanatics out there have probably noticed some of the awesome releases that have been coming out of the UK’s Arrow Video as of late. They do an amazing job packaging their discs, windowed slip covers, allowing you to choose which of the multiple artworks to display on your shelf, posters, and several discs to hold all the fantastic extras. They know what we collectors want, and they provide.

Now Arrow is releasing their first several film box set, and it is, brace yourself… all Fantastic Factory titles.

The Fantastic Factory was a branch of Filmax founded in 2000 in Barcelona by filmmakers Brian Yuzna and Julio Fernández. The purpose of the studio was to make modestly budgeted genre films in English for an international audience, to have more opportunities to work with genre favorites like Screaming Mad George and Jeffrey Combs, and, of course, to...

Wallace And Gromit creator Nick Park has revealed how the British sense of humour failed to tickle Us movie bosses after his company joined forces with Hollywood studio DreamWorks. Bristol-based company Aardman, whose creations include Shaun The Sheep, Creature Comforts and Wallace And Gromit, teamed up with DreamWorks in 1999 in a five-movie deal. But they parted company in 2007 after making just three of the five films - Chicken Run (2000), Wallace And Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit (2005) and Flushed Away (2006).

A radical experiment in fact-based film-making – in which the real, recorded voices of people from Andrea Dunbar's Bradford estate are mimed by actors – blazes a trail to nowhere

If you want to put real events on screen, you've traditionally had two choices. You can dramatise the whole thing or you can make a documentary. Neither route is wholly satisfactory.

Drama enables you to heighten impact by investing your tale with cogent scripting, professional acting and gratifying narrative arc. You'll claim your story conveys the underlying truth, yet you'll have to change some of the actual facts to make your schema work. By the time you've finished, no one will know what's real and what is not. Probably, you won't go out of your way to tell them and they won't really want to know.

Documentary confines you to literal fact and lets you present real people recounting their own...

The Arbor, a film in which actors mime to recorded words, is part of a rich history of sonic experiments

Like all cinematic developments hailed as leaps towards verisimilitude, the advent of synchronised sound at the end of the 1920s in fact opened up a whole new dimension of illusion. The clue is in the name: despite the appearance of unity, the audio and video tracks are synchronised but separate recordings, and the space between them can be put to all sorts of cunning uses.

The latest of these is found in The Arbor, Clio Barnard's moving and ingenious cinematic profile of the young Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar, which is out this Friday. Taking its cue from "verbatim theatre", in which actors speak lines taken directly from interviews with real-life people, The Arbor features actors lip-synching to interviews with Dunbar's loved ones, to emotionally compelling yet formally alienating effect...

Creature Comforts, Nick Park, 1989

Films can change your day or change your week, but it's rare that you watch something that actually changes your life, something that sends you off in a completely different direction. But that's what Creature Comforts did for me.

I first saw it at the Annecy animation festival. It was 1989 and I was living in London, doing animation for advertising but just to earn my living - I wasn't thinking of making films. There were 10 other films presented alongside it and we were in a big theatre filled with a very responsive audience.

The other films were arty-farty and mostly too long. I was quite bored and then suddenly on came Creature Comforts. It was clever, well-crafted, amazingly funny and universal: kids would enjoy it as much as adults. It also told some fundamental truths and there was a bit of sadness in it, too. So...

This brilliant collection includes the original Academy Award winning Creature Comforts, the Nyicff Grand Prize winning Humdrum and A Matter of Loaf and Death, plus Rex the Runt, Shaun the Sheep, and other mini masterpieces encompassing 25 years of creative output from Nick Park, Peter Lord, Richard "Golly" Goleszowski, Peter Peake, Chris Sadler and the other claymation geniuses at Aardman Animations.

This brilliant collection includes the original Academy Award winning Creature Comforts, the Nyicff Grand Prize winning Humdrum and A Matter of Loaf and Death, plus Rex the Runt, Shaun the Sheep, and other mini masterpieces encompassing 25 years of creative output from Nick Park, Peter Lord, Richard "Golly" Goleszowski, Peter Peake, Chris Sadler and the other claymation geniuses at Aardman Animations.

Indie Movies Online is a brand new UK based movie-on-demand website that offers hundreds of great films to watch at high quality online, legally and for free. There is literally something for everyone, and many gems to be found.

All types of movie are represented including thrillers, sci-fi, comedies and slick Us horrors and more. New and classic films are added all the time. Expect to find titles like: Allegro, Baise Moi, The Boss of it All, Brothers, Chopper, Choking Man, Dark Star, Evil Aliens, Funny Ha Ha, George Washington, HurlyBurly, King of New York, Kontakt, Love is the Devil, Millennium, Mirror Maze, Mutual Appreciation, My Left Foot, Old Joy, The Pleasure of Being Robbed and Reprise.

There are also stacks of quality documentaries including: A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese, Crass: there’s no Authority but Yourself, Sympathy for the Devil, Word Wars, The Cutting Edge, Room 2017 and many more.

Another week, another This Week in Comics, where we bring you a breakdown of some of the comics that are out to buy, or just read off the shelf, in your local comic store each and every week. And don’t forget to check out Pull List feature every fortnight where we take a closer look at some of the comics worth buying, and some not.

Note: Not all of these titles will actually arrive in all stores due to shipping and fulfillment issues, etc.

Gn = Graphic Novel; Hc = HardCover; Tp = Trade Paperback

Archie Comics

Betty & Veronica Digest #204

Jugheads Double Digest #160

Boom! Studios

Cars #5 (Cover A Allen Gladfelter)

Cars #5 (Cover B Allen Gladfelter)

Farscape Scorpius #1 (Cover A Joe Benitez and Blond)

Farscape Scorpius #1 (Cover B Chad Hardin)

Farscape Scorpius #1 (Joe Benitez Variant Cover)

Muppet Show Comic Book Volume 2 On The Road Tp

Repuglicans Sc

Uncle Scrooge #391 (Cover A Magic Eye...

The idea of releasing the ten Academy Award nominated animated and live-action short films in one package into theaters is such a great one that it's a wonder no one thought of it sooner than a few years ago. As with any collection of shorts, these are always a mixed bag, especially given the Academy's century-long penchant for awarding "important" films rather than good ones. But lo and behold, there are some wonderful things here, too, and one, The Lady and the Reaper, that is just flat-out excellent.

I will refrain from making any predictions here, as it's nearly impossible to guess whether the Academy is interested in quality or in the mood for messages. Not to mention that there is one X-factor: Nick Park. Up to now, Park has won every single Oscar he has been nominated for, except one, and that's only because Creature Comforts and A Grand Day Out...

A still from the Oscar-nominated short Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death. Wallace and Gromit aren't as synonymous with Oscar wins as the infallible Pixar brand, but they should be. Since 1993, this cheery man-and-dog claymation duo from the U.K. has charmed audiences all the way through awards season, garnering a total of three Oscars for creator Nick Park and losing only once, in 1991, to Park's own short Creature Comforts. In less than a decade, Wallace and Gromit worked their way up to the big leagues: Park won Oscars for best animated short film in 1993 and 1995, then took home the best animated feature award for The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, the pair's first full-length vehicle, in 2006. This year, the Da Vinci of stop-motion slapstick has returned to the short-film category with Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death, and seems all but guaranteed victory once again, and...

Set aside the showdown between "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker" for a moment. Stop obsessing over whether Sandra or Meryl will take home the best actress trophy.Further down the list of nominees for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, there are several other races brewing that could result in genuine Oscar Night surprises -- even if those surprises will be fully appreciated only by those aficionados who track the three short-film categories. To its credit, the Academy has resisted pressures to eliminate the low-profile categories from the broadcast. At the same time, it has enhanced efforts to make the short films -- which this year range from the latest bit of Wallace & Gromit whimsy to a wrenching look at the parents who lost their school-age children in the earthquake that devastated China's Sichuan province in 2008 -- more widely available to the general public.On Feb. 19, as part of what is now a 5-year-old tradition,...

Boy, oh boy, do I love me some stop-motion animation. Be it “Creature Comforts,” “Coraline,” or even, God help me, “Monkeybone,” I’m always down for some meticulously-crafted, old-fashioned storytelling. While mindlessly digging through content over at Trailer Addict, I happened upon a preview for “Harvie Krumpet” director Adam Elliot’s engaging effort “Mary and Max,” a movie which seems to blend the snazziest elements of Henry Selick and Nick Park into one charming little picture. I haven’t seen a Region 1 DVD release date yet, though I strongly suspect it should be coming down the proverbial pipeline pretty soon, as it’s already been unleashed in other territories. However, according to the official website, “Mary and Max” is screening on Sundance Selects throughout USA – via Brighthouse, Cablevision, Comcast, Fox, and Time Warner – as of 14 October 2009. For those interested parties, an official synopsis: Spanning 20 years and 2 continents, Mary and Max...

Salute Your Shorts is a weekly column that looks at short films, music videos, commercials or any other short form visual media that generally gets ignored.

Begun while director Nick Park was still in college, the Wallace and Gromit series is likely the most successful franchise ever built out of a student film. That the film "A Grand Day Out" went on to an Academy Award nomination at the same time as another of Park's works, the equally surreal "Creature Comforts," is a testament to just how good Park was right out of the gate, appearing in even his earliest works as a fully-formed artist in a way that’s pretty rare for any medium, let alone one which requires the shear level of craft as animation. Since then, the Wallace and Gromit pictures have gone on to win three Academy Awards as well as pretty much every other award...

Fox has hired Big Bang Theory writer Steve Holland to turn the awesomely raunchy and baffling site Texts from Last Night into a half-hour comedy series. According to Variety, "Holland will loosely base the show's characters and plot on the whole idea of racy -- and sometimes embarrassing -- communication, particularly among the twentysomething set." Most of the Tfln contain foul language, mentions of drugs, alcohol abuse, and (often adventurous) sexual situations, so cable seems like a better fit to me. But there's no reason a TV show about twetnysomethings who like to drink and exchange body fluids couldn't be a hit. Who can top such strange lines as "Sex on bubble wrap = best decision ever"? Or He looks like Jesus, if Jesus had let himself go"? I'm still crossing my fingers for a show that turns Overheard in New York (or its brethren) into short animated films, a la Creature Comforts.

U.K. cell phone company Orange takes festival tent envy to new heights with its Solar Concept Tent, designed to celebrate the eleventh year of Orange's presence at the Glastonbury music festival.

The concept tent, created with U.S. product design consultancy Kaleidoscope and based on the original Orange Solar Tent from Glastonbury's 2003 festival, consists of "specially coated solar threads" weaved into the tent fabric. The photovoltaic threads power a central wireless control hub in the tent that displays energy consumed on an LCD screen and provides a wireless internet signal. The hub also controls a heating element embedded below the tent's groundsheet that is triggered when interior temperatures fall below a certain level.

The tent can charge gadgets, too. A wireless charging pouch uses magnetic induction to pass an electric current through a coil embedded in the pouch. This generates a magnetic field to create a charge and power portable electronics.

Back in 2005, Nick Park and the folks at Aardman Animations won an Oscar for their work on Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. A year later, their follow-up film Flushed Away disappointed at the box office and prompted Dreamworks to sever their partnership. Since then we haven't heard much from the British studio, save for one new made-for-tv Wallace & Gromit adventure, but they did land a deal with Sony Pictures and now they're finally ready to tell us about some of projects they've got cooking. One of the films is a holiday-themed feature called Arthur Christmas, which "tackles the question of how Santa delivers all his presents in one night". Sarah Smith and Barry Cook (Mulan) will direct the movie, which will be computer animated, based on a script by Peter Baynham (Borat, Bruno). The other project, which I'm a bit more interested in, is a stop motion animated project called Pirates!

So it's a couple days before Valentine's Day, and you Have to get your movie-loving significant other/friend/family member/offspring something because that's what the TV commercials told you to do -- and so we've come along with five last-minute ideas that aren't necessarily V-Day specific, but should satisfy nonetheless.

1. A Copy of Jerry Maguire and U Complete Me Pillow Cases

Perhaps you'd like a present that's part purchase and part do-it-yourself, and if that's the case might we suggest picking up a copy of Jerry Maguire ... and then heading over to Creature Comforts where they give you instructions on how to create your own set of U Complete Me pillow cases (see image above).

2. The Film Snob's Dictionary

Are you a film snob dating someone who doesn't understand half the silly references that spew out of your mouth each and every single day? Then how about you pick...

Cable networks shattered Emmy's glass ceiling Thursday.

After no other cable network besides HBO had ever been able to break into the best series categories, three cablers -- AMC, FX and Showtime -- made their debut among the nominees in the top fields at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards.

In doing so, they also broke their previous Emmy nom records, as did Bravo and Sci Fi Channel.

Cable's breakthrough performance also comes just as the broadcast networks are reeling from a tough season, scarred by the effects of the writers strike.

AMC's period drama "Mad Men" landed 16 nominations, including best drama series and best lead actor for star Jon Hamm.

In the drama series category, it was joined by FX's "Damages" and Showtime's "Dexter."

"Not only is this an incredible affirmation of everything we've done on the show, it's part of a shattering of the network TV monopoly," "Mad Men" creator/executive producer Matthew Weiner said.

"The TV academy and its members finally recognized cable television in an unprecedented way," "Damages" co-creator/exec producer Todd Kessler said. "What I hope it ultimately means is that more shows and more people will embrace opportunities away from network TV -- and hopefully network TV will reflect, in terms of content and storytelling, what's going on in other areas of television."

Also nominated for best drama series are ABC's "Lost," which returns to the category after a two-year absence coming off one of its strongest seasons, along with ABC's "Boston Legal" and Fox's "House."

Missing the cut were ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," whose snub is even more surprising because the category was expanded to six series this year, and NBC's critical darling "Friday Night Lights."

The Peacock's "30 Rock" led the series field with 17 noms, including best comedy series and lead acting honors for Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin.

The show's tally is the largest ever for a comedy series in a single year, surpassing the 16 for HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show" in 1997.

In the comedy series category, defending champ "30 Rock" will face 2006 winner "The Office" and HBO's "Entourage" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm." CBS' "Two and a Half Men" is the lone representative of the multicamera sitcom genre in the category dominated by single-camera half-hours.

Toon "Family Guy's" quest to make history with a best comedy series nomination came up short after making the list of 10 finalists. (It still landed a nom in an animated program category.) Also absent from the comedy series category: ABC's much-lauded freshman "Pushing Daisies."

Overall, HBO miniseries "John Adams" was the most-nominated program with 23 mentions, including best miniseries and lead acting noms for Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney.

Not surprisingly, HBO bagged the most nominations among all the networks, 85, followed by ABC with 76 and CBS with 51.

As strong a presence as cable had in the best series categories, its dominance in the lead drama acting categories was even more impressive.

Four actors on cable series -- Hamm, Michael C. Hall of "Dexter," Bryan Cranston of AMC's "Breaking Bad" and Gabriel Byrne of HBO's "In Treatment" -- made the list, joined by returning contenders James Spader of "Boston Legal" and Hugh Laurie of "House."

On the distaff side, Glenn Close of "Damages," Holly Hunter of TNT's "Saving Grace" and Kyra Sedgwick of TNT's "The Closer" are facing the past two winners in the category: Sally Field of ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" and Mariska Hargitay of NBC's "Law & Order: Svu."

In the lead comedy actress category, Fey -- who won the Golden Globe in January for her starring role on "30 Rock" -- will compete against past winners Julia Louis-Dreyfus of CBS' "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and America Ferrera of ABC's "Ugly Betty," along with Mary-Louise Parker for Showtime's "Weeds" and Christina Applegate for ABC's freshman comedy "Samantha Who?"

Notably missing are the ladies of Wisteria Lane as ABC's "Desperate Housewives" was shut out of the top categories.

In the lead actor in a comedy series field, Steve Carell will have his third shot at an Emmy for his role on "The Office." He is going up against three-time winner Tony Shalhoub of USA's "Monk," Baldwin, Charlie Sheen of "Two and a Half Men" and Lee Pace of "Pushing Daisies."

While new cable series were red-hot, freshmen broadcast series barely registered this go-round, with just a handful of acting nominations. Last year, three rookies -- "30 Rock," "Ugly Betty" and NBC's "Heroes" -- earned best series noms; "30 Rock" won.

But this past season, freshmen series were heavily impacted by the writers strike, and many of them, including "Pushing Daisies," didn't produce more episodes beyond their short fall runs.

The work stoppage affected all broadcast series, which produced fewer episodes, and the long winter drought of originals might have steered viewers, including TV academy members, to cable.

Louis-Dreyfus said it was a "huge relief" to get nominated because the show shot only 10 episodes because of the strike.

"I thought any chance of getting any nomination was slim for that reason," she said.

Coincidence or not, all of the broadcast series that landed in the top categories aired original episodes in the spring.

"House" almost didn't, as Fox originally opted not to order more originals after the strike. It eventually did, and one of these extra episodes yielded a nom for director Greg Yaitanes.

While there might have been some impact from the strike, the recognition for cable mostly is a reflection of its creative strides in the past few years, said "House" creator/exec producer David Shore.

"With the gains they've made, it's long overdue," he said. "The way for us to keep up is by trying to do as good television as we can."

Additionally, the tally of some cable networks, including Showtime, may have been boosted by their decisions to stream episodes or full seasons on the Web for TV academy members.

Nominees in the top categories were announced at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences by Kristin Chenoweth, Neil Patrick Harris and academy chairman John Shaffner.

The Emmy ceremony will be held Sept. 21 from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles and broadcast on ABC.

Ray Richmond contributed to this report.

A list of nominees is on the next page.

A list of nominees follows:

Outstanding drama series

Boston Legal (ABC)

Damages (FX)

Dexter (Showtime)

House (Fox)

Lost (ABC)

Mad Men (AMC)

Outstanding comedy series

Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)

Entourage (HBO)

The Office (NBC)

30 Rock (NBC)

Two and a Half Men (CBS)

Outstanding miniseries

The Andromeda Strain (A&E)

Cranford (PBS)

John Adams (HBO)

Tin Man (Sci Fi Channel)

Outstanding made-for-television movie

Bernard and Doris (HBO)

Extras: The Extra Special Series Finale (HBO)

The Memory Keeper's Daughter (Lifetime)

A Raisin in the Sun (ABC)

Recount (HBO)

Outstanding variety, music or comedy series

The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)

Late Show With David Letterman (CBS)

Real Time With Bill Maher (HBO)

Saturday Night Live (NBC)

Lead actor in a comedy series

Tony Shalhoub, Monk (USA)

Steve Carell, The Office (NBC)

Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies (ABC)

Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock (NBC)

Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men (CBS)

Lead actor in a drama series

James Spader, Boston Legal (ABC)

Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad (AMC)

Michael C. Hall, Dexter (Showtime)

Hugh Laurie, House (Fox)

Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment (HBO)

Jon Hamm, Mad Men (AMC)

Lead actor in a miniseries or movie

Ralph Fiennes, Bernard and Doris (HBO)

Ricky Gervais, Extras: The Extra Special Series Finale (HBO)

Paul Giamatti, John Adams (HBO)

Kevin Spacey, Recount (HBO)

Tom Wilkinson, Recount (HBO)

Lead actress in a comedy series

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS)

Christina Applegate, Samantha Who? (ABC)

Tina Fey, 30 Rock (NBC)

America Ferrera, Ugly Betty (ABC)

Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds (Showtime)

Lead actress in a drama series

Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters (ABC)

Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer (TNT)

Glenn Close, Damages (FX)

Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: Svu (NBC)

Holly Hunter, Saving Grace (TNT)

Lead actress in a miniseries or movie

Catherine Keener, An American Crime (Showtime)

Susan Sarandon, Bernard and Doris (HBO)

Judi Dench, Cranford (PBS)

Laura Linney, John Adams (HBO)

Phylicia Rashad, A Raisin in the Sun (ABC)

Supporting actor in a comedy series

Jeremy Piven, Entourage (HBO)

Kevin Dillon, Entourage (HBO)

Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother (CBS)

Rainn Wilson, The Office (NBC)

Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men (CBS)

Supporting actor in a drama series

William Shatner, Boston Legal (ABC)

Ted Danson, Damages (FX)

Zeljko Ivanek, Damages (FX)

Michael Emerson, Lost (ABC)

John Slattery, Mad Men (AMC)

Supporting actor in a miniseries or movie

David Morse, John Adams (HBO)

Stephen Dillane, John Adams (HBO)

Tom Wilkinson, John Adams (HBO)

Denis Leary, Recount (HBO)

Bob Balaban, Recount (HBO)

Supporting actress in a comedy series

Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies (ABC)

Jean Smart, Samantha Who? (ABC)

Amy Poehler, Saturday Night Live (NBC)

Holland Taylor, Two and a Half Men (CBS)

Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty (ABC)

Supporting actress in a drama series

Candice Bergen, Boston Legal (ABC)

Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters (ABC)

Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)

Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)

Dianne Wiest, In Treatment (HBO)

Supporting actress in a miniseries or movie

Eileen Atkins, Cranford (PBS)

Ashley Jensen, Extras: The Extra Special Series Finale (HBO)

Alfre Woodard, Pictures of Hollis Woods (CBS)

Audra McDonald, A Raisin in the Sun (ABC)

Laura Dern, Recount (HBO)

Guest actor in a comedy series

Shelley Berman, Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)

Rip Torn, 30 Rock (NBC)

Will Arnett, 30 Rock (NBC)

Steve Buscemi, 30 Rock (NBC)

Tim Conway, 30 Rock (NBC)

Guest actor in a drama series

Stanley Tucci, ER (NBC)

Glynn Turman, In Treatment (HBO)

Robin Williams, Law & Order: Svu (NBC)

Robert Morse, Mad Men (AMC)

Oliver Platt, Nip/Tuck (FX)

Charles Durning, Rescue Me (FX)

Guest actress in a comedy series

Polly Bergen, Desperate Housewives (ABC)

Kathryn Joosten, Desperate Housewives (ABC)

Sarah Silverman, Monk (USA)

Carrie Fisher, 30 Rock (NBC)

Edie Falco, 30 Rock (NBC)

Elaine Stritch, 30 Rock (NBC)

Guest actress in a drama series

Ellen Burstyn, Big Love (HBO)

Diahann Carroll, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)

Cynthia Nixon, Law & Order: Svu (NBC)

Anjelica Huston, Medium (NBC)

Sharon Gless, Nip/Tuck (FX)

Individual performance in a variety or music program

Jon Stewart, 80th Annual Academy Awards (ABC)

Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)

David Letterman, Late Show With David Letterman (CBS)

Don Rickles, Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (HBO)

Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live (NBC)

Host for a reality or reality-competition program

Ryan Seacrest, American Idol (Fox)

Tom Bergeron, Dancing With the Stars (ABC)

Howie Mandel, Deal or No Deal (NBC)

Heidi Klum, Project Runway (Bravo)

Jeff Probst, Survivor (CBS)

Directing for a comedy series

Entourage -- No Cannes Do; Dan Attias, director

Flight of the Conchords -- Sally Returns; James Bobin, director

The Office -- Money (Parts 1 & 2); Paul Lieberstein, director

The Office -- Goodbye, Toby; Paul Feig, director

Pushing Daisies -- Pie-Lette; Barry Sonnenfeld, director

30 Rock -- Rosemary's Baby; Michael Engler, director

Directing for a drama series

Boston Legal -- The Mighty Rogues; Arlene Sanford, director

Breaking Bad -- Pilot; Vince Gilligan, director

Damages -- Pilot; Allen Coulter, director

House -- House's Head; Greg Yaitanes, director

Mad Men -- Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (Pilot); Alan Taylor, director

Outstanding animated program (less than one hour)

Creature Comforts America (CBS)

King of the Hill (Fox)

Robot Chicken (Cartoon Network)

SpongeBob SquarePants (Nickelodeon)

The Simpsons (Fox)

Outstanding animated program (one hour or more)

Blue Harvest (Fox)

Imaginationland (Comedy Central)

Justice League: The New Frontier (Warner Bros. on Demand)

Click here for a complete list of nominees.