The 1981 R-rated animated feature Heavy Metal is now online to watch for free at Crackle.

Due to its rating, you have to sign in to watch it, but sign-up is free and quick and there’s even an option to sign in using your Facebook account (even quicker). While the movie is free to watch, it does have periodic but quick commercial interruptions.

John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Harold Ramis, among others, voice the characters in this scifi animated film, based on the Heavy Metal magazine. The soundtrack is packed with great tunes from Stevie Nicks, Black Sabbath, Cheap Trick, and more, including the title track by Sammy Hagar [...]

We’ve been hearing a lot from Robert Zemeckis in the past few months in regard to a potential sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, his classic live-action/cartoon hybrid. We’ve heard some good news, like that the 2-D animated characters will remain 2-D, though some new 3-D characters could be introduced (Read: SDCC 09: Director Robert Zemeckis Says 2D Characters Would Remain That Way In A ‘Roger Rabbit’ Sequel). We’ve also heard bad news, such as Bob Hoskins saying that he wouldn’t be able to come back and do a sequel if it happened (Read: Bob Hoskins Says ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit 2′ Won’t Have Eddie Valiant? I Call Shenanigans!).

To add to all of that, Zemeckis recently spoke to MTV and shared some new news that will get fans really excited: not only is he serious about wanting to make Roger Rabbit 2, but he already has the original movie’s writing team of Jeffrey Price and Peter Seaman developing a script right this moment. [...]

Someone named Dr. Monster has an awesome artist remix of Scooby Doo in which Velma, the nerdy girl of the group, is the only remaining survivor of the the Mystery Team after zombies, vampires, and other evil creatures have taken over the planet. Click the image to see it in-full.

She isn’t completely alone, as a solid, Dolberman version of Scooby has shed his goofy skin and is ready and willing to protect with highly-aggressive nature. Velma has also grown up in her new role, making sure to always be equipped with a shotgun, machete, and wooden stakes while wearing a cross ’round her neck. She also re-named the van The Misery Machine and pimped it out with flammables, an artillery of weaponry, a giant wooden stake, ultra-powered lights, and a nice little memorial for Fred, Daphne, and Shaggy.

The image definitely gives off a sort of Y: The Last Man vibe but with a woman and monster invasion instead. OK, maybe I Am Legend would work much better in comparison, but that movie sucked, so Y it is! [...]

A new movie based on the Japanese manga franchise Ghost in the Shell has been talked about for a while now, but it appears that DreamWorks is ready to give it another big go. It has been announced that Laeta Kalogridis has been hired to write the script, and that the live-action movie will be filmed entirely in 3-D with Avi Arad, Ari Arad among the producers.

Ghost in the Shell is a highly-futuristic story about a cyborg named Motoko Kusanagi who works for a Japanese Public Safety division known as Section 9. She is almost completely composed of mechanical components with only her brain remaining organic. The title is something of an allegorical reference to whether her soul (ghost) exists within her shell of a synthetic body — Motoko often even wonders if her memories are also manufactured and nothing about her is real. The character has been used in many different ways, so it’s not known if DreamWorks plans to create their own story based on the manga or if they may remake one of the pre-existing anime movies. [...]

The Mirage Group, who owned the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and brought us the all CGI TMNT, has sold the entire global property rights to children’s brand Nickelodeon for $60 Million. The deal includes the movies and shows, as well as the rights to all merchandising.

It’s been in a news a few times recently, but in case you haven’t heard, a brand new Ninja Turtle movie is on the way. The movie is to retract from that CGI style that they tried and move back into the glorious world of live-action. To ensure an even greater realistic quality, it is expected that they will use the same methods used in Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are in which people are put into highly-detailed costumes and only the facial expressions are created using computer effects. Hopefully, the end result will be similar to the Ninja Turtles we saw in the ’80s and ’90s, but with a whole lot more realism to them. [...]

Robot Chicken: Star Wars – Episode II
Directed by Seth Green
Featuring the voices of Seth Green, Billy Dee Williams, Donald Faison, Carrie Fisher
Adult Swim

Some things in life just go really well together. Peanut Butter and Jelly, and Chocolate Chip and Mints are just some of the prime examples, but now you can add Robot Chicken and Star Wars into the mix as well. When the popular stop-motion series Robot Chicken decided to parody the mega popular Star Wars franchise the first time around, the reviews for the show was overwhelmingly positive. Even George Lucas approved so you can only imagine that it wouldn’t be long until the sequel Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II showed up.

Nothing has changed much since the first special. The folks at Robot Chicken, led by bite-sized star Seth Green, are still offering up their hilarious and often times, insane, fanboy interpretations of key moments in the Star Wars franchise. Ever wonder what happens to Boba Fett moments after he meets his fate in Return of the Jedi or what was going through the mind of Luke during his key battle with Darth Vader? All those questions are answered and even some random ‘what if’ scenarios are touched on in this funny special [...]

It was an exciting day when the first teaser trailer for Toy Story 3 was released, but that trailer didn’t show us too much in terms of story and such. It was clear that the real moment of magic — not counting the day we can see it in theaters on June 18, 2010 — would be when we were able to watch the full theatrical trailer…and that moment is right now. The official Toy Story 3 trailer has been released to the masses and can be seen here below!

The trailer is wonderful, as you fairly might have assumed, and it whisks you right back to that world, complete with all the glorious nostalgia you possess there. It opens up with a nice, warm little re-introduction to the young boy Andy and his childhood with everyone’s favorite toy box before shooting us to present day where Andy — now 18-years-old — is off to college and trying to figure out what to do with his old toys. We find out that they’re shipped off to a daycare center where a rather humorous segment of rampaging toddlers tears through the bunch. This sets up the main story of the crew attempting a daring escape from the daycare and their adventure to find home. [...]

Walt Disney Studios have released the first five minutes of their upcoming return to hand-drawn animation: The Princess and the Frog. The studio just recently released a brand new trailer for the movie, so they’re obviously planning to come at us hard and heavy with their marketing campaign.

The first five minutes is a good way to get a feel for the movie and if it’s able to win you over right away. Although many great movies take a while to get going, you can usually tell right off the bat if the table being set is your kind of meal or not. The Princess and the Frog starts off with our main character as a young girl, and sets up her eventual confrontation with a frog seeking her kiss to return him to his princely status. While watching, you can definitely feel the Disney in it, and it looks like it could be a really beautiful movie. You can even hear that old school tone in the dialogue that their actors delivered, which will go a long way in this return to traditional form. [...]

The Simpsons
The Complete Twelfth Season
Starring Dan Castellaneta, Nancy Cartwright, Julie Kavner, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria
Twentieth Century Fox
Release Date: August 18, 2009

As far back as I can remember The Simpsons has been a part of my life. Growing up with the first family of Springfield, Any State USA since their Christmas special first aired in late 1989 I could see parts of myself and my own family in Matt Groening’s brilliant creation. Being a reader, a bit of a brain, and somehow able to stand outside the rest of my family and observe their strange behavior with the perspective of a seasoned psychiatrist, I could always relate to oldest daughter Lisa (voiced by Yeardley Smith), while my dad (who I was named after) took after intellectually challenged yet well-meaning father Homer (voiced by Dan Castellenata) somewhat (at least when he was around). Mother Marge (voiced by Julie Kavner), full of motherly wisdom and ready to be the glue that held the family together at all times, naturally reminded me of my own mom Carolyn. Then there was underachiever (and proud of it) brother Bart (voiced by Nancy Cartwright), whose tendency to raise hell without a moment’s hesitation continuously brought my own younger siblings Sean and Lisa. Little Maggie (voiced by someone sucking on a pacifier) could be representative of us all when we’re at that age. Besides them there’s the show’s sizable supporting cast. Who among us has never had a Bible-thumping neighbor like Ned Flanders, or a greedy employer like Montgomery Burns? You may have had a conservative principal like Seymour Skinner or encountered a bartender like Moe. The townspeople who populate Springfield, a city which appears to be all American cities and none of them, may have come from the imaginations of a brilliant writing staff and voice cast (not to mention some very talented animators) but most of these characters are bound to strike a few of us as a bit familiar [...]

If you visit the site everyday (or any movie site, for that matter), you know that recently there was a massive shower of Disney-related news announced at their D23 Expo — most of which were revealed by Disney Chairman, Dick Cook. Most of the news was very exciting, including big news about a Muppet takeover, information on big Pixar sequels Toy Story 3 and Cars 2, and the official title for the fourth movie in their Pirates franchise: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

After this Christmas morning of announcements, the last thing you would expect to top it all off would be bad news, but that’s just what we’ve been given. It’s being reported by Nikki Finke that after 38 years of service, and an impressively popular reputation, Chairman Dick Cook has now been fired by Disney President and CEO Bob Iger. There are reports that the two weren’t exactly seeing eye-to-eye, as well.

It was initially reported that he had innocently just “stepped down” from his position, which Disney is standing by, even though Finke has multiple updates on her report that quote various Disney insiders who are saying that it was a firing, and not one that is being taken lightly. [...]

It feels like it has been a week since any news that didn’t involve Disney has come out. The Mouse House recently held their D23 Expo and a flood of announcements were made, including some new information on the highly anticipated sequels Toy Story 3 and Cars 2.

Toy Story 3 basically just made a bunch of casting announcements. /Film picked up on some Tweets from director Lee Unkrich and Disney that revealed that John Morris, the boy who voiced Andy in Toy Story and Toy Story 2, has been cast once again in the role, which now sees Andy as an 18-year-old young man. Also added to the cast is a great collection of names, some of which are Pixar veterans. Lending their voices once again will be Bonnie Hunt (A Bug’s Life/Cars/Monsters Inc., Jerry Maguire) and Jeff Garlin (Wall-E, Curb Your Enthusiasm); while new to the Pixar dance is Whoopi Goldberg (Ghost) and Timothy Dalton (Hot Fuzz), who will apparently be playing someone named Mr. Pricklepants. [...]

Yahoo! Movies has put out a new teaser trailer for the Robert Zemeckis motion capture holiday remake of Charles Dickens‘ A Christmas Carol. It was just announced that Zemeckis would be giving this treatment to a remake of the 1968 Beatles’ movie, Yellow Submarine, so this trailer is an instant example of what can be done using the technology.

The movie stars Jim Carrey multi-tasking like a mad man, filling the roles of Ebenezer Scrooge, and the three ghosts: the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. It of course tells the classic tale of a wicked, greedy, bitter old man who’s cruel to all who interact with him. One holiday season, his wretched treatment of others goes too far and eventually sees him visited by three ghosts who take him on a trip through time, observing his entire life in hopes that this outside perspective of himself will alter how he treats others. [...]

Another significant announcement made by Disney at their D23 Expo was a confirmation to rumors that director Robert Zemeckis would be writing and directing a remake of The Beatles’ 1968 animated movie, Yellow Submarine.

The 1968 cartoon followed the legendary band as they traveled via the bright-colored submarine to Pepperland, a beautiful world inhabited by friendly, music-loving people that has tragically been taken over by the music-hating Blue Meanies, who have frozen all who live there and destroyed all of the beauty and music. The Beatles are employed to help out and use their music try and take Pepperland back and bring joy to the people once again. Yellow Submarine certainly has to be in the discussion of the most trippy movies ever made.

Instead of the cartoon style they used in ‘68, this new version will be in true Robert Zemeckis stylem using the motion-capture technology that he’s found so much success with in previous movies like The Polar Express and Beowulf, as well as the upcoming A Christmas Carol. [...]

Walt Disney Studios made some big announcements yesterday at their D23 Expo. One of which is the reveal that they have entered into a collaboration with none other than visual genius Guillermo del Toro, and will be launching a special new production label called Double Dare You. The goal for this new label: create a slew of new animated feature films for people of all ages, that are a lot more on the dark and scary side of things. The projects will all be overseen and produced by del Toro — who originally came up with the concept and design of the label — with some even being directed by him personally.

This is fantastic news for fans of animated movies. Guillermo del Toro is the absolute king of visually sensational cinema, and to have his hand and his style going into some darker animated films could be truly wonderful. It would be expected that the movies will have something of a Monster House feel to them. [...]

The Walt Disney Company hasn’t released a hand-drawn animated movie since 2004’s Home on the Range due to the takeover by computer animated movies and their partnership with Pixar and all of their genius releases. Home on the Range was in fact supposed to be the final Disney movie that was hand-drawn like the old days, but thankfully, for now, they decided to get back to it with The Princess and the Frog, which now has a full theatrical trailer available for viewing. As wonderful as the Pixar movies are, there is a magic that comes from these old-style hand-drawn animated movies, and hopefully this means Disney gets back to making more of them.

The movie is a new take on the classic tale of the princess who kisses a frog and turns him into a prince. It’s set in New Orleans and gained attention as the first Disney cartoon to feature an African American leading lady after so many decades and so many princesses. The Princess and the Frog was originally titled The Frog Princess, and is directed by The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Hercules directors John Musker and Ron Clements. The main stars aren’t very well-known, but it features a supporting cast that includes Oprah Winfrey, John Goodman, and Terrence Howard.

Click on over for the full synopsis and the brand new trailer for this Southern set traditional Disney musical [...]

Elijah Wood, the star of the Tim Burton-produced feature film 9, presented to G4’s AOTS an exclusive short he put together with producer Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) from the upcoming CG-animated film. Watch it here below.

There are a few user-generated 9 mash-up videos up on YouTube, two of which I think are clever and worth mentioning (and are embedded here below). One is called “9’s Obsession” and features clips from the movie set to the song “Jack’s Obsession” from another Burton-produced animated favorite The Nightmare Before Christmas.

In another video, called “Wall-E9 Trailer,” someone did a mash-up of 9 dialogue with scenes from fellow animated post-apocalyptic Earth film, Wall-E.

9 follows the story of 9, as he awakens to find a post-apocalyptic world where humans are gone and machines have taken over [...]

Being a teenage most of the ’90s, I was obsessed with Mike Judge’s Beavis & Butt-head to a pathetic level. Even in high school, I occasionally answered a random question in Science or English class while speaking in one or the other’s distinctive voice, which was returned with sure-fire scolding from fellow classmates. The show, which only ran from 1993 to 1997, is one that many consider canceled way too early.

If you’re like me and still miss the show, then any kind of special “appearance” the animated duo make is worthy of celebration, so light off some fireworks, friends, because Beavis and Butt-head are back to help promote Judge’s new movie, Extract.

The clip is only a few minutes long, but it’s more classic Beavis and Butt-head than it is Extract. Be warned, Mr. Head sets up the clip in detailed fashion, which some may consider spoilers, but I think it’s safe to say most of you shouldn’t worry about it. [...]

The spotlight deal of the day over at Amazon today is the Family Guy – The Total World Domination Collection (with Stewie Head Packaging) DVD box set for only $74.99 (that’s 56% off the list price of $169.98).

This 22-disc DVD collection is the ultimate for any Family Guy fan. The set includes all 100 episodes of the hit animated television series through Season 6, along with the movie Family Guy Presents: Stewie Griffin – The Untold Story, Star Wars spoof, Family Guy: Blue Harvest, and an entire disc for “Family Guy Off The Cutting Room Floor.” All of this comes complete in a packaging that looks like Stewie’s head [...]

Tomorrow, August 21, is Avatar Day, and on it, the much-anticipated trailer was to finally be release to all of us who were dying to see what everyone was raving about. In a lovely gesture, the studio has decided to unleash the trailer one day early, and you can check it out right this very moment!

With the release of this trailer comes good news and bad news. The good news, is that you can go and watch the trailer at Apple in the biggest and best HD player your computer can handle. The bad news, is that Apple is still one of the few who refuse to embrace the joys of the embed code, so you’ll have to go there to see it. Considering that even the above-mentioned biggest and best HD trailer will not do any justice to the footage people have seen in IMAX 3-D, it is suggested that you watch in the highest quality you can. [...]

A rumor that has been making the rounds is one that involves the possibility of a Who Framed Roger Rabbit sequel. Director Robert Zemeckis, while out promoting his motion-capture remake of holiday classic A Christmas Carol, revealed that with all this new technology and options, that he thought it might actually be time to finally revisit his insane cartoon rabbit. He even went as far as to promise that though some things might be computer animated or 3-D, Roger and the other cartoon elements would remain as cartoons. Zemeckis then spoke to AICN, and happily explained that he had talked to star Bob Hoskins plenty of times and that he would definitely be up for another go as stressed and depressed detective Eddie Valiant.

This happy news didn’t last too long, though, as Hoskins himself has spoken to MTV News and pretty firmly stated that he wouldn’t be returning for the movie.

Here’s what Hoskins had to say while also out promoting Zemeckis’s Christmas Carol, in which he appears as Fezzywig. [...]