ABC Family kicks off today their 10th annual 25 Days of Christmas event, which runs through Christmas Day.

From December 1 through December 25, the network will air over 200 hours of holiday-themed programming including two new original movies, Holiday in Handcuffs and Snowglobe.

This weekend, look for the Harry Potter movie marathon starting tonight with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at 3:30 – 7:00 PM ET/PT and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets at 7:00 – 11:00 PM ET/PT and tomorrow at 6:00 – 9:00 PM ET/PT Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. All three movies will have encore presentations throughout the month and will include never-seen-before footage from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix during commercial breaks.

On Sunday, December 16, ABC Family will host the basic cable premiere of The Incredibles (7:00 – 9:30 PM ET/PT, Encore 9:30 PM – 12:00 AM ET/PT).

See the 25 Days of Christmas official page for listings and air times.

The Kansas City Star has posted an extensive list of hidden Disney references in Disney’s lasted film Enchanted. The list, which was sent to the Star by the movie studio, is a scene-by-scene breakdown of all the hidden references and [not-so-hidden] homages to earlier Disney movies and projects.

One viewing of Enchanted and you’ll immediately pick up on all the typical Disney “princess” themes, as well as props used throughout like the poison apples and a lost glass slipper. Then there’s the hidden references that are so fun to pick out in a film like this. For instance, I noticed right away that the restaurant Robert takes Giselle to is called the Bella Notte Restaurant, which is the song from Lady and the Tramp.

Here’s some of my favorites from the list:

— Inside Giselle’s treehouse on the right is a bell jar with a rose in it from from Beauty and the Beast.

Contra 4
20th Anniversary Edition
Nintendo DS

Contra‘s back and old-school video game lovers can now rejoice for having a decent update to a much loved series. Contra had fallen on hard times for a while, suffering through a slew of misguided attempts to update the series which failed to improve on the tried and true game play of the original. This game is a continuation of the story and game play from Contra 3 and it’s safe to say that this version will appeal to fans of the original game. Of course that means one other thing that may turn off more casual gamers — this game is tough.

Game play is back to the old standby of side scrolling 2D run and gun action. The player runs through each level shooting at enemies with a variety of weapons, the classic multi and spread shot, along with missiles, fire balls, and lasers as they come on to the screen. A nice carry over from Contra 3 is the ability to switch between two different gun selections, with the advantage being that if you die, you only lose the current gun you are using. It can be a bit tough at the start to remember to switch when you see a new weapon come up on the screen, but once you get the hang of it, the ability is a lifesaver.

Learning the pattern of where each enemy comes from is the only way to beat this game. Once you get some practice in on it, you’ll figure out when to run, when to stop and when to shoot the crap out of everything. There are 3 difficulty settings; the only difference between them seems to be the number of lives you receive, so I find them kind of suspect. Rest assured though, that even on easy, the game is pretty tough. The old one shot and you’re dead still applies to this game, and on easy, you still only get ten lives, which can go pretty quick if you don’t practice.

PRESS RELEASE

Universal City, California, November 30, 2007 – Universal Pictures has accelerated the release date of Charlie Wilson’s War by four days, moving the film from Tuesday, December 25, 2007, to Friday, December 21, it was announced today.

Adam Fogelson, Universal Pictures’ President of Marketing and Distribution, stated, “We saw an opportunity to advance the release of this film and are taking advantage of that. We’ve seen how strongly Charlie Wilson’s War plays and can’t wait to get it in front of audiences everywhere. We are confident that their enthusiastic word-of-mouth will be one of the things that helps us continue playing strongly through this terrific moviegoing period.”

The film, starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman, tells the outrageous true story of how one congressman who loved a good time, one Houston socialite who loved a good cause and one CIA agent who loved a good fight conspired to bring about the largest covert operation in history. Director Mike Nichols, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and producers Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman bring George Crile’s best-selling book to the screen.

Tales From The Farm
Volume One Of The Essex Country Trilogy
Written and Drawn by Jeff Lemire
Top Shelf Productions
Cover Price $9.95; Available Now

When Lester’s mother dies and he is orphaned, Lester’s uncle reluctantly brings him to his farm in the small county of Essex in Ontario, Canada. Uncle Ken doesn’t really know how to deal with kids, Lester doesn’t know his uncle all that well, and their relationship becomes strained and distant almost from day one. While in town getting gas, Lester pops into the store to pick up a new comic book. It is there that Lester meets Jimmy, a ex-hockey player who was injured in the NHL and has been written off as being “slow” and “different.” Jimmy and Lester soon become friends, and the pair of them set off on superhero adventures fighting an alien invasion and picking up games of hockey on a frozen pond. Ken, however, is not too fond of their friendship, and while he is determined to keep the two apart, Lester is all the more determined to keep the relationship going.

We all have memories, however distant or distorted from the really real truth, of when we were ten years old. It is a strange and bittersweet time when we begin to realize there is a lot more out there than just the backyard and math homework, where childhood rests and balances on a branch in our favorite climbing tree and can be blown off by just about anything. For Jeff Lemire‘s Lester, he has tapped into a cross-section of all those things that can close the final chapter on childhood before hurtling into those dangerous and often overlooked tween years.