Next Club Meeting:August 15, 2026,at the Fountaindale Public Library in Bolingbrook from 11:00 am - 5:00 pm
The Animatrix Network is an anime & manga fan club located in the Southwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. We usually meet on the third Saturday of each month (except when holidays or conventions coincide). The meetings are free and open to the public. Join us for a day filled with anime.
This site provides news, reviews, commentaries, and previews of the world of anime and everything it inspires in today's pop culture, such as live-action films, comics, music, art, and other weird things to enjoy and contemplate.
In 1977 Rankin Bass released their version of an animated THE HOBBIT film on television in 1977. The studio they used was a Japanese firm called TOPCRAFT. In 1985 they went bankrupt. However, all their assets and animators were bought by Hayao Miyazaki and reformed as STUDIO GHIBILI where he went to produce their first feature: NAAUSICA in the VALLEY OF THE WIND thus kickstarting a long string of animated features known world wide.
As the official airline of Middle-earth, Air New Zealand has gone all out to celebrate the third and final film in The Hobbit Trilogy - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Starring Elijah Wood and Sir Peter Jackson; we're thrilled to unveil..
The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made
Special cameos by Sylvester McCoy, Dean O’Gorman and Weta Workshop co-founder Sir Richard Taylor. Directed by Taika Waititi. Enjoy!
Actor Billy Boyd, who plays ‘Pippin’ in Peter Jackson’s on-screen Tolkienverse, will perform the closing song for the upcoming THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES.
A sample of that tune was recently issued, and can be heard via the embed below. Boyd co-wrote the song with longtime Jackson collaborators (LOTR/HOBBIT scripters/producers) Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.
THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES will release December 17; its score will release a few days earlier.
From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson comes “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” the third in a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien.
“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” brings to an epic conclusion the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, Thorin Oakenshield and the Company of Dwarves. Having reclaimed their homeland from the Dragon Smaug, the Company has unwittingly unleashed a deadly force into the world. Enraged, Smaug rains his fiery wrath down upon the defenseless men, women and children of Lake-town.
Obsessed above all else with his reclaimed treasure, Thorin sacrifices friendship and honor to hoard it as Bilbo’s frantic attempts to make him see reason drive the Hobbit towards a desperate and dangerous choice. But there are even greater dangers ahead. Unseen by any but the Wizard Gandalf, the great enemy Sauron has sent forth legions of Orcs in a stealth attack upon the Lonely Mountain.
As darkness converges on their escalating conflict, the races of Dwarves, Elves and Men must decide – unite or be destroyed. Bilbo finds himself fighting for his life and the lives of his friends in the epic Battle of the Five Armies, as the future of Middle-earth hangs in the balance.
Watch this intriguing animated short, Concerning Dragons, with a brief history lesson on the evolution of deadly dragons. Directed by Kieran Duncan with a stylish paper-craft chic as an MSc Animation project in conjunction with Axis Animation, it was created to act as a companion piece to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. This soaring short chronicling the birth and ascension of dragons winging their way around Middle-earth took 13 weeks to complete. Learn how, gifted with intelligence, cunning and wrath, they evolved from noble eagles, seduced and corrupted by the evil sorcery of Morgoth in the First Age, leading to the indomitable reign of Smaug. Watch the skies ...
We finally have our first, full look at the namesake dragon in The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug — though it’s not exactly what we expected. The trailers and footage shown off so far have done a good job of keeping the look of the beast, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, under wraps. But thanks to a new cross-promotion with Air New Zealand, the veil of secrecy has been lifted. To help promote the trilogy (which was filmed in New Zealand), the airline is painting a massive version of Smaug of the side of an airplane — and it’s freaking awesome. Yeah, that’s right: When you see this airplane flying, it’ll literally have a dragon wrapped around it. In addition to the pic above, the airline has also released a nifty time-lapse video showing just how much work it took to get that badass dragon up there, and it’s amazing the effort involved to make this happen.
[Source: blastr.com] The new images from Peter Jackson’s upcoming second installment in his Hobbittrilogy feature the return of our brave little hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), the company of dwarves’ fearless leader Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), Gandalf the Grey (Sir Ian McKellen), Radagast the Brown (Sylvester McCoy) and one of Desolation of Smaug's new characters, Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans).
We also get a sort of cool little sneak peek at the moment just prior the iconic escape-in-a-barrel scene we’ve already glimpsed in plenty of trailers already.
Following last year’s An Unexpected Journey, The Desolation of Smaug sees Bilbo seeking to recover the dwarves’ gold beneath Erebor (aka the Lonely Mountain) from that pesky dragon Smaug (voiced and mocapped by Benedict Cumberbatch).
Lee Pace, Orlando Bloom and Evangeline Lilly also star, respectively as the Elvenking of Mirkwood forest Thranduil, his son Legolas and new elf character Tauriel.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug opens in theaters on Dec. 13, 2013.
The second in a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" continues the adventure of the title character Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) as he journeys with the Wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and thirteen Dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) on an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor.
The Dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf have successfully escaped the Misty Mountains, and Bilbo has gained the One Ring. They all continue their journey to get their gold back from the Dragon, Smaug.
Here's a massive statue erected inside a well-known theater lobby in Wellington, New Zealand that appears to be the dastardly destroyer himself.
It's a beautiful piece of studio art and hints pretty hard at it being the infamous lizard we'll meet more intimately in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. This hallowed hallway at the Roxy Theater is normally reserved for the statue placement of characters from Peter Jackson films like TinTin, Gandalf and Gollum. Voiced by Star Trek Into Darkness baddie Benedict Cumberbatch, the ferocious Smaug is one of most iconic creations in the Tolkien universe and hotly anticipated in the next installment coming out this Christmas.
Take a look but don't stand too close ... dragons do bite.
The students of Tower House School in London (a prep school which, by the way, once educated the likes of Tom Hardy and Robert Pattinson) decided they wanted to take their own journey into Middle-earth, so they got a little money together, made some costumes and crafted a 90-minute adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's tale of a Hobbit, a wizard and 13 dwarves. The film premiered for parents, school staff and the like last week at London's Curzon Renoir Cinema, but you can see one minute of the footage right here.
