Anime Midwest 2016 Cosplayers

ANIME MIDWEST 2016: COSPLAY

Here are some pics of awesome cosplayers attending Anime Midwest 2016 on July 8-10 at the Rosemont Convention Center.

KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS - New Trailer

In Theaters August 19

An epic action-adventure from acclaimed animation studio LAIKA. Clever, kindhearted Kubo (voiced by Art Parkinson of “Game of Thrones”) ekes out a humble living, telling stories to the people of his seaside town including Hosato (George Takei), Akihiro (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), and Kameyo (Academy Award nominee Brenda Vaccaro). But his relatively quiet existence is shattered when he accidentally summons a spirit from his past which storms down from the heavens to enforce an age-old vendetta. Now on the run, Kubo joins forces with Monkey (Academy Award winner Charlize Theron) and Beetle (Academy Award winner Matthew McConaughey), and sets out on a thrilling quest to save his family and solve the mystery of his fallen father, the greatest samurai warrior the world has ever known. With the help of his shamisen – a magical musical instrument – Kubo must battle gods and monsters, including the vengeful Moon King (Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes) and the evil twin Sisters (Academy Award nominee Rooney Mara), to unlock the secret of his legacy, reunite his family, and fulfill his heroic destiny.

Here's a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film:

Anime Expo 2016 Cosplay!

 A N I M E   E X P O   2 0 1 6

Some of the most EPIC cosplay of this year's Anime Expo 2016.

Samurai Jack Returns!

SAMURAI JACK SEASON FIVE

A behind-the-scenes video for the upcoming fifth season of Samurai Jack was unveiled at the Toonami panel during this past weekend’s Anime Expo, where production members, including Jack's voice Phil LaMarr, revealed some intriguing new info concerning our time-traveling samurai's return to the small screen.

In the video, Samurai Jack creator and director Genndy Tartakovsky explains that the new season will pick up years after the original series ended, and that there’s no direct connection between the last episode of the series and this new season. If you've been wanting to try the awesome cartoon series but didn't want to watch the previous 52 episodes, you’re in luck. Tartakovsky also says the interim years have changed Jack.

“I think we're going to see [Jack] in a new light, because we're going to see him from a different standpoint. In the original series, he was very heroic person on a very rigid quest. Now, we pick up with him and it's many years after the fact and he's a little bit lost. So, it's a story of redemption and him trying to find who he is, again.”

Switching from the more family-friendly Cartoon Network to the, erm, more adult Adult Swim also represented a “big challenge” for the Samurai Jack team.

“People watch [Samurai Jack] with their kids. You know, through the generations. I didn't want to go full on heads getting chopped off and blood spurting everywhere, but at the same time I also wanted it to be newer and exciting and take advantage of some of those things. The way Jack’s gonna be different, he’s definitely the same, there’s definitely more darkness to it. It’s one story, one episodic story. The action is just as badass as it's always going to be. Probably even more.”

Check it out:

A Kung Fu Bunny Animation

An animation featuring the Kung Fu Bunny!

HAPPY 4th of JULY!

DreamWorks' TROLLS

From the creators of Shrek comes the most smart, funny, irreverent animated comedy of the year, DreamWorks’ Trolls. This holiday season, enter a colorful, wondrous world populated by hilariously unforgettable characters and discover the story of the overly optimistic Trolls, with a constant song on their lips, and the comedicly pessimistic Bergens, who are only happy when they have trolls in their stomach.

Featuring original music from Justin Timberlake, the film stars the voice talent of Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Russell Brand, James Corden, Kunal Nayyar, Ron Funches, Icona Pop, Gwen Stefani and many more.

DreamWorks' Trolls is a fresh, broad comedy filled with music, heart and hair-raising adventures. In November of 2016, nothing can prepare you for our new Troll world.

Netflix's Live-Action Death Note Film

DEATH NOTE - LIVE-ACTION U.S. RENDITION

Netflix announced on Friday that its live-action Death Note film will premiere streaming in 2017. Netflix also unveiled some additional cast members, as well as the character names for previously announced cast members.

The cast of characters includes: 

Nat Wolff (The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns) as Light Turner

Keith Stanfield (Short Term 12, Straight Outta Compton) as L

Margaret Qualley (The Leftovers) as Mia Sutton

Paul Nakauchi (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) as Watari

Shea Whigham (Boardwalk Empire) as James Turner

Adam Wingard (The Guest, You're Next) has signed on to direct the film, and Jeremy Slater (Fantastic Four) penned a recent draft of the script.

Vertigo Entertainment's Roy Lee (Dark Water, The Lake House, Shutter), Lin Pictures' Dan Lin (This Side of the Truth, Sherlock Holmes, The Lego Movie), Viz Productions' Jason Hoffs (Edge of Tomorrow), and actor Masi Oka (Heroes, Hawaii Five-0) are producers. Doug Davison (Dark Water, The Grudge, The Lake House) and Brian Witten (Dark City, American History X, Final Destination) are executive producers, and Niija Kuykendall and Nik Mavinkurve had been overseeing the project for Warner.

In Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's original 2003-2006 supernatural suspense manga, teenager Light Yagami finds a notebook with which he can put people to death by writing their names. He begins a self-anointed crusade against the criminals of the world, and a cat-and-mouse game begins with the authorities and one idiosyncratic genius detective.

In addition to the 2006 television anime adaptation and tie-in specials, Death Note also received a Japanese live-action film adaptation in 2006, with a sequel titled Death Note: The Last Name, and a spinoff titled L change the WorLd in 2008. A live-action television series adaptation premiered last July, and ended last September. A new film titled Death Note 2016, described as a "forbidden sequel" to the first live-action film, is set to open in Japan on October 29. The manga also inspired a stage musical by Broadway veterans in 2014. Viz released the manga, Japanese live-action films, anime, and other tie-in projects in North America, and Crunchyroll streamed the live-action television series.

Kong Fu Girl VS Samurai Girl by F.cp.

This is a little animation done by an amateur animator presumably from Hong Kong by the name of F.cp.

STORKS the Animated Movie

S  T  O  R  K  S

Storks deliver babies… or at least they used to. Now they deliver packages for global internet giant Cornerstore.com. Junior, the company’s top delivery stork, is about to be promoted when he accidentally activates the Baby Making Machine, producing an adorable and wholly unauthorized baby girl. Desperate to deliver this bundle of trouble before the boss gets wise, Junior and his friend Tulip, the only human on Stork Mountain, race to make their first-ever baby drop – in a wild and revealing journey that could make more than one family whole and restore the storks’ true mission in the world.

J.K. Rowling's American School of Witchcraft & Wizardry

Origins of Ilvermorny School of Magic

[Source: blastr] Ahead of the premiere of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in November, J.K. Rowling has released a short story revealing the origins of the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry featured in the Harry Potter movie prequel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, set in the Roaring '20s, decades before the story of the Boy Who Lived.

The new tale is also accompanied by a quiz that will sort out Harry Potter fans into the school’s houses (Horned Serpent, Pukwudgie, Tunderbird and Wampus -- such fun!) and by this gorgeous animated trailer that tells the tale of Ilvermorny’s founding by a young Irish woman named Isolt Sayre back in the 17th century.

Following the death of her parents, and after much suffering at the hands of her evil aunt, Isolt stole her magic wand and fled to the New World aboard the Mayflower disguised as a Muggle boy named Elias Story. While there, she discovers a whole new magical world and fantastical creatures.

The Girl With All The Gifts

 

The new trailer for The Girl With All The Gifts, directed by Colm McCarthy and starring Sennia Nanua, Gemma Arterton, Glenn Close and Paddy Considine. Coming soon.

The near future; humanity has been all but destroyed by a mutated fungal disease that eradicates free will and turns its victims into flesh-eating “hungries”. Only a small group of children seem immune to its effects.

At an army base in rural England, this group of unique children are being studied, subjected to cruel experiments by biologist Dr. Caldwell. Despite having been infected with the zombie pathogen that has decimated the world, these children retain normal thoughts and emotions. And while still being subject to the craving for human flesh that marks the disease these second- generation “hungries” are able to think and feel making them a vital resource in the search for a cure.

The children attend school lessons daily, guarded by the ever watchful Sergeant Parks. But one little girl, Melanie, stands out from the rest. Melanie is special. She excels in the classroom, is inquisitive, imaginative and loves her favourite teacher Miss Justineau.

When the base falls, Melanie escapes along with Miss Justineau, Sergeant Parks and Dr. Caldwell. Against the backdrop of a blighted Britain, Melanie must discover what she is and ultimately decide both her own future and that of the human race.

Transformers: Combiner Wars Animated Series

TRANSFORMERS: COMBINER WARS

[Source: ScreenRant] The universe of the Transformers franchise can be hard for even the most devoted fan to keep track of since it contains multiple animated series, comics and now feature films – each with multiple canons and continuities – spanning several decades where characters exchange names, bodies and personalities as often as new toys can be produced… and sometimes more than that. Case in point: Hasbro’s most recent big Transformers toy line, the nostalgia-focused “Combiner Wars,” features a new spin on the “gestalt-robot” characters from the original 80s series in an entirely new context.

Now, a new online animated series has been announced, which will give the Combiner Wars robots a new story of their own.

ComicBook.com is reporting the new series will be produced by Hasbro and Machinima and will debut online, reportedly aimed at older collectors and fans as opposed to the youth-focused Transformers cartoons that have recently appeared on broadcast television. Much of the storyline is being held for broadcast, early looks have indicated a retro cell-shaded art style similar to the recent Transformers: Devastation video games and a potentially prominent role for Windblade, a female Autobot “fan built” by a series of Hasbro online polls in 2013.

Take a look at the first images from Transformers: Combiner Wars via Collider:

Launched in 2015 to much fanfare from the Transformers collector-community, the Combiner Wars line is focused on “team” characters like The Constructicons, Aerialbots, Terracons and others. These were typically “themed” sets of vehicles (construction equipment, military, police/medical) that combined to form a larger robot Voltron-style. Along with featuring more detailed, sturdier models than the original variations, the Combiner Wars figures also allow for the mixing and matching of parts between different gestalt-mode combinations.

Though the series is expected to follow the same “Generation 1″-callback aesthetic as the toy line (early screenshots show Starscream looking essentially identical to a cell-shaded version of his 1980s cartoon self), the storyline is not explicitly connected to a specific prior continuity – instead it’s being framed as a pseudo-sequel to a hypothetical alternate G1 setup with the Autobots and Decepticons returning to Cybertron following the “Great Earth War.” Optimus Prime and Megatron are (thus far) referred to in the past-tense, with the main plot involving an “uneasy peace” being threatened by the emergence of a new breed of Transformer – presumably the Combiners themselves.

A four-part prequel series, “Prelude to Combiner Wars,” will air on YouTube beginning June 28th, which will be followed by Transformers: Combiner Wars hitting August 2nd. The live-action Transformers: The Last Knight remains scheduled for theaters June 23rd, 2017.

New trailer for director Tim Burton’s next opus

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

From visionary director Tim Burton, and based upon the best-selling novel, comes an unforgettable motion picture experience. When Jake discovers clues to a mystery that spans alternate realities and times, he uncovers a secret refuge known as Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As he learns about the residents and their unusual abilities, Jake realizes that safety is an illusion, and danger lurks in the form of powerful, hidden enemies. Jake must figure out who is real, who can be trusted, and who he really is.

In movie theaters September 30, 2016

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Step into a world of discovery, exploration and adventure in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a boundary-breaking new game in the acclaimed series. Travel across fields, through forests and to mountain peaks as you discover what has become of the ruined kingdom of Hyrule in this stunning open-air adventure.

New Images of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

R O G U E   O N E

Earlier this week, we got character info on most of the cast of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story along with confirmation that Darth Vader would be returning to the Star Wars series. Today, EW has released several images from the film, which provide a closeup on the new characters.

Hideo Kojima's new video game: Death Stranding

D E A T H   S T R A N D I N G

[Source: blastr] After his very public split from Konami, and the death of his high-profile Guillermo del Toro collaboration Silent Hills, Hideo Kojima is back in action with one of the strangest projects to hit E3.
 

The Metal Gear Solid creator chatted with Wired about his new project Death Stranding, which stars Walking Dead alum Norman Reedus. The actor was originally supposed to star in Silent Hills, and Kojima said he was attracted to using Reedus in this project because he became comfortable with the beloved zombie killer.
 

As for Death Stranding, the trailer showed a naked Reedus on a beach, along with a disappearing oil slick baby and some freaky crabs and whales. Apart from that … nothing really made all that much sense. Kojima told Wired he’s trying to break genres with the project, looking at the things that tie people together and push them apart.
 

Here’s an excerpt from his comments:
 

“You can see the crabs, the whales, all things, they all have these umbilical cables. Norman, as he stands up. It’s a very important part, this connection. That’s the keyword. What people are playing today in open-world action games, or linear action games, it will compare naturally to them. It will feel familiar. But after an hour or two of playing, you will start to feel something different, something new that you haven’t played. The story is about connections, what you call ‘strands’ in psychology—how people are connected...
 

There’s an author that I’m a huge fan of named Kōbō Abe. Among his work is a novel called The Rope. He mentions that the first tool that humanity invented was the stick, to keep away bad things. Right now, looking at today’s online games, you see a lot of sticks—pistols, weapons, things that are the equivalent of the first tool. Abe, in his novel, mentions that after the stick, mankind invented something that keeps things that are important close to you—the rope. In Death Stranding, there will be the equivalent of sticks. But also, I want to tie people together with the equivalent of ropes.”

 
The game looks to be one of the strangest tentpole releases in years, and it's great to see someone like Kojima take advantage of his success to try something truly unique.

Future STAR WARS Games Revealed at E3

STAR WARS: A Look Ahead

Take a look at what’s going on with some of the amazing Star Wars projects our teams at EA are working on now, including DICE, BioWare, Motive, Visceral Games, Capital Games and our partners at Respawn Entertainment. These experiences will explore different Star Wars eras in different gaming genres on different platforms. Star Wars™ Battlefront™ is available now on PS4, PC and Xbox One.

Batman VS Joker Stop Motion

B A T M A N   vs   J O K E R

By Counter656. My new stop motion video with SHF Batman vs Joker, after a short fight, there will be a new friend joining the battle;this video took me 20 days of production time and nearly 3500 pictures.

New MOANA Trailer

Disney's   M O A N A

Three thousand years ago, the greatest sailors in the world voyaged across the vast Pacific, discovering the many islands of Oceania. But then, for a millennium, their voyages stopped – and no one knows why.