A Gathering of Links

So why would TAG blog talk about the recently departed John Hughes? When he was a live-action legend? The Examiner explains:.

Although John Hughes was not an animation icon per se, his career certainly crossed paths with the genre. And those encounters definitely deserve mention here ...

Hughes’ career started as a writer for National Lampoon. National Lampoon Productions was the distributor of the 2003 animated classic Jake’s Booty Call, produced by former Disney topper Michael Eisner’s offspring Eric Eisner ...

Hughes wrote and produced the live action feature film version of Disney’s 101 Dalmations...

And so forth and so on ...

The Martini Boys catalog the upcoming wonders from Disney, the Movie Maker:

... Mark Zoradi the president of Disney Motion Picture Group (I think he might have a little bit of money) came to town with a massive presentation of all of the upcoming projects from the Walt Disney Studios. After being greeted by posters of the Disney releases for the next twelve months and a wide assortment of impossibly perky Disney employees, we were all treated to a massive reel of exclusive footage and production stills from upcoming Disney projects. I was there to see it all and am happy to report the highlights ...

There's exciting news, Caped Crusader fans!

“Julie Newmar is playing Martha Wayne, and playing Bruce’s father, Thomas Wayne, will be Adam West! I think they’re very appropriate parents for Batman… I should probably not be revealing this.” ...

It's not going to be in the next live-action installment, but with Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

Overseas, full-on and hybrid animation chews through the box office record books:

... Twentieth Century Fox's "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" grossed $24.7 million from 8,844 runs in 68 territories for a boffo cume of $551.4 million, making it the top-grossing animated title of all time at the foreign B.O. Disney/Pixar's "Finding Nemo" was the previous record-holder at $524.9 million ...

We'll end with the Philly Inquirer's overview of two animation artists from foreign shores:

Extreme Animation: Films by Phil Mulloy ($29.95; not rated) contains two dozen sexually graphic, bleak and profoundly funny shorts by the brilliant British animator Phil Mulloy, who gives the term dark satire a whole new meaning ...

The Astonishing Work of Tezuka Osamu ($29.95; not rated) features shorts by the Japanese doctor-turned-artist Osamu (1928-89) who has been dubbed "the father of anime." (He's best known for introducing the big, round eyes that distinguish characters in many works of Japanese manga and anime.) ...

Have a life-affirming weekend.