Cats Don’t Dance.
Technically,
Cats Don’t Dance was only
distributed by Warner Bros.; it was the sole full feature produced by Turner Animation before a merger absorbed the nascent studio into its new corporate parent. But it’s extremely compatible with Warner’s history, not least because it features at least a dozen caricatures of the types of Old Hollywood celebrities that used to dot classic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. It’s even set in 1939, right around the creation of Bugs and Daffy, in an alternate Hollywood where talking animals intermingle with human stars, though they aren’t ever given leading roles. Danny (Scott Bakula) isn’t aware of this limitation, so he takes the bus from his Indiana hometown all the way to Hollywood with visions of becoming a feline movie star.
The Seventh Day, a film described as “
Training Day meets
The Exorcist” starring Guy Pearce as a priest who takes a rookie clergyman on his first demon-hunting ride along. Keith David, Stephen Lang, Robin Bartlett, Heath Freeman, Hannah Alline, Major Dodge, and Vadhir Derbez co-star.
Lightyears
Sissy Spacek and Ed O’Neill will star in Lightyears, a new drama series from writer Holden Miller and producer Daniel C. Connolly at Amazon Studios. The story follows Franklin and Irene York “a couple who years ago discovered a chamber buried in their backyard which inexplicably leads to a strange, deserted planet. They’ve carefully guarded their secret ever since, but when an enigmatic young man enters their lives, the Yorks’ quiet existence is quickly upended…and the mysterious chamber they thought they knew so well turns out to be much more than they could ever have imagined.” Juan José Campanella will direct and executive produce the first two episodes. [Deadline]
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Though it was in production years before the pandemic changed everyone’s way of life,
Raya And The Last Dragon truly feels like the first Disney blockbuster of the COVID era. Accidentally or not, this lavish animated production resonates with the collective grief of the world it’s being released into, inviting everyone to sit with that pain, even as it hints at brighter days to come. Helmed by Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada, together with co-directors Paul Briggs and John Ripa, the film is still very much a Disney princess story (with nods to a Disney acquisition). But with its muted palette and infusion of Southeast Asian cultures,
Alerts
Maggie (Lauren Cohen) discovers you can’t go home again, especially after the Whisperers burned it down.
Image: Eli Ade/AMC
In 2020,
The Walking Dead had two pandemics to deal with. The first, of course, was the zombie virus, which has proven to be such a pesky problem for the survivors and ex-survivors of the show over the past decade. Then there was covid-19, which the show’s cast and crew have been trying to navigate since last spring while making six “bonus” episodes for season 10. If tonight’s return is any indication, they had mixed success at best.