George Lucas Hasn't Retired Just Yet ... New Movie Coming to Theaters January 23, 2015

George Lucas may have handed over the reins to the Star Wars universe to Disney but he hasn't completely retired from the movie business just yet.  A brand new film scripted and produced by Lucas is hitting movie theaters on January 23, 2015.  STRANGE MAGIC is a zany fairy tale of a musical inspired by "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

Popular songs from the last six decades will be spun into a tale that features goblins, elves, and fairies embarking on misadventures in a battle to win control of a powerful potion.  Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic is providing the animation and visual effects for a story written by George Lucas with Disney's Touchstone Pictures production company distributing and marketing the movie. 

Check out this trailer for Strange Magic:

This movie appears to be a family focused movie more in the vein of DreamWorks flicks like Shrek and Rise of the Guardians then the format of Disney / Pixar animated movies.  Interestingly, Touchstone Pictures distributes the live action movies created by DreamWorks while 20th Century Fox distributes the animated family focused movies.  With rumors that DreamWorks Studios may be up for sale could this be a test to see how well their animated movie format plays under the Touchstone banner if it were to join the Disney family of companies?

Anyhow if you are looking for a movie to take the kids to go see for a family outing in January you may want to keep this movie on your radar screen.  For more information, visit the movie's Facebook page: www.facebook.com/StrangeMagic

Little Girls will be Thrilled - Disney bringing Live Action Cinderella Movie to the Silver Screen in March of 2015

Ever since my daughter watched Disney's classic animated movie Cinderella for the first time, she has been totally enamored with this fairy tale princess.  She tells everyone the highlight of her life (all five years of it so far) has been being able to meet Cinderella at DisneyLand.  In fact, when she had the chance to meet Cinderella she proudly showed off the t-shirt she was wearing with the character's portrait vibrantly displayed on it and exclaimed "I'm your biggest fan!"  So you know she's going to be excited when a brand new Cinderella movie sashays into theaters on March 13, 2015.

Cinderella will be directed by Academy Award nominee Kenneth Branagh (THOR, HAMLET) and star Lily James (DOWNTOWN ABBEY) as Cinderella, Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett (BLUE JASMINE, ELIZABETH) as the evil stepmother, Richard Madden (GAME OF THRONES) as Prince Charming and Academy Award nominee Helena Bonham Carter (THE KINGS SPEECH, ALICE IN WONDERLAND) as the fairy godmother.  The movie's producers are promising this live action feature film will bring to life the timeless images from Disney's 1950 animated masterpiece as fully-realized characters in a visually dazzling spectacle for a whole new generation.

Check out this trailer from the upcoming movie:

You know I'd be the worst dad in the world if I didn't take my little princess to see this new adaption of Cinderella.  After watching the animated Disney version of this fairy tale with my daughter more times then I can count, something new that she'll enjoy is definitely going to be appreciated in our household.  Fortunately from the looks of the trailer this movie appears to be actually a decent film to watch for both the princesses and the parents in the audience.

So the question is will my son want to go along to see the new #Cinderella movie theater?  I'm not sure though he does appear to be plotting something with Anastasia, Drisella and Lady Tremaine?

For more information about the movie, visit movies.disney.com/cinderella/