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Mark Hamill is best known for playing Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, but the actor has given life to quite a few other great characters outside the galaxy far, far away. Mark Hamill got his big break in the original trilogy of Star Wars movies, and his time as Luke Skywalker has had a huge impact on his career. While he's certainly best known for Star Wars, Hamill has also branched out into other franchises, genres, and even mediums. In fact, Hamill has played so many great characters in his career that narrowing down the best of them is quite a feat.

Plenty of actors known for Star Wars have made great movies, but very few of them have had as prolific careers as Mark Hamill. In his career, Hamill has had a role in over 300 shows, movies, games, and more. Many of those roles have been animated; for example,...

Underrated animated fantasy movies often don't receive the recognition they deserve at the Oscars. Movies like Wizards, The Red Turtle, and FernGully offer deep themes and incredible animation. Nimona showcases a heartwarming story about facing cruelty, while The Night is Short, Walk on Girl has a satisfying experimental narrative.

Animation lends itself well to fantastical settings, which is why many filmmakers produce animated fantasy movies which sadly do not get as much love as they deserve. 2024s Oscar nominations and predictions included a Best Animated Feature race between The Boy and the Heron and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, with audiences paying little attention to other nominees that were never going to win. Following the categorys inception at the beginning of the millennium, movie fans were treated to many animated movies in the 2000s that were forgotten.

Some of the most underrated animated fantasy movies were nominated for Oscars but...

Early last year, it was announced that Illumination – the folks behind Despicable Me and The Secret Lives of Pets – were working on a new animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ classic How The Grinch Stole Christmas. The announcement came with the reveal of its lead actor, too, telling us that Benedict Cumberbatch will be voicing the eponymous green meanie.

Apart from our first glimpse at Cumberbatch’s iteration of the character back in May, things have gone a bit quiet on The Grinch front since then. Now, though, just in time for the holidays, Illumination has rolled out the first poster for the pic, which arrives next year – and it takes the Grinch in an unexpected direction.

Captioned “He gets meaner,” the poster doesn’t show us the older, grouchier Grinch but rather, the sweet and innocent younger version. With his scarf and big eyes, the Grinch looks downright adorable here...

Nick Aldwinckle Aug 10, 2016

Blood Bath, The Beast With 1,000,000 Eyes and Return Of The Killer Tomatoes: it's our latest DVD and Blu-ray round-up...

Britain is in a state of turmoil, with Brexit, political leadership spinning out of control and social media civil war already underway. As such, it has perhaps never been a more appropriate time for a release of John De Bello and Stephen Peace’s 1988 meditation on the path towards peace and racial tolerance, Return Of The Killer Tomatoes, out on Arrow Bluray.

Set ten years after the events of the Great Tomato War, as depicted in uncompromising detail in De Bello and Peace’s earlier epic, Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes, tomatoes – following the mutant, sentient, strain responsible for the deaths of many citizens – are now outlawed in the Us. As with all the best banned items, killer tomatoes have now gone underground, with a thriving black market...

Last Resort was all out of moves, as the show ended with "Controlled Flight Into Terrain," and given the circumstances, I was impressed with how well this wrapped up the series.

Those circumstances, for those of you living under a rock, were that the drama was cancelled just as it was filming the last couple of installments in its original 13 episode order. Obviously, the show's creators were hoping to get picked up for a full season and beyond. Alas, in the cruel world of TV, that was not meant to be.

The down side of trying to wrap up so many complicated storylines so quickly was that much of the action ended up taking place off screen. A general no no in visual story telling but something that was necessary given the time limits.

So scenes like Robert watching Andrew get killed by a nice woman in the elevator and...

While guys like Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas spent the 1970s reinventing live action moviemaking, animation had just one lone figure toiling away. Ralph Bakshi, trained on Terrytoons and involved in 1960s television animation, began exploring the possibilities of animated features in the shadow of Walt Disney’s death. His Fritz the Cat made people sit up and take notice, followed by Heavy Traffic, and Coonskin – urban, funky, raw tales set in a familiar world.

After that, he set his sights on something fantastic and gave us, in 1976, Wizards. I’ve been waiting for this film to be restored, cleaned up, and released on Blu-ray given its visual artistry and fun story. Finally, 20th Century Home Entertainment has released it for the film’s 35th Anniversary and they’ve given it a handsome treatment. Encased in a hardcover case with a 24-page booklet, the Blu-ray is striking to watch.

We know the greats; movies like Metropolis (1927), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Star Wars (1977).

And there are those films which maybe didn’t achieve cinematic greatness, but through their inexhaustible watchability became genre touchstones, lesser classics but classics nonetheless, like The War of the Worlds (1953), Godzilla (1954), Them! (1954), The Time Machine (1960).

In the realm of science fiction cinema, those are the cream (and below that, maybe the half and half). But sci fi is one of those genres which has often too readily leant itself to – not to torture an analogy — producing nonfat dairy substitute.

During the first, great wave of sci fi movies in the 1950s, the target audience was kids and teens. There wasn’t a lot in the way of “serious” sci fi. Most of it was churned out quick and cheap; drive-in fodder, grist for the Saturday matinee mill.

By the early 1960s,...

Latest Dr. Seuss adaptation isn't winning over too many critics.

A scene from "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax"

Photo: Universal Studios

There are few authors whose oeuvre is as universally beloved as that of Dr. Seuss. The love for Dr. Seuss is so great that plenty of his stories are rife for big-screen treatment. We've seen movie versions of "The Cat in the Hat," "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "Horton Hears a Who," and now we have "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax," which hit theaters Friday (March 2).

Led by an all-star cast of voice talent including Taylor Swift, Zac Efron, Danny DeVito, Betty White, Ed Helms and Rob Riggle, the story follows the journey of a young boy who fights to reintroduce endangered trees to the plastic-obsessed town of Thneedville in hopes of winning a girl's heart. Despite the warm-and-fuzzy sheen of the film, critics were not as wowed by the colorful adaptation.

Latest Dr. Seuss adaptation isn't winning over too many critics.

A scene from "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax"

Photo: Universal Studios

There are few authors whose oeuvre is as universally beloved as that of Dr. Seuss. The love for Dr. Seuss is so great that plenty of his stories are rife for big-screen treatment. We've seen movie versions of "The Cat in the Hat," "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "Horton Hears a Who," and now we have "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax," which hit theaters Friday (March 2).

Led by an all-star cast of voice talent including Taylor Swift, Zac Efron, Danny DeVito, Betty White, Ed Helms and Rob Riggle, the story follows the journey of a young boy who fights to reintroduce endangered trees to the plastic-obsessed town of Thneedville in hopes of winning a girl's heart. Despite the warm-and-fuzzy sheen of the film, critics were not as wowed by the colorful adaptation.

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: March 13, 2012

Price: Blu-ray Book $19.99

Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

The year before his The Lord of the Rings was released, Ralph Bakshi tackled Wizards, which comes to high-definition in Blu-ray Book packaging for the movie’s 35th anniversary.

Set in a post-apocalyptic Earth, the 1977 animated film tells the story of the kindly Avatar (Bob Holt, Gremlins).

He’s the eccentric sorcerer ruler of Montagar, a rainbow paradise inhabited by elves and fairies.

Avatar’s evil brother Blackwolf (Steve Gravers) dominates Scortch, a bleak land of goblins and wraiths, and sets his sights on Montagar. To save his world, Avatar, a spirited young woman and a courageous elf must go into the dark world of Scortch.

A popular flick with the trippy-hippie midnight movie audiences of the 1970s, Wizards also features the voice of Mark Hamill (Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker) and David Proval...

Release Date: Feb. 14, 2012

Price: DVD $19.97, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $24.98

Studio: Warner Home Video

Timed to the release of a new CGI-animated version of Dr. Seuss‘ classic children’s book The Lorax in theaters, the Deluxe Edition DVD and Blu-ray of The Lorax is the first time the 1972 TV movie has been available on either format, except in collections.

Written by Dr. Seuss himself, the 25-minute animated short film tells the story of the greedy, tree-chopping Once-lers and the brave little Lorax, who speaks up for the vanishing forest. Very Avatar!

Rated G, The Lorax is narrated by Eddie Albert (The Longest Day) and the forest lover and Once-ler is voiced by Bob Holt (Gremlins). Hawley Pratt directed the short, after also directing a short film of Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat in 1971.

The new theatrical version of The Lorax features an all-star cast of voice talent, including Zac Efron...

Hallmark Unveils Plans for Comic-Con 2011Kansas City, Mo. (June 6, 2011) — Hallmark announces its return to Comic-Con International in San Diego (July 20-24), providing 125,000 attendees access to Comic-Con-exclusive Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments, a sneak peek of product for 2012 and visits with creators of popular Hallmark characters.

During the convention, Hallmark will sell limited quantities of the following Keepsake Ornaments:

· Ig-88 and Dengar: This two-pack features the assassin droid Ig-88 and Corellian mercenary Dengar from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back™. Ig-88 and Dengar are the third and fourth bounty hunters to become Keepsake Ornaments. Limited run of 1,000 sets.

· Comic Book Guy: Wearing his own Comic-Con apparel, the Comic Book Guy from “The Simpsons” celebrates his 20th year as a popular cartoon character. This is the second year that “The Simpsons” has inspired an exclusive Keepsake Ornament for Comic-Con. Limited run of 1,000 Keepsake Ornaments.

· Descending Upon Gotham: Batman swoops down from the dark heights...

As Toy Story 3 arrives on DVD and Blu-ray, we look at other films in which toys walk and talk under their own power, and they've been doing it for quite a while too!

The Toy Story triumvirate will reign supreme among stories of toys coming to life and it's hard to imagine any single film or series that uses the premise of living playthings ever besting the perfect trio of movies.

But having given the hat trick fair praise, the toys in Andy's room weren't the first to walk and talk under their own control, and other stories feature toys springing to life when their owners aren't around or by the power of dreams and wishes, the magic of midnight or, in one case, the might of military grade munitions chips.

So, if you still have room for more childhood toy fantasies and adventures beyond Woody, Buzz and their crew,...

As Toy Story 3 arrives on DVD and Blu-ray, we look at other films in which toys walk and talk under their own power, and they've been doing it for quite a while too!

The Toy Story triumvirate will reign supreme among stories of toys coming to life and it's hard to imagine any single film or series that uses the premise of living playthings ever besting the perfect trio of movies.

But having given the hat trick fair praise, the toys in Andy's room weren't the first to walk and talk under their own control, and other stories feature toys springing to life when their owners aren't around or by the power of dreams and wishes, the magic of midnight or, in one case, the might of military grade munitions chips.

So, if you still have room for more childhood toy fantasies and adventures beyond Woody, Buzz and their crew,...

"The Lorax" is easily Dr. Seuss' best story and has been my favorite for years (with "The Butter Battle Book" being a close second).  It opens with a young boy in a desolate world who meets a shut-in named The Once-ler.  He tells the youngster a tale of how lush and colorful the world used to be before greed and blind industrialization turned it into a grey wasteland.  And he does it all in Seussian rhyme.  Then he shoots his seed off the balcony and down into the boy's hands... For years fans of "The Lorax" have had to settle for 1972's twenty-five minute TV special if they wanted to see the title character tromp his way through a decimated Truffula forest.  Now though the creative team behind last year's CGI animated hit Horton Hears A Who! has set their sights on this story of ecological devastation and redemption.  Ken Daurio...