
Family Programming (40)
First Look: 'Life On Our Planet'
Who will rise? Who will fall? Who will rule the world? From executive producer Steven Spielberg and the Emmy® Award-winning team behind Our Planet, this is the story of Life on Our Planet.
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First Look: 'Saving the Gorillas: Ellen's Next Adventure'
What begins as Portia de Rossi’s simple desire to come up with a nice birthday gift for her wife, Ellen DeGeneres, snowballs into something bigger than anybody could have imagined. The couple find themselves embarking on one of the largest architectural and landscaping projects in the history of Rwanda, only to collide with challenges like volcanoes, earthquakes, and a global pandemic. It all culminates in a once-in-a-lifetime experience for them, their family and friends as they celebrate the opening of The Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. It is an adventure filled with laughter, tears, and experiences none of them ever dreamed they'd have. At the center of it is Ellen, doing things that are not only life-changing for hundreds of others, but that affect an entire nation and give the mountain gorillas a hope for survival greater than they've ever had before.
Saving the Gorillas: Ellen's Next Adventure premieres Saturday, September 23rd, 2023 on Animal Planet.
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First Look: 'Who The Bleep Is That?'
Who The Bleep Is That is a half-hour game show hosted by comedian Jeff Dye, where contestants have their celebrity knowledge put to the test by looking at obscured celebrity images and guessing who the bleep it is! The images take the form of pixilated photos, sketches, throwback pics, stars in their most famous roles, photos embedded in slot machines, and on and on. Contestants compete for a fabulous grand prize!
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First Look: 'Little Baby Bum: Music Time'
Come join the fun at the magical Music Time preschool, where every day is an adventure filled with kid-friendly songs — and lots of learning!
Little Baby Bum: Music Time arrives on Netflix September 25th.
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First Look: 'Leo'
Actor and comedian Adam Sandler delivers signature laughs in this coming-of-age animated musical comedy about the last year of elementary school – as seen through the eyes of a class pet. Jaded 74-year-old lizard Leo (Sandler) has been stuck in the same Florida classroom for decades with his terrarium-mate turtle (Bill Burr). When he learns he only has one year left to live, he plans to escape to experience life on the outside but instead gets caught up in the problems of his anxious students — including an impossibly mean substitute teacher. It ends up being the strangest but most rewarding bucket list ever…
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Disney+ To Debut 28 Newly Restored Classic Shorts
One of the frequent criticisms of Disney+ from longtime Disney fans is that many of the company's older titles are unavaialable for streaming.
If you are one of the people in that camp, then you'll be thrilled to learn that as part of Disney's 100th Anniversary, the company is adding 23 newly restored animation studio classic shorts to Disney+ beginning on July 7th.
The restorations were spearheaded by Walt Disney Studios Restoration and Preservation team, led by director Kevin Schaeffer, working in close collaboration with creative advisors from Walt Disney Animation Studios. The latter included Dorothy McKim, special projects and 2D animation producer, along with color supervision by Mike Giaimo (acclaimed production designer on the two Frozen features and the upcoming feature, Wish) and animation legend, Eric Goldberg (who headed animation on the Genie in Aladdin and directed Pocahontas and two segments for Fantasia/2000). This same team recently restored Cinderella, and are presently working on a restoration of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Ranging from classics to lesser known titles, this package of short films includes examples of Disney’s earliest theatrical shorts (Trolley Troubles and All Wet, both from 1927 and starring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit), Silly Symphony classics like The Skeleton Dance, Merbabies and Wynken, Blynken and Nod, as well as a wide range of entertaining shorts featuring Disney’s most beloved characters. Chips Ahoy, a 1956 CinemaScope short starring Donald Duck and his chipmunk rivals, concludes the series in October, leading up to Disney’s 100th anniversary on October 16th.
PREMIERING ON JULY 7:
AQUAMANIA (1961)
Avid water-skier Goofy sets out to teach his son the fine art of the sport, and accidentally winds up in a championship race. He encounters a hapless octopus and takes a detour on a roller coaster on his way to an unexpected victory.
BATH DAY (1946)
Figaro the cat takes center stage, after he gets a bath (complete with ribbon and perfume) from Minnie Mouse, and then encounters a group of frisky alley cats. A frightened Figaro wins the day when his shaking topples a tower of trash cans onto his rival, and he emerges the victor in the scuffle. Minnie rewards him with another bath.
BUILDING A BUILDING (1933)
Mickey operates a steam shovel on a busy construction site, where Minnie sells box lunches, and a flirtatious Pete is the foreman. When Pete’s advances cross the line, Mickey comes to Minnie’s rescue leading to a chase through a steel skeleton of a building, and a riveting conclusion.
FIGARO AND FRANKIE (1947)
Minnie’s cat, Figaro, is trying to take a cat nap, but the canary (Frankie) insists on singing. A squabble ensues in which Frankie’s cage topples. Minnie thinks Figaro has eaten Frankie, but the bird has simply flown the coop. In the end, Figaro rescues Frankie from the neighbor’s dog, and domestic tranquility is restored.
GOOFY GYMNASTICS (1949)
Goofy enlists the aid of an instructional record and gymnastics equipment in an effort to become fit, with the help of some barbells, chin-up bars and cable expanders. In the process, he wrecks his floors, gets flung around the room and falls out the window, before ending up approvingly behind the cut-out of the muscular man he aspired to be.
THE SKELETON DANCE (1929)
A lively quartet of graveyard skeletons come out to play and dance the night away in this spooky Silly Symphony, set to the macabre music of Edvard Grieg (adapted by Carl Stalling). Ub Iwerks’ inventive animation uses plenty of graveyard gags involving animals and a skeletal xylophone.
PREMIERING ON AUGUST 11:
BARNYARD OLYMPICS (1932)
Mickey and Pete go head to head in a variety of sporting events (running, rowing, vaulting and a wild bicycle race finale), as the entire barnyard (including Minnie and Horace Horsecollar) turns out to cheer them on. Pete resorts to cheating but Mickey wins in the end.
DONALD’S COUSIN GUS (1939)
Donald Duck’s gluttonous cousin, Gus Goose, comes for a visit and practically eats him out of house and home. When the direct approach to getting rid of his voracious houseguest fails, Donald resorts to desperate measures to dislodge him.
DONALD’S NEPHEWS (1938)
Donald attempts to practice child psychology (with a book called Modern Child Training) on his three visiting nephews – Huey, Dewey and Louie – who love to create mischief and play tricks on their long suffering Uncle Donald. The book has little impact on the troublemaking trio, who wreak havoc on Donald and his house.
THE FLYING JALOPY (1943)
Donald Duck buys a rattletrap used airplane from devious proprietor Ben Buzzard, who tricks the unsuspecting duck into making Ben the beneficiary in case of an accident. Ben then leads Donald on a reckless flight, trying to make the plane crash so that he collect a fortune from Donald’s misfortune.
GOOFY AND WILBUR (1939)
Goofy launched a series of his own solo cartoons with this inventive short film which finds him working in concert with his pet grasshopper pal, Wilbur, to lure fish to his net. Not realizing the harm that Wilbur is in until it is too late, Goofy springs into action to try and rescue his friend from an uncertain fate with a hungry frog.
MICKEY’S STEAM ROLLER (1934)
Mickey Mouse is driving a steamroller when his rambunctious twin nephews, Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse, accompanied by Minnie, stroll by. While Mickey flirts with Minnie, the twins hijack the machine and set out on a path of destruction with Mickey in hot pursuit. Mickey winds up being chased by the boys, resulting in a chaotic but happy moment.
PREMIERING SEPTEMBER 5-8:
ALL WET (1927)
Hot dog vendor Oswald the lucky rabbit takes a break from the daily grind and poses as a lifeguard to impress lovely beachgoer Fanny Cottontail. When Fanny’s pretend distress turns into real trouble, Oswald rows to the rescue and the pair make waves as they battle their way back to shore.
TROLLEY TROUBLES (1927)
“Trolley Troubles” launched Walt Disney’s Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon series (although it was actually the second short to go into production) and features Oswald as a trolley conductor trying to keep things on track. Along the way, he faces a cabin full of rowdy bunny passengers, impossibly steep hills, a stubborn cow, a charging goat and other obstacles.
BONE TROUBLE (1940)
This first official entry in the Pluto cartoon series finds our intrepid pup on the run after stealing a bone from Butch the bulldog, and finding refuge in a carnival “Hall of Mirrors.” His initial fear of the distortions leads to a fun-filled adventure where he takes advantage of the mirrors to fend off Butch.
MERBABIES (1938)
Walt Disney enlisted former colleagues Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising to help create this underwater Silly Symphony. Ocean waves form merbabies who are summoned to an aquatic circus playground on the ocean floor, where they interact with a parade of seahorses, starfish and other marine life, before disappearing into the surface from which they came.
MICKEY’S KANGAROO (1935)
Mickey and Pluto spring into action when an Australian friend sends a boxing kangaroo and her child their way. Pluto is hopping mad at first when the visitors wreck his new doghouse and eat his food, but Mickey welcomes the opportunity to have a boxing partner. All’s well that ends well as they come together as a most unusual extended family.
PLAYFUL PLUTO (1934)
Pluto tries to help Mickey with some spring cleaning and leaf gathering, but the day descends into chaos with the arrival of a whirlwind, a leaky hose with a mind all its own, and a fly invasion. Pluto gets into a sticky situation with a roll of flypaper, which leads to some of his most memorable scenes.
PLUTO, JUNIOR (1942)
Pluto and Pluto Junior are enjoying a lazy afternoon snooze when the playful pup tangles with a ball, a balloon, a worm, a bird, and a clothesline. Pluto rescues his son from a precarious situation, gets hung up in the process, but manages to land with a splash.
THE BARN DANCE (1929)
Minnie Mouse has to choose between two dance partners, as clumsy Mickey competes with the more experienced Pete for the pleasure of her company. Mickey uses balloons to make himself lighter on his feet, but gets busted and comes up short.
PREMIERING ON OCTOBER 6:
CAMPING OUT (1934)
Mickey, Minnie, Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar are on a camping trip and enjoying the great outdoors until the arrival of a lone mosquito escalates into an all-out attack involving an army of stinging pests. The campers counterattack with some resourceful countermoves.
CHIPS AHOY (1956)
Hungry chipmunks Chip and Dale are down to their last acorn when they spot an acorn-laden tree belonging to Donald Duck across the lake. Pirating Donald’s ship from inside a bottle, the resourceful duo make their way to the tree, but not without interference from Donald. They take the wind out of Donald’s sail, and end up having the last laugh.
FIDDLING AROUND (1930)
Mickey Mouse shows a wide range of expressions and emotions (and even sports long hair) in this one-mouse virtuoso violin performance. He faces an unseen audience and a heckler as he earnestly plays several pieces including the Hungarian Dance and the William Tell Overture. Walt Disney directed this film, which is also known as “Just Mickey.”
INFERIOR DECORATOR (1948)
Donald Duck stirs up a hornet’s nest of trouble when he tangles with a bee named Spike, who is trying to pollinate Donald’s floral wallpaper. When Donald traps Spike with wallpaper glue, it leads to a sparring match between the two. The whole plan backfires when Spike manages to escape and enlist a hive-full of his bee pals to help get revenge.
OLD MacDONALD DUCK (1941)
Donald Duck gets into the rhythm of doing his chores around the farm, including feeding the animals and milking Clementine the cow, but finds there’s a fly in the ointment (or rather, the milk) when a persistent fly upsets his plans and drives him to distraction.
WHEN THE CAT’S AWAY (1929)
When Tom Cat is away, Mickey, Minnie and group of mischievous mice take over his home and entertain themselves with a variety of musical mayhem. Mickey and Minnie dance across the piano keys, use a wheel of Swiss cheese as a player piano roll, and find an inventive new way to play a phonograph record.
WYNKEN, BLYNKEN AND NOD (1938)
This elaborate Silly Symphony cartoon is a dream-like fantasy about three babes who journey to the moon in a wooden shoe-boat. Along the way, they go star-fishing, and catch a comet in their net to pull them through the night sky. When a storm breaks, they slide to earth on a moonbeam and back into a cradle as one little sleepyhead.
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First Look: 'My Adventures With Superman'
My Adventures With Superman is a serialized coming-of-age story that catches up with a twentysomething Clark Kent (Quaid), the bright and driven Lois Lane (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist‘s Alice Lee) and their best friend Jimmy Olsen (Ishmel Sahid), as they begin to discover who they are and everything they can accomplish together as an investigative reporting team at the Daily Planet.
My Adventures With Superman premieres with back-to-back episodes on Thursday, July 6th at midnight ET on Adult Swim, followed by weekly releases every Thursday.
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First Look: 'Hailey's On It'
Hailey's On It!, an original animated comedy-adventure series from Disney Branded Television, will premiere Thursday, June 8 (8:00 p.m. EDT/PDT), on Disney Channel, Disney XD and next day on Disney+. Auli'i Cravalho stars in the title role as Hailey, a risk-averse but resourceful teenager on a mission to complete every item on her long list of challenging — and sometimes impractical — tasks in order to save the world. Starring alongside Cravalho is Manny Jacinto (The Good Place) as the voice of Scott, Hailey's best friend, and Gary Anthony Williams (The Boondocks) as the voice of Beta, an artificially intelligent operating system from the future.
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First Look: 'Gremlins: Secrets Of The Mogwai'
Gremlins: Secrets Of The Mogwai takes viewers back to 1920s Shanghai where the Wing family first meets the young Mogwai called Gizmo. Sam Wing (future shop owner Mr. Wing in the 1984 “Gremlins” film) accepts the dangerous task to take Gizmo home and embarks on a journey through the Chinese countryside. Sam and Gizmo are joined by a teenage street thief named Elle, and together, they encounter—and sometimes battle—colorful monsters and spirits from Chinese folklore. Along their quest, they are pursued by a power-hungry industrialist and his growing army of evil Gremlins.
The all-star voice cast includes Ming-Na Wen, James Hong, BD Wong, Matthew Rhys, Izaac Wang, AJ LoCascio, Gabrielle Nevaeh Green. The series will also feature notable guest stars including Zach Galligan who starred as the hero “Billy Peltzer” in Amblin’s original “Gremlins” films. Additional guest voices include Sandra Oh, Randall Park, George Takei, and Bowen Yang.
Gremlins: Secrets Of The Mogwai is produced by Amblin Television in association with Warner Bros. Animation. Steven Spielberg serves as executive producer, along with Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey, Presidents of Amblin Television, and Sam Register, President, Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios. Tze Chun serves as showrunner and executive producer. Brendan Hay serves as executive producer with Dan Krall serving as Supervising Producer. Joe Dante serves as consulting producer.
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First Look: 'Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur'
Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, based on Marvel's hit comic books, follows the adventures of 13-year-old super-genius Lunella Lafayette and her 10-ton T-Rex, Devil Dinosaur. After Lunella accidentally brings Devil Dinosaur into present-day New York City, the duo works together to protect the city's Lower East Side from danger.
Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur premieres on Disney Channel 2/10/23 and Disney+ 2/15/23.
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1st Annual Children’s & Family Emmy Award Ceremonies: Remembering Sesame Street Icons (Video)
Sesame Street cast members Alan Muraoka and Martin P. Robinson introduce the In Memoriam Segment with their personal remembrances of Sesame Street legends Bob McGrath and Emilio Delgado. Sesame Street is one of only three series to receive Lifetime Achievement honors, alongside 60 Minutes and This Old House.
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First Look: 'Circuit Breakers'
Circuit Breakers is a half-hour anthology series about middle-schoolers in the near future that uses science fiction as a backdrop to tell universal stories about growing up. The series was created by Melody Fox with executive producer Matt Hastings directing three episodes from the season including the pilot. Circuit Breakers is executive produced by Hastings, Andrew Orenstein, Cottonwood Media’s Sarah Haasz, David Michel and Cécile Lauritano, Aircraft Pictures’ Anthony Leo and Andrew Rosen, and Todd Berger. Fox and Gillian Horvath serve as co-executive producers.
Each installment of Circuit Breakers features a sci-fi twist on kid relatable stories, with the intent of kids and families asking themselves how they would act in each unique situation. The gripping trailer highlights the seven distinct stories with cast including Callan Farris (Grimcutty), Nathaniel Buescher (APB), Veda Cienfuegos (Undone), Cole Keriazakos (Southside), Maz Jobrani (Immigrant), Cale Ferrin (Endlings), Quincy Kirkwood (Y: The Last Man), Arielle Halili (Less Than Kosher), Gavin MacIver-Wright (Odd Squad: Mobile Unit), Khiyla Aynne (13: The Musical), Maya McNair (Clarice), and more.
Circuit Breakers premieres Friday, November 11th, 2022 on Apple TV+
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'Daniel Spellbound' (Photo Gallery)
In modern day New York City, magic is real - it's just hidden from the public. But Daniel Spellbound knows just where to find it. Making his living "tracking" hard to find magical objects, Daniel catches the attention of the wrong people when he discovers a rare artifact and suddenly the fate of magical world hangs in the balance.
Daniel Spellbound premieres Thursday, October 27th, 2022 on Netflix.
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Review: 'Daniel Spellbound'
If you haven't heard of Daniel Spellbound before now, keep in mind that it premiered today on Netflix. Which means, of course, that like many Netflix originals, the pre-premiere press coverage has been close to non-existent.
Which is a shame, because this CGI-series from Matt Fernandes (Dino Ranch, Remy & Boo, Kingdom Force) and Boat Rocker Studios is a blast. Part YA Indiana Jones mashed together with magic and set in modern-day New York City, the series is a non-stop action romp that has the feel of the best parts of Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse.
Teenager Daniel Spellbound (Alex Barima) is a tracker of magical ingredients and he makes his living selling rare goods to sorcerers and wizards for their spells. He lives in a New York City where magic lives just below the surface and it's an arrangement that (mostly) works for everyone. But it turns out that Daniel owes a debt to the evil Pie Maker and the only way he can make that right is to uncover the location of a rare magical item: The Fugu Rose.
That quest will eventually include everything from a talking pig named Hoagie (Devin Mack) to an attempt to steal the heart of a Mermaid Queen. Along the way, Daniel meets Gremlins with a broken ice cream truck, an Insect King and a mysterious Dark Mage. It all ends with an epic battle pitting Daniel, Hoagie the Pig and their partner Lucy Santana (Chantel Riley) against the Dark Mage as they try and defend the Gryphon's egg and save the world.
Daniel Spellbound is just a blast and while it might be a bit too frentic for the youngest viewers, this series will delight young teens. And to be honest, I am about as far from the target audience as you imagine and I watched the entire ten-episode season in one session. There is something incredibly relaxing about just sitting back and letting yourself get caught up in the energy of a fun and engaging series.
After watching the premiere season, you might be curious about whether Netflix might order a second season. My prediction is yes, because the initial order from Netflix was announced as being twenty episodes. My suspicion is that the streamer will save the second group of ten episodes for a few months and then release them as a "second season," even though for budgetary reasons they are really all part of a one season order.
Daniel Spellbound premiered Thursday, October 27th, 2022 on Netflix.
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