When I told my kids they had to watch Toy Story, their initial response was “But we’ve seen it lots of times already!”. “Not like this you haven’t”, I said.

And so they watched a very different, quite astounding version of Toy Story – the Live Action Toy Story Project.

Teenagers Jonason Pauley and Jesse Perrotta started the ambitious Live Action Toy Story Project in June 2010 – it’s a shot-for-shot recreation of the original Toy Story using live actors and actual toys.

The duo began by making short clips of Toy Story scenes which proved so popular that they decided to tackle the entire film. It took them two and a half years to complete and incredibly, Pixar (the creators of Toy Story) gave Pauley and Perrotta their blessing.

Share this incredible film with your kids – if they’re like mine, they will spend the first half agog and the second half dissecting how the movie was created!

(via Gizmodo)

Are you ready for those peevish little birds to fly and those grumbling pigs to explode on the big screen? Despite it seeming as if Angry Birds have achieved world domination, they are yet to conquer the multiplex.

Rovio Entertainment is set to change that with an Angry Birds movie scheduled for 2016. Few details have been released, short of the fact that the movie will be a 3D computer generated feature-length film and that it will be produced by John Cohen, whose impressive list of credits spans Despicable Me, Hop, Ice Age, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who.

The movie also promises to deliver brand new ways for Angry Birds fans to interact with the characters. Hmmm? Does this mean interactive devices for movie-goers? We’ll have to wait and see.

If 2016 seems a long way off (and let’s face it, it is!), enjoy thirty new levels for the Angry Birds game, released to celebrated the three-year anniversary of the Angry Birds franchise.

See our previous Angry Birds posts here.

(via Mashable)

Two of the comic world’s favourite heros are set to meet on the big screen – as Minifigures.

It would have to be one of the most highly-anticipated silver screen castings in history – Superman and Batman as co-stars. The latest news on the Warner Bros Lego animated feature film is that the two superheros will appear together. The 3D film, titled Lego: The Piece Of Resistance, is slated for release on February 14, 2014.

The word is that Will Arnett will voice Lego Batman, while Channing Tatum has been approached to voice Lego Superman – but as yet has not signed up to the project.

Quick folks, get behind this one!A Cautionary Tail is an animated short-film-in-the-making starring Cate Blanchett, David Wenham and Barry Otto.

The film is about a girl born with a tail that expresses her emotions, told through a collage of 3D animated characters and hand-made miniature sets. As a child, her parents celebrate their daughter’s eloquent, athletic appendage and her tail inspires magical make-believe adventures with her friends. As she grows up, however, the young woman faces pressure to fit in, and must choose between conformity and self-expression.

It’s a little dark but also funny and delivers the all-important message of learning to appreciate the things that make us unique. I want to see it for the amazingly realistic sets alone!

The producers of the film have put A Cautionary Tail up as a Kickstarter project. They’ve made a trailer but need a tad more funding to finish the thirteen-minute film. At last count, they needed just $1500 to make their dream a reality – hopefully we’ll get to see a finished product!

Ready to introduce your toddlers to the magic of the big screen? Little Big Shots is just the ticket.If you’re not familiar with Little Big Shots, it’s essentially a children’s film festival, presenting the best in local and international children’s shorts, animations, documentaries and amazingly, child-produced films. It’s fun, it’s inspiring and as a family event, it’s exceptional.

The 2012 Little Big Shots Festival begins in Melbourne on June 9 and there’s a brand new program of eighty-three short films from twenty different countries on offer.

The line-up includes an animated adaption of much-loved book The Gruffalo’s Child; a two-minute film about a little octagon who goes to a school of circles and squares and tries to fit in; the award-winning Mouse for Sale, making its Australian premiere; and the charming documentary, The Vacuum Kid, about Kyle Krichbaum, a fifth grade kid who stands up for what he believes in – his love for the vacuum cleaner!

Personally, I’m excited to see the return of Marcel, the shoe-wearing shell. I promise you’ll love him too.

Little Big Shots is a terrific outing for all sorts of reasons – it offers excellent value (‘packages’ of films are just $7 per person), the films are grouped for particular age groups (check out the Tiny Tots package for children aged two to five years) and the fact that some films only go for one minute means that even those with the shortest attention span are captivated.

In 2012, the festival’s Melbourne season will run from June 9 to 13, at ACMI Cinemas (Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square) and ArtPlay (Birrarung Marr). Bookings can be made online.

Little Big Shots then takes to the road – this year’s touring program includes screenings at the Brisbane Powerhouse (July 4-6), the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra (July 11-20), the Adelaide Festival Centre (July 12-14), the Sydney Opera House (July 26-29) and The Awesome Festival in Perth (October 8-21).

It’s not often we get to show you a brand new, Academy Award winning movie in its entirety, right here on Babyology.

Take fifteen minutes out of your day for the treat that is The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. The film, which is about a man who cares for a library of lively books, won the 2012 Academy Award for animated short film.

Although it is the first film to come from Moonbot Studios, Mr. Morris Lessmore had creative heavyweights behind him, notably William Joyce, who once worked at Pixar, and Brandon Oldenburg (who has worked with DreamWorks).

For a short film, it’s packed with charming moments – from getting the books ‘dressed’ in their dust-jackets and the nail-biting page repair performed on one book to the fun little ‘Pop Goes the Weasel’ dance sequence.

I liked the references to Wizard of Oz (the film begins with a devastating storm) and Mary Poppins (a black and white world fills with colour) and, without giving anything away, the ending might just bring a tear to the eye.

Watch The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore below or buy your own copy via iTunes for $1.99.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adzywe9xeIU

I took my four-year-old to see the children’s animated film Arrietty last night, which is opening in Australia on January 12. It’s a gorgeous film which we both enjoyed and there are hardly any daunting bits for those children who get frightened by scary movies.

This is a story of a family of “little” people. Beneath the floorboards of a sprawling mansion set in a magical, overgrown garden in the suburbs of Tokyo, tiny fourteen-year-old Arrietty lives with her equally tiny parents. The house is occupied by two old ladies, who are unaware of the existence of their miniature tenants.

Arrietty and her family live by “borrowing”. Everything they have is borrowed or made from things they have borrowed. A sugar cube here, a scrap of metal there. But only a little each time, so the ladies do not notice.

Arrietty’s parents have always warned her: “Never let humans see you.” Once seen, little people always have to move on. But the adventurous Arrietty doesn’t listen and is soon discovered by Sho, a human boy who lives in the mansion.

The two begin to confide in each other and, before long, a friendship begins to blossom.

The Director, Hiromasa Yonebayashi has also worked on other animated films including Princess Mononoke and also Ponyo.

Arrietty opens on January 12 in both English-dubbed and subtitled versions. It’s worth seeing for both adults and kids.

You may be used to reading alphabet books with your kids but an alphabet video shows letters in a whole new way.

The short film, Alphabet 2, shows both objects and actions associated with letters of the alphabet. Director Allesandro Novelli of n9ve has steered away from the standard ‘A is for apple… Z is for zebra’ and instead picked out some unusual words to represent such as ‘C is for Cell Animation’ and ‘E is for Equilibrium’. The result is good fun.

You will certainly need to watch this video clip a few times over to appreciate the detail – each letter represents the meaning of the word itself and together with an exceptionally clever soundtrack, it’s a rich two minutes viewing. Listen out for Funky Town mixed with Tetris sound effects and the letter ‘W’ blowing off a wall.

(via The Font Feed)

Call me a bah-humbug but I approach Christmas movies with great trepidation – they’re usually schmaltzy and overly sentimental and really, what can ever live up to that ultimate Christmas movie, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, for festive laughs? Well, I was forced to eat my words (with mince pies on the side) after taking the kids to see the very funny and thoroughly enjoyable Arthur Christmas.

Created by Aardman for Sony Pictures Animation, Arthur Christmas tells the story of what goes on behind-the-scenes on Christmas Eve. We meet Father Christmas and his two sons, muscle-bound technocrat Steve (Hugh Laurie) and gentle, scatterbrained Christmas-devotee Arthur (James McAvoy). Despite Steve’s highly technical computerized delivery system, there’s a Christmas Eve catastrophe when one child is ‘missed’. Arthur takes it upon himself to deliver the gift. It’s a classic head versus heart story line that works so well in a festive setting.

I was an Arthur Christmas fan from the opening scenes – we watch Christmas Eve deliveries happen in a Mission-Impossible-style operation with elves abseiling into homes and delivery, location and gift stats rolling across the screen. A moment of panic ensues when an elf radios to headquarters “We’ve got a waker!”, after which Steve has to carefully talk Santa through the delivery so that he remains unseen – a very modern Santa!

There is a terrific cast of characters including the cantankerous patriarch Grand Santa, who, like Arthur, is somewhat of a softie when it comes to Christmas. There’s also a plucky little elf, Bryony, who is full of clever ideas and knows her way around wrapping a gift.

The scenes from the wrapping production line and the control-room floor are spectacular but it’s really the clever dialogue that will satisfy parents and kids alike. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I tweeted a few favourite quotes (I know, me, the Christmas movie sceptic!). Grand Santa scores some of the best lines with “In my day kids were happy with a pat on the back and a walnut!” and “There was one Christmas… 1854 I think.. .when every child got a sausage nailed to a bit of bark…”.

Note that Arthur Christmas is being shown as an ordinary movie and also in 3D. Bearing in mind that I was in Bah-Humbug mode when my four children begged to see it, I opted for the ordinary movie – “You don’t need 3D effects for a Christmas movie!” I said. I suspect I was wrong. There were so many parts of this film that would have been awesome in 3D (sleigh rides, present delivery and so on) – so I recommend you pack the candy canes and go the whole hog with this one, 3D and all.

I’ll finish with some sweet words that are worth keeping in mind over the busy Christmas period from Bryony, head of wrapping, Pacific Division – “There’s always time for a bow.”

There’s a blockbuster in the making and it’s all happening right here in Australia. Or perhaps I should say ‘brickbuster’?

Lego is hitting the big screen with an animated feature film. There is no whisper at this stage on plot lines but I think we can expect amazing brick scenery and the appearance of lots of Minifigures – as Lego fans know, the sky’s the limit when you’re building with Lego!

Hollywood studio Warner Bros will collaborate with Sydney-based, Academy Award-winning animation studio Animal Logic on the film. Animal Logic’s previous movies include Happy Feet and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole however Animal Logic chief executive Zareh Nalbandian says the Lego film represents another step up in visual effects.

He says the 3D movie will raise the bar on anything that has been done with Lego in the past. Sounds exciting!

The movie is slated for release in 2014 – I’m sure we will hear lots more about it before then but in the meantime, five of the kids in the Babyology office have already put their hands up to “help”! One of my sons tells me that he thinks he’d be quite good at the sound effects for any Ninjago Minifigure scenes. So, if you’re reading this Mr Nalbandian, know that you have lots of eager helpers!

Read our past Lego reviews here.

Clearly, I haven’t been reading enough of Who magazine because not one, but two movie adaptations of the classic fairy tale, Snow White, are due for release next year. Somehow both of these had escaped my attention – until now.

Both movies promise to be spectacular and, happily for Snow White fans, each is quite different.

First up is Mirror Mirror, starring Lily Collins as Snow White and Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen. The story centres on an exiled princess who enlists the help of seven resourceful rebels to win back her birthright. Sneak peeks from the set indicate lavish costumes, a dashing prince (played by Armie Hammer) and all the eye-popping colour and fanciful sets that we have come to expect in modern remakes of well-known stories.

Mirror Mirror is directed by Tarsem Singh and is scheduled for US release in March, 2012.

An altogether darker Snow White will be found in Universal Pictures’ June 2012 release, Snow White and the Huntsman. Starring Kristen Stewart as Snow White, Chris Hemsworth as the huntsman and Charlize Theron as the stunning evil queen, the movie gives Snow White an adventurer’s edge. In a twist on the original tale, we see the Huntsman who was ordered to take Snow White into the woods to be killed, instead becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen. Just released is the trailer of Snow White and the Huntsman – see it below, under the stunning character posters.

As to which Snow White is the fairest of them all – we’ll keep you posted!

One of my friends (a lawyer) was having a career crisis. He did a short course that promised to reveal his ‘ideal career’. The result was puppeteer. I told him that it was probably wise to keep his day job. Obviously Kevin Clash didn’t have a friend like me.

The surprise hit of this year’s Sundance Film Festival is Constance Marks’ documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey. The film’s subject is Kevin Clash, the man and voice behind the most famous Sesame Street character ever, Elmo.

As a teenager growing up in the seventies, Kevin Clash had very different aspirations from his classmates – he wanted to be a puppeteer. From the outset, he had his sights set on being part of Jim Henson’s team, the masterminds behind Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. Clash shares his inspirations and tells of the obstacles he had to overcome in order to make his hobby a profession.

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey combines archival footage with material from the present day and provides rare, behind-the-scenes looks at Sesame Street and the Jim Henson legacy. The film is narrated by Whoopi Goldberg and won the Special Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

The Australian release of Being Elmo will be managed by Madman Entertainment – no word on dates yet but we’ll keep you posted.

(via /Film)

I’ve lost count of the number of times my kids have whined “Why can’t I have that?” or “Why can’t we buy this?” The irony of me humming Andrea True Connection’s seventies disco hit More, More, More is completely lost on them. The meaning of the short movie Ruby Who? is not.

Australian film-makers Hailey Bartholomew and Natala Stuetz have tackled issues of being happy with your lot in just six minutes. Their short film Ruby Who? is about a little girl who discovers that having more and being like others doesn’t mean more fun. In fact, as we see Ruby magically get everything she wishes for we also begin to see that she is weighed down by all her ‘stuff’ and can’t just be herself.

Through its subtlety, the film speaks at the right level for different age groups. My eight-year-old understood that having lots of things bogged Ruby down whereas my four-year-old hit the nail on the head with “She doesn’t need those toys. She just likes to go on the swings.”

The short film comes with a set of guiding questions for parents. I generally find that asking questions about things children have watched or read is best done by stealth but in this instance I just ripped into the questions, teacher and student style. Although I found it somewhat alarming (but also quite telling) that my two older boys really wished they looked more like Justin Bieber, I dug a little further and discovered that one son’s interest in Bieber was less about the hair-do and more about the fact that he is a successful musician (my son plans to be an “electric guitar legend” when he grows up – direct quote!).

There is no dialogue in this movie which is an important element in letting kids draw their own meaning. Instead, the story is told through the music and special mention must be made of the film’s terrific soundtrack, by Aaron Nebauer.

Ruby Who? is an excellent starting point for a discussion with your children about body image and what makes us happy. Have it on hand for when these issues come up – they invariably will at some stage. The Ruby Who? DVD is available from I Like to be Me! for $19.95 though I recommend the full kit for $35 which includes the DVD, teacher/ parent guides, colouring pages and more.

Lastly, for those who need an earworm for the day, More, More, More can be heard here!

I watched in awe with my kids when a contestant on Junior Masterchef sliced into a perfectly cooked Beef Wellington – a dish I have cooked a number of times in the past, with varied results. Perhaps more disconcerting than a nine-year-old turning out my nemesis dish without raising a sweat was the fact that my own children started to expect dishes such as Chocolate Croissant Baked Pudding every night. Humph, it’s time to get back to basics.

Before the term ‘celebrity chef’ was even coined there was Stephanie Alexander – a brilliant chef whose ‘celebrity’ status was earned through years of hard work in the kitchen and beyond. In 2004, she established the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, a program that engages and educates young children in growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing delicious, fresh, seasonal food.

The newly released DVD, Real Kids, Real Food with Stephanie Alexander delivers exactly what the title promises. Although the emphasis is on demonstrating a number of simple, seasonal meals the film includes vignettes of kids gardening, picking vegetables, setting the table and serving the food – important in demonstrating the realistic ‘paddock to plate’ process that is often left out of cookery books for children.

I like Alexander’s starting point – “You don’t need to be worried about mess… Otherwise you won’t make good pasta!” And with that, the kids throw a good handful of flour onto the bench and begin making fresh fettuccine with a simple tomato and fresh herb sauce. There’s also gnocchi, scrumptious looking broccoli and cauliflower fritters, spicy meatballs, green salad and barbecued vegetables.

The kids do most of the work with Alexander lending a guiding hand and providing useful tips on the side. I like the relaxed, natural format – the kids are completely absorbed in what they are doing and the viewers are just looking in – there is no pandering to the audience or clever camera angles.

Buy the DVD including recipe booklet online from Matchbox or the Kitchen Garden Foundation for $19.95 including post. It is also available exclusively from Matchbox’s bricks and mortar stores for $14.95 with any purchase.

Parents, spend six minutes watching this video clip and you’ll never see Toy Story in the same way again.

New York Times’ reporter Melena Ryzik got a rare behind-the-scenes tour of Pixar Studios, including an up-close-and-personal encounter with Woody.

Footage showing the animation process is fascinating but it’s the Pixar offices that will have other office-workers saying “Wow!” The Pixar building was designed to ‘force collisions’ between employees on the basis that some of the best ideas originate in the staff kitchen as opposed to the boardroom. Look out for the fun decor – a Barbie installation, ice cream stained-glass windows, an employee getting around on a scooter and the secret speakeasy room.

My favourite bit is the breakfast bar – dozens of cereals and a fridge full of milk, perfect given that cereal tastes best when eaten at any other time of the day other than at breakfast.

(via Gizmodo)

One of the unexpected and extremely lovely benefits of my older sons learning to read is that they often read stories to the younger children. Like any narrator, a child will put their own mark on a story – whether it be creating voices for characters, emphasising a favourite part of the story or noticing things in illustrations others may overlook.

Smories was created by Lisa Swerling and Ralph Lazar after a very long family road trip. Whilst travelling in southern Africa, Swerling and Lazar’s eight-year-old daughter began filming herself reading Enid Blyton stories and then playing them back to her younger sister, providing hours of backseat fun.

On their return, Swerling and Lazar set up Smories, a site devoted to publishing stories for kids read by kids. Apart from the instant appeal of kids reading to kids, the site showcases unpublished stories, allowing writers to test their work in a friendly forum.

I love the little boy reading the Diggy the Digger stories – he manages a hundred different expressions with his eyebrows. Equally, the little girl presenting Matilda McBean must surely have a future on the stage.

If your children would like to try their hand at reading a story, Smories welcomes filmed submissions by young narrators – could be fun as there are lots of (very sweet) British accents featured but no Aussies at this stage.

There is a special version of Smories available for the iPhone and iPad so you are never caught without a decent story at hand (and someone to tell it). Smories are also conveniently sorted into categories by age and type so that you can find something suitable for your child. Best of all, Smories is completely free of charge.

(via Baby Gadget)

When a mum at school reported that her five-year-old (with a little encouragement by an older sibling) had googled ‘big boobs’ the response was a mixture of hilarity and horror. Needless to say, there were a lot of hits.

I fall into the ‘mean mum’ category when it comes to using the computer and rarely let my children on. When they do get a turn they view a very small, select list of sites with me hovering over their shoulder. High on their most requested list is YouTube – for some reason, watching animals play, babies eat lemons for the first time and some favourite music clips never gets boring. But as everyone knows, YouTube is a big wide world and has lots of things you don’t want your kids looking at.

Instead give them free reign to browse at Kideos, a site featuring video collections for kids. Clips are organised by age groups and also by categories, so they can go straight to the skateboarding dogs and dancing cats. There are also popular characters, nursery rhymes and things that appeal to the narrow and particular interests of children (for example ‘Types of Garbage Trucks’ and space shuttles blasting off). There are lots of clips in the collection and it’s a great site for child-friendly browsing.

Kideos also features a free iPhone app so kid-friendly videos are available on the go as well.

And as to why my two-year-old likes to watch cats eating watermelon over and over, I still can’t answer that!

I love how the trailer shows behavioural similarities in different cultures. These Namibian babies in the beginning are annoying each other exactly the same way my girls do!

I’ll see if I can grab some tickets to giveaway when this is released. Enjoy the trailer!

(via Ohdeedoh)