Toon Boom Animation Inc, a worldwide leader in digital content and animation creation software, sent a donation check to Perry S. Chen, a 13-year-old award-winning animator in 7th grade from San Diego, and his mother and producer Dr. Zhu Shen, becoming animation industry’s first corporate sponsor to Perry and Zhu’s new and most personal animation film “Changyou’s Journey,” about Dr. Changyou Chen, Perry’s father, a biotech CEO and cancer drug researcher, who lost his brave fight against metastatic skin cancer in 2012 at the age of 49.  Perry and Zhu received Toon Boom’s donation on the date of what would have been Changyou’s 50th birthday.

 

 

Continued from previous Narnia movies, Lucy and her brother Edmund, embark on an adventure in “The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” the third film in the series opening on December 10, 2010. The journey takes them on beyond Narnia itself.  Lucy and Edmond seem like ordinary kids, but they are King and Queen in the imaginary land of Narnia.  Today, however, they are going to visit their cranky young cousin Eustace, who doesn’t believe fairly tales and imaginary things until he sees them come alive.

Have you ever wondered if orphans have dreams and aspirations of their own? In Hugo, a Martin Scorsese 3D film opening TODAY, based on the book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield), the 12-year-old son of a deceased clockmaker, lives in a bustling Parisian train station secretly winding the clocks, filching pastries from cafes, and stealing parts from a toy shop to repair a broken mysterious mechanical man called the automaton that his father found in the attic of a museum. But, one day he gets caught by the toy store’s bitter old owner, Georges (Ben Kingsley), who takes his most valuable possession, a notebook with the schematics and instructions to repair the automaton. Hugo’s secret life of hiding in the walls and clocks, stealing to survive, and his most cherished possession, the automaton, are in imminent danger of being revealed. As Hugo struggles to fix the mysterious machine, the secret of the automaton and its origins deepens as he makes a new friend, Isabelle, the bookish, clever goddaughter of Georges, evades an inspector intent on sending him to an orphanage, and eventually finds his own place in the world.

 

“The Croods” is a film about creativity, and discovering curiosity. I enjoyed the opening sequence, where the entire family works together to get a hard-earned meal. It was interesting how they all cooperated to obtain an egg for their breakfast, and how little food they had at the time. The film is a great movie for kids, with a lot of wit and imagination. The movie is very humorous, especially in physical humor; such as when one of the Croods catches on fire and fights through dry grass. Another thing that was funny was that Grug was always hoping that his mother-in-law would die, probably because she was burdening the group. The visuals are stunning, such as the endless shades of green in the rainforest, and the color of the various creatures of the Crood’s universe.

I know a lot of my friends and fans have been waiting for my best list of 2010 films for a while.  The year 2010 has been a “Perrific!” year for G/PG-rated films, especially animation and thought-provoking documentary.  Mom (Zhu Shen) & I saw not only impressive major studio releases, but also amazing indie films at film festivals.

Have you ever wondered what the life of a young journalist is like? Of course, you could probably hear my story, but my career as a journalist is far less dangerous, mysterious, and exciting than that of Tintin, a boy reporter with spiky orange hair in the movie “The Adventures of Tintin” directed by Steven Spielberg. In the film based on a comic, Tintin is a well-known public figure for being a skilled reporter and detective. He and his faithful dog Snowy had solved many a puzzling mystery together, but none as confusing as the Secret of the Unicorn.

Ten-year-old Perry Chen of San Diego is making a name for himself as a film critic. Check out his interview with NPR's Liane Hansen as they discuss the latest DreamWorks film, How To Train Your Dragon as well as his KUSI San Diego TV interview/review.

Have you ever wondered how Santa delivers millions of presents in a single night?  The 3D animation film Arthur Christmas (Aardman production for Sony Pictures Animation) will reveal exactly how things work in Santa’s mysterious Arctic Headquarters. In this movie the clever idea of multiple generations of Santa Clauses is introduced for the first time. In a busy underground snow fortress, countess elves operate advanced technology to calculate how many presents are given, children’s locations, and how naughty or nice they have been, while the Claus family is busy as well, managing the letters and elf teams.

On November 18^th 2011, my mom and I went to the Creative Talents Network (CTN) Animation Expo. It was the third year for this event, although it was the first time for me. When we arrived at the entrance of the Burbank Convention Center where this event was held, we were enthusiastically greeted by Dan Sarto, the Publisher of Animation World Network (AWN) where I am an expert blogger on animation films and events. He told my mom earlier that he really enjoyed CTN Expo which focused on the artists, and it’s a lot easier to meet people than at a huge event like the Comic-Con.

 

 

Do you believe in magic? Do you remember how you felt when you saw a magic trick for the first time? Have you ever wondered what a magician’s life is really like? That is the story behind The Illusionist, a rapturously animated feature film by French animation director Sylvain Chomet about the languishing art of amusement, recently nominated for an Oscar.