MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA comes in for a landing on DVD and Blu-ray on FRIDAY, February 6, 2009 from DreamWorks Animation.

With twice the laughs, twice the fun and twice the Penguins, the Move It! Move It! Double DVD Pack and Blu-ray include two animated adventures from Nickelodeon's new television series, THE PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR. The series stars Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, Private and King Julien back at the New York zoo where it all started -- on a mission... without permission.

FEAR(S) OF THE DARK came out Monday, with MADAGASCAR 2 hitting DVD/Blu-ray shelves on Friday. Tuesday releases include a MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER volume, AFRO SAMURAI: RESURRECTION, the 20th anniversary edition of OLIVER & COMPANY, direct-to-DVD SPACE BUDDIES and more.

AFRO SAMURAI: RESURRECTION on DVD and Blu-ray

TABCO Inc. and Digital Video have released TAB Kids 3.1, the new version of a software tool that smoothly introduces kids to the animation world in a funny and intuitive way.

The TAB Kids is a friendly and colorful software for kids to create animations and cartoons. It is so easy that any kid can use it with spectacular results, and yet it is powerful, as it relies on the Toonz technology developed for the industry to produce feature films and television series.

Kevin James comedy PAUL BLART: MALL COP won the box office with $39.2M for Sony in its opening holiday weekend. The box office as a whole was up 31 percent over last year's Martin Luther King, Jr. four-day weekend (per VARIETY).

GRAN TORINO (Warner Bros.) moved down one spot to second with $25.6M and in six weeks has a cume of $76.6M. Third went to opener MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3-D, the widest 3-D opening yet in 2,534 screens, making $24.1M for Lionsgate.

Atomic Cartoons have announced a partnership with Punktuition LLC on the new animated comedy series, PUNKTUITION. Atomic will debut the project to buyers and broadcasters at the 2009 Kidscreen Summit in New York in February.

MARLEY & ME (Fox, vfx by At The Post, LOOK! Effects and Lola Visual Effects) won the weekend box office, earning $24.26M between Jan. 2-4, 2009 and earning a total two-week holiday gross of $106.66M.

Disney's Adam Sandler family comedy BEDTIME STORIES earned $20.5M, staying in second place. With vfx by RotoFactory, Cinesite, Gentle Giant Studios, LOOK! Effects, Lola Visual Effects, Mark Rappaport Creature Effects, Proof and Tinsley Transfers, the film has earned $85.54M since debuting Christmas Day.

Fox's MARLEY & ME won the weekend box office (Dec. 26-28) with $36.4 million, earning a total of $50.7M since its Christmas Day release. The comedy starring Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson and 22 dogs had vfx by At The Post, LOOK! Effects and Lola Visual Effects.

The film's $14.75M first day was the largest Christmas Day opening in motion picture history.

Animacam, the Spain-based online international animation festival, closed its first edition on December 21 and announced the 11 winners for 2008.

Winning its opening weekend, Jim Carrey's comedy YES MAN (Warner Bros., vfx by LOOK! Effects) earned $18.26M, lower than expected because of bad, snowy weather covering much of the U.S.

Will Smith's mysterious drama SEVEN POUNDS (Sony, vfx by CafeFX) opened in second place with $14.85M. Animated feature THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX (Universal, animation from Framestore Feature Animation) placed third in its opening weekend with $10.1M.

This week in AWN's Forums, animators working through Christmas are wishing holiday greetings to each other. A member has written two scripts for any interested producers or studios to take a look at. Know what Los Angeles-based studios are hiring interns? A recent grad is looking for entry-level work. The discussion on transitioning After Effects to Final Cut Pro continues, as does the discussion on how to effectively create thick outlines in Flash.