Ted Thomas discusses the making of his new documentary, Walt & El Grupo, revealing a hidden chapter in the fabled life of Walt Disney.

AWN's Editor in Chief Bill Desowitz walks us through Day 5 of his SIGGRAPH 09 adventure.The key word is 3-D

Press reports have attendance at about 10,000, which is extremely low, of course. But, as I previously noted, it's resulted in a very appropriate quaintness. You can tell that the people who have come here are very passionate.

A look at some of the short films from the Evening Theater’s Festival Chair’s Reel.

A breakdown of the Evening Theater’s Jury Chair’s Reel, which included the following shorts.

Day 2 of the animation competition kicked off at 9am with a loud drumbeat and Afro Brazilian performers. The sound drew a large crowd in to watch the performances. The animation teams had worked through the night on their films so the very lively dancers lent some much needed energy to the competitors.

Well, there’s been a lot of anticipation and curiosity about SIGGRAPH returning to New Orleans (or Nola), not only since this marks the first major conference since Katrina but also because of the severity of the downturn.

Press Release from Six Flags, Inc.

Six Flags, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: SIXFQ), the world's largest regional theme park company, announced today that it will expand its partnership with Nintendo and provide theme park guests with the unique opportunity to play the upcoming Wii Sports Resort(TM) video game. The game features 12 different fun sports activities like archery, basketball and table tennis that everyone in the family can play and comes with the new Wii MotionPlus(TM) accessory, which makes games even more precise.

Press Release from Universal Studios Hollywood

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif., June 30 -- Universal Studios Hollywood introduced "Creature from The Black Lagoon - A Raging Rockin' Show," featuring an all-original score and dazzling Broadway-level production values in a hip, musical stage adaptation of the Universal cult classic, opening exclusively at The Entertainment Capital of L.A.

Broadway show THE LITTLE MERMAID will close August 30, per VARIETY, after a run of less than two years.

Disney Theatrical Productions will closet the show to avoid the box office slowdown that occurs every year in August, and to concentrate resources on the future touring show, set for a fall 2010 tour.

"For us, it feels disappointing," David Schrader, exec VP of Disney Theatrical said.