while Deakins is quick to play down whatever small role he played in WALL•E's eventual enormous box office success, his creative contribution did not go unnoticed by others in the animation industry.

Nominated for the Oscar as best animated feature (which went to the visually brilliant but drastically unfunny Rango), A Cat in Paris is a slight but entertaining tale, most noteworthy for going old-school, with hand-drawn animation.

I can't speak for the entire New York Film Critics Circle group, but I made the motion because I didn't believe that any of the year's animated features deserved our award.

When you look at the numbers on a movie-by-movie basis, you notice something wonderful. A flood of mid-budget, adult-skewed movies have opened at or above expectations. That's the Hollywood we claim we want, so why are we complaining?

Until tomorrow's final numbers are released, Hop has the top opening weekend of 2011. Universal didn't even bother hyping the celebrity voices, instead selling the various cuddly characters.

It's a couple of days before his movie, Limitless, opens, and director Neil Burger is nibbling at sashimi in a restaurant, pondering a question of whether he's got more at stake with his latest film.

Limitless was the number one film of the weekend, benefiting from an easily-explained high-concept -- a pill that makes you the smartest man on Earth. This was a real test of Bradley Cooper's star power, and he delivered.

CHICAGO — There was no stopping "Limitless" at the box office. The sci-fi thriller opened at No. 1 this weekend with $19 million, according to st...

Rango is the very definition of an odd duck. It is a gorgeously-animated little fable that works both as an homage to westerns and film noir, as well as a thoughtful and spiritual hero's journey.

LOS ANGELES — "Rango" has lassoed the top spot at the box office. The animated Paramount film featuring Johnny Depp as the voice of a Wild West...

The critically-acclaimed and nearly-existential Johnny Depp vehicle grossed $38 million over the three-day weekend. That's the biggest opening for a Paramount animated feature not from Dreamworks.

The film pays loving tribute to classic western movies. It's a great reminder of the genre's glory days and also a great primer for kids to discover what makes it so fun.

Visually, Gore Verbinski's Rango is so stunning and clever that you can almost forgive it for the fact that, really, it's just not very funny. Almost.

Johnny Depp has played some cartoonish characters in his day, but now, he's literally becoming a cartoon in his new flick 'Rango.' The man that broug...