News

Click here to read the full article.

Jim Henson’s Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas (1977) may not be as widely known as Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) or Rankin/Bass’ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964). But it is no less enchanting or enduring than those Christmas TV specials.

Based on the 1971 children’s book by Russell Hoban, it was produced by The Jim Henson Co. and premiered in Canada on the CBC on Dec. 4, 1977, then in the U.S. on HBO one year later. Emmet was technically ambitious, employing new Muppets wizardry that bridged the gap between The Muppet Show, which debuted in 1976, and The Muppet Movie (1979) ­— including elaborately rigged sets (that had floors) and radio-controlled puppets. The plot, bookended by appearances by Kermit the Frog, follows Emmet and his widowed Ma, residents of Frogtown Hollow, who do odd jobs for residents, some of whom cheat them out of payment.

Flight of the Conchords’ own Rhymenoceros, Bret McKenzie, has signed on to pen the script and write the music for “Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas,” based on the 1970s ABC special from the Jim Henson Company.

Henson’s 1977 TV special was based on the children’s book of the same name by Russell Hoban. McKenzie also has the option to direct the new adaptation, which follows a poor otter family who risks everything for the chance to win the cash prize of a talent contest for Christmas, but a decision has not yet been made. The ABC special used the classic Henson puppet technology that made Henson’s “The Muppets” famous and even included an introduction by Kermit the Frog.

With McKenzie’s attachment, the package will be shopped to buyers, as no distributor is currently on board. The family movie will be a co-production between the Jim Henson Company,...

I took the wife and kids to two of the Free events last weekend and we had a blast!

Cinema St. Louis’ Sliff/Kids, the First Annual St. Louis International Children’s Film Festival presented by Pnc Arts Alive continues this weekend.

Here are the Sliff/Kids Venues for the last weekend of the fest:

• Ronnies 20 Cine: 5320 S. Lindbergh Blvd. Attendees should go to the box office when they arrive at the theater to obtain complimentary tickets. • St. Louis Public Library’s Central Library Auditorium (screenings) and Creative Experience (camps): 1301 Olive St. downtown. • Washington University’s Brown Hall Auditorium: Forsyth Boulevard and Chaplin Drive (two blocks west of Skinker Boulevard). Parking is available in the lots between Skinker Boulevard and Chaplin Drive; no permits are required. And here is the line-up for the films show at Sliff/Kids this weekend. Did we mention that everything is Free??!!

Michael Sporn...

Sliff/Kids opens tonight! I’m planning on attending tonight’s show and tomorrow night’s as well. This should be a great, Free, event and hopefully will turn into an annual fest.

Did we mention everything is free!!!

Cinema St. Louis introduces Sliff/Kids, the First Annual St. Louis International Children’s Film Festival, presented by Pnc Arts Alive. With a half-dozen presenting partners, Csl will offer film programs, camps, and a workshop as part of Sliff/Kids, which is held from July 26-Aug. 4, 2013. A total of 14 film programs will be screened on the fest’s two weekends (July 26-28 and Aug. 2-4) at Webster University, the St. Louis Public Library, the Missouri History Museum, Washington University, Lindenwood University, and the Wildey Theatre. With the participation of both Lindenwood and Webster universities, filmmaking camps on live action and animation will be held at the St. Louis Public Library’s...

Cinema St. Louis introduces Sliff/Kids, the First Annual St. Louis International Children’s Film Festival, presented by Pnc Arts Alive. With a half-dozen presenting partners, Csl will offer film programs, camps, and a workshop as part of Sliff/Kids, which is held from July 26-Aug. 4, 2013. A total of 14 film programs will be screened on the fest’s two weekends (July 26-28 and Aug. 2-4) at Webster University, the St. Louis Public Library, the Missouri History Museum, Washington University, Lindenwood University, and the Wildey Theatre. With the participation of both Lindenwood and Webster universities, filmmaking camps on live action and animation will be held at the St. Louis Public Library’s Creative Experience on the fest’s weekdays (July 29-Aug. 2). And on Aug. 3, a full-day animation workshop will be held at the Saint Louis Art Museum. The Sliff/Kids film programs and camps will be offered free of charge; a...

Revered novelist Russell Hoban has died at the age of 86.

The cult writer, best known for his sci-fi classic Riddley Walker, passed away this month but no further details were available as WENN went to press.

Hoban, who was born in Pennsylvania but moved to London, started his literary career writing children's books in the 1950s, and went on to pen texts across a range of genres including fantasy, fiction, sci-fi, and poetry.

He won the Whitbread Prize in 1974 for his children's book How Tom Beat Captain Najork and his Hired Sportsmen.

A spokeswoman for Hoban's publisher Bloomsbury tells the BBC, "We are very saddened by the news that this much-loved and hugely treasured author has died."...

"Legendary cult author Russell Hoban, whose apocalyptic novel Riddley Walker was described by Anthony Burgess as 'what literature is meant to be,'" has died at the age of 86, reports Alison Flood in the Guardian. "Hoban, born in Pennsylvania but a resident of London for more than 30 years, first made a name for himself with his children's books; his series about Frances the badger and his novel The Mouse and His Child are acclaimed as modern classics. Riddley Walker, set in Kent 2000 years after a nuclear holocaust and told in a distinctive version of English, was begun in 1974 and published in 1980 to huge praise. It has since been included in Harold Bloom's survey of literature, The Western Canon."

The Telegraph calls Hoban "a maverick writer of extraordinary imaginative gifts and highly original turn of phrase; although he was sometimes compared to Tolkien and to Cs Lewis, he conformed to...

Jonathan Franzen's family epic, a new collection from Seamus Heaney, Philip Larkin's love letters, a memoir centred on tiny Japanese sculptures ... which books most excited our writers this year?

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

In Red Dust Road (Picador) Jackie Kay writes lucidly and honestly about being the adopted black daughter of white parents, about searching for her white birth mother and Nigerian birth father, and about the many layers of identity. She has a rare ability to portray sentiment with absolutely no sentimentality. Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns (Random House) is a fresh and wonderful history of African-American migration. Chang-rae Lee's The Surrendered (Little, Brown) is a grave, beautiful novel about people who experienced the Korean war and the war's legacy. And David Remnick's The Bridge (Picador) is a thorough and well-written biography of Barack Obama. The many Americans who believe invented biographical details about Obama would do well to read it.

As Toy Story 3 arrives on DVD and Blu-ray, we look at other films in which toys walk and talk under their own power, and they've been doing it for quite a while too!

The Toy Story triumvirate will reign supreme among stories of toys coming to life and it's hard to imagine any single film or series that uses the premise of living playthings ever besting the perfect trio of movies.

But having given the hat trick fair praise, the toys in Andy's room weren't the first to walk and talk under their own control, and other stories feature toys springing to life when their owners aren't around or by the power of dreams and wishes, the magic of midnight or, in one case, the might of military grade munitions chips.

So, if you still have room for more childhood toy fantasies and adventures beyond Woody, Buzz and their crew,...

As Toy Story 3 arrives on DVD and Blu-ray, we look at other films in which toys walk and talk under their own power, and they've been doing it for quite a while too!

The Toy Story triumvirate will reign supreme among stories of toys coming to life and it's hard to imagine any single film or series that uses the premise of living playthings ever besting the perfect trio of movies.

But having given the hat trick fair praise, the toys in Andy's room weren't the first to walk and talk under their own control, and other stories feature toys springing to life when their owners aren't around or by the power of dreams and wishes, the magic of midnight or, in one case, the might of military grade munitions chips.

So, if you still have room for more childhood toy fantasies and adventures beyond Woody, Buzz and their crew,...

There are certain parts of childhood we all miss: Recess, picture books, nap time. Today, International Children’s Books Day (on what would have been Hans Christian Andersen's 204th birthday) gives us a chance to relive some of those nostalgic moments with cats in hats, hungry caterpillars, ugly ducklings and other wild things. So we asked a few influential figures in media and education to share their favorite titles--the ones that sparked their imaginations and shaped their lives.

Daphne Durham Managing Editor of Books, Amazon.com

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

“Where the Wild Things Are was my first love--simply told, lushly illustrated, and featuring characters that leap off the page (it is a wild rumpus after all)--it was, and is, the perfect picture book."

Vivian Schiller CEO, National Public Radio

Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown

My favorite children' book is Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown.