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It's a premise I perhaps expected too much from: What do pets get up to when their owners are at work all day? Turns out the answer is "pretty much the same thing as the toys in Toy Story."

DC Universe announced today they've accepted an "R" rating from the MPAA for the upcoming animated release Batman: The Killing Joke.

Winter is coming… and it’s bringing souvenirs. With this month’s return of HBO’s Game of Thrones, it’s time to plan all the viewing parties or whatever your celebration ritual might be. Revels! Comics Beat was invited to get hands on with the sheer tidal wave of merchandise, both current and upcoming, for one of cable’s most rabid […]

Today Disney put out the official word on the dates for their next D23 Expo in 2017. The show is slated to take place on July 14-16, 2017 at the Anaheim Convention Center. This moves the show out of their usual mid August dates. What’s most interesting is who the show could be in direct […]

Earlier today at WonderCon, BOOM! Studios announced LUCAS STAND, an original limited series coming in June from Kurt Sutter, the creator of “Sons of Anarchy.” Shown off was the above Lee Bermejo cover for the first issue. Lucas Stand #1 (of 6) Limited Series Publisher: BOOM! Studios Writers: Kurt Sutter & Caitlin Kittredge Artist: Jesús Hervás Cover artists: Main cover: Lee Bermejo […]

Tonight fans at Wondercon got to see the entire pilot episode of Preacher. While we gather our thoughts after talking with Dominic Cooper, Ruth Negga, and producer Sam Catlin from AMC’s new show; here’s a first look at character fans of Garth Ennis story will undoubtedly recognize.

I've got to tell you, that guy is heavy." Charlie Cox, who plays Matt Murdock on Netflix's Marvel's Daredevil, said season 2 brought some changes to Daredevil and his approach to the character, including getting more physically involved in the role - and even carrying co-star Jon Bernthal, who plays the Punisher, during an action scene.

This week, The Flash closed out a two-parter in which Barry, Harrison Wells, and Cisco travel to Earth 2 to help Wells save his daughter from Zoom. These episodes have sparked even more interest and theories about Zoom's true identity, which will likely remain a mystery until at least the season finale. Spoiler alert - read no further unless you are completely caught up with this season!

Last week, fellow Beat writer Alex Jones wrote this article about the TV show Arrow and it's treatment of female characters. I don't really follow Arrow, so I can't say whether I agree with his assessment. But the premise got me thinking about whether any of these shows could pass the Bechdel test, i.e. the new standard for fictional female characters.

According to reports from Variety, Disney has pushed back the release date for Episode 8 by six months, moving the original release date of May 26, 2017 to Dec. 15, 2017.

Mad Max, Star Wars, The Revenant - 2015 was the year filmmakers, even working with the largest of budgets, harnessed the use of on-location shoots and practical effects to convey big stories. To kick off 2016, the stop motion animated Anomalisa moves to even humbler ground, painstakingly capturing the movements of miniature, life-like puppets to tell a story much smaller and more personal in scale.

By Harper W. Harris Whether you agree with its sweeping of last years Oscars or not, Birdman was a big deal. It brought mainstream attention to an artsy, technically impressive film that laid out some pretty serious criticism of the current state of cinema, overrun by indistinguishable superhero films that will undoubtedly be forgotten in […]

How do you review a movie that the whole world wants to talk about but doesn't want to talk about? By giving people choices. So here, reader, is a choose your own adventure review for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Navigate below for as little or as much info as you'd like.

The week of its release, and The Martian's science is already outdated by the recent discovery of water on Mars. Years from now, viewers will look back and shake their heads at the barren and dry depiction of the planet, along with the size and dimensions of cell phones, probably. Or the fact that we even had cell phones. But we'll forgive The Martian for being so last week.

News about Jessica Jones, Marvel’s digital followup to the hit Netflix series Daredevil, has come at a slow drip over the last few months, but as we head closer to the series’ November 20th release date, the flow of information seems to finally be picking up.  Earlier today, Collider.com released the first official images of Breaking Bad and […]

In a new plan to expand an already sprawling convention, New York Comic Con is expanding its panel roster to an off-campus site.  No longer constricted to the behemoth that is the Jacob Javits Center, NYCC will now be hosting a series of Television-centric panels at the somewhat nearby Hammerstein Ballroom. Ironically, this new panel venue […]

Sometimes films take on heavy concepts: life, death, space, time travel. Other times, they take a simpler approach. Sure, it’s hard to argue that American Ultra is doing anything profound or meaningful, but it’s also hard not to have fun with a movie where the primary question seems to be: What if Jason Bourne was a neurotic pothead? […]

The End of the Tour is probably the closest thing I’ve ever seen to a Matryoshka Russian dolls analogy put to paper. It isn’t “meta”, nor does it contain literal stories within stories, but it’s a work that is only birthed out of the ones that came before it. The outer shell is of course […]

This weekend, actor Jesse Eisenberg, who plays Lex Luthor in next year’s Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, was seen at the premiere of The End of the Tour, a film about the release of David Foster Wallace’s 20th century existential tomb of a novel, Infinite Jest.  In an interview with the Associated Press, Eisenberg was asked about what he thought of his first comic con experience, to which he replied:

“It is like being screamed at by thousands of people. I don’t know what the experience is throughout history, probably some kind of genocide. I can’t think of anything that’s equivalent.”

“I can’t think of anything that’s equivalent,” he says, as he stands in line being screamed at by fans and paparazzi, berated eternally by the strobe of 200 watt light bulb flashes.  I understand that comic con is a stressful experience for all parties, especially the talent, but come on.  Eisenberg’s statement sounds like slight hyperbole for an A-List actor– not to mention the fact that it’s an offensive statement to make in the first place.

Not everyone realizes that Seth Meyers, Rashida Jones, and Taran Killam are already playing superheroes – the trio, along with a cast list that reads like the credits for an episode of Saturday Night Live, voice original heroes on the Hulu animated comedy series The Awesomes. But Meyers was able to merge the characters’ off-screen faces with their on-screen costumes with the help of artist Alex Ross.

“Our dream is to present this show as the show that stars these people,” said Mike Shoemaker, co-creator of the series. “So the idea to have somebody who can put their faces in – I didn’t think it would happen, but he did it… he took it and just made everyone real.”

Killam said he and Meyers are both huge fans of Ross’s work.

“Kingdom Come is one of my favorite graphic novels, for lack of a better definition, and he’s my favorite artist,” he said.

The cast joked that the painting could springboard a live-action episode, and while Meyers said it would be unlikely due to scheduling conflicts, he would like to do a table read with the full cast (fortunately we won’t have to wait long to see Ike Barinholtz in a live action role, as he’s set to appear in the upcoming Suicide Squad film).

Meyers said in addition to having flexibility to book high-profile voice talents due to the nature of animation, doing the series for a company like Hulu, rather than traditional network television, puts less pressure on individual episode ratings.

“I think it’s really been exciting for us to be on Hulu,” he said. “In the network world, the next morning you always find out the ratings and things like that. It’s really refreshing to live in a world where it’s more about building subscribers and content.”

The Awesomes seasons 1 and 2 are available on Hulu, and a third season will debut this year.

As fan frustration increasingly mounts over the lack of female-centered superhero movies and TV shows, the team behind Supergirl vows that when translating Kara to the small screen, they won’t sacrifice the unique take her gender brings to the story.

“For us, usually when you see a female hero – and it’s no disrespect to any of them – they’ve had to lose being female to be the hero,” said Andrew Kreisberg, an executive producer and writer for the show. “Usually when you see a hero, it’s because she’s badass. And what we’re saying is you can be badass and still be a girl, and being a girl ins’t a bad thing. And so much of what makes Kara successful her is that she is a girl, and women do things differently. Our version of this world presents Superman as a bit of a loner… and that’s not the way Kara does things.”

Chyler Leigh, who plays Alexandra Dancer, a character created specifically for the show, said the female-led show was a common sense move.

“I wouldn’t even say it’s a good step forward; it’s appropriate. It makes sense. It is timely,” she said. “I have two daughters, they’re eight and six, and I couldn’t think of a better way to be a part of something that is such a great influence for them. They get to look up to Supergirl.”

Executive Producer Ali Adler said that they saw more than 1,000 women audition for the role, but that Melissa Benoist – who landed the role – was the very first person they saw, and she stuck with them throughout the audition process.

“She is so special and contagious and true,” she said. “She’s unapologetically a badass, and she’s soft.”

Benoist said that although she’s been physically training for the role, it wasn’t something she was used to.

“It’s funny because in my every day life, I have always been such a pacifist. I grew up in a household full of women, and if you hit someone, it was a huge deal, even just a slap,” ehs aid. “So the butt kicking is new, that’s a new muscle I’m flexing, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I liked it.”

At the SDCC panel, showrunners also revealed that Maxwell Lord would be appearing this season, played by Peter Facinelli,  as well as villains Livewire and Reactron.

Supergirl will debut in late October of 2015 on CBS.

Though Hannibal has yet to find a new home for a potential fourth season, showrunner Bryan Fuller said during an SDCC panel that he was investigating the possibility of a feature film instead. In press interviews he later confirmed Amazon and Netflix had passed on the series, though when asked about Hulu, indicated they had not passed as far as he knew. Fuller also said he was confident they could get all of the key players back for a movie, regardless of the recent reports that all of the actors were released from their contracts.

When asked whether they would consider a fan-funded film, such as via Kickstarter, or if they’d go with traditional funding, Producer Martha De Laurentiis answered: “They’ve approached me, so I just don’t know what model we’re looking at, whether we’re entertaining television, or the timing with the cast,” she said. It was unclear whether De Laurentiis had been approached by a crowd-funding type of site or a more traditional method of funding for a feature film, however.

When discussing his character during the panel, actor Hugh Dancy said that the episode airing in two weeks would jump the characters forward three years, to a period where Will Graham is married and starting to recover from his involvement with Hannibal, which is when the show will also introduce the story of  Francis Dolarhyde’s transformation into the Red Dragon. Fuller also said they were going to minimize the focus on the sexual nature of the crimes committed by Dolarhyde, because he does not believe rape should be depicted on television unless the proper time is allotted to deal with the damage and effects. Instead, he said it would focus on Dolarhyde’s attack on the family unit as a whole.

If the show does come back, Fuller said he has plans to reinvent the relationship between Will Graham and Hannibal, but isn’t sure whether he’ll be able to include the character Clarice – though he does have some fantasy casting in mind.

“The Clarice rights have always been tricky, because they’re owned by MGM. Martha has rights to everybody in Red Dragon and every character that originated in Red Dragon, but she doesn’t have the rights to whoever originated in Silence of the Lambs,” he said. “Because the show may be changing formats it might not be possible, or if in the change of the formats we’re able to work out a deal where we can include those things, that would be fantastic. I love Ellen Page. I think she would be a great Clarice, but I also love the idea of not casting someone who is white in that role, and having race play a factor in Clarice’s background in the way that race plays a factor in everybody’s background.”

Fuller said if the show ends here, though, the finale will hold as a series finale, and that he wrote the season with a potential ending for the series in mind. He said he had a gentleman’s agreement with NBC about where his ratings needed to be to survive, and knew when he was falling below that threshold.

“Part of that gentlemen’s agreement was ‘I will let you do the show that you want to do, and I can protect the show as long as we’re above a .5,'” he said. “And once we went below a .5 rating, I knew Jen [Salke] wouldn’t be able to protect us… so I was aware that this was going to be our last season, in many ways, so I wanted to get as much in there. And I thought if we don’t do Red Dragon now, we might not be able to.”

While chatting with press at SDCC this weekend, Executive Producer John Stephens revealed that the second season of Gotham will move away from a story-of-the week method, opting instead for ongoing character arcs and development.

“Bad things will happen and there are villains, but it’s really a saga about the characters who live inside Gotham and their lives,” he said. “So it’s much more fun to write, and I think it’s more fun for the actors to act. I feel like we are taking a big evolutionary step towards the Gotham that we know from the comic books.”

Showrunner Bruno Heller said the change happened as the show found its audience.

“The first season on any show is very much kind of finding its feet, finding out what works, what the audience responds to, and what kind of animal you have,” he said. “The second season is more like, we understand this game now… so this second season is very much allowing us to stretch our legs.”

Stephens added that the popularity of serialized storytelling and binge watching of other shows, such as Game of Thrones, encouraged them to make the switch, though the length of the season presents obstacles.

“It’s tricky to do it over 22 episodes, because you have to build a lot of story,” he said.

David Mazouz, who portrays a young Bruce Wayne on the show, said as a result of the new direction, he expects his character will be less isolated from the ensemble in the upcoming season.

“He’s going to start to go out more and interact with some new characters, and I feel like that’s going to be cool, because you haven’t really seen him do that,” he said.  “I think in the first season I worked with three series regulars, and there’s like 15 of them.”

Gotham also intends to deliver more villains next season, with Victor Freeze, Clayface, and Jerome’s transformation into a proto-Joker.

Meanwhile, fan favorite villain Robin Lord Taylor, who plays the Penguin on the series, says he will continue to delight in the stark differences between this on-screen persona and his own.

“I won’t even send food back at a restaurant,” he said, when asked if he was anything like his character.

Gotham returns on Sept. 21 on Fox.

Traditionally, films starring Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman start off with an imbued sense of goodwill towards the team’s protagonists. But Alan Burnett, the writer and producer of Justice League: Gods & Monsters, has just one concern about the heroes of this film.

“They are not likable in the beginning,” he said. “I don’t know how the audience is going to respond to that.”

Mind you, the names are the only thing these characters have in common with the versions we know and love. Justice League: Gods & Monsters features an alternate version of the characters, including a vampiric Batman and a Superman who is the son of Zod.  Executive Producer Bruce Timm, who said he’d actually pitched the idea of a vampire Batman during Batman: The Animated Series and was denied, noted the upshot to losing those built in personas was the chance to take the characters to new places.

“With these characters, because they’re all new characters…we get to make the rules from ground zero,” he said. “It’s really seductive to know I can take them down weird paths that are shocking and unpredictable and weird in a way that I can’t really do with the traditional characters.”

Burnett, who describes the film as a mystery rather than a typical action/thriller, echoed those sentiments.

“One of the things we talked about, we’ve talked about off and on for years, is that its kind of frustrating that these major superheroes that we work with, if they get in a fight, they can’t really hurt the other guy,” he said. “We sort of wanted to do a character who, if he felt like he had to kill in a fight, it would happen. So that’s the main difference between what we’ve been doing before and this.”

The film also marks Timm’s recent return to the DC animated world.

“I took a little bit of a breather,” he said. “I developed a couple of different properties, original ideas that weren’t superhero related. I developed them, pitched them, and nobody bought them. And I was like, OK, well I’ve got to do something, because I like having food, and I like having a roof over my head. And it was around that same time that I came up with this idea.”

Paget Brewster and Tamara Taylor, who play Lois Lane and Wonder Woman, each said they were surprised and even confused by the marked difference in the characters compared to their traditional portrayals.

“I kept going back and thinking why am I not understanding this, and they explained that this is an alternate universe,” Taylor said. “I had to let everything go and go with this sort of upside-down town we were in.”

Dialogue director Andrea Romano cast Dexter alumn Michael C. Hall, who she’s been trying to cast in various roles for years, in this new take on Batman.

“Dexter was wrapping, and I thought, let’s try one more time, and it just lined up perfectly,” she said. “This is a very different Batman. This is a Batman who is, first of all, quite young – we meet him in a flashback where he’s a college student – and he’s kind of frail, in fact. He’s ill. He’s not strong and robust like Bruce was. He just made it his Batman.”

Justice League: Gods & Monsters will be available for purchase on July 28.

The official @batmanvsuperman just tweeted out a video of this ridiculous Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice diorama hanging over the show floor.  It’s a lenticular structure made of legos, and for those who didn’t buy comics in the 90s or play with dynamic Topps Pokemon stickers, lenticular art is basically something that changes based upon the angle you view it.

82,944 #LEGO bricks were used to create these lenticular #BatmanvSuperman mosaics at #SDCC! #LEGOSDCC @LEGO_Group pic.twitter.com/PtORFvFVfX

— Batman v Superman (@BatmanvSuperman) July 10, 2015

So, I bet you’re wondering how they did it.  2D lenticular art can be made by placing a special reflective plastic sheet over paper, by layering glass over an image, or by simply cutting and angling paper in a certain way.  This, obviously, doesn’t cover legos.

Behold the glory of YouTube:

Cool, right?