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“ Strange Magic ,” a new animated film from Lucasfilm Ltd., will be released by Touchstone Pictures on January 23, 2015. “ Strange Magic ” is a madcap fairy tale musical inspired by “ A Midsummer Night's Dream .” Popular songs from the past six decades help tell the tale of a colorful cast of goblins, elves, fairies and imps, and their hilarious misadventures sparked by the battle over a powerful potion. Lucasfilm Animation Singapore and Industrial Light & Magic, which created the CGI animation for 2011’s Academy Award®-winning film “Rango,” bring to life the fanciful forest turned upside down with world-class animation and visual effects. With a story by George Lucas, “Strange Magic” is directed by Gary Rydstrom (“Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation,” “Lifted”), produced by Mark S. Miller (associate producer “Mars Attacks!”) and executive produced by George Lucas, with a screenplay by David Berenbaum (“Elf”), Irene Mecchi (“Brave,” “The Lion King”) and Rydstrom. An extr...

Movie Studios Build Hype With Comic-Con When the seventh annual San Diego Comic-Con took place in 1976, the gathering of a few thousand fans was just what its name implied: a convention about comic books. That year, however, Lucasfilm Ltd . set up a booth and held a slideshow presentation about a movie nearly a year away from release, " Star Wars ." More than 30 years later, the convention appears to be more and more a place where movie studios and television networks can follow in the footsteps of "Star Wars'" by giving hard-core fans an early look at upcoming releases. Sometimes, it's a very early look. Walt Disney Pictures came to Comic-Con in 2008 with test footage from what was then referred to as "TR2N," a sequel to the 1982 cult classic " Tron ," one of the first films to use computer-generated imagery. The special effects and appearance by Jeff Bridges, reprising his role in the original, made a big splash with the audienc...