Dreamworks Animation

The movie studio behind "Kung Fu Panda" says it is tying up with three Chinese companies on a joint venture entertainment company that will make Chinese animated and live action content. DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. will have a 45 percent stake. The rest of the company will be owned by China Media Capital, Shanghai Media Group and Shanghai Alliance Investment Ltd. The company will be capitalized with cash and intellectual property valued at $330 million. It plans to begin operations in Shanghai later this year.

EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES★★ ½ (SHO on Comcast) A run-of-the-mill, if perfectly watchable weepie with Brendan Fraser as a father who teams up with a crusty scientist, played by Harrison Ford, to find a drug to prolong his children's lives. The focus on Fraser's puddling eyes or his face wrenching before a crying jag - on his emotional state - feels like something new for the sick-kid movie: Dads hurt, too. (PG; runs through April 10) — WESLEY MORRIS HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON★★★ (Comcast Moves: All Movies)

EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES★★ ½ (SHO on Comcast) A run-of-the-mill, if perfectly watchable weepie with Brendan Fraser as a father who teams up with a crusty scientist, played by Harrison Ford, to find a drug to prolong his children's lives. The focus on Fraser's puddling eyes or his face wrenching before a crying jag - on his emotional state - feels like something new for the sick-kid movie: Dads hurt, too. (PG; runs through April 10) — WESLEY MORRIS HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON★★★ (Comcast Moves: All Movies)

The movie studio behind "Kung Fu Panda" says it is tying up with three Chinese companies on a joint venture entertainment company that will make Chinese animated and live action content. DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. will have a 45 percent stake. The rest of the company will be owned by China Media Capital, Shanghai Media Group and Shanghai Alliance Investment Ltd. The company will be capitalized with cash and intellectual property valued at $330 million. It plans to begin operations in Shanghai later this year.

LOS ANGELES -- Less than a year after going public on the strength of hit films such as "Shrek," DreamWorks Animation Inc. SKG is battling a DVD market slump that forced it to warn yesterday of a loss in the second quarter and to lower its full-year outlook. The company, which badly missed first-quarter profit estimates due to disappointing revenue from home video sales of "Shrek 2," also disclosed it is the target of a securities probe into the trading of its stock and release of first-quarter results.

Disney's new computer-generated movie, "The Wild," is chock-full of lessons that children should take to heart. The early bird gets the box-office returns is one of them. You can never have enough lawyers is another. As your kids have probably already informed you, the plot of the new animated film is shocking in its similarity to last year's DreamWorks cartoon "Madagascar. " In both, a group of animals led by a lion escapes from a New York City zoo and, after an ocean voyage, find themselves back in the jungle, where one of them is worshiped as a god by the locals and...

Mortimer Mouse? The original name for Walt Disney’s famous cartoon mouse certainly didn’t roll off a child’s tongue in the same way that Mickey did, and Lillian Disney knew it (she persuaded her husband to change it). It’s one of the quirky historical details presented at the new Walt Disney Family Museum, which aims to tell the backstory of the imaginative pioneer of American animation. Situated in a renovated historic barracks in San Francisco’s Presidio - with glorious views of the Golden Gate Bridge - the $110 million museum has 10 permanent galleries...

The Republican presidential primary has been characterized by spates of harsh attack ads, mostly funded by so-called super PACs. So far, however, President Obama, a Democrat, is showing little sign that his campaign will join the super PAC fray. According to fund-raising figures released this week, the pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action raised just $4.1 million in itemized donations in 2011. The bulk of the contributions came from reliably liberal donors: Hollywood and labor unions.

Despite the mood in Europe, don't expect any austerity at the Cannes Film Festival, the annual Cote d'Azur extravaganza where glamour is wrapped in world cinema fervor and gauzy Mediterranean sunshine. Except for the Oscars, it's the flashiest red carpet in the world, a ruby staircase flanked by tuxedoed photographers — and a world away from financial turmoil. Yet Cannes, the 65th edition of which starts Wednesday, fetes its directors as much as it does its stars. This year, there are plenty of both: esteemed international filmmakers like Abbas Kiarostami...

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. lost 12 percent, the most since July 2005, after the maker of the "Kung Fu Panda" films said fourth-quarter profit tumbled 72 percent to $24.3 million, or 29 cents a share, as DVD sales declined. Analysts at Goldman Sachs advised investors to sell the shares. "The overall home-entertainment environment remains challenging," said CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Mortimer Mouse? The original name for Walt Disney’s famous cartoon mouse certainly didn’t roll off a child’s tongue in the same way that Mickey did, and Lillian Disney knew it (she persuaded her husband to change it). It’s one of the quirky historical details presented at the new Walt Disney Family Museum, which aims to tell the backstory of the imaginative pioneer of American animation. Situated in a renovated historic barracks in San Francisco’s Presidio - with glorious views of the Golden Gate Bridge - the $110 million museum has 10 permanent galleries that trace the arc...

Disney's new computer-generated movie, "The Wild," is chock-full of lessons that children should take to heart. The early bird gets the box-office returns is one of them. You can never have enough lawyers is another. As your kids have probably already informed you, the plot of the new animated film is shocking in its similarity to last year's DreamWorks cartoon "Madagascar. " In both, a group of animals led by a lion escapes from a New York City zoo and, after an ocean voyage, find themselves back in the jungle, where one of them is worshiped as a god by...

LOS ANGELES -- Less than a year after going public on the strength of hit films such as "Shrek," DreamWorks Animation Inc. SKG is battling a DVD market slump that forced it to warn yesterday of a loss in the second quarter and to lower its full-year outlook. The company, which badly missed first-quarter profit estimates due to disappointing revenue from home video sales of "Shrek 2," also disclosed it is the target of a securities probe into the trading of its stock and release of first-quarter results.

Not all movies have a happy ending: Shares of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. slumped 3.7 percent to the lowest price since May 2009. Box-office sales for the studio’s new film “Kung Fu Panda 2’’ missed estimates over the Memorial Day weekend, said Tony Wible of Janney Montgomery Scott LLC. The “weaker performance on franchise character films is troubling,’’ he wrote.