Entertainment

Someone made a Lego version of the song "Do What You Wanna Do" from the "Elementary School Musical" episode of South Park. In this episode, the boys find that the whole school has gone crazy for musicals because of a cute boy named Briden, and resist attempts to break into song every time there is an emotional moment. It turns out Bridon doesn't even want to sing all the time and the episode ends with all the roles reversed.

We're sure Beat readers were as pleased as we were when the incredibly talented artist/animator Shaun Tan won the Oscar™ for Best Animated Short Film last weekend for THE LOST THING. Nine years in the making, the short is based on his book of the same name, which has been basically unavailable in the US for a while now. However, a NEW edition has just come out from Scholastic in a collection called LOST & FOUND which includes not only THE LOST THING but two other magical Tan tales, THE RED TREE and THE RABBIT.

A little catch-up here on a potentially groundbreaking legal story that we don't have time to completely break out, but basically early Betty Boop cartoons are now in the public domain, despite Fleischer Studios still owning the trademark and licensing out contemporary versions of Betty Boop (which you see all over the place on purses, Ts and so on.)

IGN has just debuted a "motion poster" for the upcoming CONAN THE BARBARIAN 3D movie starring Jason Momoa, Ron Perlman, Stephen Lang and Rose McGowan, in which he slaughters and avenges all the way across Hyboria. A "motion poster" is like a fancier GIF, and it kind of reminds me of those photos in the Harry Potter-verse...and as such it is kinda cool. Better than a motion comic, anyway.

• Diane Lane has been cast as Martha Kent, Superman's adoptive mom, in the Superman reboot being readied by Zack Snyder. Henry Cavill plays the Man of Steel.. Because she looks so matronly, shown here with husby Josh Brolin at the TRUE GRIT premiere.

This week's EW has an interview with Captain America director Joe Johnston and an exclusive look at the Red Skull, played by Hugo Weaving, which became unexclusive a few minutes ago.

Disney's plans for their TRON resurrection include big plans for it to be a tentpole for their boy-friendly offerings; although TRON LEGACY didn't quite slay as much as hoped at the box office, that never stoped the Disney Army from following a plan. TRON UPRISING the cartoon starts airing on XD in fall 2012 and it has some good folks attached: director Charlie Bean and painted Alberto Mielgo. Definitely looks like something folks can watch late at night while they come down from being party people, which is of course exactly the audience Disney planned it for.

They just don't make 'em like they used to. UPDATE WITH DANZIG!!!

So I finally got to see Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. I use the word "finally" although the show has only been in previews for a couple of months -- still nearly the longest preview run of any show ever. Primarily, I use it because I've been writing about this show for nearly four years. And looking back at my predictions in my very first post about the show, there is indeed a song about Mary Jane's eyes -- so that is one point for me. I also predicted it would be great -- hm, that is maybe one half a point. But NO ONE could have predicted the rest of the saga, from running out of money (after spending $60 million) to people breaking their backs, to Spider-women storming out in fear of their brains being bashed out and a parade of colorful incidents that have already made this one of the most legendary shows in Broadway history.

Two new posters for X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, the young mutants film opening this June, proving that before they grew up to become arch rivals, Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) liked to stand around experimenting with Photoshop color filters.

A new name joins the fabled Spider-Man musical.

Whatever you thought of the hosts, the win in the Best Animated Short Film for Shaun Tan -- which we correctly predicted -- was a nice win for a very talented artist. Although the Australian Tan is more of an illustrator than a cartoonist, his best known work, THE ARRIVAL, is certainly an example of graphic storytelling -- so if he isn't exactly on our team, he's pretty darned close.