Toy Story

Walt Disney Co. has begun rolling out its plan to spur digital movie purchases by removing the technological obstacles that thus far have stymied growth. The studio has quietly launched Disney Movies Online, which lets consumers buy or rent digital versions of Disney and Pixar films and watch them on the Internet. The site was conceived as a bridge to gently transition the family entertainment company's mainstream consumers from the physical to the digital world. It debuted in May without fanfare.

The granddaddy of American theme parks changes little from year to year but seems to get better with age. Among my favorite Disneyland standbys: The Space Mountain indoor roller coaster, the Indiana Jones Adventure dark ride and the venerable Haunted Mansion. The Anaheim theme park recently brought back the 1980s-era "Captain EO" 3-D movie as a tribute to Michael Jackson (which is hopelessly dated or wistfully nostalgic, depending on your point of view). In 2011, Disneyland plans to reboot the Star Tours simulator ride with multiple story lines and unveil the music-themed Soundsational parade.

If indications hold true, voters Tuesday will deliver a powerful rebuke to the Obama administration and its plans to transform America. Also, "Toy Story 3" will come out on DVD. These two events are not unrelated. Last summer's Pixar blockbuster ? one of the best American films in a decade ? was a similar rebuke, not perhaps to the Obama White House specifically but to its underlying ideas. The fact that the film was such an immense hit, earning back over half its estimated $200-million budget in a single weekend, should have served as a warning that Americans, though they might like the president personally, do not share his agenda.

Animated features have long been the favored medium for telling kid-friendly stories about princesses and cuddly creatures. But if New York-based animator Bill Plympton were to have his way, moviegoers would also see more hand-drawn offerings depicting hard drinking, fooling around, murder and deception. "As a kid, I loved kids animation, but now I'm an adult," Plympton, 64, said by phone. "Idiots and Angels," Plympton's fifth independent animated feature, follows a bitter, lonely man named Angel who discovers he is growing wings.

Summer's biggest hits at the U.S. box office had a huge weekend overseas. "Inception" debuted in several major foreign countries and generated strong receipts in all of them, proving that its sophisticated plot can translate well around the world. Japan was the biggest market for "Inception," thanks in part to publicity work done by native costar Ken Watanabe. The movie took in $8.9 million in the country. It opened to $8.1 million in France, $6.8 million in South Korea, virtually the same in Russia and $6.4 million in Australia.

Mattel Inc. reported robust second-quarter sales fueled by strong demand for its Barbie, Hot Wheels and Toy Story 3 lines, but earnings just missed Wall Street estimates. For the quarter ended June 30, the nation's largest toymaker reported profit of $51.6 million, or 14 cents a share, more than double its year-earlier profit of $21.5 million, or 6 cents. Worldwide sales increased 13% year over year, helped by a 6% increase for Barbie dolls and accessories and an 11% gain for Hot Wheels toys.

Few rites of passage are more fraught with collective angst than the kids leaving home. Parents stare at empty bedrooms and brood over noiseless dinners. Young people discover that freedom brings unwanted responsibilities and challenges they may not be ready to handle. Relationships change. No blueprint sets forth how to break away or even when, since some children fly the nest at 18, some bolt in their 20s, and some never summon the gumption — or these days have the money or job — to go at all. "Nobody is correctly equipped to manage what's happening," noted Los Angeles-based author and psychotherapist Stacy Kaiser.

Russians love Shrek. And Russians love the acorn-obsessed squirrel Scrat from "Ice Age." But Russians aren't showing a lot of love for Buzz and Woody. "Toy Story 3," released June 18, has been a blockbuster success in the U.S. and most of the other countries where it has opened, racking up $244 million in ticket sales domestically and more than $100 million in foreign nations, including more than $34 million in Mexico. But the Pixar Animation Studios sequel has posted surprisingly frigid box-office results in Russia, one of the hottest international markets for movies, especially for animated films.

Adding some swashbuckling to its tough talk on fighting piracy, the federal government on Wednesday seized several websites that had offered downloads of pirated movies such as "Toy Story 3" and "Iron Man 2" within hours of their release in theaters. Federal authorities announced that they had seized domain names from nine websites engaged in the "criminal theft of American movies and television." The websites include TVShack.net, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org and Ninjavideo.

Proving that family entertainment from trusted brands has become more powerful at the box office than A-list stars, Pixar's "Toy Story 3" did nearly as much business on its second weekend in theaters as new movies starring Adam Sandler and Tom Cruise did combined. "Toy Story 3" sold a studio-estimated $59-million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada, making it No. 1 against a solid $41-million opening for "Grown Ups," an ensemble comedy starring Sandler, Chris Rock and Kevin James, and a tepid $20.5-million first weekend for the Cruise-Cameron Diaz action-comedy "Knight & Day."