Wallace And Gromit

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. reported fourth-quarter earnings Thursday that were cursed by a were-rabbit. Profit at the Glendale-based studio fell 67% on disappointing box-office receipts for the Oscar-winning "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit." The earnings included a one-time tax benefit as well as a $25-million charge to write down the value of "Wallace and Gromit."

Even if you've never had the pleasure to make the acquaintance of Wallace, the cheese-loving Brit with a passion for bizzaro inventions, and his faithful hound Gromit--the conscientious one in the relationship--you have no doubt spotted some Aardman animation. Perhaps you recall the frenetic music video for Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer." Maybe you're fond of those talking cars that hawk Chevron.

European film and TV writers demonstrated Wednesday in support of their striking U.S. colleagues. In London, several dozen writers rallied in front of the headquarters of Britain's main union federation holding red-and-black placards saying: "We Support the Writers Guild of America." Mark Burton, a British writer whose credits include "Madagascar" and "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," said the issue at stake was "how you pay creative artists in the digital world."

Before "Chicken Run," before the Oscar-winning "Wallace and Gromit" shorts, the British studio Aardman Animations was known for offbeat, experimental films that played at international festivals--and for the misadventures of a little terra cotta figure named Morph. Created in 1976 for the BBC series "Take Hart," the stop-motion character would interact with host Tony Hart by morphing, or transforming himself, into various animals or objects.

Wallace and Gromit have a new home in Hollywood. Aardman Features, the Oscar-winning British animation house, is poised to enter a three-year deal to produce animated movies financed and distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment, the companies said Monday. "It's pretty much a unique voice in the world of animation," said Michael Lynton, Sony Pictures chairman and chief executive. The announcement comes two months after DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.

Critics have tripped over themselves with praise this year for Christopher Nolan's savvy, clever film noir "Memento," starring Guy Pearce as a former insurance investigator with a short-term memory problem trying to solve the murder of his wife. Part of the fun of "Memento" is that the story unravels in reverse. As enjoyable as "Memento" is, the DVD (Columbia TriStar, $25) comes up short.

As the recent success of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise indicates, swashbuckling cinema is still a popular taste. Three new releases allow us to sample swordplay in several different decades. Errol Flynn, one of the classic swashbucklers, shows us what he's made of in “The Prince and the Pauper,” a 1937 adaptation of the Mark Twain tale of an identity switch engineered by a poor boy and a king. Claude Rains is the inevitable evil presence. Australian Rod Taylor, perhaps best known to American audiences for his starring role in Alfred Hitchcock's “The Birds,” plays Sir Francis Drake in 1962's “Seven Seas to Calais,” with theatrical great Irene Worth taking on the role of Elizabeth I. PHOTOS: Behind-the-scenes Classic Hollywood The most modern film, and the most fun, is this year's “The Pirates!

It's been a season of change for the Academy Awards, what with the switch to 10 best-picture nominees, the modification in voting procedures, the shift of honorary awards to a separate event and the news this week that the best song nominees would not be performing on the show. But one aspect of the big night that has remained consistent, for now at least, is the spoilers of Oscar-pools everywhere -- the animated and live-action short films. "Short films are always on the verge," said Carter Pilcher, chief executive of Shorts International and a member of the academy's live-action short film branch.

POP/ROCK Concert Fatality: A man dancing on a handrail during a Rolling Stones concert in Pontiac, Mich., slipped and fell 23 feet to his death Tuesday night. Eric Zylema, 31, fell from the Silverdome's second level to the concrete floor, police said. He was pronounced dead a half-hour later. Witnesses said Zylema had been dancing on the handrail several times, but security had not noticed him because of low lighting during the concert. An autopsy will determine if drugs or alcohol was involved.