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Happy New Year in Hollywood
Another year has ended. Another has begun. Considering the pace at which this millennium has moved ahead, it seems possible that the wait for some of the most anticipated movies for kids wouldn’t seem as long as the wait for Batman Begins, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Zathura, Chicken Little, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Legend of Zorro, Madagascar, Fantastic Four, Sky High, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Chicken Little, Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and the very recently released King Kong, seemed.
The year 2006 would be bringing some big films with Superman Returns heading the list. Going through all of them seemed an easy task before it was undertaken, but for the benefit of readers like you (and writers like me!) we’ll be discussing the most sought after movies that would be released between January 1 and December 31, 2006 (Releasing dates in parenthesis).
Nanny McPhee (January 27) Emma Thompson stars as Nanny McPhee, a magical nanny with special powers, based on Nurse Matilda books. She enters the household of the recently widowed Mr Brown (Colin Firth) after his seven children have managed to make all their 17 nannies run away! She successfully makes it to their hearts and influences the household in solving all their problems!
Big Momma’s House 2 (January 27) Comedian Martin Lawrence makes a comeback as FBI special agent Malcolm Turner as he goes deep, deep undercover as Big Momma, a nanny housekeeper, to nail his ex-partner’s murderer, only to become attached to the suspect’s three children.
The Pink Panther (February 10) Shawn Levy directs the highly-anticipated prequel to Blake Edwards’s Pink Panther (1964) where the French government commits the blunder of sending Inspector Jacques Clouseau to recover the infamous Pink Panther diamond which was set in a ring that was stolen from the hand of a famous soccer coach – who ended up dead and robbed! The plot puzzles all including Clouseau but fails to baffle his clumsiness which wins in the end! Clouseau (Steve Martin) along with his partner Gendarme Gilbert Ponton (Jean Reno) must unmask the murderer so as to keep their boss, Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Kevin Kline) from taking the credit!
Curious George (February 10) Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore, Eugene Levy and Dick Van Dyke lend their voices to this animated film about Curious George, an inquisitive and fun-loving little monkey with an unquenchable liking for (mis)adventures.
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (March 31) In this much-awaited sequel to the popular animated feature Ice Age, set 20,000 years ago, Diego, Manny and Sid return to face the consequences of post-Ice Age global warming. All is starting to melt, threatening their valley’s existence, thus enabling them to unite and save all.
Mission Impossible 3 (May 5) J.J. Abrams follows Brian de Palma and John Woo by directing the third installment of MI which again features Tom Cruise as secret agent Ethan Hunt who is helped by Ving Rhames, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laurence Fishburne in undertaking another covert mission.
Da Vinci Code (May 19) Based on Dan Brown’s novel of the same name in which Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is on the run with a French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) from Opus Dei — a secret Catholic organization, sanctioned by Vatican to seize the secret of Priory! Directed by Oscar Winner director Ron Howard, this much-awaited film has been shot mostly on location!
X-Men 3 (May 26) Brett Ratner takes off from where Bryan Singer left. He calls the shots to a star-studded cast in X-Men 3, led by Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier and featuring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Halle Berry as Storm and Ian McKellen as Magneto. In this third instalment of X-Men, in which a cure is found to treat mutations, lines are drawn amongst X-Men and the Brotherhood which extends to a fight finale.
Cars (June 9) Cars is an animated story of Lightning McQueen, a racing car who gets waylaid on his way to a big race and discovers the true meaning of friendship! It features the voices of Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt and Owen Wilson as McQueen.
Charlotte’s Web (June 23)
Taken from E.B. White’s book and starring the voices of Dakota Fanning, Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, John Cleese, Robert Redford and Steve Buscemi, Charlotte’s Web is about young Fern and Charlotte the spider who team up to save Wilbur the pig from ending up on the dinner table.
Garfield 2 (June 23) Bill Murray returns as the voice of Garfield followed by Breckin Meyer as Jon and Jennifer Love Hewitt as Liz in this sequel to Jim Davis’s Garfield where the despicable Lord Dargis (Billy Connolly) wants to get rid of the ‘original fat cat’ in order to become the owner of Carlyle Castle.
Superman Returns (June 30) The Man of Steel returns to giant screen after 19 years in this Bryan Singer-directed flick where Superman (Brandon Routh) makes a return to Earth after a long visit to Krypton. Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) plots to render the superhero powerless who comes to know that the woman he loves, Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth), has moved on with her life. In order to get her back, Superman boards a journey of salvation, saving Earth from cataclysmic destruction in the meantime.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (July 7) Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) messes with the wedding plans of Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) as the three embark on yet another one of Sparrow’s misadventures after discovering that he owes a blood debt to the legendary Davey Jones, Captain of the ghostly Flying Dutchman!
Monster House (July 21) Robert Zemeckis and Steve Spielberg join hands to bring this animated story about three children who realize that their neighbour’s house is really a monster! Featuring the magical voices of Steve Buscemi, Spencer Locke and Kevin James and with not a single adult believing them, they are left on their own to find a way to stop the Monster House and save the neighbourhood.
The Ant Bully (August 4) Based on a John Nickle-book, this animated film is about Lucas Nickle who, after being continuously tormented by a neighbourhood bully, floods an ant colony with his water-gun. Using a magic potion, the ants hit back and shrink Lucas down to size, sentencing him to live with them as ‘Nicky’. Featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, Jake T. Austin and Paul Giamatti, this John A. Davis directed-flick is produced by Tom Hanks.
The Santa Clause 3 (November 3) Tim Allen stars yet again as Santa a.k.a. Scott Calvin in Santa Clause’s third outing. This time, he is faced with double-duty since he not only has to keep his new family happy but also come up with ways to stop Jack Frost from taking over Christmas.
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