Robert Zemeckis

_{Tom Hanks minus a soul.}

Robert Zemeckis' obsession with motion capture has reached its glorious end! At least as far as Disney is concerned. After Zemeckis is finished with his film Mars Needs Moms (it's like he was asking for it), ImageMovers Digital will close in 2011. Walt Disney Studio president Alan Bergman says:

Bob and the entire IMD team successfully built a state of the art studio and produced an amazing film, A Christmas Carol, at a time when the dynamics of the industry are rapidly changing. But, given today’s economic realities, we need to find alternative ways to bring creative content to audiences and IMD no longer fits into our business model.

a.k.a. your characters are creepin' kids out, Bob. I for one am extremely happy to hear this news. Why did the man who brought us Forrest Gump and Tales from the Crypt go apesh*t over sticking dots to professional actors and turning them into animated cyborgs? Never underestimate the importance of pupils on screen. They make us believe the characters have a conscience, even if it's Gary Busey up there. (Deadline)

While talking to Robert Zemeckis about his upcoming film A Christmas Carol, MTV slipped in a question about a Who Framed Roger Rabbit? sequel, and it appears one is in the works. Sure, one's been in the works for two decades now, but now one is really in the works, and with the original writers. Check out what Zemeckis had to say below.

A new clip from Robert Zemeckis's A Christmas Carol has crash landed like your embarrassment of an uncle after a few too many eggnog cocktails. That's a compliment. To the movie. Your uncle's a mess.

If you're not familiar with the Dickens classic, then don't watch, because for some reason the studio decided to put the ending online before the movie hits theaters. 

If you are familiar with it, then I encourage you to watch, if only to see how far Zemeckis's animated filmmaking has come since Polar Express, in which all the characters looked like they hailed from the Village of the Damned. But this time around, Scrooge and company actually seem like they have soul. Not James Brown level, or even on the level of your fat uncle when he busts out the soundtrack to The Commitments and tries to sing along, which only ends up getting the cats all hot and bothered. But it's a step in the right direction.