Whether or not you've read the children's book it's based on, you're probably as curious as I am to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the upcoming animated film from Sony. I mean, come on -- it's a movie about food falling from the sky! Even if you don't consider the more horrific aspects of what that implies, it's something that's never been seen on film before -- although Adam Sandler's new movie Bedtime Stories apparently features a hail of gumballs. But does it feature as amazing a cast as Cloudy?

TWoP writer Djb went to the Toronto International Film Festival this week and chose ten films to see out of the 300 that were playing, based on whether he thought he'd ever get the chance to see them again on the big screen. One of them was Canada's first stop-motion animation movie. One was a documentary about the world's biggest Chinese restaurant. One of them starred Jean-Claude Van Damme. And these were just the ones he liked! Check out his full report over in Mondo Extras!

The rumors about the amount of Steven Spielberg's input on the upcoming Tintin movie have been greatly under-exaggerated. The original plan was to have Spielberg helm the first in the series, with Peter Jackson succeeding him for any sequels. Recently, Herge Studios (Tintin's owners) released word Peter Jackson would be the director of the first film, not Spielberg. Now we have word that Spielberg is still slated to direct the kickoff Tintin movie, which is scheduled to begin lensing this October, and Jackson will produce. It's a lot of confusion over a movie about the German Shepherd who saved Warner Bros. from bankruptcy. Oh wait, that's Rin-Tin-Tin. My bad.

Hollywood has always loved Shakespeare. I mean, hard not to, right? But they do Shakespeare a lot. If it's not a direct adaptation of a play for the screen, it's one of those "retellings." Now, I won't say that the upcoming project Gnomeo and Juliet is the weirdest of the Shakespeare-inspired films out there, because there have been some really bizarre ones, but it's up there. Produced by Elton John, the animated film will tell the story of two gnomes from rival gardens who fall in love, sing Elton John classics, and try to help you save money on your next vacation. One of those things isn't true. I'll let you pick which it is.

Since I was outnumbered 4 to 1, I had to watch whatever my younger siblings wanted to watch on TV. This meant being tortured by The Dukes of Hazzard and, later on, by Voltron. At least Hazzard had Daisy Duke and car crashes. Voltron had nothing but tiresome repetition and the exact same ending every single episode. My brothers and sister thought this show was Heaven-sent. They even had the (admittedly cool) toy robot that came apart into the five pieces that created Voltron. I dredge up these painful TV memories from my adolescence because, thanks to the Transformers (robots I actually liked), Voltron is now becoming a slightly less expensive CGI-encrusted movie. New Regency has put the Voltron movie in turnaround, and it's getting taken over by developer Relativity Media to be made into a more moderately-budgeted film. (Yeah, that should work out well.)

There are a whole lotta sequels going on. Particularly for the animated animals of the Dreamworks slate. Jeffery Katzenberg, head of Dreamworks, was at a preview for the upcoming Madagascar sequel, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and said that they were planning not just an additional sequel in the Madagascar series, but a sequel to this summer's Kung Fu Panda as well. Having enjoyed both originals and also being always on the lookout for new movies to keep my nephews entertained on long car rides, I'm okay with it. I mean, there are only so many times my poor sister can listen to Cars.

Apparently, I'm crazy. At least, that's what Odie Henderson thinks, since I found the trailer for Zack Snyder's Watchmen movie to be awesome, and Odie thinks it is worthy of a torch enema. I personally think Odie is a little crazy, but I understand why people are protective of the classic graphic novel. Which is why I may have just the thing for Mr. H. and others of his mindset: a Watchmen movie that exactly follows the comic book -- to the word, and to the line.

Martians should be very cross with us Earthlings. First, we send that probe up there to dig holes in their planet in a vain search for signs of intelligent life in the universe. Now Warners has cast Mars' most famous denizen in a film beneath his talents. Marvin the Martian, whose regulator demodulator pistol and other big guns failed to cause an "earth-shattering ka-boom" in several Chuck Jones Looney Tunes, will try his hand at destroying Earth by actually coming here. Variety describes the pitch as "a Christmas story, with Marvin coming to Earth to destroy Christmas but being prevented from doing so when he's trapped in a gift box." Sounds like somebody needs to aim a rip-off demodulator pistol at this plot. Angry green creature wants to stop Christmas from coming? Sounds like that story by Dr. Seuss, the guy who once wrote Warners' WWII-era Private Snafu cartoons.

Back when Disney announced that its first foray back into hand-drawn animation would be The Frog Princess, a story about Maddy, a young black girl working for a spoiled white Southern debutant who was helped by a Voodoo priestess fairy godmother to win the heart of a white prince, many of us had the same reaction: "Wha-huh?" Followed fairly immediately with: "I don't know if that's the best idea." It looks like Disney has finally come to the same conclusion. Britain's The Independent is reporting that Disney has trashed everything from the character's name (who some say was too close to sounding like "Mammy") to the villain's race to the title.

Although it may seem otherwise, not every comic book ever created will get adapted into a film. Sure, a ton of them get optioned, but relatively few will make it to the big screen. For instance, some comics you look at and think, "Wow, this could never be a movie. It's just too good a comic book." Well, Watchmen has blown the doors off of that argument (the fourth behind-the-scenes video certainly helps), and that means that all bets are off. Despite (or because of) being one of the few simultaneously hysterical and beautiful comic books on stands today, Eric Powell's The Goon is getting made into a movie.