Reuben Baron

"The Hidden Hand," Episode 1 in the six-episode first season of the HBO series "Dune: Prophecy," moves at a relentless pace. Whenever a new TV show gets an oddly short season, one almost always has to ask: would it be improved by being expanded into a traditional 10-to-22 episode season, or is it one that would it be better condensed down into a long-ish movie? "Dune: Prophecy" is absolutely the former.

Cartoons don't always get the respect they deserve, but viewers of all ages love animated programming. Though American studios have traditionally relegated animation to a specific niche — mostly comedy, and mostly children's programming — the medium is capable of doing everything live-action shows can do and more. In fact, the best cartoons on TV are some of the best shows, period.

The Max animated series "Creature Commandos" is the first installment in the new DC Universe reboot from James Gunn and Peter Safran. It is also the second streaming series, following "Peacemaker," spun off from Gunn's 2021 "The Suicide Squad" movie, which was technically a sequel to David Ayer's 2016 "Suicide Squad" and part of the previous DC Extended Universe. So it appears that at least some of the events of "The Suicide Squad" (but not "Suicide Squad") and most of "Peacemaker" Season 1 from the DCEU are canon in the DCU, except for the parts that referenced the Justice League, who are all being recast and reimagined in the DCU. Don't think too hard about it.

He may live in a pineapple under the sea, but SpongeBob SquarePants still gets visited by Santa Claus. We've ranked every "SpongeBob" Christmas episode.

Most of "Secret Level" feels like an assortment of video game advertisements, though there are a couple of standout elements.

2024 was a tough year for the film industry. The effects of the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes were noticeable in the year's slimmer-than-usual release schedule, and more worryingly, production remained slow to pick up, even after the strikes were resolved. With threats of even greater media consolidation on the horizon, AI still threatening creative jobs even post-strikes, and executives and agents growing ever more cautious about anything that could be even remotely controversial, there are plenty of reasons to worry about the future.

There are several new science fiction movies coming out in 2025, and some of them are follow-ups to existing films. Here's every sci-fi sequel heading your way.

Since "The Animatrix" hit video store shelves in 2003, anime spinoffs of major Hollywood properties have become a common sight... in video stores and on the streaming services that ran them out of business. Not so much in theaters. It's not surprising that Warner Bros. would produce a "Lord of the Rings" anime — what is surprising is that it's getting a full-blown theatrical release.

One common misconception about cinema history is that color film was invented sometime in the 1930s. It's easy to understand why people assume this — the films most commonly identified as classics of early color cinematography come from the late 1930s or later, and black and white films still outnumbered color ones until the 1960s.

Adding up all the seasonal TV anime listed on AniChart, 199 anime series either premiered or returned to Japanese TV in 2024 — and that number doesn't include shorts, movies, direct to video-slash-streaming releases, and ongoing series continuing from previous years. Simply put, there is too much anime for anyone to watch all of it, and there's reason to fear this high quantity might be approaching too much for anyone to make under current conditions. On the positive side, all this anime being made means there's something for everyone to enjoy from the past year's bounty.