MOVIES: "Storks" (Warner Bros.), a highly-anticipated CGI comedy, revolves around the myth about how these aerodynamic avians used to deliver babies. Set in modern times, a corporate head of all storks (voiced by Kelsey Grammer) decides to have his flock use their skills to deliver merchandise to humans (and give Amazon - and their drones - a run for their money). Meanwhile, a subordinate named 'Junior' (Andy Samberg) inadvertently restarts a presently-defunct 'baby warehouse', and the fun really begins. (The comedy team of Key & Peele nearly steal the film as a pair of wolves, who try to capture the baby for themselves.) "Storks" is now playing in cinemas across North America... With so many animated 'talking animal' flicks released during 2016 (including "Norm of the North", "Zootopia", "The Secret Life of Pets", "Ice Age: Collision Course", "Storks", and the upcoming film "Sing"), you would think that more of them would be coming next year. Well, tell that to the staff at Canadian-based Arc Productions (whose credits include "Gnomeo and Juliet"), who had to 'lay off' a large number of their employees - right in the middle of production of their latest feature, "Blazing Samurai" (a martial arts satire, set in Asia). The film features the voices of Samuel L. Jackson, Ricky Gervais, George Takei, Gabriel Iglesias, Mel Brooks, et al, and was originally scheduled for an August, 2017 release. Whether or not this flick will see the light of day remains to be seen... Finally, from the 'If It Ain't Broken, Fix It Anyway Department', Disney announced that they are going to work on yet another live-action reboot of one of their past animated features (just like they'd already done with this year's treatments of "The Jungle Book" and "Pete's Dragon", and next year's "Beauty and the Beast"). This time, it's a remake of "The Lion King" with Jon ("The Jungle Book") Favreau in the director's chair again. Oh, well; "Hakuna Matata!"

HOME VIDEOS: Current new Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital releases of theatrical films with anthropomorphic characters include (The 25th Anniversary Edition of) "Beauty and the Beast" (Disney), "The Angry Birds Movie" (Sony), and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows" (Paramount)...

VIDEO GAMES: A classic Nintendo video game gets rebooted for another new system. "StarFox Zero" brings the anthropomorphic space saga to the Wii U game console, as 'Fox McCloud' and his crew pilot their way into more new adventures than ever before. A bonus game comes with the software, and it's all available at GameStop, Toys R Us, and other leading stores...

MISCELLANEOUS: October is just around the corner; and while many shops are already starting to sell merchandise connected with Halloween and Thanksgiving, other establishments are jumping way ahead, and are beginning to sell Christmas tree ornaments. Among these shops are (participating) Disney Stores, whose catalog of tree ornaments include one of 'Winnie-The-Pooh' (stuck in the doorway of Rabbit's house), and one of 'Elliott' from (the original 1977 version of) "Pete's Dragon" (clinging to the side of a lighthouse). And on the first weekend of October, Hallmark Stores will be adding more Disney, Warner Bros. and other cartoon studio characters to their roster of tree ornaments (which were already put on display back in mid-July). Check them all out... Meanwhile, still other shops are starting to sell 2017 calendars. DayDream is already printing out and distributing calendars based on Disney and Disney/Pixar animated features, such as "Frozen", "Finding Nemo", and (most recently) "Zootopia". Selling for $14.99 (U.S.) each, said calendars include the last four months of 2016, so you can set them up on your wall (or your refrigerator), the moment you take them home with you...