DEVELOPING STORY: Disney has been in the news a lot this year. For example, earlier this year, 'The Mouse Factory' officially finalized its deal - acquiring Fox Entertainment, which means that some of its own animated fare will show up elsewhere. (For example, "Family Guy" is now airing on FreeForm - an ABC Network, owned by Disney). And now, word has it that Disney has just acquired the streaming network Hulu (which was partially owned by NBC/Universal)... But the latest news from Disney is that it's going to have its own streaming channel (to compete with Netflix, Amazon, et al). Called Disney+ (Disney Plus) - scheduled to debut on November 12th - said channel will feature its entire library of animated fare from Disney and Disney-Pixar, along with other entertainment from Marvel, "Star Wars", and National Geographic. As for new fare, made for this streaming network, production has just begun on "Monsters at Work", a Disney-Pixar made-for-TV spinoff of the original film "Monsters, Inc." (picking up where the story ended, months later). Billy Crystal and John Goodman will reprise the voice of 'Mike' and 'Sully' (respectively). "MaW" is scheduled to premiere in 2021... Meanwhile, Disney theatrical releases for 2019 include live-action versions of "Dumbo", "Aladdin", and "The Lion King" (while a proposed live-action "Lady and the Tramp" is in the works for the next decade). And animated fare include more sequels: Disney-Pixar's "Toy Story 4" and Disney's "Frozen 2" (with one or maybe two "Zootopia" sequels in development)…

TELEVISION: Juvenile cartoon fare with all sorts of weird animals includes "Go Away Unicorn!" (from Nelvana of Canada) and two new series "T.O.T.S." and "Amphibia", along with new episodes of "Duck Tales" (now and in September), all on Disney Channel and new episodes of "Puss in Boots" and "How to Train Your Dragon" (from DreamWorks Animation), plus a new series "Norman Picklestripes", all on Universal Kids... For adults, I'd recommend Netflix reruns of "Bojack Horseman" on Comedy Central, and "Laser Wolf" on Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" block... PBS went positive about human lifestyles on the season premiere of its animated series "Arthur". In the new episode, 'Mr. Ratburn' gets married, and eventually everybody discovers that the school teacher is gay, when they find out that his betrothed is a male aardvark!

BOOKS: James Patterson - the co-author behind "By Word of Mouse" (with Chris Grabenstein as the other co-author) - does it again with his newest literary work (under 'Jimmy books') for kids, "Dogg and Katt" (Little, Brown) - the story of two anthropomorphic families (one canine and one feline), and how one of each family member ends up lost in a forest, and must resort to cooperating with each other, in order to survive. Good luck with that!...

MOVIES: Besides the usual Disney cartoon fare, other animated features coming to theaters and/or released on Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital Media during 2019 include "Wonder Park" (Paramount/Nickelodeon), "Ugly Dolls" (Alibaba Pictures), "Farmegeddon" (Aardman Animation) with 'Shaun the Sheep', "Abominable" (DreamWorks Animation), and "The Secret Life of Pets 2" (Illumination Animation)… Films that combine live-action with CGI animation include "Pokémon: Detective Pikachu" (Warner Bros.) - with Ryan Reynolds voicing the title character - and "Sonic the Hedgehog" (Paramount) - the latter work co-starring Jim Carrey as the Bad Guy...