Entertainment

Hayao Miyazaki’s opus — which originally hit Japanese theaters last July, and was long expected to be the director’s final film — will stream on Max on September 6th. For more on the movie, be sure to check out our interview with supervising animator Takeshi Honda.

Disney says the movie has now passed $1.462 billion globally, making it the top-grossing animated film ever, passing the likes of Frozen II and the Super Mario Bros. Movie. It also remains the highest-grossing film of 2024 so far.

If Deadpool & Wolverine isn’t enough to satiate your need for one-liners in a blockbuster movie, Borderlands is here for you. The latest trailer is full of even more Guardians of the Galaxy-style humor, much like the game it’s based on, and you can check it out in theaters on August 9th.

Inside me there are two video game wolves: one that loves to blow up ants, and one that loves to build their colonies. While the Earth Defense Force series satisfies one, the other has remained hungry until now. Launching November 7th, Empire of Ants is a new, hyper-realistic ant management simulator that has you finding food, fighting enemy insects and generally living your wildest A Bug’s Life fantasies.

Really.

NZOC:

On July 22, a drone was flown over the New Zealand women’s football team training session in St Etienne.

Team support members immediately reported the incident to police, leading to the drone operator, who has been identified as a support staff member of the wider Canadian Women’s football team, to be detained.

Canada -- the defending champ -- plays New Zealand Friday. TSN notes Honduras accused Canada's men's team of drone spying in 2021, while France's prime minister said security is intercepting six drones per day.

Samsung gave 17,000 of its Galaxy Z Flip 6 phones to athletes and others around the Olympic and Paralympic games, and here’s one more unboxing.

The phone itself isn’t more impressive than anyone else’s, but British rower Imogen Grant chose a tough upgrade path — the phone she’s replacing was another freebie from Samsung that she picked up at the Tokyo Olympics.

They published gems like Slay the Spire, Signalis and Void Bastards, just released Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus, and were set to publish Monaco II — here’s a full list of games.

But now Humble Games, an offshoot of the Humble Bundle, is apparently just the latest casualty of crippling video game industry layoffs.

Comcast’s earnings report today revealed that Peacock lost 500,000 subscribers in the months leading up to the Olympics — and Peacock’s planned price hike. Despite this, Peacock is pushing toward profitability with $1 billion in revenue and losses narrowing to $348 million.

It’s been a pretty good period for horror with the likes of MaXXXine and Longlegs, and that run looks to continue with Cuckoo, which hits theaters on August 9th.

Cowboy Cartel, which debuts on Apple TV Plus on August 2nd, is a four-part documentary show about a rookie FBI agent who took down the leaders of the Los Zetas drug cartel by tracking their money as it was laundered through a US horse racing enterprise.

Deadline reports the broadcaster will lay off 500 staff by March 2026, with 2,000 jobs already cut over the last five years. The ad-free public service is hemorrhaging funding as Brits cancel their TV licenses.

The BBC is now aiming to become a “leaner, more agile organisation” after operating deficits increased to £263 million ($339 million) this year, despite the cash drawn in by Doctor Who and Bluey.

It turns out that refrain is also true in space. Artist and animator Paul “OtaKing” Johnson just released his latest short film, a gorgeous 20-minute-long take on the Alien universe called Monday, which channels the retrofuture vibes and tense horror of the original. (For more on Johnson’s work, be sure to check out TIE Fighter.) Just the thing to get you in the Xenomorph mode ahead of Alien: Romulus.

Joker: Folie à Deux’s first teaser didn’t feature nearly enough singing from either Joaquin Phoenix or Lady Gaga. But the film’s new trailer features a promising snippet of the clown prince humming a tune and seemingly starting a revolution as he makes his way to stand trial in Gotham.

The original collection featured buttons from the NES and Famicom’s gamepads, but it’s now expanding to include buttons and joysticks from the Super Nintendo, Super Famicom, N64, and GameCube.

The retro keychains don’t actually work as controllers, but could be excellent fidget toys. Unfortunately, they’ll only be randomly available in gashapon machines at Nintendo stores in Japan, as well as Tokyo’s Narita airport.

Monthly active users increased by 14 percent year-over-year to 626 million, but 5 million short of Spotify’s expectations for the quarter. Subscribers also increased by 12 percent to 246 million, with Spotify reporting a record-high operating income of €266 million (about $288.8 million).

The growth timeline “exceeded even our own expectations,” said CEO Daniel Ek. “This all bodes very well for the future.”

That’s the title for the Spawn movie, which Blumhouse Productions and creator Todd McFarlane revealed today, inching it closer to reality seven years after Blumhouse announced its involvement.

King Spawn is also the name of a spinoff series that started in 2021, as part of a Spawn universe that also includes a western series with a gunslinger Hellspawn.

Ahead of the debut of Rebel Moon — The Director’s Cut debuting this August, Netflix has whipped up a red band trailer that — compared to the film’s multi-hour runtime — feels like exactly the right amount of Zack Snyder you should consume in one sitting.

The deal will bring Player First Games, the developer of the free-to-play fighting game, under the WBD umbrella. According to Monday’s announcement, Player First Games will keep its current leadership while continuing to build upon MultiVersus, which officially launched in March.

Apple Music Classical now has a Top 100 chart. A collection of keyboard concertos composed by Johann Sebastian Bach is at number one, followed by recordings of Johannes Brahms-composed symphonies.

Apple updates placement on Mondays, using data from Apple Music / Music Classical, iTunes, and Shazam, according to MacRumors.

Can a Windows handheld beat Valve’s Steam Deck OLED? This sequel to last year’s ROG Ally answers with more storage, faster RAM, double the battery, and USB4. We’ll need more time for benchmarking and battery testing before we can publish our review, but if you can’t wait, it is available now from Asus and Best Buy.

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Hardware hackers Wesk Mods and YveltalGriffin created the Nintendo Kawaii by trimming the console’s motherboard and adding custom PCBs.

Games are loaded on a microSD card, but the Kawaii is fully functional and includes video and GameCube controller connections though a dock. Its creators plan to sell copies of their custom shell, but warn this is a mod requiring very advanced skills.

Olympians unboxing folding phones is my new favorite video genre. Watch members of New Zealand’s swimming team unbox their new Galaxy Z Flip 6 phones — in gold, naturally — which were supplied by Olympic sponsor Samsung. Not only is it delightful when they discover the screen is on “both sides,” the guys and I agree that it’s time for a foldable iPhone, too.