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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1YQFj64oBk

Space Jam and the Monstars is back in this energetic, funny Footlockers ad for the Jordan brand, with a young, all-new set of basketball stars. Via TIME:

Move over, Warriors. The original super team (or rather super villains), Space Jam’s Monstars, are back and badder than ever in Foot Locker’s latest commercial for Jordan brand.

In the clip, a young basketball team faces the notorious Monstars, who are dominating basketball courts once again. Luckily, the youngsters conveniently find a Foot Locker across the street, where Bugs Bunny supplies them with the gear to eventually defeat the Monstars — although a lot of that might also have to do with the fact that a Toon Squad jersey-clad Blake Griffin shows up to help the kids on the court and swap witticisms with Bugs.

Jimmy Butler also makes a nice cameo as the tale’s narrator, but Griffin’s comic performance in the brief makes a strong case for the Clippers player to be the star of the long-rumored Space Jam sequel. Although LeBron James is the rumored favorite to take over the franchise, the original star of Space Jam, Michael Jordan, has gone on record saying that he thinks Griffin would be a fitting successor.

Naughty Dog has announced a sequel to its critically acclaimed zombie game, The Last of Us. Set in the future, Ellie is now the main character. Via Kotaku:

While it has been rumored for a while now, today we got official confirmation that The Last of Us is getting a sequel that follows an older Ellie and Joel.

The first game was released in 2013 with a big cliffhanger that didn’t make it very clear what would happen to Ellie, so it makes sense for Naughty Dog to return to her. Given Joel’s decision to save Ellie, there’s a lot of juicy ground for a follow-up to cover. Does Ellie feel guilty? Does she…know? What happened to Joel and Ellie’s relationship?

At the moment, The Last of Us Part II is in early development stages, so we’re likely not going to be able to play it for a while still.

So. Who do you think Ellie wants to kill, the Fireflies?

Finally, if you’re thinking to yourself that TLOU did not need a sequel, here’s creative director Neil Druckmann:

“I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to finally be able to say that Ellie and Joel are back for another intense, harrowing, and emotional adventure. Like many of you, we have a deep love for the world of The Last of Us and its characters, and while a sequel may have seemed like a foregone conclusion, that wasn’t the case. We knew that it needed to be a story worth telling and, perhaps more importantly, a story worthy of Joel and Ellie. After spending years on different ideas (and almost giving up), we finally uncovered a story that felt special—a story that evolved into an epic journey.”

ICYMI: The Guardians of the Galaxy 2 Trailer, larger than life and with far, far more Baby Groot, who completely steals the show. Via Cinemablend:

There are no two ways about it: James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy turned out to be an absolutely massive hit. Not only did it earn some of the best reviews of 2014, it also turned out to be massively popular with movie-goers and was a box office smash. With all of the buzz going into opening weekend, it was barely a surprise when Marvel Studios announced, before the first film even opened, that a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 would be out in 2017. Now it’s easily one of our most anticipated future titles.

[…]

Of the 10 movies that will be coming out in Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will be arriving third – following both Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange. The first movie to come out as part of Marvel Studios’ first calendar year with three blockbusters, the James Gunn-directed sequel will be in theaters on May 5, 2017. The deep space story will kick things off for the year, and be followed by Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: Homecoming (July 7, 2017) and Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok (November 3, 2017).

Welcome to Canada is a short film about Mohammed Alsaleh, a young Syrian refugee granted asylum in Canada after fleeing his war-torn homeland. Via Short of the Week:

Mohammed Alsaleh, in a strict story sense, is a fabulous character. A young, idealistic Syrian, he abandoned his quest to work to solve cancer after being tortured by the Assad regime. Receiving amnesty from the Canadian government, he emigrated early in the war to Vancouver, where he now works with a government agency to settle incoming refugee families in his adopted home. His sense of purpose and mission is strong, and his energy and warmth is admirable, but underneath the exterior is the pain of trauma, and the deep loneliness of being separated from his family.

Yes, Alsaleh’s story is important. Countries around the world have been shamefully reticent to extend welcoming arms to the millions of refugees displaced, and in my country the President-elect proposed a blanket ban on anyone from Muslim-dominated countries. It is useful to shine a light on the numerous decent, caring and hurting peoples whom these policies condemn. Humanizing the other and fostering empathy is one of the things that film as a medium is unusually well-suited to accomplish.

ICYMI – Hideo Kojima, late of the Metal Gear Solid series, has released a new trailer for his upcoming game Death Stranding, starring Guillermo Del Toro, Mads Mikkelsen and Norman Reedus of the Walking Dead (Not shown in trailer). Via Polygon:

Hideo Kojima brought a new trailer for Death Stranding to The Game Awards 2016, presenting our first look at the game since its E3 2016 premiere. […]

Film director Guillermo Del Toro, who worked with Kojima on the canceled game Silent Hills, stars in this latest look. In a decrepit, dystopian city, Del Toro is seen clutching a strange device. Inside is a baby, reminiscent of the infant seen in the initial Death Stranding teaser.

Also in the trailer is Mads Mikkelsen, star of Hannibal and one of Kojima’s favorite actors. The star of film and TV has long been rumored to be a part of Death Stranding. Mikkelsen is joined by The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus in the cast, although the trailer’s credits neglected to mention Del Toro’s inclusion.

The footage shown comes from a PlayStation 4 Pro, said host Geoff Keighley after the trailer.

No one still has any real idea what this game is about, but it looks like a mash up of Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid to us. Looking forward to it!

This strange, energetic ad for French network Canal+ takes cooking up a storm to new heights: it’s set in a commercial kitchen. Via Adweek:

One reason people go for over-the-top (OTT) services like Netflix is you don’t have to worry about channels anymore. You can just run it and have this broad array of awesome content at your fingertips. Barring HBO, channels are too dispersed to put up much of a fight against that kind of variety. They’re niches, and if you don’t fit into theirs, it isn’t likely you’ll visit the channel all that often.

Then there are bundles. Bundling is one of the things millennials would like to see vanish—you’re paying for a few channels you like, and getting a whole bunch you don’t care about. Even so, French network Canal+ has just released an energetic little ad that makes bundles feel a lot like … well, Netflix, frankly.

“Kitchen,” created by BETC Paris, takes place in a bustling kitchen. You know something is off when the eggs cracked over a bowl don’t drop yolks but shrieking velociraptors, ready for battle. Another cook walks by with a steaming city on a hot plate, while yet another scoops a tin of soccer players out with a spoon, like caviar.

There’s more where this came from. A wriggling cartoon character is sliced into colorful pieces, and a car chase ends tragically when one lands in a mound of flour … and the other is snapped up to be grated. Meanwhile, a carton marked “series” is set on the table, revealing warriors on ice waiting to be shelled.

Good morning Monday! Anyone else excited over Moana? It’s the upcoming Disney “princess” film, with music from Hamilton’s Lin Manuel Miranda! Via the New York Times’ review:

Moana is the daughter of a chief and will someday inherit her father’s position, but she’s furious when Maui, a tattooed, muscle-bound demigod, calls her a princess. Moana (MWAH-nah) is not only part of a dynastic line but also a girl off on an adventure in the company of a cute animal sidekick (a dimwitted chicken named Heihei). So not just any princess, in other words: a Disney princess. She may be on a quest to save her island and restore ecological balance to the planet, but Moana (voiced by Auli’i Cravalho) is also upholding a brand.

It is, as these things go, a pretty good brand. The Disney princess tradition has held onto its charm as it has changed with the times, widening its cultural frame of reference and allowing its heroines to travel down paths other than the one leading straight to matrimony. Moana, bantering with Maui (Dwayne Johnson) like a rival sibling and borne on her journey by the spirits of the ocean and her grandmother (Rachel House), has no need of a prince.

Ham4Bey is the Hamilton Beyonce mashup of your dreams. Created By Michael Korte & arranged By Jared Jenkins, it’s 7 minutes of pure joy, mixing up songs from the blockbuster musical Hamilton and songs from Queen Bey. We’re surprised it’s taken this long for someone to do this, to be honest. Via Refinery29:

No need to fight over whether Lemonade or Hamilton will rule your playlist as you gorge on leftovers this weekend. Los Angeles-based artist Michael Korte has given us all the best holiday gift in the form of a #HAM4BEY mashup performance.

The nearly seven-minute-long YouTube video draws from the Hamilton cast album and Queen Bey’s back catalog, featuring everything from Destiny’s Child to Lemonade. The video, which was posted on November 21, has already racked up more than 188,000 views.

The impossibly catchy piece was arranged by Jared Jenkins and features talented vocal performers India Carney, Vincint, Mariah Maxwell, Jej Millanes, Kelly Margareth Lee, and Jamond McCoy.

The homage to our founding father without a father and Sasha Fierce combines music and lyrics seamlessly, including a particularly inspired cross between “Hold Up,” “Irreplaceable,” and “You’ll Be Back” (around the 2:24 mark). Other highlights include combinations of “Helpless” and “Crazy in Love,” as well as “Guns and Ship” and “Formation.”

Phuong Mai Nguyen’s short, gorgeously quirky animated film Chez Moi was nominated for an Oscar this year. Via Short of the week:

As the title suggests (it translates as “My House”), Chez Moi explores concepts of ownership, safety and stasis against forces of change and accommodation. Put so bluntly, the film’s themes sound academic, but they are powerfully provocative in the way they center wholly around the perspective of young Hugo, and the psycho-sexual frustrations of seeing his Mom take up with a giant bird-man.

A giant bird-man! What!? Yes indeed, Hugo comes down to the morning breakfast table only to be encountered by a strange raven in a shirt and tie. While certainly a major deviation into fantasy, the scenario is played straight, which is simultaneously grounding yet disorienting.

There’s a lot to admire about the film, from its terrific art direction to its deliberate, but never boring, pacing. The surreality peeks out in measured but effective ways, and the show-stopping fantasy sequence leading into the denouement really delivers. If I were to call out a specific element of Nguyen’s craft for praise however, it would be the sensitivity of her observation and its translation into character movements. Most independent animators make dialogue-free shorts in school. While I understand it as an exercise—it forces visual storytelling, and removes some of the complexity of sound production—it is also devilishly hard to execute well. Characters usually under, or, over-emote, and neither that stoicism or exaggeration is fitting. Nguyen has this uncanny feel for crafting very subtle movement in her characters that communicate much. So, while our giant-bird man is sometimes humorously accurate in his bird-like movements, somehow they succeed also in attempting paternalism. The mother’s journey from cautious unease, to anger, to protectiveness is perfectly communicated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iO-zjhHvg4

Mad Sheila is a surprisingly awesome looking Chinese Mad Max rip off that looks closer to the original films than Fury Road. Via the Telegraph:

George Miller may as well call off production on his sequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, as China seems to have got him beat. This week saw the debut of a trailer for Mad Shelia, an unofficial quasi-remake that bears an uncanny resemblance to the 2015 masterpiece.

Only instead of Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron scrapping weirdos on a war rig, there’s a lady in a revealing outfit called Shelia… Scrapping weirdos on a war rig.

Mad Shelia is in fact the first in a series of films, two of which have already been shot: Mad Shelia: Virgin Road, currently streaming on Chinese VOD service TenCent Video, will be followed by Mad Shelia: Revenge of the Road in 2017.

Both follow the renegade adventures of Xi Liya, a bounty hunter who wanders the desert disguised as a man. When she encounters a coterie of virgins about to be sold to steampunk-looking warlords, she must fight to rescue them. Numerous bits of scenery-chewing and Flash-animation explosions appear to ensue.

Such an overt, unendorsed knock-off might seem shocking, but dodgy near-remakes of American hits have become a cottage industry in China for the past decade. Recent entries in this strange canon include the Zootopia copycat Crazy Toy City, the actioner The Courier and the Furious, and a Fifty Shades of Grey riff called Fifty Shades of Black.