This should come as no surprise, but Roger Ebert was a personal hero of mine. The man lost his voice years ago, but he was still able to speak clearly as ever in his writing, especially the movie reviews that were his main job. He died earlier this year.

I was reminded of a line he occasionally used during Blue Sky Studios’ Epic during a scene where the villain has captured the comedy relief sidekicks and is telling them stories of his son. One of them exclaims, “Your stories are boring and torturous!” As Ebert would point out (as he did for Jason X), the movie just reviewed itself. Don’t you hate it when that happens?

Epic features some really wonderful animation, great special effects and what I’m sure would have been remarkable use of 3D technology if I’d bothered to watch the movie that way, but none of it really matters, because the story is, well, boring and torturous.

The Cartoon Brew has a preview list of animated features due out in 2013; at least those announced so far – some with trailers.

I thought that after a nuclear World War III destroyed all other life on Earth, it was supposed to be only the cockroaches that survived? Instead, Exoids says that it will be slugs (and other bugs?). Gus Nitrous, a kick-ass, stogie-chomping slug Mad Max that takes no prisoners, in this 5+ minute CGI trailer for … a movie? A video game? A TV series? Director Aristomenis Tsirbas’ doesn’t say yet what Exoids will be, except that it will be violent!

His eyes are supposed to be on those stalks, stupid! [Thanks, Cartoon Brew.]

2013 looks like a good year for anthro gastropods. There are Blue Sky’s (20th-Century Fox) Epic, due next May 24; PDI’s (DreamWorks) Turbo, about the world’s speediest snail, due next July 19; and now Gnomon Studios’ Exoids.

The Cartoon Brew has the first teaser/trailer for 20th-Century Fox’s & Blue Sky’s CGI-animated Epic, which features talking mice, birds, slugs and bugs.

The Brew's readers make a lot of comparisons to FernGully. Opens May 2013.

According to this story at wired, a prototype robot capable of hunting down over 100 slugs an hour and using their rotting bodies to generate electricity is being developed by engineers at the University of West England's Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory.

This thing is a lot like the Klingon Engineered Tribble predator in he old Star Trek animated series. Soon to come a competeing French design "Escargot Bot!" ;)