Lets have a look at how the box office have been doing….

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The last i knew ‘Fast &  Furious’, ‘Monsters vs. Aliens’ and ‘Hanna Montana’ were having a tight race at box office, and just a while back i heard Hanna let other movies trail her.

Girl power flexed its muscle at the box-office Friday as what’s shaping up as a record-setting Easter weekend got under way.

Teens flocked to Disney’s G-rated “Hannah Montana: The Movie,” which collected an estimated $17.2 million, well ahead of even the most bullish expectations.

The film spinoff of the popular Disney Channel TV series, starring Miley Cyrus in the dual role of Malibu teen/secret pop star and directed by Peter Chelsom, exploded in 3,118 theaters, and now should easily eclipse the $31.1 million opening of last year’s 3-D concert movie, “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour.”

With “Fast & Furious,” in second place for the day, and “Monsters vs. Aliens” in third, both posting solid numbers, Warner Bros./Legendary’s R-rated comedy “Observe and Report” made its debut in fourth place. The pic, starring Seth Rogen as a mall cop and directed by Jody Hill, took in $4.7 million from 2,727 theaters.

Fox’s “Dragonball: Evolution,” a live-action film version spun off the Japanese manga/anime franchise, had a harder time gaining a foothold. The PG-rated movie directed by James Wong, attracted $2.1 million from 2,181 theaters and ranked eighth for the day.

Meanwhile, Uni’s “Fast” took in an additional $10.7 million as it began its second weekend. It will cross the $100 million mark Saturday.

DreamWorks Animation’s “Monsters,” beginning its third weekend, pulled in $9.1 million.

Rounding out the top five, Lionsgate’s “Haunting in Connecticut,” also starting its third weekend, took in an estimated $2.34 million and was running neck and neck with Summit’s “Knowing,” which attracted $2.33 million.

A visit to Disney World was the inspiration behind the Minoru webcam

3D films may soon no longer be the sole province of movie studios with big budgets.

At CES, two firms have been showing off ways for home users to make and share their own 3D films.

One is a webcam with two lenses that mimics human sight and turns the images it captures into 3D footage.

Another firm is producing software that it hopes will make it far easier for home users to show 3D movies on many different types of screen.

Manchester-based PDT has created the Minoru webcam that has two lenses set roughly the same distance apart as human eyes. Software included with the webcam turns the two images into what is known as an anaglyph.

If someone gave you an iPod with one ear piece you would think they were nuts David Holder Minoru

To see the resultant footage in 3D, viewers must wear the familiar spectacles with red and blue lenses. This ensures that only one of the two images being shown is seen by each eye and forces the brain to turn them into a moving 3D image. DIY 3D movies shot with the Minoru can be shared on YouTube.

The webcam can also be used as a more conventional 2D image grabber or as a video conferencing tool with Windows Live, Skype, AOL and many others.

David Holder, the creator of the Minoru webcam, said his children were the inspiration for the gadget.

“I took my kids to Disney World two years ago and they loved the 3D attractions there,” he said. “They just loved the idea of things coming out of the screen, even though they had to wear the glasses.”

Explaining why he embarked on the project to create the camera, he said: “If someone gave you an iPod with one ear piece you would think they were nuts.”

He added: “I’ve never made anything that’s grabbed so much attention.”

Diverse screens

Also at CES, American firm TD Vision showed off a software codec that makes it much easier to show 3D movies on many different screen types.

Ethan Shur, spokesman for TD Vision, said the company had also developed a prototype 3D camcorder that would work with the software to turn footage into a 3D movie.

To ensure the film can be played back on different screens, it stores information about the anaglyphic characteristics of each scene separately from the standard images.

The firm’s breakthrough is finding an economic way of storing only information about the parts of each frame that change to evoke the 3D effect.

“The magic is in the method of how it compares the left and right view,” he said. “It takes only the differences, the delta, the changes.”

Having the 3D information stored separately means that the footage can be played back as 2D on a normal television or as 3D on more capable screens.

Initially, said Mr Shur, TD Vision was working with broadcasters and DVD makers to use the 3D codec but had plans to address consumers in the future.

A Review..

A hero unleashed adds the tag-line to the movie, Bolt serves to be another decent animation movie for the year 2008, released on November the story revolves around a canine star(Bolt) of a sci-fi-action show that believes his powers are real embarks on a cross country trek to save his co-star(Penny) from a threat he believes is just as real.  The story gets interesting when the Bolt gets separated from Penny, and gets accidentally shipped to NYC from Hollywood. From there he has to make his way home with the help of a manky old cat(Mittens) and an overweight hamster in a plastic ball(Rhino).

The story line is new and the humor included is really good just what you can expect from Walt Disney, especially with the character Rhino(my favourite), I’d say Bolt is a must watch, and bolt, bolts a score of 3.5/5