BARBIE AND THE DIAMOND CASTLE

Barbie and the Diamond Castle is a 2008 direct-to-video computer-animated entry in the in the Barbie film series. The film is scheduled to be released on September 9th 2008. The film features the voice of Kelly Sheridan, who has voiced the Barbie protagonist in all the CGI Barbie films. It will also be the third musical.

Songs for the film were written by songwriters Amy Powers (Elliot Yamin), Guy Roche (Christina Aguilera), Russ DeSalvo (Celine Dion), Gabriel Mann (Sara Bareilles) Megan Cavallari (Higgleytown Heroes) and Jeannie Lurie (Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana) along with Executive Producer Rob Hudnut.

As with the previous Barbie films, a line of toys, dolls, and other products were made based on and released slightly ahead of the film. The Toy Fair 2008 released images of some of the dolls to be released later this year. Fox Interactive will self-publish the video game adaption for the movie.

Plot
Liana and Alexa (Barbie and Teresa) are best friends who share everything, including their love of singing. Liana and Alexa sell flowers for a living. One day, Liana finds 2 heart shaped diamonds in the river. Suddenly, there is a storm, and the two girls hurry inside their house. Liana makes the two diamonds into two necklaces, one for each girl. The next day, they find that their garden is destroyed by the storm. They sell the remaining flowers to get 3 coins, but that will not last until the next growing season. While walking through the forest home from the village, the girls meet an old beggar. Liana feels sorry for the old woman so she gives her her lunch, bread and jam, even thought she and Alexa don't have much either. In return, the old woman gives her a magical mirror. As they clean the mirror and sing, a musical apprentice muse named Melody appears in the mirror's surface. Melody tells the girls about the secret of the Diamond Castle, which is the home of all music, and where three musical muses once resided until one evil muse, Lydia, tried to take the castle for herself. She failed, but turned the other muses to stone.

In an act of safekeeping the other two muses entrusted the key of the Diamond Castle to Melody. And to keep the key safe from Lydia, Melody hid herself in the mirror, but now she can't get out. She needs Liana's and Alexa's help to free her from the mirror and to save the Diamond Castle. Suddenly, Slider, Lydia's dragon hears Melody's voice, prompting Lydia to go after Melody for the keys. Liana and Alexa must hurry to get to the Diamond Castle first to get the other muses instruments to free the two other muses and to banish Lydia. Along their way, Liana and Alexa make new friends and enemies.

Disney to go 3-D for all new Animated movies

The Walt Disney Co. said Tuesday it will jump on the 3-D bandwagon, vowing to release every animated movie in the format beginning with "Up" next year.

Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter made the announcement in New York at a presentation of Disney's upcoming lineup of animated movies from its Pixar and Disney studios.

The lineup includes "Rapunzel," a retelling of a fairy tale set for release for Christmas 2010, and "King of the Elves," set for release around Christmas 2012.

Disney also showed a 30-minute clip of "Wall-E," set for release June 27. It tells a love story between the title character, a robot left alone on earth for 700 years, and another robot named Eve sent to look for life.

"Wall-E" is the first Pixar release since last summer's "Ratatouille," which grossed more than $620 million at the worldwide box office.

"Ratatouille" was the last independent Pixar picture in development prior to Disney's acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios in May 2006 for $7.5 billion in stock.

In a deal announced last month, four studios -- Disney, News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox, Viacom Inc.'s Paramount, and Universal Pictures, which is owned by General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal -- agreed to help finance and equip 10,000 screens in the U.S. and Canada to accommodate 3-D movies.

The conversion will cost as much as $700 million and take three years.

Box office figures have shown that the enveloping feel of 3-D can attract two to three times more moviegoers who are willing to pay as much as $3 more per ticket, analysts said.

Theaters owners and studios hope the offerings will help bring people back to multiplexes for an experience that cannot be matched by increasingly sophisticated home theater systems.