logo
Free movie showings planned across Blair County this summer: Here's when and where

Free movie showings planned across Blair County this summer: Here's when and where

Yahoo07-05-2025

BLAIR COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) — Blair County is going 'TO INFINITY… AND BEYOND' with a summer full of free movies at various family-friendly parks and pools across the county.
Toy Story, Moana, and Little Rascals are some of the featured films you can enjoy for free over the summer, thanks to Blair Central Recreation and the Blair Drug and Alcohol partnership.
Each move will begin at 8:45 p.m. and is free to attend.
Movie and location schedule:
June 5 – Claysburg Park – Little Rascals
June 17 – Baker Mansion – Inside Out 2
June 18 – Bellwood Pool – Moana 2
June 21 – Canoe Creek – The Wild Robot
June 27 – Canal Basin Park – Inside Out 2
July 1 – Baker Mansion – Toy Story 4
July 11 – Prospect Pool – The Little Mermaid
July 24 – Lakemont Park – Mufasa
July 25 – Canoe Creek – Paddington in Peru
Aug. 1 – Prospect Pool – Migration
Aug. 7 – Canal Basin Park – The Wild Robot
Aug. 11 – Bellwood Pool – Migration
Aug. 14 – Canoe Creek – Inside Out 2
Aug. 15 – Lakemont Park – Moana 2
Stay up to date with the latest news in the palm of your hand. Click here to download the WTAJ app for Apple and Android devices.
Nicotine, marijuana, alcohol and other controlled substances are prohibited at these free events.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTAJ - www.wtaj.com.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

My 7-year-old interviewed the author of his favorite book. He asked big and small questions with more confidence than I have.
My 7-year-old interviewed the author of his favorite book. He asked big and small questions with more confidence than I have.

Business Insider

time14 hours ago

  • Business Insider

My 7-year-old interviewed the author of his favorite book. He asked big and small questions with more confidence than I have.

When author and illustrator Peter Brown set out to write "The Wild Robot," he didn't head to a studio or café — he went to the Catskills, Maine, and the Pacific Northwest to find inspiration. When I had the chance to connect with Brown, I knew I had to turn to an expert who truly appreciated the book: my 7-year-old son. "I tried to spend as much time in kind of a wilderness area as I could to feed my imagination, give me little ideas, remind myself of the kind of sounds that you hear when you're out in the woods," Brown told me and my son over a video interview. That juxtaposition — the mechanical and the natural — sits at the heart of "The Wild Robot," Brown's beloved middle-grade novel and now an Oscar-nominated major motion picture from DreamWorks. "The last place you'd expect to find a robot is out in the wilderness," Brown explained. "And so I thought, well, that's kind of interesting." My three children agree. They are such fans of the movie that we ended up not only buying it, but also getting the book to read the original story, which we've already enjoyed multiple times. My son had lots of questions to ask Brown, from whether he liked robots to whether there would be more movies starring his favorite robot, Roz. He wanted readers to care about the robot To prepare for the interview, my son and I talked about our favorite parts of the movie and the book. I asked him what he wanted to ask Brown, and he surprised me with how much he wanted to know, including why the robot doesn't have a mouth but can still talk, and more profound questions that, as a parent, moved me. For those who aren't hardcore fans like we are, "The Wild Robot" follows Rozzum Unit 7134 (a.k.a Roz), a machine that washes ashore on a remote island and must learn to survive — and eventually, thrive — among wildlife. "This is a very extreme fish out of water story," Brown said. "You take that advanced technological character and you put it in the least technological place you can imagine." The book's premise is simple, but the emotional arc is complex. Brown imagined a robot that becomes more "natural and wild than even a person could." Both my husband and I cried at different scenes of the movie because Roz reminded us of different parenting phases we've been through, helping our kids learn how to walk, or learning ourselves how to let them go and become their own person. "That is kind of the main goal of an author — to make sure your readers care," Brown said. Roz is an optimistic vision of AI At a time when most portrayals of artificial intelligence tend toward the dystopian, Brown aimed for something different. "We are very familiar with stories about robots, kind of like a robot uprising," he said. "I thought it was more interesting to show a more optimistic vision of what the future could look like." He backs that vision with research, not just imagination. Brown visited NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and spoke with scientists designing robots to explore other planets. "They're already using robots to communicate with animals," he told my son, who listened with both his eyes and mouth wide open in surprise. Roz, Brown believes, could someday exist. There might be a movie sequel Brown has long loved animation, and the adaptation of the first book from his three-book series into a movie has been a surreal experience. "Before I started writing children's books, I actually worked in animation," he said. So when DreamWorks reached out, saying they wanted to adapt the book into a movie, he was very excited. He hopes for a sequel, which was one of the more important questions my son had because he wants more of Roz. "I'm pretty confident there will be at least one more movie," he said. My son shared with Brown how his twin sisters, who are two years younger than him, often get distracted when my husband reads the original book because it doesn't have illustrations on every page. Brown's latest project, " The Wild Robot on the Island," is a picture book adaptation of the original novel, aimed at an audience like my daughters. He wants readers to learn something from Roz Throughout the interview, Brown answered my son's big questions and little questions with the same enthusiasm and attention to detail. They talked about whether Brown had a Roomba (he doesn't) and whether he had adopted anything like Roz did in the story (he did adopt his dog Pam). My son surprised me by asking one of the more profound questions of the interview — what we, as readers, could learn from Roz. Brown hopes it's empathy and interdependence. "Roz learns that she needs help. She can't do it all by herself," he said. "We all need each other; we should just be good to each other because we're going to need each other at some point or another." It's a message that Brown feels is often forgotten. But through the eyes of a robot (or in my case, during this interview, a 7-year-old) trying to understand the world, it becomes fresh again.

I Got To See 25 Minutes Of Elio At Pixar Animation Studios, And I Am Ready To Be Emotionally Wrecked
I Got To See 25 Minutes Of Elio At Pixar Animation Studios, And I Am Ready To Be Emotionally Wrecked

Yahoo

time2 days ago

  • Yahoo

I Got To See 25 Minutes Of Elio At Pixar Animation Studios, And I Am Ready To Be Emotionally Wrecked

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Growing up with early Pixar movies was such a treasure during my upbringing, and I'm happy to see the next generation of kids have another great era of original movies from the studio to look forward to. Although Pixar Animation Studios' biggest commercial success in recent years was definitely last year's Inside Out 2, I also like that they've also stayed true to their roots by making a host of new characters and plot lines through Elemental, Turning Red, Luca and now the upcoming release of Elio. And, after getting to see 25 minutes of Elio at the animation studio, I have hope it's going to be another solid feature for the whole family. Earlier this month, Pixar invited CinemaBlend to its campus in Emeryville, California, alongside other journalists to see twenty-five minutes of the feature and learn more about the making of the movie straight from the filmmakers. Now it's finally time to share my experience of seeing some of the film! We were shown 25 minutes of the movie in four separate sections. The first segment was the very beginning of Elio, which opens on our main character, an 11-year-old boy with the titular name who has recently lost both his parents, sitting under the table of a dining establishment at a museum. His Aunt Olga, voiced by Zoe Saldaña, is asking him what sort of space-themed lunch he'd like to eat, but he just remains under the table gripping his legs in his hands. In his self-isolation, Elio ends up wandering into a space exhibit where a projection show plays on the ceiling as he lays on the ground in awe. It's a gorgeous sequence that only features limited dialogue through the exhibit's narration about the beauty of space, but pulled me into Elio, and the emotional core it'll be exploring. Sure, a lot of Disney characters (and famous heroes in media) are orphans, but I'm interested in how this movie is exploring how escapism can be part of the grieving process. I thought to myself: "Yeah… as usual Pixar is going to emotionally wreck me." That brings me to the next segment of Elio I got to see, which is the first time the boy makes contact with aliens. As the filmmakers filled in the gaps to us about, after Elio has a near-spiritual experience at the space museum, he starts getting super into the subject, and makes every effort to his ability to be abducted by extra terrestrials. When I asked the directors what alien media they think Elio has consumed the next day during our exclusive interviews, co-director Madeline Sharafian said this: He's such an alien fanatic. I'm convinced he watched all the classics. He's definitely watched E.T. a cajillion times, Close Encounters – maybe even more so because that's the movie where spoilers, the main character gets to go to space at the end of the movie. I didn't get to see how Elio is able to meet aliens, only that he is successful in his mission and ends up at a place called the Communiverse, which is really visually beautiful, and really sold me on checking out Elio in theaters rather than with my Disney+ subscription first. What I was surprised about is how Elio isn't abducted by one species but this floating environment that is full of leaders from across the universe that come together to exchange ideas. They are looking for more interesting minds when they come across Elio, but there's one funny miscommunication in play – they think he's the leader of Earth, which he is definitely not. When I realized that Elio was going to fake being the leader of Earth in order to keep his wish to be abducted fulfilled, I only got more excited for the movie. Then in the third clip, I was introduced to a cute little alien named Glordon, who is the son of a threatening alien leader named Lord Grigon. (You've probably seen him in the trailer, but the filmmakers told me they were inspired by puppies, an axolotl and a silk worm when making the cute character sans eyes). Anyway, I watched a scene where Elio and Glordon start to become friends as they wander all over the Communiverse together. During a heartfelt conversation they have with each other, Elio admits that he feels like the only people who 'wanted' him are gone (his parents), before Glordon quips that he seems 'fine' to him. This scene really hit for me, because it helped me realize further that Elio is going to explore belonging and isolation through its hero entering a new world away from his own. This cute little kid thinks a world outside his own will make him feel more connected, but what happens when the Pixar movie explores this further? I love when the animation studio uses its gorgeous animation team to delve into deep subjects. While kids in the audience might be bopping along to its surface plotline, me and the other adults in the room are going to be emotional over the relatable feeling like no one understands you, because let's be honest, we've all felt this way before. The final section of the footage we watched seemed to be later in the film where we learn the Communiverse will make a clone of Elio at some point so Earth doesn't know he's left. I don't know how or why, but Elio ends up reuniting with Aunt Olga after getting FOMO over seeing her with his clone and missing his life on Earth. In an emotional scene, Elio thinks he hasn't been missed at all, but Olga tells him 'I missed everything about you.' It put the nail in the coffin for me. I need to see this movie, and cry all the tears. I think it's going to be a special movie that reminds us why connection is so important for us humans. I'm so curious about the gaps I missed and the "epic finale" they teased during the screening. We'll all get to see the full film when Elio hits theaters this June 20. I hope fans like me go out and support original movies like this, because the studio has announced a lot of sequels like Coco 2 after this one.

Why Does Elio Have An Eye Patch? I Asked The Pixar Animators, And I'm Living For Their Reasoning
Why Does Elio Have An Eye Patch? I Asked The Pixar Animators, And I'm Living For Their Reasoning

Yahoo

time2 days ago

  • Yahoo

Why Does Elio Have An Eye Patch? I Asked The Pixar Animators, And I'm Living For Their Reasoning

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. When it comes to the 2025 movies coming out this summer, Pixar fans can look forward to a new original entry from the animation studio with the release of Elio. As we start counting down the days to see it in less than a month, we have to talk about what we learned about the feature that is following Inside Out 2's massive commercial success when we were invited to Emeryville, California, to get to know the project at the very place it was crafted. Specifically, we need to discuss Elio and his already trademark eyepatch. In Elio, we'll follow an 11-year-old boy who's gotten really into space and aliens following the untimely death of his parents. So much so, he actually longs to leave Earth and be abducted by them in hopes of living a less lonely existence. In the 20 minutes of footage I saw, I learned Elio has recently started living with his Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña) on a military base when he makes contact with real aliens and gets his wish. If you look at the trailers closely, you may notice, like I did, that Elio has an eyepatch in some scenes and doesn't in other ones. So when I sat down with the animation supervisors, I asked them why that is. Here's what Jude Brownbill had to say: Well, you didn't get to see how he got his eye patch [in the footage], but he gets an eye patch. That's all we can say. It was a bit of a challenge 'cause we were like, does he have to spend the rest of the movie with his eye patch on? It does provide a very useful way of knowing that it's Elio. So it was really kind of like a handy identifier for him. And in the end, it wasn't causing too much trouble. It one less eye for us to animate. What's up with all the secrets about Elio's eyepatch? Brownbill, who was also the animation supervisor for Soul, shared that it was actually a nice little thing for her department because it was one less eye to animate, and it makes the character more unique. During our visit to Pixar, the studio showed us a chunk of the movie, but we saw pieces throughout the film rather than the first 20 minutes. That makes me think there's something pertinent they want to keep hush-hush until general audiences see the film. The first clip we watched was the very beginning of the movie, which churned out a lot of big emotions regarding Elio's state of mind and relationship with his aunt following his parents' death. Elio and Olga are both having lunch at a space museum, but Elio is crouched on the floor of the booth, isolating himself from the world. He then wanders off to an exhibit where he first gets exposed to his love of space travel and the stars. He lies down on the floor quietly in awe as projections float around the walls, and that's it. He's in love. In the later scenes, I saw where Elio is up in space and hanging out in something called the Communiverse, which is a massive floating community in space full of leaders from different species of aliens. He's got the eyepatch on, and I'm so intrigued. I bet it's something silly like him hitting his eye on something while he's abducted, but I guess we'll have to wait. Animation supervisor Travis Hathaway also said this about the topic in our interview: For a film about a kid who has kind of dreams of being a space captain pirate or whatever it's kind of really on theme. So, we were surprised at how well it was woven into the movie by the end, I should say. I do wonder how much Elio will be like my favorite pirate movies, including the very underrated Disney movie Treasure Planet. We'll have the mystery solved once the latest Pixar movie hits theaters on June 20. I hope it becomes one of the best Pixar movies, because I love the studio so much.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store