Netflix's animation offerings continues to expand. On Monday, the video streaming service announced that characters from popular DreamWorks Animation movies — such as Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda — will inspire original Netflix shows.

The multi-year agreement with DreamWorks comes just months after Netflix inked new licensing deals with Turner Broadcasting and Warner Bros. to stream previous seasons of Cartoon Network and Adult Swim shows. Netflix also struck a deal with Disney at the end of last year to start offering new, first-run Disney films in 2016.

"This [Dreamworks] deal represents a major expansion of what's already a phenomenal relationship, allowing us to bring beloved DreamWorks characters to the 40 countries where Netflix operates and setting the stage for us to innovate together as we expand into new markets," Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief content officer, said in a statement.

Dubbed as the "largest deal for original first-run content in Netflix history," the new deal includes more than 300 hours of new programming inspired by DreamWorks characters as well as some of the DreamWorks-acquired Classic Media characters. No specifics were provided, but the shows will include familiar faces from the Classic Media library such as Archie, Dudley Do-Right, Felix the Cat and Mr. Magoo, and titles like Where's Waldo? and Voltron.

The first original series is expected to be available for streaming un 2014. For users in the United States and Latin America, Netflix will begin streaming DreamWorks' feature films in 2014, starting with The Croods.

In February, Netflix and DreamWorks announced their first Netflix original series for kids based the animated movie Turbo (pictured above), which hits theaters July 17. The series, Turbo F.A.S.T., will continue the film's plot in December.

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On June 6, 2011, Eric Lim received a phone call from his older sister, Tanya. She wanted to apologize for an argument they'd had when she visited Los Angeles a few months before, but as Lim began to lecture her, Tanya cut him off.

"Eric, I just want you to know I love you very much, and I'm so proud of you," she told him. "You're going to do great in the film industry, I know it."

Lim, tired from having just moved across town, didn't think much of his sister's withdrawal. Later that day, he received another call — this time from his father in Chicago.

"We've lost your sister," he said. Tanya had committed suicide.

The phone call was her way of saying goodbye, and in her suicide note, she reiterated support for her little brother's dreams. She also left him her savings of $25,000, which she hoped could help him in his filmmaking aspirations.

Lim would eventually take this as an opportunity to speak directly to a generation of young people — the YouTube generation — dealing with depression and looking for support through digital media. He embarked on a film project to help foster online discussion about mental health, to honor his sister's memory and help prevent others from taking their lives. Read more…

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A new trailer for Neill Blomkamp's "Elysium" is out, revealing many new details about the movie's plot and setting.

In the movie, set in 2154, humanity is divided into two castes: the rich and privileged live on paradise-like Elysium, while the poor toil away in a dark, depressing future Earth.

The first theatrical trailer focused on showing us the beautiful world of Elysium and a many action sequences from the movie. At 3:17, the new trailer is considerably longer, and it reveals much more about the life on Earth, where machines rule over the human population. Read more…

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The creation of a Hollywood movie started with a question on Reddit: Could a modern U.S. Marine infantry battalion destroy the entire Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus?

The head-scratcher of a query, posted to the site in 2011, amassed nearly 4,000 comments and got military historian James Erwin thinking about the answer. Erwin was so intrigued that he sat down during his lunch break and wrote a short story based on the question. By end of day, Erwin had 250,000 visitors reading his blog post "Rome, Sweet Rome." Read more…

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A new web app from Warner Bros. for the upcoming Man of Steel movie lets users become part of Superman's world — turning fans of the superhero into children of planet Krypton.

The Glyph Creator app, which Warner Bros. exclusively shared with Mashable before Thursday's launch, builds a shield based on the user's answers to a series of questions.

The 20 possible shield designs, with several color options, each represent an ancestral house. The app also spits out a user's first name in Kryptonian. Together, the shield and name represent a user's overall Krptonian identity. Here are my results: Read more…

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Microsoft made slew of Xbox announcements at its much-hyped "A New Generation Revealed" event, which was live streamed online and broadcasted on TV on Tuesday.

Viewers were treated to the new Xbox One console and its features, such as voice-recognition control for all things entertainment, a TV guide, Skype integration and a new Kinect sensor, among other things.

Microsoft also revealed a Halo TV series (produced by Steven Spielberg), EA Sports Ignite, NFL partnership, Forza Motorsport 5, Quantum Break and Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Naturally, you all had a lot to say, and we gathered your knee-jerk reactions to each feature that Microsoft highlighted. Be sure to sound off in our poll, below. Read more…

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Going to the movies is an expensive pastime, especially if you're a frequent visitor. MoviePass, a service that launched late last year, is trying to ease the financial burden for film buffs by charging them a single monthly fee — typically around $30 — to watch up to one 2D movie in theater per day.

Still in beta, the service has had a wait list ranging from a few days to a few weeks since its launch last year. On Monday, MoviePass temporarily cleared the list, opening it up to those who signed up (it declined to share its current user numbers). What's more, to celebrate "summer blockbuster season," MoviePass is letting everyone who signs up between now and Friday to bypass the wait list entirely.

Here's how the service works: Users pay a monthly fee between $29.99 and $34.99, depending on where they live, and are issued a debit card with the MoviePass logo on it. At the theater, they check in to a movie using a special MoviePass app, and their card is temporarily activated for the purchase price of the film. It only remains active for 30 minutes, and checking in requires users to be physically near the theater, so they can’t try to buy dinner with their card at a restaurant across town.

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A long time ago — well, last Friday — the White House struck down a petition for a real Death Star on its We the People site. In one swift stroke, the Obama administration Force-choked any politically active nerd's greatest dream: seeing that technological terror floating beside our lame, forest-free moon.

OK, so maybe building a Death Star was always going to be impossible, even for a computer. Still, Star Wars is a treasure trove of tech richer than the salt mines of Kessel. All those ideas are just waiting to be exploited and transformed into reality. Read more…

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