In "Oz the Great and Powerful," opening March 8, James Franco plays a young Kansas magician who ends up the wizard of that magical land. Thinking of bringing your child to the new "Wizard of Oz" prequel? Parents, take note: The two-plus hour movie is rated PG "for sequences of action and scary images, and brief mild language."

Everett Collection

We hate you, flying monkeys of Oz.

Action and scary images, huh? Yeah, we saw the original 1939 "Wizard of Oz," and we're here to tell you: Some of those "scary images" stayed with us for life. Here are five that we've clawed out of our memory banks.

1. The flying monkeys
It doesn't seem that terrifying when you write it down. Monkeys, eh, not the most frightening member of the animal kingdom. Why does adding wings make them the worst thing this side of Freddy Krueger? They're unnatural, of course, and just creepy. And when the witch sends them en masse after Dorothy and friends and they darken the sky with their numbers, well, any kid who had nightmares knew exactly what caused them.

Walt Disney

Finley, a flying monkey from "Oz the Great and Powerful," isn't as scary as the 1939 flying monkeys.

2. 'How about a little fire, Scarecrow?'
Scarecrow was the most beloved of Dorothy's Yellow Brick Road companions. Yet he was also the most vulnerable -- it's a lot easier to beat up on a guy stuffed with straw than an axe-wielding tin man or a lion, even a cowardly one. Early on, he confesses that fire is his nemesis, and the witch teasingly pelts him with a fireball. Later on, his legs are literally torn off, and in a super-heart-rending moment near the end, the Wicked Witch taunts him with "How about a little fire, Scarecrow?" before setting his arm on fire. Thankfully, Dorothy's mad splash saves him, leading us to ...

3. The melting witch
Oh, we all wanted the Wicked Witch to get killed, no question about it. But that doesn't mean it wasn't a little jolting to see her slowly sizzle and melt into the ground, screaming all the while. More than a few of us felt the same way about water when Mom insisted we take a bath, so we could relate.

Everett Collection

She's mellllllting!

4. Miss Gulch takes Toto
One little nip, and that's all it took to condemn Dorothy's sweet little dog to death at the hands of evil Miss Gulch. We have to say, Auntie Em and Uncle Henry were zero help here. We were completely traumatized until sweet little Toto escaped the Bike Basket of Death and was once again reunited with Dorothy. It doesn't get a lot better for dog lovers on the Oz side of the curtain, where the witch threatens to drown the little pup.

5. The Wizard's floating giant head
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! No problem, we're too busy staring at the creepy giant floating green head that the Wizard somehow thought would be an impressive and majestic representation of himself to keep Oz in line. Are we sure this was supposed to be a kids' movie?

What's your scariest "Wizard of Oz" memory? Vote in our poll, and share with us on Facebook.

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And now, Han Solo with the news. Yes, that's Han/Indiana Jones/Harrison Ford, joining star Will Ferrell on the set of "Anchorman: The Legend Continues," the long-awaited sequel to the 2004 comedy "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy."

Pacific Coast News

Will Ferrell and Harrison Ford are seen on the set of "Anchorman: The Legend Continues."

Ford is reportedly playing a legendary newsman who's being compared to Tom Brokaw. But since the "Anchorman" series will do anything for a laugh, his role will surely be given a twist.  The actor reportedly arrived on set with a full head of grey hair, but had it dyed dark before heading out at Ferrell's side. He's no scruffy-looking Nerf-herder here.

Ford's addition has some movie fans excited. "My, my, the prospect of this is miles more thrilling than his reprisal of Han Solo," wrote Nick Newman at The Film Stage. 

Wrote Geoff LaTulippe on Twitter, "Harrison Ford is in ANCHORMAN II. I don't even know how to handle the joy of the world anymore."

Ford's sat behind a fake news desk before -- he won praise for his role as an anchorman in the 2010 comedy "Morning Glory."

"Anchorman: The Legend Continues" opens Dec. 20. Joining Ferrell and Ford are stars Steve Carrell, Paul Rudd, Kristen Wiig, James Marsden and David Koechner.

Will you see "Anchorman: The Legend Continues"? Tell us on Facebook.

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Children of the 1970s, you remember "Schoolhouse Rock," the short catchy musical bits that taught kids how to unpack their adjectives, helped them memorize the preamble to the constitution, and taught us all how a bill becomes a law.

Now "Schoolhouse Rock" has met up with another 1970s powerhouse, "Star Wars," in a smashing viral video. The video sets scenes from the "Star Wars" movies (the originals, please, not the sad sequels) to that "Grammar Rock" song "Interjections."

So instead of Reginald being home with flu (uh-huh!), it's Luke Skywalker getting his new prosthetic hand. Princess Leia is the "Geraldine" who played hard to get (ah-ha!), though "Geraldo" (Han Solo) knew he'd woo her yet. And when the "game was tied at 7-all," it's not Home vs. Visitors in a football stadium, but the Empire vs. the Rebels in a galactic brawl-for-it-all.

Wrote one viewer, "This is hysterically funny. I grew up w/ School House Rock and Star Wars in the 70s and am NOT easy to impress when it comes to things nerdy and comical. This had me in tears I was laughing so hard."

Another poster was hoping for a mashup set to History Rock's "Shot Heard Round the World." And he or she may get their wish for more content. The video was posted Feb. 24 by the YouTube account One Minute Galactica, and the poster says another mashup, using "Schoolhouse Rock's" camp-themed "Unpack Your Adjectives," could be on the way. He was a hairy Darth, he was a scary Darth...

What's your favorite "Schoolhouse Rock" ditty? Tell us on Facebook.

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The Oscars are over, and so are the January-February new-release doldrums. Good films are starting to roll out again, including James Franco as the Wizard in "Oz the Great and Powerful." Here's a look at our three top entertainment picks for the week ahead.

TUESDAY: 'American Idol' goes live
The "American Idol" auditions are always crazy, but the show really kicks into gear when the live episodes begin this week. The show's narrowed its talent pool to 20, 10 men and 10 women, and will cut that group in half by Thursday. On Tuesday, the women will show their stuff, and on Wednesday, the guys -- whether or not they all deserve it -- get a chance. (March 5-7, 8 p.m. each night, Fox.)

TUESDAY: 'Wreck-It Ralph' on home video
Parents with fond memories of early video arcades and games can bond with their tech-generation kids this week when "Wreck-It Ralph" comes out on DVD and blu-Ray. In this charming animated film, John C. Reilly voices a video-game bad guy who's tired of being the villain. When he goes "game jumping" and ends up in a candy-themed race game, he bonds with little Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) and learns that his game role isn't what really matters. (On home video March 5.)

FRIDAY: "Oz the Great and Powerful"
The Wizard himself got short shrift in "The Wizard of Oz," which played him off as a kind of dumpy little dude behind a curtain. In this new take on L. Frank Baum's classic, James Franco plays a Kansas magician who takes a hot-air balloon into the magical land, meets its witches and Munchkins, and discovers the people of the troubled land need him to become someone else in order to save them. (Opens March 8.)

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Children of the 1980s, you remember "Pretty in Pink." Molly Ringwald's bizarre home-sewn prom dress. "His name is Blane? That's a major appliance, that's not a name!"  "What's this? We don't have a candy machine in the boys' room!" "WHAT ABOUT PROM, BLANE?"

The 1986 John Hughes classic came out 27 years ago Thursday, meaning that had Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald) actually stayed together with either rich pretty boy Blane McDonnagh (Andrew McCarthy) or (our preference) quirky best friend Duckie Dale (Jon Cryer), they might even have kids of their own by now. Possibly adult kids. Maybe even a grandkid.

Everett Collection

"Pretty in Pink" came out 27 years ago Thursday.

Some say "Pretty in Pink" pales next to some of Hughes' other work, such as "Sixteen Candles" or "The Breakfast Club," but there's no doubt it's made its mark on pop culture. Years ago, Jon Cryer told TODAY.com that he's played Alan Harper on "Two and a Half Men" for years, but when he walks down the street, fans who recognize him never yell "Alan!" They always yell, "Duckie!"

In 2012, Jimmy Fallon asked Cryer if the beloved character couldn't be resurrected for a "Duckie Holiday Speclal." Cryer wasn't so sure, pointing out the innate uncoolness of his alter ago. "People forget that Duckie wore lederhosen!" he admonished.

And when McCarthy's memoir came out last fall, TODAY anchor Savannah Guthrie asked him if he felt it was true that Duckie was better for Andie than his own character of Blane. "That is an outrageous theory," McCarthy joked.

It's famously known that "Pretty in Pink" was supposed to end with Andie leaving Blane and ending up back with Duckie, her faithful, fashionable friend. But that ending was reportedly rejected by a test audience (someone find these people and interrogate them about what they were thinking), so Andie got the "happy" ending with richie Blane.

And perhaps that's as it should be. As much as we support Duckie's eternal faithfulness and fire, a 2012 TODAY.com poll showed that a slight majority of readers chose Blane over Duckie anyway. So let's pretend they're content, whoever and wherever they are. And happy anniversary.

Duckie or Blane? Take our new poll, and tell us what you think on Facebook.

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Oh, Oscars. We love you, we hate you. You're the king of all awards shows, but you still bring with you all the problems of any awards show.

Gary Hershorn / Reuters

Oh, Oscars. We love you, we hate you.

Maybe we're just jealous. Jealous because we worked really hard on that TPS report last spring, and yet were neither paid millions of dollars for it nor invited to a glamorous televised ceremony a year later to be praised for it. But then again, we didn't have our fashion choices mocked by a thousand bloggers, or have our disappointed face made into a meme when we lost to Jim from Accounting.

WHAT WE LOVE ABOUT THE OSCARS:

1. The fashion
Yes, it's getting weirder all the time, but still, stars clean up for the Academy Awards in a classier way than they do the other awards shows. Jennifer Lopez's famous cleavage-splitting, double-taped green dress? She wore that to the 2000 Grammys. Grace Kelly's breathtaking ice-blue satin Edith Head gown? She wore that to the 1955 Oscars. Advantage: Oscars.

2. The In Memoriam segment
Hollywood's been around long enough now that some of our favorite players have left us for that great stage-door canteen in the sky. In 2012 alone, we lost Whitney Houston, Ernest Borgnine, Andy Griffith, Jack Klugman, Nora Ephron and so many more. Seeing them, even so briefly, as the screens of the In Memoriam segment flash by, gives us a last chance to remember the joy they brought to our lives.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

Liz Taylor was included in the 2012 In Memoriam segment.

Amy Sancetta / AP file

Angelina Jolie's leg went to the 2012 Oscars.

3. The random storylines that pop up
The Oscar producers try to make everything run like clockwork, but humans are human, and delightfully so. People mess up.  Angelina Jolie weirdly juts her leg out of her gown on the red carpet and the world doubles over with laughter. Sacha Baron Cohen dumps fake Kim Jong-il ashes on Ryan Seacrest and Seacrest lets his professional facade down for a second and looks legitimately ticked off. It's all the weirder for happening at the Oscars, that rehearsed-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life gala, kind of like when the snooty lady at church tucks her dress in her pantyhose by mistake.

WHAT WE HATE ABOUT THE OSCARS:

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

James Franco and Anne Hathaway were criticized for their 2011 Oscar hosting attempt.

1. The hosts
This year, it's "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, so we're holding out hope things could be lively and even entertaining. But in the past, many Oscar hosts have been snore-worthy. No one dares push the envelope as Ricky Gervais did at the Golden Globes, and the less said about James Franco and Anne Hathaway's 2011 attempt, the better.

2. The listy speeches
The best speeches come when the winner appears to speak from the heart, even if their remarks are prepared. Share a sweet little anecdote about the film, or how you practiced for this day as a kid by delivering your speech into a bottle of Love's Baby Soft, and you'll find the audience rapt. But recite a list of everyone from your eight managers to your dog-sitter to your pool boy, and we're wishing we could yank that statuette back from you and give it to someone else.

3. The Academy's voting habits
The stereotypes about Academy voters being old and boring and in love with their own industry still hold up. "The Artist" was a fine film, but did Hollywood reward it so heartily in 2012 for its high quality, or for being about Hollywood? Was 2006's "Crash" really the best film of that year? And who can't sing, or at least hum, "Blame Canada" from the 1999  "South Park" movie? Yet it lost the best original song Oscar to a bland Phil Collins love song from Disney's "Tarzan." Who's responsible for that outrage? We blame Canada.

Love the Oscars? Hate the Oscars? Tell us why on Facebook.

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All the other awards shows have been leading up to this one. The Academy Awards are coming, and they're the one bright spot in a dull entertainment week. You can prepare for the show by watching the film that might just win best picture, "Argo," which hits home video this week. And if you prefer your history a little older and more fantastical, the second season of "Game of Thrones" is also coming to home video.

Warner Bros., DreamWorks, Univer

"Argo," "Lincoln," "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Les Miserables" are all Oscar contenders.

TUESDAY: 'Argo' on home video
Even before it started snatching up all the film awards, "Argo" was garnering great word-of-mouth and excellent critical reviews. No American who was alive in 1979 could not know about the Iranian hostage crisis, but somehow, "Argo" picked up on a dramatic sidebar -- the rescue of six embassy employees who had snuck out of their workplace and hid in the Canadian ambassador's home. The tale is slightly fictionalized, but it's a fascinating tale, with John Goodman and Alan Arkin delivering memorable performances as the moviemakers who help out CIA agent Ben Affleck. And yes, Affleck got robbed when he wasn't nominated for a best director Oscar. (Out on home video Feb. 19.)

TUESDAY: 'Game of Thrones' season two on home video
Need to catch up on the hit HBO fantasy series before it returns on March 31? Scoop up the DVD set this week and fall back into the world of Westeros. The Lannisters and Daenerys are back, of course, with plenty of new characters introduced in the second season, including Stannis Baratheon, Melisandre, Craster, Gilly and the fan favorite, Brienne of Tarth. (Out on home video Feb. 19.)

SUNDAY: Academy Awards
Here we are, movie fans. The night of the year. Forget all the awards shows that have come before, this is the Big Kahuna. We all know Ben Affleck was snubbed in the director category, but will his film, "Argo," steal best picture from "Lincoln"? Can young upstart and "Silver Linings Playbook" star Jennifer Lawrence take home the best actress honor so many thought belonged to Jessica Chastain for "Zero Dark Thirty"? Can anyone stop Anne Hathaway and Daniel Day-Lewis? And how will Seth MacFarlane of "Family Guy" fame do as host? Pop the popcorn and the champagne, make your Oscar pool picks and settle in. (Feb. 24, 7 p.m. ET, ABC.)

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REVIEW: Let's get the basics out of the way first: If you want to see "A Good Day to Die Harder," the fifth film in the "Die Hard" series, that's pretty much a guarantee that you'll like it. Don't read the negative reviews that are sure to come out, just go.

No, Bruce Willis, 57, is not too old to be an action hero (though a few "Grandpa" jokes go a long way). Yes, he sails through blizzards of bullets seemingly untouched, makes the same joke ("I'm on vacation!") a dozen times, and the actual movie plot makes little sense (secret files and weapons-grade uranium and a truly bizarre visit to Chernobyl). So what? 

Willis tells GQ in the magazine's new issue that he knows he'll never win an Academy Award for his role as John McClane, saying "you don't get an Oscar for shooting people." Got that right.

But in McClane, he's created a truly classic character, and he deserves recognition. Untouchable, unbreakable heroes like the ones Arnold Schwarzenegger plays are fine in their place, but McClane's not that. He's more Indiana Jones or McGyver, street-smart and world-weary. He spots things others don't, dives through escape hatches that a sane person wouldn't consider, and through it all, remains the action hero you'd most want to have a beer with.

Here's the difference: Schwarzenegger knows he's the Terminator. Willis acts like he's a lunkhead with a gun, a hapless Joe just trying to get home. Terminators are fun to watch, but hapless Joes are the ones we take to heart.

This installment sends McClane to Moscow in pursuit of his equally lunkheaded son Jack (Aussie Jai Courtney), who turns out to be as much of a superhero as Dad, even though the actor himself has none of Willis' beer-me personality. Father and son hate each other at the start, then come around, duh.

20th Century Fox

Like father, like son: Bruce Willis' John McClane and his son Jack team up in "A Good Day to Die Hard."

That doesn't matter. What matters is that Willis is still a comfortable tour guide through the car-flipping, tank-driving, window-smashing wreckage that is "Die Hard's" stock and trade. His McClane tries to stop cars with his body. He takes a call from his daughter while driving over other vehicles. He dubs other characters "Papa Gepetto" and "Odd Job," bluntly confesses he's a bad dad, and agrees with his son that "we're not really a hugging family." He wins the audience over to the point that the plot holes and logic lapses and unexplained minor characters sail past you like the fusillades of bullets.

The "Die Hard" series has had some heart-in-your-throat moments, from a horrifying plane crash ("Die Hard 2") to McClane being forced to wear a racist sign in the middle of Harlem ("Die Hard With a Vengeance"). It's unlikely any moments from this film will stand out in the same way -- although one especially gruesome bad-guy death had the audience howling with laughter.  The father-son feud is meant to be the backbone of this one, and that makes for a lighter, never stressful movie.

Back in 2010, Willis said he'd make this film and then one more "Die Hard" installment  before he lets McClane yippee-ki-yay off into the sunset. But action heroes today scoff at mandatory retirement. Schwarzenegger just made "The Last Stand" at 65, and 66-year-old Sly Stallone starred in "Expendables 2." Willis himself has a role in "Expendables 3" and the upcoming "G.I. Joe: Retaliation." In other words, we'll believe McClane's retired when we see the AARP card, and not before.

Will you see "A Good Day to Die Hard"? How long can Willis keep at it? Tell us on Facebook.

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Better let the water out soon, Rihanna, your fingers and toes will wrinkle up and you'll get cold. The singer performed her new song "Stay," a duet with Mikky Ekko, Sunday night at the Grammys, and on Monday, the video was released.

In the video, Rihanna undresses and slips nude under the cloudy waters of an old-fashioned bathtub while the song plays, singing while looking sleepy and somewhat shell-shocked.

The video's fairly safe for work -- you don't actually see anything other than a fuzzy outline of her backside in the bath -- but it's very sensual. Scenes cut back and forth between Rihanna and Louisiana-born singer Ekko, who is seen in the same bathroom without Rihanna -- though he gets to keep his clothes on.

"The video was really, really simple," Rihanna told E! "I pretty much stayed put in the bathtub."

The emotional ballad is from her new album "Apologetic," and the single has already charted at No. 4 in the U.K. We're guessing the sexy video will only help it climb the charts in the U.S.

Slideshow: The rise of Rihanna

Evan Agostini / AP

Launch slideshow

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Whenever a music publication makes a list of top rock albums, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours is there. While the album actually came out 36 years ago, the band is celebrating with what's being called a 35th anniversary expanded edition. 

AP file

Members of Fleetwood Mac, from left, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, pose with their Grammys for "Rumours" in 1978.

"We've been waiting a long time to put this out," Stevie Nicks told Rolling Stone. "If you were a Fleetwood Mac fan, you get to hear the songs turn into the songs without a lot of overdubbing. It's very simple."

"Rumours is the kind of album that transcends its origins and reputation, entering the realm of legend," writes Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic.com. "It's an album that simply exists outside of criticism and outside of its time, even if it thoroughly captures its era."

The album is noteworthy of course for such songs as "Go Your Own Way," "Don't Stop," and "You Make Lovin' Fun," but also for the band's own romantic turmoil as the album was being made, which bleeds through into the music.

"That really was a lot of the appeal of Rumours," Lindsey Buckingham admitted in the same Rolling Stone interview. "The music was wonderful, but the music was also authentic because it was two couples breaking up and writing dialogue to each other."

The band recently added more dates to their upcoming tour, which begins April 4 in Columbus, Ohio, and which will include many songs from "Rumours."

Christine McVie will not be a part of the tour. In 2012, when the tour was announced, Nicks told Rolling Stone, "(McVie) went to England and she has never been back since 1998, so it's not really feasible, as much as we would all like to think that she'll just change her mind one day. I don't think it'll happen. We love her, so we had to let her go."

The band's 1975 song "Landslide" appeared in Sunday's Budweiser Super Bowl commercial, one of the most popular ads of the night.

Are you a Fleetwood Mac fan? What's the best song from "Rumours"? Vote in our poll, and tell us on Facebook.

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The Super Bowl ads weren't just selling physical products, some of them were hyping big movies coming to theaters near you later in the year. Sadly, most of the ads were just teases -- tantalizing the audience with little snippets, some of which had already been seen in previously released teasers. ("World War Z," we're looking at you.)

"The Lone Ranger" ad was one of those that actually revealed never-before-seen footage, focusing on the repartee between the Ranger (Armie Hammer) and sidekick Tonto (Johnny Depp). Not everyone is sold on this film, however. Wrote Moviefone.com, "Eh. How long can we watch Johnny Depp act weird in makeup?"

The ad for "Iron Man 3" showed the superhero saving people who'd been flung out of Air Force One after it's attacked in middair, but then urged viewers to surf to the movie's Facebook page for an extended peek. Star Robert Downey Jr. begins the extended preview by stalking into the camera's eye, striking a number of poses and dramatically whipping off his sunglasses, then admitting, "That might have been more extensive than extended." 

Just two hours after it was posted, the extended trailer had been shared more than 30,000 times on Facebook.

"Oz the Great and Powerful" offers James Franco as the famed man behind the curtain, showing how he arrives in Oz long before Dorothy and her little dog Toto make the twister-led journey there. "The Land You Know -- The Story You Don't," promises the colorful preview, which includes the creepy Wicked Witch, Franco floating in an enormous bubble like one of those State Fair attractions, and some truly nightmare-inducing flying monkeys.

The "Star Trek Into Darkness" trailer features a creepy voiceover from Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays the film's villain, and shows a combination of seen-before and new footage, including a shot of the beloved Enterprise in tatters. "Shall we begin?" Cumberbatch menacingly asks at the end. Yes, please!

The "Fast and Furious" franchise is up to its sixth film now, and if you like the speed and the crash-bang-smash-em-up action of the series, you'll find nothing to dissaude you in the latest installment. Vin Diesel, The Rock, women in bikinis and short skirts, it's the "Citizen Kane" of guy movies.

The "World War Z" trailer, like earlier previews of this Brad Pitt film, was remarkably light on the undead. As The Huffington Post cracked, the film "shows off the zombie apocalypse ("We've lost the East Coast") without actually showing off the zombie apocalypse." In a really odd glimpse, soldiers are seen marching out of a city carrying a framed copy of the U.S. Constitution. We the zombies, in order to form a more perfect brain-eating union...

Movie fans will have to wait a little while, though, to get beyond the trailers. "Oz the Great and Powerful" is the first of the advertised films to open, with a March 8 scheduled release. "Star Trek Into Darkness" opens May 17, "Fast and Furious 6" opens May 24, "World War Z" opens June 21, "The Lone Ranger" opens July 3, 

Which Super Bowl movie ad was your favorite? Vote in our poll, and tell us what you think on Facebook.

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When some of the lights went out shortly after halftime at Super Bowl XXXXVII, the online jokes went on. Many joked that an electrifying performance by Beyonce and Destiny's Child at halftime took out the Superdome's power, but others pointed to a more sinister entertainment connection -- "Dark Knight Rises" villain Bane.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Bane says: It wasn't me!

In the film, which was released in July, creepy villain Bane booby-traps Pittsburgh's Heinz Field and it slowly crumbles behind real former Pittsburgh Steeler Hines Ward. Defenders chasing him fall into nothingness as the field explodes, and Ward scores the touchdown only to turn around and stare at what had, seconds ago, been a gridiron.

Bane also attacks the Gotham Stock Exchange, cuts the city from the rest of the world, and gleefully watches it descend into near anarchy. Which didn't, thankfully, happen at the Superdome, where the lights came back on and play restored in less than an hour.

Joked a Twitter user with the fitting name of The Batman, "Investigation confirms not even Bane's power outage attempt can save the 49ers."

"How epic would it have been when Super Bowl power went out to hear Bane's voice on the tv say "you think the darkness is your ally?" wrote the Yesh Gaming account.

The Bane jokes soon became so thick that even their very popularity became the joke. Wrote Brian Lynch, ""Grandpa, where were you during The Great Superbowl Blackout of 13?" "Making Bane jokes to strangers, lad. Making Bane jokes to strangers."

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