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MOVIESAnimated Dream Team: For five years, it...

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Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation's press

MOVIES

Animated Dream Team: For five years, it has been a closely guarded secret at the Walt Disney Studios. But come Thanksgiving, filmgoers will hear the voices of 1994 box-office stars Tom Hanks and Tim Allen in the animated feature “Toy Story.” The film, with music by Randy Newman, is the first feature ever to be entirely animated by computers. Written by Joss Whedon (“Speed”), it revolves around an eclectic assortment of toys that take on a life of their own and get into comic misadventures when their owner, a young boy named Andy, isn’t around. Central to the story is the friendship between Andy’s longtime favorite, a draw-string cowboy doll named Woody (Hanks), and his newest acquisition, Buzz Lightyear (Allen). Other voices include Don Rickles, Annie Potts and John Ratzenberger. Sources say Hanks (“Forrest Gump”) and Allen (“The Santa Clause”) have been working on the project for two years.

TELEVISION

‘Tonight Show’ Goes On-Line: “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno goes on-line Feb. 20 when he conducts a live question-and-answer session from 7-8 p.m. on America Online’s NBC Auditorium. The chat will launch a “Tonight Show With Jay Leno” web page on the Internet’s Worldwide Web. Included will be daily program updates and guest listings, monologue jokes, “headlines,” celebrity quotes and behind-the-scenes footage. “The Tonight Show” Internet service, billed as the Worldwide Web’s first daily comedy segment from a network TV program, can be accessed through https://www.nbctonightshow.com.

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Kobe Relief Telethon: “Star Trek’s” George Takei, “All-American Girl’s” Amy Hill and veteran broadcaster Mario Machado will host a live “Kobe Relief Telethon” on Sunday from 3-8 p.m. from the Olympic Boulevard studios of cable’s International Channel. The telethon, which includes scheduled appearances by Hector Elizondo (“Chicago Hope”), Margaret Cho (“All-American Girl”) and others, will air locally on KSCI Channel 18. An 800 number will be provided on air for viewers to phone in pledges for the Japanese Red Cross Society’s Kobe earthquake relief.

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Happy Birthday, Gipper: Cable’s Turner Network Television salutes movie-star-turned-President Ronald Reagan’s 84th birthday on Monday with a double bill featuring his 1951 Western, “The Last Outpost,” at 11 p.m., followed at 1 a.m. with “Knute Rockne, All American,” the 1940 film where Reagan uttered his famous words: “Go in there and win one for the Gipper.” Meanwhile, sister channel Turner Classic Movies on Sunday begins a monthlong salute to Reagan, featuring nearly 40 of his films.

VIDEO

O.J. Trial: If you somehow managed to miss the much-televised opening statements in O.J. Simpson’s murder trial, MPI Home Video will release next Friday “California v. O.J. Simpson: Opening Statements,” a two-volume video containing every broadcast word of the prosecution and defense counsels’ presentations, including Marcia Clark’s unprecedented six-minute rebuttal. The videos, totaling more than eight hours, will sell for $14.95 each. MPI released an earlier video from Simpson’s arraignment called “A Question of Evidence: The O.J. Simpson Hearing,” and plans to offer future videos as the trial progresses.

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Video Is as Video Does: Paramount Home Video, which releases “Forrest Gump” on April 27, is betting that video viewers will want so much of the box-office giant that it is putting together a companion video, “Through the Eyes of Forrest Gump,” featuring an “entertaining look at the making of the film.” The companion video will sell for a suggested $9.95, while the real box of chocolates will go for $22.95.

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ART

Picassos Recovered: Three works of art stolen from Stockholm’s Modern Museum in 1993--including Picasso’s 1921 oil painting “La Source”--have been recovered. Swedish police said the works, which also included a Picasso sculpture and a painting by French Cubist Georges Bracque, were found in good condition in the western city of Gothenburg on Wednesday. Altogether, eight Picasso and Bracque works valued at $60 million were stolen from the museum in November, 1993, when thieves lowered themselves into the museum after sawing a hole through its roof. With Wednesday’s retrieval, all but one painting has now been recovered.

QUICK TAKES

No doubt hoping to follow Tuesday night TV rival Tim Allen’s success in “The Santa Clause,” “Frasier’s” Kelsey Grammer will star in the 20th Century Fox naval comedy “Down Periscope.” . . . Perhaps helped by interest in the O.J. Simpson trial, ABC’s “Nightline” last week scored its first ratings win in more than a year over both CBS’ “Late Show With David Letterman” and NBC’s “Tonight Show With Jay Leno.” . . . Actor Jeffrey Tambor will guest on Tuesday’s “Jon Stewart Show,” playing Hank, his groveling character from HBO’s “Larry Sanders Show.” Tambor will assume the role of Stewart’s co-host and sidekick for the evening’s broadcast, which airs locally on KCOP-TV Channel 13.

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