The most surprising thing about The Book of Mormon is just how undeniably sweet it is. Sure, Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s Broadway, Tony Award-winning musical has more than its fair share of pointed jabs at Mormons and AIDS and Ugandan warlords – but underneath all the irreverence lays a really warm-hearted story about the importance of storytelling. Because ultimately that’s what religions are: stories. Stories about a guy on a cross or a guy who parts the sea or a guy who digs up a number of golden plates.  Stories – The Book of Mormon advocates – bring communities together and guide people to higher moral truths. Of course stories are fictional – but that’s almost a non-point in the show. Whether or not Joseph Smith spoke to God is irrelevant – it’s the people he brought together with his tales and the hope and inspiration they provide that give Mormonism (and all religions and all stories) their own worth.

After the show here in Los Anegles, Trey Parker and Matt Stone participated in a group Q&A with select press. For highlights from the conversation – which included thoughts on a potential movie adaptation, the likelihood of them doing another stage musical and the troubles of getting old – hit the jump.

This week, the Regent Showcase hosted the 3rd Annual Los Angeles Animation Film Festival. The four-day fest boasted 35mm screenings of The Iron Giant, Gulliver’s Travels, Team America, Grave of the Fireflies and A Cat in Paris, amongst many others. For a full rundown of just what screened and when check out the festival’s website. For select highlights from days two through four of the fest, hit the jump. For further coverage of the fest – see here.

There’s no escape from the constant mockery of Avatar before its release date (December 18th) as CollegeHumor has a put forward a trailer which uses the audio from the Avatar trailer and combines it with Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Team America: World Police.  There are moments where it works far too well.  Not perfectly of course as they have two different plots but better than you would expect.  Check it out after the jump and wonder if Avatar will be subjected to more mockery before its release or after.  I want to place my money on “after” simply because there has to be at least some comedic fodder in its 160-minute runtime.

Before principal photography commenced on “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”, Edgar Wright treated the citizens of Toronto to his patented “Wright Stuff” film festival with glorious movies and Q&As designed to make the rest of us question are patriotism and defect to Canada.  If you lived in Toronto and for whatever reason never made one of these screenings, fear not.  You have one more chance and you best not fuck it up.  Hit the jump to find out how to atone for your sin.