Family: love em or hate em, you’re stuck with em. Most of the time, you only have immediate family members to deal with. But every so often, once the holidays come around, you get distant relations that might as well be strangers cramming into your home and relegating you to the kid’s table for dinner. No one’s perfect, but Hollywood has repeatedly tried to construct the model idea of what a Hallmark nuclear family should look like. We’ve put together the five most ideal movie families, even if they’re a little bit flawed. Squeeze in for the group photo and hit the jump for Collider’s Thanksgiving Top 5 Best Movie Families. If you missed any of our previous “Thanksgiving Top 5″ articles click here.

With Universal and Illumination Entertainment’s Hop opening this weekend, I was able to sit down with Christopher Meledandri (CEO of Illumination) for an extended interview.  As most of you know, Illumination’s first movie, Despicable Me, went on to earn over five hundred and twenty seven million dollars at the worldwide box office.  Not bad for a film that had no build in audience.  As you might imagine, they’re hard at work on the sequel.

During my extended interview, Meledandri talked about the success of Despicable Me, the “it’s so fluffy!” line, how Hop came together and getting the cast, are there any Easter Eggs in Illumination films (like Pixar does it), his CinemaCon panel with George Lucas, James Cameron and Jeffrey Katzenberg, and he also talks about Illumination’s future projects which include Curious George, Tim Burton’s stop-motion animation adaptation of The Addams Family, Ricky Gervais’ Flanimals, and The Lorax.  Hit the jump to watch:

With Universal and Illumination Entertainment’s Hop opening April 1, I was able to sit down with Christopher Meledandri (CEO of Illumination) earlier today for an extended interview.  As most of you know, Illumination’s first movie, Despicable Me, went on to earn over five hundred and twenty seven million dollars at the worldwide box office.  Not bad for a film that had no build in audience.

Over the past year, Illumination has been developing a number of projects and towards the end of my interview, I asked Meledandri about each of them.  So if you’re curious about the status of Curious George, Tim Burton’s stop-motion animation adaptation of The Addams Family, Ricky Gervais’ Flanimals, The Lorax, and the Despicable Me sequel, hit the jump:

Tim Burton’s tendency to work with the same collaborators has long been acknowledged (and viciously lampooned), though this is one relationship that the director hasn’t tapped in a while.  The screenwriting team of Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski penned 1994s Ed Wood, which many (er, this writer) would argue serves as Burton’s directorial peak.  It appears that Burton is keen to get the band back together, for a pair of projects.

The first is a 3D stop-motion adaptation of The Addams Family.  Burton has been attached to direct for months now: Alexander and Karaszewski have now signed on as the primary scribes.  Karaszewski promises, “We’ve come up with an approach that nobody has ever done before… We want the tone to be as darkly funny and subversive as the Addams drawings.”  Hit the jump for details on the second project, Big Eyes, based on the artistic struggles of Margaret Keane.

Opening today is Universal’s 3D CGI feature Despicable Me and it features the voices of Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Julie Andrews, Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand, Kristen Wiig, Will Arnett, Danny McBride, and Jemaine Clement.  The film is about a villain named Gru (Carell) who has just met his greatest challenge: three little girls named Margo, Edith and Agnes.  I saw a screening and thought it was a really sweet family film and it should do very well at the box office.

Anyway, I was able to interview producer Chris Meledandri (Ice Age franchise, Robots, Horton Hears a Who!) and we discussed making the movie, how did it change over the course of its development, how did Steve Carell find the voice of Gru and was the studio afraid of him doing an accent, the 3D, and we also talked about his future projects like The Addams Family, The Lorax, Hop, and more.  It’s a great interview so hit the jump to check it out.  It’s time indexed so you can watch the parts you’re interested in:

At today’s press junket for Despicable Me, I was able to sit down with producer Chris Meledandri for an extended on camera interview.  While I’ll be posting the full interview the week of release, he gave me updates on director Tim Hill’s Hop, the next Dr. Seuss animated movie The Lorax, and a small but important update on the stop motion animated version of The Addams Family that will be directed by Tim Burton.

As we reported by in March, Tim Burton has signed on to helm a stop-motion animation adaptation of The Addams Family.  What was not known is where the project is in his always busy schedule.  According to Meledandri, it’s still in the very early stages.  Meaning don’t expect the film anytime soon.  For more on Addams Family, Hop and The Lorax, hit the jump:

Remaining firmly in his comfort zone, Tim Burton has signed on to helm a stop-motion animation adaptation of The Addams Family.  Deadline reports that Illumination Entertainment, the Universal family-film based unit, has acquired the underlying rights of the Addams drawings, once a staple of The New Yorker magazine.  “His intention is to go back to the litany of Addams illustrations that displayed a sharper wit than could be place into a 60s family TV series,” says Deadline. Oh, and the film will be in 3D because 3D is better for some arbitrary reason.

Some people don’t know that Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas was not directed by Burton, but by Henry Selick (Coraline).  However, Burton did direct the forgettable Corpse Bride.

Until Burton decides to do a movie that people wouldn’t expect from him, I’m going to put the College Humor video mocking him after the jump.  Enjoy!  Also, if you are someone who has never heard of The Addams Family (all three of you), I’ve included a brief description of them after the jump.