Entertainment news for October 26, 2026
A voice can make an old cartoon feel present again. That is where today’s roundup begins, with Eric Bauza and the work of keeping a character alive. Then: a New Year’s Eve horror film about former bandmates, and an online game that changed direction after listening to players who wanted to adventure together.
Eric Bauza dies at 46: the craft behind a familiar voice
Voice actor Eric Bauza died on October 25 at age 46, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s public record. His work as Bugs Bunny and other Looney Tunes characters helped carry familiar voices into new productions, a legacy animation historian Jerry Beck remembers in his October 26 tribute.
Beck describes moderating a panel with Bauza at LightBox Expo in Pasadena this past weekend. With Hillbilly Hare playing on a screen beside him, Bauza performed Bugs Bunny’s square-dance call for a room of aspiring artists and voice performers. An old cartoon, a live microphone, a person doing the work in front of people who hoped to learn it.
That is a useful image to hold onto. A recognizable voice can seem like something a performer simply possesses. You open your mouth and there it is. But recognition is only the beginning. Comedy lives in the timing: the little delay, the sudden acceleration, the confidence that makes a ridiculous line feel perfectly reasonable.
In film press notes reproduced by Beck, Bauza called himself “a custodian for now” of these characters. Custodianship sounds like careful storage. His performance at that panel gives the word movement. Taking care of a character means understanding it well enough to make choices in the moment, with your own breath and timing, while keeping something essential recognizable.
The cartoon was on the screen. Bauza was beside it. There is something generous in letting people see the distance between those two things, and the skill it takes to cross it.
Spirit Tasting turns a New Year’s toast into a dangerous wish
Chris LaMartina, the filmmaker behind WNUF Halloween Special, announced Spirit Tasting on October 26, a New Year’s Eve horror film from Terror Vision Original Productions. Variety’s announcement reports that LaMartina directed and edited the movie, co-writing it with Michael Varrati.
The setup puts three former punks in a distillery, raising a glass to a bandmate who has died. A strange sommelier offers them a tasting with a condition: each bottle requires a wish. Their desires then turn dangerous. LaMartina shot the film in four days for $40,000 to celebrate his 40th birthday. That is a very specific way to handle a milestone.
The New Year’s setting gives the premise an interesting ache. The holiday usually arrives carrying instructions. Improve yourself. Start over. Become someone with a better schedule and fewer unfinished projects. A reunion of old bandmates brings another possibility into the room: wanting something that belongs to an earlier version of your life.
A wish might reach toward a person, a friendship, or the feeling of having time together without realizing it was limited. The announcement does not tell us what these characters ask for. Still, putting them beside an absent friend gives the wish-making a weight before the horror mechanics begin. A better future is one thing to want. Another night with the old group is harder to negotiate.
That is the promise of the setup, rather than a verdict on the film. A U.S. screening roadshow is planned from November into early January, and a Blu-ray release has also been announced. For a story built around people gathering, a room full of viewers seems like a fitting place to meet it.
Scramble Knights Online launches after putting co-op at the center
Scramble Knights Online launched on October 26, 2026, on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC, including Game Pass, as an unfinished Game Preview release. In Funktronic Labs’ launch-day account on Xbox Wire, the studio explains how its battle royale became a cooperative, “MMO-lite” action RPG after playtesters responded to the exploration but struggled with the competitive format.
The team had spent years building the game, then reshaped it in less than six months. Its new routine starts in town: find a quest, gather a party, head out, return with loot, improve your gear, and spend a little time around other players. PvP encounters remain part of the offering, but shared adventure became the organizing idea.
That seems like the more interesting kind of gaming nostalgia. A familiar camera angle or a small knight with a sword can get someone through the door. The reason to come back might be the friend waiting near the quest board.
There is a related idea in my piece on Rememorex: a game can put nostalgia into the things people do together. The look establishes a time and place. The rules decide whether everyone gets to participate.
Here, the promising part is the space around the quest. Someone needs another minute. Someone wants to show off a piece of gear. The group has a reason to gather again. Those small rituals can become the part people remember years later, long after the details of a dungeon have blurred.
Game Preview leaves plenty still to prove. For now, the change of direction is worth noticing: the developers listened when players seemed to want more time inside the world they had made.
For more thoughts on films, games, and the people who give them life, you can find me on Instagram at @joeypedras. Sometimes the detail worth keeping is small: a breath before a punch line, or someone waiting for you in town.