Pixar News

We have a lot of Pixar news to report today, we have a huge slab of images, news and more. Firstly, today, Pixar's 12th feature film, Cars 2, is released in North America. Pixar's first sequel to a non-Toy Story film is receiving mixed reviews, currently holding a 38%, Rotten, rating on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the film does have a higher top critic rating than Cars 1 received, as it currently holds 60%. Either way, it's not Pixar good, although more reviews will surface as the film opens in other territories. Furthermore, it's what you think of the film that counts, not what the critics say. As Anton Ego said:

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so."

Secondly, as Cars 2 opens, audiences will see the newest adventure of the beloved Toy Story characters, in the first Toy Story Toon, Hawaiian Vacation. To show this, we have been given a glimpse at a new image from the short film (above), and there's a great interview with director, Gary Rydstrom, over at Animation World Network.

Finally, also with Cars 2, viewers will also see the (supposedly) astonishing teaser trailer for Pixar's next feature, Brave (apparently with 3D showings only). So, as the release of Brave is now less than a year away, Pixar have launched the official website for the film, including the film's synopsis and previously released artwork. We also get our first fully rendered (official) look at the main character, Princess Merida, courtesy of this month's issue of Entertainment Weekly. We also got a look at four fully rendered characters from the film, however, Pixar's cracking down on the images being published online, so I will hold back putting them up for now.

Shame. They were really good.

Cars 2 is open now in America and opens July 22 here in the UK.

Update

Actually, forget that, you can now view the character images here.