Tuesday 30 August 2011

Awesome New Brave Poster Out of D23



Those of you that follow my Twitter will likely already now, as I tweeted it a few days ago, but we saw this cool and intense poster at the Art of Brave panel at the D23 expo.

Gets me even more psyched for Pixar's next film!

Thursday 25 August 2011

Help Your Local Interplanetary Delivery System


Remember a few weeks back when I carried out interviews with several of the guys from The Road to Pixar; the group building a replica of the Pizza Planet Truck (of Toy Story fame) and planning a trip to Pixar? Well now you can help their very cool cause.

As of a few days ago, their donation site is live, and if you feel like you can, please feel free to donate to help them.

Thanks, you can find the site here, and be sure to let the guys know on their Twitter account if you do, they will be very grateful.

Sunday 21 August 2011

A Look at Monsters University: Updated Character Designs and More


Out of D23 yesterday, we learned a lot about Pixar's upcoming slate: big details on their 2 new films, as well as learning about a particular scene from Brave, but we also got a lot more light upon their first film in 2013, Monsters University.

Monsters U. is a prequel to the 2001 original, Monsters, Inc., set years before the events of that film, and described by Pixar and Disney CCO John Lasseter as an "animated college movie", as such the character designs had to be suitably adjusted. Both characters are said to be 18 in the film, so changes were needed, but (as you can see), the characters still look like the ones we know and love from Monsters, Inc., but in a slightly different light.


Mike is shorter, freckled, has smaller horns and is sporting a retainer.


Whereas, Sulley is thinner, hairier and shaggier.

The Pixar Times also reports that several actors were announced for the film, obviously John Goodman and Billy Crystal reprise their roles as Sulley and Mike respectively, Steve Buscemi also returns, to voice the villainous Randall. In terms of new talent, Dave Foley returns to Pixar (after previously voicing Flik in A Bug's Life) to voice a new character, and Peter Sohn (director of Partly Cloudy and co-director of the new dinosaur film), who voiced Emile in Ratatouille, also lends his voice to the film; Joel Murray and Julia Sweeney also star.

For more information and over 20 character images from the event, head over to The Pixar Times.

Saturday 20 August 2011

Pixar News from D23 Day 2: 2 New Films


Pixar have released a huge slab of information on their upcoming slate at their panel's at D23 today, concerning Brave, Monsters University and the two unnamed films we have heard about.

Courtesy of Hypable, we get a detailed list of all you need to know about Pixar's D23 revelations; the expo revealed some more plot points and details on a scene from Brave, concerning Merida's courtship, and a little bit more light on Monsters University, all of which sound interesting. However, the real point of interest is that of the announcement of two new Pixar films.

These are the, until now, unknown films due out in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

The 2013 film is the long rumoured, but only just now confirmed, Pixar dinosaur film that has been on the cards since we first saw an image of a boy and a dinosaur (above) two years ago. Now, as if the dinosaur premise of the film wasn't enough to get excited about, we also learn that it is directed by Bob Peterson! The co-director/writer of Up is yet to direct a feature film, yet he is the Pixarian whom I most wanted to see direct a film. In terms of top-notch production talent, we now learn that it is co-directed by Peter Sohn (director of Partly Cloudy, the short film paired with Up) and produced by John Walker (producer of The Incredibles).

This sounds amazing enough, but the synopsis provided, giving us an alternate version of Earth, adds more excitement to that:
What if that life-changing asteroid missed Earth? Director Bob Peterson’s hilarious tale depicts a world where dinosaurs never went extinct.
I'm hooked already and can't wait to see that film on November 27, 2013.


The second film is the, also long expected, next Pete Docter film. The director of Monsters, Inc. and Up returns to the director's chair for "an inventive new film that explores a world that everyone knows, but no one has seen: inside the human mind".

Now that sounds immensely intriguing, complicated and exciting all at the same time. In terms of production talent on this one; Ronnie del Carmen (director of Dug's Special Mission) co-directs and it is produced by Jonas Rivera (producer of Up), add onto that that IndieWIRE claim that 2 time Academy Award winner, and the writer of the Toy Story 3 screenplay, Michael Arndt is penning the script, and this, likewise, sounds like a winner.

And that exciting film hits cinemas on May 30, 2014.


Thanks to Hypable, The Pixar Blog and Pixarian, Austin Madison for the news.

Planes Voice Cast Increases



The Pixar Blog tells us that Disney announced at the D23 expo today that Jon Cryer, famous as Alan from Two and a Half Men, will lend his voice to the Disneytoon Studios Cars spin-off, Planes, as the main character, Dusty.

The film, whilst not created by Pixar, is a spin-off from Pixar's Cars franchise and is due for a 2013 straight-to-DVD and Blu Ray release. Cryer joins Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond) on the film.

Competition Reminder


With just over a month to go until the deadline, remember to enter our very first A113Animation Competition.

As the above image highlights, to get the chance to win a free copy of Cars on DVD and the opportunity to judge your very own A113Animation Award, you must write a reasonably detailed (there's no minimum word number, but don't send in minuscule entries) review of any animated film from 2011 (including Tangled, as that was released in January over here in the UK) and e-mail it to a113animation@gmail.com by 5th October.

The review can be of any animated film, the most insightful, interesting and/or entertaining review will win, for help or for details, check out our reviews and the competition page.

Friday 19 August 2011

Out of D23: Next Toy Story Toon named Small Fry, and more details


Courtesy of The Pixar Times' live blog from the D23 Pixar Shorts Panel, we now know that the next Toy Story Toon (due to play before The Muppets on November 23), will be called Small Fry and that it will be directed by Angus Maclane

The short is apparently a Prince and the Pauper story revolving around Buzz and that Glee's Jane Lynch will provide a voice in the short.

Still relatively little to go on, but if it's half as good as Hawaiian Vacation was, we're in for a treat.

Also, from this live blog, we have learned from La Luna director, Enrico Casarosa, that the short WILL be shown with Brave next year.



We also get the above video, a look at the Disney legends ceremony, including an interview with everyone's favourite frog.

I'm Back - A Collection of Things You May Have Missed

Apologies for the hiatus, I've been on holiday for the past few weeks, so - while I have been able to keep up to date on the latest animation news - I have been unable to post about the large slab of news that has been coming out (thankfully, though, I am back in time to cover all that happens at D23, starting today). So, to avoid spamming you with post after post, I'm compiling all of the news over the past couple of weeks into one big post here for you.

Firstly, news surfaced over a week ago (via The Hollywood Reporter and Box Office Mojo) that we can expect another Pixar film in 2014. Following only a few weeks after the announcement of a, as of yet unnamed, new Pixar feature coming on November 27, 2013, we were told that the 2013 film would be an original concept, so not a sequel; no such thing has been said of this 2014 release, giving credibility to the belief that this 2014 film could be the rumoured Toy Story 4.

Pixar, seemingly, are being a lot more secretive with their upcoming slate as of late, announcing less details about further off films, this could likely be to avoid another scenario like what we saw with Newt, where early announcements led to Pixar losing some face by having to cancel the project due to perceived similarities with Rio and Alpha & Omega. But we may get details on this, and the 2013 film, from D23.

This new Pixar film is scheduled for release on May 30, 2014.

But that's only a little bit of the news that I haven't covered over the past few weeks, read the rest after the jump break.

Tuesday 2 August 2011

Details on DreamWorks' Turbo


Following on from last week where we found out some more details about DreamWorks' upcoming film, Monkeys of Mumbai, we get details on yet another animated film from DreamWorks' very busy upcoming slate.

Today, we learn more about a film named Turbo. The official Facebook pages for DreamWorks and for Turbo provide the following synopsis of the film:

"The story follows an ordinary garden snail who dreams of becoming the fastest snail in the world. When a freak accident gives him extraordinary speed, Turbo sets out to try to make his dream come true."

Directed by David Soren, written by Soren and Darren Lemke, with Ryan Reynolds voicing the title character; Turbo is due out, as of right now, on July 19, 2013.

I, personally, am liking this slate of upcoming DreamWorks films, I'm looking forward to this, Monkeys of Mumbai and The Croods amongst others and DreamWorks have definitely been heading in the right direction over the past couple of years.