This Week on A113Animation (5th - 11th August, 2013)

Now I was actually away this week (until yesterday, that is), so firstly I want to extend a big thank you to the rest of the A113Animation superteam for keeping things running like clockwork in my absence! That said, it was a poor choice of weeks for me to take a holiday, because this has been a very interesting week for animation fans. Trailers for The Muppets and Thor, a clip from Frozen, Benedict Cumberbatch stuff, and all the goodness from D23! Add onto that your usual features and Nadine's review of Planes, and it's been a good week.

News

Muppets Most Wanted teaser trailer: Just ahead of Disney's D23 Expo kicking off this weekend, Disney released the first trailer for their sequel to 2011's The Muppets on Tuesday. Muppets Most Wanted has Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell and Tina Fey, alongside the titular felt little puppets and hits cinemas next year. The trailer has received a bit of a mixed reaction, but it's certainly fun; check it out for yourself here.

Akira special anniversary edition Blu-ray: One of the all-time greats of anime, Akira, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. In recognition of the big birthday, Munir reported that the film will be hitting Blu-ray at the end of the year. A trailer also came online for the special HD anniversary edition, check it out here.

Cumberbatch and Malkovich board Penguins: Sherlock and Star Trek Into Darkness star (and A113Animation favourite) Benedict Cumberbatch and RED 2 and, well, Being John Malkovich star John Malkovich have joined the voice cast of DreamWorks' The Penguins of Madagascar. The Madagascar  spin-off is just another exciting film coming in 2015. Check out the breakdown of who's playing who here.

New trailer for Thor: The Dark World: Marvel's phase three kicked off in a big way with the $1.2 billion grossing Iron Man 3. The studio will surely be hoping to ride that post-Avengers hype for all it's worth, and, for the record, their next film looks really rather great. Directed by Games of Thrones' Alan Taylor, here's the first full trailer for Thor: The Dark World.

John Lasseter talks D23; new concept art for TGD and Frozen: Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios head honcho prepared us for the oncoming storm that is D23 by giving a few choice words to Entertainment Weekly. Lasseter spoke about what we could expect from the expo, why we won't be seeing a Disney-animated Star Wars film, where Lucasfilm slots in and more. EW also debuted two new gorgeous pieces of concept art for The Good Dinosaur and Frozen. Check it all out here.

Casts, plots and concept art for next Pixar, WDAS and DisneyToon films [D23]: If you read just one post on A113Animation this week, make it this one. Damien breaks down all the wonderful news from Disney's animation panel at D23: Neil Patrick Harris, Amy Poehler and Ty Burrell are all to voice new Pixar characters; Zootopia is confirmed, with concept art; and Tom Hiddleston will voice a young Captain Hook! All that and so much more here.

New clip from Frozen: Disney's next film is Frozen, based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen. The film, directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee drew the ire of animation fans for its woeful lack of advertising, but now promotion is flowing thick and fast. This week we got a beautiful new clip from the film, showing Anna, Kristoff and Olaf running from the giant snow-monster Elsa has summoned. Behold it for yourself here.

Finding Dory ending might be changing post-Blackfish: Blackfish, a SeaWorld-slamming documentary that shines the light on the conditions of whales in captivity, has been making waves (no pun intended) as of late, and apparently those waves have spread to Emeryville. The tenuous word this week was that Andrew Stanton and John Lasseter saw the documentary, which gave them cause to rethink the previously planned ending to Finding Dory. The full story, and potential spoilers, here.

Monsters U hits Blu-ray on 29th October: Pixar's latest is still out in most cinemas, but word has now broke about when it'll be gracing our Blu-ray players. Monsters University lands on BD - and indeed DVD, for your Low Definition plebs out there - on 29th October, complete with a host of bonus features, including The Blue Umbrella. Well, in the US anyway; no word on when the film will land in the UK just yet - expect mid-late November. Check out the cover, the bonus features, etc., here.

Star Wars, Marvel, Muppets, Cinderella, Mr. Banks and more live-action stuff [D23]: The second big helping of D23-ishness was recapped by Nadine. Alan Horn took to the stage to announce all the big live-action happenings for Disney over the next few years - although there was precious little about Star Wars. Thor 2, Cap 2, Muppets Most Wanted, Into the Wood, Branagh's Cinderella, Maleficent, Tomorrowland and more were talked about - see it all here.

Features

Disney Retrospective, Beauty and the Beast: As his Disney Retrospective enters week 30, Munir is into the most exciting era of Disney animated history: Aladdin next week, The Lion King the week after and, this week, the undisputed classic Beauty and the Beast. It's Best Picture nominated, it's often touted as the best animated film of all time, and Munir calls it, unequivocally, "a masterpiece." Check out the full review here.

Futurama, A Swan Song - Week 8: 8 down, 4 to go; Damien's back with another mini-review of this week's Futurama. This time round "Leela is diagnosed with an incurable genetic condition that will eventually transform her into a big purple squid." See what Damien thinks of the latest exploits of the 31st century gang here.



Reviews

Planes: DisneyToon Studios' frowned upon spin-off of Pixar's Cars franchise is out in US cinemas now, and opens here in the UK next week. Nadine went to Leicester Square a few weeks ago to see the film, and posted her exclusive review as soon as the embargo went up this week. She says it's not "a must-see theatrical release but rather something you’d pick up cheap in a shop for a lazy afternoon." Check out the full review here.



Episode 4 of the podcast will be getting recorded soon. So start sending in your thoughts on Despicable Me 2 to contact@a113animation.com now.