This Week on A113Animation (23rd - 29th September, 2013)

This has been a rather mammoth week for animation news. You can tell it's been a biggie, because where otherwise we'd get a piece of Ghibli news every couple of weeks, we've got three pieces this week! Sequel speculation, release dates, and more; we've got exciting new posters and stills from Frozen, Rio 2, The Tale of Princess Kaguya and Toy Story of Terror. Not to mention an awesome trailer for Disney's Frozen and a... not terrible trailer for Reel FX's Free Birds. All that exciting stuff, your latest Disney Retrospective and more, check out what happened this week on A113Animation.

News

Studio Ghibli might be making a Porco Rosso sequel: One of Ghibli's less renowned efforts, Porco Rosso came out a long while ago, in 1992. But it's a fine film, with a strong message ("I'd rather be a pig than a fascist.") and great ideas and visuals, and, apparently, sequel potential. Hayao Miyazaki's been planning a sequel for a long while, and now it's rumoured to be going ahead, without his involvement. The director of Arrietty is the one rumoured to be at the tiller. Full details on the story here.

Shaun the Sheep: The Movie coming March 2015: It's Shaun the Sheep. Aardman's next film, that is. The adaptation of the studio's popular TV series, starring the character first introduced in the Wallace and Gromit short, A Close Shave, is due to hit in 2015. Now we have an exact date. The director announced on Twitter that the film has zeroed in on 20th March, 2015; we assume that's just for the UK and Europe, the US one will probably be April-ish. Full story here.

Four cool new posters for Frozen: This was a big week for Frozen - one we might've thought was never coming amidst the advertising drought a few months ago. Later in the week we'd get the great new trailer for the film, and we started it with four snazzy new international posters! My personal favourite is the UK one, you can see a bit of it in the thumbnail to the left, but to check it out in full hi-res, along with the other three goofier ones, head here.

Colourful new stills from Rio 2: Blu, Jewel and co. are flying back onto the big screen next year, with Blue Sky Studios' Rio 2. The first film was, while rather lightweight, very enjoyable, toe-tapping and colourful, and, going off these new stills, the sequel looks to be more of the same. Again directed by Carlos Saldanha, the Sambaing sequel is Blue Sky's first attempt at a non-Ice Age franchise. Check out the vibrant new peeks at the film here.

Superbad writers making R-rated animated pic with Shrek 2 director: Sausage Party (no, not like that!). That's the name of the R-rated animated comedy that This is the End directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are developing for Sony. The film's being directed by Shrek 2/Monsters vs. Aliens director (and voice of Gingy) Conrad Vernon, with Greg Tiernan. Sausage Party (no, not like that! Honestly.) sounds kinda like a raunchy Toy Story, but you can judge for yourself here.

Awesome new trailer for Disney's Frozen: This is the news we've been waiting for for months and months. With the November release date fast approaching, Disney are putting their full heft behind advertising Frozen, and this week they rolled out a fantastic new trailer for the film! Anna's cute, Elsa's badass, and Olaf's not that annoying; there's a lot to love in the new trailer. Watch it for yourself here, and head to the comments section and let us know what you made of it and how excited or not excited you are for Frozen.

New poster and trailer for Free Birds aren't awful: From a great trailer to a trailer that's... well, it's not terrible. While the last trailer for Reel FX's debut feature put me completely off the film, this new one for Free Birds actually kinda gained my curiosity. The time-travelling turkey pic features the voices of Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Amy Poehler and some funny Hazmat suit guys. The film's coming this Thanksgiving (it may put you off your turkey dinner), and you can check out the new trailer here.

Stills from Takahata's The Tale of Princess Kaguya: Hayao Miyazaki's retiring, (Mayra will have a review of his last film, The Wind Rises, up soon!) but Studio Ghibli isn't done with. Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday) will be back with his first film in 14 years later this year (in Japan, anyway). Check out a poster and nine stills from The Tale of Princess Kaguya here.

Avengers 2 Comic-Con teaser: The Age of Ultron is coming. Avengers 2 is sure to be one of the biggest films of 2015 (one of many 'biggest films of 2015', in fact), and now you can watch the cool little teaser that director and fanboy king Joss Whedon unveiled to attendees at this year's SDCC - in non-shaky cam, bootlegged form! Check out the title reveal for Avengers: Age of Ultron here.

Kickstarter for Princess Mononoke live-action fan film: Three pieces of Ghibli news in one go? My, my, this has been a busy week. An intrepid Kickstarter group are planning a live-action, fan-made sequel to Miyazaki's 1997 classic, Princess Mononoke. Wolf Girl's donation window is likely wrapped up by the time I've posted this, but check out the concept trailer and art here anyway.

Character breakdown for Big Hero 6: Those awesome Rotoscope-y guys have teamed up with Bleeding Cool to bring us exclusive brand new character and plot details for Disney's 54th animated feature, Big Hero 6! An adaptation of the somewhat obscure Marvel comic of the same name, BH6 features a boy genius, robot-builder called Hiro, his massive robot companion called Baymax, and a gang including Wasabi No-Ginger, Honey Lemon, GoGo Tomago and Fred. Doesn't that sound just awesome? Check out all we now know here!

Meet Combat Carl in new stills from Toy Story of Terror!: As if to make up for the lack of film next year, Pixar are spoiling us with awesome stuff from their first TV special right now. This week we got six snazzy new stills from Toy Story of Terror!, showing off Carl Weathers's Combat Carl and the important roles of Jessie and Mr. Pricklepants in the special. The inexorably better CG of the Toy Story universe is staggering, behold the beauty of the new stills here.

Features

Disney Retrospective, Tarzan: Our Disney Renaissance two-part podcast special is in the ether of Editland, and this week Munir rounds off the period with a Retrospective review of 1999's Tarzan. "Tarzan represents the end of a wonderful era," says Munir of the film's importance. "An era of ambition, expansion, and the creation of some of the best movies that ever came from the Disney studio." For his full thoughts on the film, head here. And make the most of it, the dark ages are coming.