[UPDATED: Now Closed] 3rd Annual A113Animation Awards: Competition and Poll

It's awards season, folks. As such, the 3rd Annual A113Animation Awards are fast approaching! Delayed from their usual December slot to allow me to check out Disney's much lauded latest film, (and one I'm extremely excited to finally see) Wreck-It Ralph, the awards are now taking place on 15th February, with nominees to be announced on 9th February.

However, here at A113Animation, we love hearing your say on things, as such we're giving you two chances to voice your thoughts on what the best animated feature film of 2012 was! A poll will appear very shortly on the right-hand side of the blog, collecting votes to decided what "The People's Favourite Animated Film" of 2012 was (that'll run for the next few weeks).

In addition though, we're running our 3rd competition! I'm afraid the prize isn't quite as glamorous as our last one was, but you do get to judge this year's "Second Opinion Award", meaning you get your name up on the blog, alongside your pick for the best animated film of 2012. To enter, as the picture above details, you can do one of three things: Tweet (@A113Animation), Facebook (facebook.com/a113animation) and/or email (contact@a113animation.com) us, saying what your favourite animated film of 2012 was (with or without an explanation) by the end of this month. You can do all three, each one counts as one entry; the winner will be announced and contacted shortly thereafter.

Sorry for the lack of glamorous prizes for this one (there'll be one of those in the near future hopefully!), but please get involved and enter. Best of luck - and remember to vote in the poll when it's up too.

UPDATE - 22:25 (GMT), 01/02/2013: The competition is now closed, the winner was Twitter user, and loyal A113Animation reader and commenter, @BenBoekelaar and he'll now get the chance to judge the "Second Opinion Award" later this month.

Congrats to Benjamin, commiserations to those who weren't successful this time, and thanks to the many who entered - we hope to have a few more competitions in the foreseeable future!

Wreck-It Ralph Teaser Poster

After giving us our first look at concept art from Wreck-It Ralph a couple of months ago, today Disney have revealed the teaser poster for their 51st animated film.

The quite minimalistic poster (above) comes courtesy of the film's official Facebook page and sports an 8-bit design - reinforcing the film's retro game theme. Hopefully we'll see a teaser trailer for the film in the very near future.

Wreck-It Ralph is released in theatres on 2nd November in America, but alas, due to Disney's infuriating release schedule, won't hit UK theatres until February, 2013.

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!

Kelly Macdonald on Brave

Kelly Macdonald, voice of Merida in the upcoming Pixar film Brave, has been making her round recently, doing interviews concerning her role in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 as Helena Ravenclaw and has broached the subject of her role in Brave as well. Describing her utter elation at working with the animation giants to NBC Connecticut. Macdonald, a star of Boardwalk Empire, said the following of Pixar and Brave:

“I really, really can’t contain myself about ‘Brave,’” she says of playing the adventurous, rebellious archer Merida, the first central female character in a Pixar film. “It was something completely new. I’m not finished yet. I still have some things to do, but it’s just such a different thing, and I didn’t really have very much to go on. They had some animation to show me. I know what she looks like, but it’s nowhere near completion. The animators have been working for years and years on this thing. With all the actors that they’ve brought onboard, that means it’s nearing it’s (sic) vision. I’m just so impressed that I’m getting to work with people who are brilliant. Pixar is the best company, I think.”

Good to see that Macdonald is passionate about the work and I can't wait to see the performance she turns in come 2012.

Courtesy of The Pixar Times

The Pirates Trailer

Aardman and Sony Pictures Animation have finally released the trailer for The Pirates: In an Adventure with Scientists, the next stop motion film from the British film giants behind Wallace and Gromit is due in 2012 and this trailer is phenomenal.

I'm sure Arthur Christmas will be great, however, Aardman's true talent is stop motion, this shines through in this trailer; it's funny, action packed, clever, satirical and the music and visual style are both fantastic. As I've heard from various sources, the scale of this movie is huge, it certainly seems like an epic film.

Likewise, the voice cast (led by Hugh Grant) seems top notch. Roll on 2012 and The Pirates.

John Lasseter to be Recognised with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Disney and Pixar Animation CCO and general Movie God, John Lasseter, is to be recognised by getting his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Lasseter, an Academy Award winner and the director of Toy Story and, the soon to premiere, Cars 2, will be present at the unveiling ceremony on June 17, 2012.

John should be proud, it's a huge honour and one he fully deserves.

Assorted Disney News

Not everything on A113Animation will always be dedicated to animation - although if it's not, it's generally closely linked -, today is proof of that. Above you will see the latest trailer for The Muppets, due out in November, and it looks great, parodies can sometimes seem asinine (although we are expecting a proper film-footage trailer very soon), I love this one, it's great. Also, from what I've heard, this trailer's already better than the full Green Lantern film... just saying...

Secondly, Disney have recently released the first teaser poster for Pixarian Andrew Stanton's first venture into Live Action, John Carter (formerly John Carter of Mars). Due to be released on March 9, 2012, this is the first look we get at the two time Academy Award winner's first Live Action feature.

I'm actually very excited to see this film and can't wait to see how Stanton's talent transfers to Live Action.

Wreck-It Ralph

Disney's animated slate was supposed to be blank in 2012, with their next feature, Reboot Ralph, coming in 2013. However, now that Pixar's Monsters University is pushed back to 2013, Reboot Ralph steps forward to 2012, under a new name, Wreck-It Ralph.

Disney's 52nd animated feature looks to continue the studio's recent run of success, and from what I've read of the film, it looks like it may edge us ever closer to being in the Third Golden Age. Looking to continue the recent success of Tangled and Winnie the Pooh, Wreck-It Ralph is a revolutionary film, exploring the world of video games from the inside. The film is set to be directed by Rich Moore, a former long time animation director on The Simpsons and Futurama, and stars the voices of John C. Reilly, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch and Sarah Silverman.

The offficial synopsis, courtesy of Disney's Press Release, is featured below:

Wreck-It Ralph (voice of Reilly) longs to be as beloved as his game's perfect Good Guy, Fix-It Felix (voice of McBrayer). Problem is, nobody loves a Bad Guy. But they do love heroes... so when a modern, first-person shooter game arrives featuring tough-as-nails Sergeant Calhoun (voice of Lynch), Ralph sees it as his ticket to heroism and happiness. He sneaks into the game with a simple plan -- win a medal -- but soon wrecks everything, and accidently unleashes a deadly enemy that threatens every game in the arcade. Ralph's only hope? Vanellope von Schweetz (voice of Silverman), a young troublemaking "glitch" from a candy-coated cart racing game who might just be the one to teach Ralph what it means to be a Good Guy. But will he realize he is good enough to become a hero before it's "Game Over" for the entire arcade?

The films sounds pretty solid to me, it seems like a great shift for Disney, both tonally and in terms of plot, and it's good to see the Disney animation department finally staying awake, after being stagnant for so many years.

Only time will tell, the film is due out on November 2, 2012 in North America, no announcement yet on when it will hit other countries around the world.

Aardman News 4 - Straight from Annecy

We've seen a lot out of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, lots of details on the Pixar short, La Luna, and thanks to Aardman Co-Owener Peter Lord's Twitter, we get an article with some in-depth looks and thoughts on Aardman's upcoming slate, Arthur Christmas and The Pirates. The article tells us that Arthur Christmas is fantastic and a great twist on the rather stale Christmas film niche, it also gives us more insight into the film's plot - seeing Arthur and his granddad (the former Santa Claus) travel around the world in the old fashioned sleigh to deliver one last present that was left behind. It sounds great and Skwigly seem to agree, the animation style (CGI here, rather than the trademark Aardman stop-motion) looks great and distinctly Aardman.

The article also gives us a little more details on Aardman's 2012 stop-motion film, The Pirates, which is said to be even more impressive and visually stunning and massively impressive, as well as hilarious. The article also gives us an insight into the genesis of the film, and apparently it has been on the table since the 1990s, but DreamWorks told them that no one would pay to see a pirate film. Since then and the success of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, the film has been put under full production and is being directed by Peter Lord and is set to be released in 2012.

I can't wait to see either of these films, I love anything out of Aardman and would encourage you all to head over to Skwigly to read the full article, it's incredibly interesting.

La Luna Debuts, Poster Revealed

La Luna, the newest short out of Pixar, the one likely to be attached to Pixar's 13th feature film, Brave, debuted recently at the Annecy International Film Festival. According to the short's director, Enrico Casarosa, and his blog, the short was the finale of the opening night. Enrico also shares with us the short's poster (above), which looks really stunning, Pixar have always been on top form for posters (and everything else for that matter), and this seems to be no exception.

La Luna looks and sounds great and, as it is likely going to be attached to 2012's Brave, it is quickly making Pixar's first fairytale my most anticipated animated film.

First Look at Brave

Dutch blog, Animatie, (that a while back started the rumours that Monsters, Inc. 2 was in fact a prequel) gives us our first still (above) from Pixar's upcoming 2012 fairytale, Brave. The still looks to be the fully rendered version of the concept art we saw a while back.

Also, it is likely that this still will feature somewhere or other in the upcoming teaser trailer, to be attached to Cars 2.

More La Luna Details Emerge

Yesterday, details emerged on a brand new Pixar short, La Luna, set to debut later this year at the Annecy Film Festival and today yet more details emerge.

Firstly, we have the very simple yet effective looking title card for the short (above). As I said yesterday, I really like the look of the short and this title fits with what I've seen so far and just looks generally great.

Joining director Enrico Casarosa at the helm is Kevin Reher, as producer, who previously produced Partly Cloudy and Day & Night. It is a very solid sounding team at the top of this project and La Luna looks set to be a great addition to the already fantastic Pixar animated short film canon.

Finally, La Luna is set to have a running time of 6:53, which Mike of The Pixar Blog reliably informs us is Pixar's longest short film by almost a minute, adding to the feel of a "fable" that it is touted to be.

The short sounds great and could easily be the one we see attached to Brave in 2012.

Monsters University Delayed

2012 was due to be the year where Pixar changed their game plan and brought out 2 films in the same year, but no longer. Next year Pixar were due to release Brave and Monsters University (formerly Monsters, Inc. 2), however today (via Box Office Mojo) we were infiormed that MU has been delayed from November 2, 2012 to June, 2013. Whilst this is by no stretch a bad thing, as it means Pixar will have more time to try and live up to the original Monsters, Inc. and retain their standard, it seems bizarre that this announcement should come just after so much news about the film had been revealed.

I'm sad that I'll now have to wait until June 21, 2013 for the film, but I'm assuming it's for the best.

Brave Concept Art Poster

Following on from the newt poster I made from all of the concept art yesterday, I decided to make one for Pixar's next release following Cars 2, Brave, using all the concept art released so far.

Since this most recent concept art has surfaced, I have been super psyched for Brave, it looks brilliantly original and I'm hyped to see Pixar's first fairytale.

Fortunately this one didn't take as long as the newt one did!

Monsters University

Months after all of the rumours that Monsters, Inc. 2 might in fact not be the sequel we expected, but rather a prequel, we get confirmation. We now know that not only is the film a prequel, but that it is not Monsters, Inc. 2 at all, the title for the film is Monsters University. This more or less confirms the rumours about the plot.

This announcement was made at today's CinemaCon event in Las Vegas and is, needless to say, very exciting.

Now if we could just find out who the director is...

New Brave Details Emerge, New Artwork

After months of silence on Pixar's 13th feature film, and its first attempt at a fairytale, we finally get something more substantial to do with Brave. When I got home this afternoon and checked my Twitter feed, I was greeted by an interesting tweet by Pixar animator Chris Chua, announcing new Brave concept art.

What I found on The Pixar Times and Entertainment Weekly was perhaps even more interesting, shedding new light on the plot, cast and director.

First of all, we have some fantastic new concept art, it's eerily beautiful, yet also a bit darker and grittier than we may have expected from Pixar, very brave (if you'll pardon the pun). You can see all of this concept art above, however Entertainment Weekly has a great article about the piece including updated plot points, a new description and new information on the voice cast and director.

These points are that, Reese Witherspoon will no longer be voicing Merida - the main character - due to scheduling issues, instead, Scottish actress, Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire) will voice her. This, to be honest, will fit better, using an actual Scottish actress to play a Scottish Princess.

The other main point is that, whilst Mark Andrews (One Man Band) has replaced Brenda Chapman as director, they will both be credited as the film's director. This is an interesting development to say the least. You can read the full article with all the entailing information on Entertainment Weekly's website.

These pictures and this information has got me incredibly psyched for Brave, which I previously could make head nor tail of. Brave is to hit theatres in June 2012.

Announcing New Awards

Though they're still months away now, I'm taking this opportunity to announce more A113Animation Awards for the 2nd Annual Event this coming January. In addition to all of the existing awards (which you can view here), I'm adding the below awards. Feel free to give feedback:

• The Second Opinion Award
• Best Song
• Best Score
• Best Animation/Animation Technique

I look forward to expanding the awards each year and hope you all enjoy them and feel free to suggest more.

Also, please vote in the new poll to the right as to which of the blog's logos you prefer.

Monsters, Inc. 2, A Prequel?

Is the upcoming 2012 Pixar sequel, Monsters, Inc. 2, in fact a prequel? Dutch animation blog Animatie says that it may well be. The rumours (and we have to assume they are such until an official announcement tells us otherwise) aparently stem from a 2011-2012 catalogue from Walt Disney Pictures. The catalogue aparently claims that the film will follow Mike and Sulley back when they were both studying at the Monstropolis University of Fear, and that they were indeed rivals.

Whilst I was really looking forward to a Monsters, Inc. sequel, to see where it would take the story and how emotional it would be - playing off the nostalgia factor, like Toy Story 3, a prequel sounds like a really original and interesting concept.

Also of note is the fact that Monsters, Inc. 2 is now scheduled to be released on 2nd November, 2012, exactly 11 years after the original film.

Scrat's Continental Crack-Up

          
Recently, the video embedded above made its way online. The video is believed to be a trailer for the upcoming Blue Sky Studios short film, Scrat's Continental Crack-Up, however many claim it is a teaser trailer for the upcoming 2012 feature film, Ice Age: Continental Drift (or Ice Age 4). However, it may well be both...

A short, starring Scrat (a staple of the Ice Age movies), this far into work on Ice Age 4, and concerning continental plates moving, like the film, is surely linked to it.

Regardless of the mystery and speculation, the clip looks great (I am still concerned about the film as a whole though after the cringe fest that was Ice Age 3), however we also have this screenshot of the film to fuel the fire that this is indeed a trailer, as both debuted within weeks of each other.

Don't forget Blue Sky Studios' next feature film, Rio, out next year, you can watch the trailer here.

Sweetland to Sony

Doug Sweetland, director of brilliant Pixar short, Presto, has officially been hired by Sony Pictures Animation (of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs) and is set to direct a 2012 feature animation, The Familiars, check out the description at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Familiars
Whilst it's sad that Pixar lose this great director, the film sounds pretty sweet.
Keep your eyes peeled.