Tonnes of New Details Revealed About Disney's Upcoming Slate!

Blue Sky Disney, who always have reliable tips and sources from inside Disney, have just spilled the beans on what we can expect from the Mouse House post-Big Hero 6!

We're getting the studio's 53rd animated feature this winter, with Frozen; next year we get their Marvel-adaptation, Big Hero 6, (or the year after if you're from the UK); beyond that, we had titbits about a Byron Howard animal comedy, a Ron Clements and John Musker Tiki/Rumpelstiltskin film which may or may not be animated in a Paperman style, and a few other irons on the fire. We also had some release dates with no films matched. But BSD's Honor Hunter just blew all that out of the water with some super exciting details about what we can expect all the way up until 2018! Check out the juicy details below.

Coming Soon: Disney Animation Studios to Make an Animated Marvel Film!

Yep, you did read that right. Almost 3 years after Disney bought Marvel Entertainment, and after much speculation that we might see this, Honor over at Blue Sky Disney tells us that Walt Disney Animation Studios are working on an adaptation of a Marvel property!

Rather than focus on the more mainstream Marvel heroes like Iron Man or Hulk (mainly because they're prominent in The Avengers) Disney are instead opting to adapt and animate the Marvel super-team, Big Hero 6. The film is to be directed by Winnie the Pooh co-helmer, Don Hall, and is tentatively due for 2014.

This is a huge move undoubtedly for Disney, Marvel are enormous at the box-office, as are Disney; this may be a more obscure Marvel team, but this will certainly be a smash-hit nonetheless! This marks, that I'm aware of, the first time Disney will have worked with another studio on an animated release; their first superhero film; the first Marvel film in the Disney Animation canon, and so much more. This promises to be an extremely exciting project and it seems a perfect fit for Disney right now. Following on from the very modern-minded Wreck-It Ralph, Big Hero 6 looks to continue a new trend for Disney.

The Little Mermaid directors Ron Clements and John Musker are developing a new hand-drawn animated film, and that and Frozen will presumably keep Disney's princesses in fine form, but this and Wreck-It Ralph balance it out perfectly.

If there were doubts previously, let them be now allayed, the third Golden Age of Disney Animation has arrived.

Disney Screens Wreck-It Ralph

Disney held recent test screenings for its latest animated feature film, Wreck-It Ralph. We've heard a lot of hype as of late for the film, with it being touted that it "does for video games what Toy Story did for toys".

One group of lucky people who got to see some footage from the film are the guys at The Rotoscopers, who seem rather taken with the film. Saying particular points of enjoyment from the, unfinished, footage were the cameos from real-life video game characters (a la Barbie in Toy Story I imagine), and the focus on Ralph's character driven motivation in the film. The Rotoscopers awarded the footage 4 stars, and an assessment of "Very Good".



I also found the above video from D23 last year. It may be slightly dated now, but it shows a mock-up video game that Disney had on hand of Fix-it Felix Jr., the game in which Ralph is the villain. It gives some interesting insight into the world of Wreck-It Ralph.

It looks promising!

Via Blue Sky Disney.

A Look at Tim Burton's Frankenweenie

Thanks to Entertainment Weekly (and via Blue Sky Disney), we get our first real look at Tim Burton's next animated feature film, Frankenweenie.

The re-telling of the short film that he created for Disney way back in the 80s, that led to him being kicked out of the company - with the film being viewed as too weird and too scary - is set to be, as you can see about this post, released in black and white, hearkening back to a simpler time in cinema; and with the very classically Burton character designs the film looks set to be a great return to animation for the man who helped bring us The Nightmare Before Christmas.

The plot of the film follows a young boy, Victor, whose love for his pet dog, Sparky, reaches new heights when the canine companion is killed in an accident and Vincent uses his science kit to bring him back to life.

So, obviously, the stop-motion film is set to be wonderfully weird, and quite dark, even down the actual colouring of the film, but Disney obviously have more faith in the project than they did back in 1984 and for more details on the background of the film and Burton's inspiration for it, be sure to check out the full Entertainment Weekly article.

Frankenweenie is set to be released by Disney on October 5, 2012.

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.

Pooh Poster

Earlier in the year, we were treated to the first trailer for Disney's upcoming Winnie the Pooh film, as I said at the time, the film looks terrific and brilliantly nostalgic.

A couple of days ago, we were given the films first official poster for the film (above). Whilst it is certainly minimalistic, it simply - and effectively - hyped me up for the film. So keep a keen eye on Pooh this year.

Also, as Blue Sky Disney points out, it will be Disney's last animated film until 2013, so make the most of the next trip to the Hundred Acre Woods, it'll have to suffice as for at least an extra 2 years.