Watch: Three New Cars Toons, Tales From Radiator Springs

On Friday, during a US Disney Channel airing of Up, Pixar released three news Cars Toons, subtitled Shorty Shorts. For those who missed it - or those outside of the US who didn't get a chance to catch them - the shorts are now online at Disney.com.

Three New, Non-Mater, Cars Toons Announced... For Tonight!

Cars Toons - Shorty Shorts: Hiccups

Well, this is a surprise. Disney have just announced three new Cars Toons, being billed as Shorty Shorts, to premiere on Disney Channel tonight during an airing of Up (starting 8/7c) - note, these details are all for the US, though the shorts are to hit the Internet on Sunday. They're called Shorty Shorts because they're just that, short, about a minute and a half each, and they'll be airing throughout the night.

Watch: Time Travel Mater

The latest Cars Toon, Time Travel Mater - the redesigned version of the formerly planned Backwards to the Fowards - which aired a few weeks ago on ABC, is now online! Perhaps not as chaotic or fun as the early boards for the story made it seem, it is very funny, very sentimental and focuses a bit more on characters besides Lightning and Mater. Check it out embedded above.

I also really enjoyed the Disney reference towards the start of the short, declaring it a "Pixar Laugh-O-Gram", paying homage to Walt Disney's early days in animation.


No word yet on when or if we can expect another Cars Toon; although we've still got 5 more Toy Story Toons on the way!

Via Pixar Post.

New Cars Toon Coming Very Soon

So, it turns out Air Mater wasn't the final Cars Toon after all. Following on from the news that we can expect 3 new Toy Story Toons yesterday, today, via Disney Parks Blog, we get a clip from the eleventh Cars Toon (above), titled Time Travel Mater.

The short film lets the audience "travel back in time with Mater to the beginning of Radiator Springs", and every time Mater drives backwards, he travels back in time. If this concept sounds familiar to you, it's entirely possible it's because you watched the 'Unmade Tales' clips on the Cars Toon: Mater's Tall Tales DVD. When watching the 'Unmade Tale' of this story (below), then titled Backwards to the Forwards, I was very disappointed that nothing came of it - it looked great! So, I'm very glad to see it's been picked up again and I can't wait to see it.



The short will be playing stateside on, Disney owned channel, ABC along with the feature film Cars, both playing from 8 - 11 PM (EST) on 16th June. The three hour bill also features a video tour of the newly opening Cars Land by the voice of Mater, Larry the Cable Guy. Time Travel Mater will premiere, though, on 15th June, the opening day of Cars Land, at Disney California Adventure. No word as to when fans outside of the US can expect to see it; I'd presume on Disney Channel or Disney Cinemagic sometime in the near future.

Via Pixar Post.

New Air Mater Images

Along with Cars 2 and the Toy Story short film, Hawaiian Vacation, the home media release of Cars 2 will also feature the tenth, and purportedly final, Cars Toon, Air Mater. As the release of Cars 2 on DVD, Blu Ray and Digital Download approaches - due to be released this November around the world - Disney and Pixar have rolled out some brand new images of the short film.

The short film is supposed to link in to Disneytoon Studios', straight to DVD/Blu Ray, Cars spin-off, Planes, and is the first short film to be entirely produced by Pixar Canada.

Courtesy of The Pixar Times.

Also, worth your time is Greg, from Pixar Talk,'s interview with Rob Gibbs, the director of Air Mater.

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.

Walt Disney Investors Conference Results: Planes and Toy Story Toons

From last week's Walt Disney Investors Conference we got a storm of new details and updates on all things Disney and Pixar. Arguably the most substantial in terms of animated revelations is that concerning the upcoming straight to DVD/Blu Ray Cars spin-off, Planes.

As previously reported and speculated, Planes is NOT a Pixar production, it is indeed being made by DisneyToon Studios. The film is set to be a direct to DVD/Blu Ray one and is due for release in Spring, 2013.

To be honest, whilst I'm sure Planes won't be anywhere near Pixar level, I must admit I personally really want to see it. We have an official press release below:

Cars Toons, 2011

With the release of Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales on Blu Ray and DVD in U.S.A. I grew suspicious by the lack of an announcement of a U.K. release date, so I e-mailed Disney and boy was I disappointed...
May 2011...
May 2011...
How long can it possibly take to ship it from America, it better be worth the wait!

Planes

As mentioned previously, this blog is, for now, going to cover random pieces of interesting news from the past few months:
There are rumors of a Cars spin off straight-to-DVD film (a la Disney), being released, whilst this is disappointing to think that Pixar would let their character be butchered by these type of films, I'm actually quite looking forward to it, it could turn out well, like Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Also, at least it's not being made by Pixar, it's in production by DisneyToon Studios, responsible for the recent string of Tinkerbell movies.
What do you think? Will it be good? Will the release coincide with Cars 2?
Comment Below :D