Check Out This Awesome Comic-Con Poster for Pixar's Toy Story That Time Forgot!

Back in January, Pixar announced that - although they may not be releasing a feature film this year - they will be releasing their second Toy Story TV special this holiday season. Toy Story That Time Forgot is making an appearance at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, and this immense poster - which will be given out to attendees of Pixar's panel at SDCC - has just popped up online!

New Toy Story TV Special To Air This Christmas!

Credit: Bitten by the Travel Bug

Pixar might not be putting out a feature film this year, but they're not resting on their laurels. The studio will release a Monsters U short film with Muppets Most Wanted in March, and just announced a Toy Story holiday special for this Christmas: Toy Story That Time Forgot!

Christmas Recommendations: What Animated Things You Should Be Watching This Christmas

It's that time of year again (notice our festive banner and logo, once again designed by the fantastic Damien Chevrier), and we hope you're all having a restful, relaxing and enjoyable Holiday season so far! So, for those of you here in the UK, here are our ho-ho-hot picks for animated stuff (and generally-linked-to-animation stuff) that's on tele over the next couple of weeks.

Watch: Charming New John Lewis Ad, The Bear & the Hare

John Lewis always have great Christmas adverts. This year's one - as well as being part of a £7 million advertising blitz campaign (including "television, social media, soft toys, in-store events and even a mini manmade forest on the banks of the Thames" - via The Guardian) - is a great little animated piece, with a little bit of Disney in it.

UPDATED: Christmas Recommendations: The Snowman and the Snowdog, The Art of ROTG and TV Listings

'Tis the season! As such, we here at A113Animation have a few TV recommendations and last-minute animation-related present ideas for you.

Some TV alerts for UK readers: On Christmas Eve at 8 PM, Channel 4 airs The Snowman and the Snowdog, the sequel to the absolute Christmas classic, The Snowman. The original aired 30 years ago this year and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. While creator Raymond Briggs didn't write this sequel, he did give it his blessing and it's animated and approached in the hand-drawn, soft style of the magical and iconic original.



Check out an interview from BBC Breakfast with some of the crew who worked on The Snowman and the Snowdog, complete with clips from it, over at the BBC website, and check out the promo for it embedded above. A113Animation's favourite actor is to narrate an audio e-book version of the story shortly afterwards as well.

Aardman News 11 - 'Tis The Season for Get Togethers

It's been far too long since we've had an Aardman News post and what better time to do it than Christmastime? You love Wallace and Gromit right? How about Chicken Run? And Creature Comforts and Shaun the Sheep too? Shame we never get to see them all together and interacting. Oh well, we can't have it all... What? What's that you say Aardman? We can have it all? Hooray! Thanks Aardman!

Check out this cool little semi-promo for Google+, showing Aardman's stop-mo pantheon video calling each other this festive season. It seems The Pirate Captain hasn't quite got round to web-cam just yet. We can only hope he's working on some For Your Consideration ads instead.

Check out the charming and fun video above and, UK readers, get ready to check out any and all Wallace and Gromit shorts on the BBC in the next couple of weeks!

UPDATED: Seasonal Updates

Christmastime is upon us again! With less than two weeks to go until the most magical day of the year, I wanted to take a minute to address some blog business. First of all, you'll now see - here on the blog, and on our Facebook, Twitter and Google+ pages - our Christmas logos, adding a little bit of festive spirit to our mascots.

Secondly, it's usually this time of year (the 19th, in fact) that we announce our A113Animation Awards, but this year, they're going to take place a little later. Our picks for the best animated films of 2012 will take place on 22nd February, 2013. This means the 3rd Annual A113Animation Awards will more or less coincide with the 85th Annual Academy Awards (they're a little more prestigious, I'll grant you), but the main point of this delay is to allow me the chance to see almost every mainstream animated film: Wreck-It Ralph doesn't open here until 8th February, and I never got the chance to see Frankenweenie in cinemas, so I'll be checking it out when it hits Blu-ray on 11th February. Madagascar 3 arrives on home video the same day, and I hope to check Ice Age 4 out over Christmas. It feels like it'll benefit our awards, if I have a better sense of the whole field.

UPDATE - 17/01/2013, 19:10 (GMT): Frankenweenie's UK home video release has been moved back to 25th February, so it will, alas, not be considered for the 3rd Annual A113Animation Awards, which will now take place on 15th February.

I'll definitely be wishing you a Merry Christmas nearer the time, but, with all this horrid stuff in Newtown, it's worth remembering that, yes, the world is a dark, scary place sometimes, but it's only as dark and scary as the people who inhabit it. As fans of animated films, we tend to be optimists, to search for the happy, the magical, in life; it's up to us to counteract the actions of horrendous psychopaths, with ones of compassion. I'll leave you with an apt, seasonal, quote from Miracle on 34th Street:

"I'm not just a whimsical figure who wears a charming suit and affects a jolly demeanor. You know, I'm a symbol. I'm a symbol of the human ability to be able to suppress the selfish and hateful tendencies that rule the major part of our lives."

A113Animation wishes its most heartfelt condolences to all affected by this tragic event.

The Corner - Week 6 - Heather Reviews The Lion King

I would like to begin by saying: anybody who has not seen The Lion King is deprived. Since a rather young age (we’re talking two or three years old), The Lion King has been my all-time, most-magnificent, favourite film. So, excuse me if this review is a little biased- although, in retrospect, all reviews are opinionated articles, are they not? I digress…

The story is set on the prosperous African land: Pride Rock. Enter a young lion cub, Simba, future king of Pride Rock and its surrounding lands, son to the revered current king, Mufasa. The story is essentially, a “coming-of-age adventure” (as says the blurb of the Diamond Edition box, which, for the record, sits proudly at the forefront of my DVD collection). An assortment of likeable friends, joviality and seriousness, and never-ending hilarity help Simba come to terms with his destiny, and, more importantly, himself.

I could waffle on about how amazing and encapsulating The Lion King is, and win a prize for it-or if there was no existing prize for waffling, I could invent one and win that. However, I doubt a siege of paragraphs hailing this movie would interest anybody except myself, and possibly my fellow A113-ers. Therefore, I am going to have to try and back-off and gain a moral high-ground. Says the person who was given a badge with a picture of Simba, and her own name on it, for Christmas. Nobody said reviewing was easy.

Character-wise, The Lion King thrives. There is, and of course there would be, a certain glee to be had from the friendship between a meerkat and a warthog. Timon (aforementioned meerkat), and Pumbaa (warthog) make quite a pair of comedians, who show themselves to be quite the help when Simba loses his way. Beneath all the jokes and witty comments, the two show what it is to be a friend: loyalty and the willingness to help each other. Soppy? No, they make all their help quite the opposite. Of course, as, in my opinion, there should be in every good film, there is a budding romance. From the start, the naiveté of a young king’s attitude to love is clear: what can be no more than a minute’s dialogue between Zazu (the king's right-hand hornbill-a bird. Yes, you would have thought he'd be eaten, yet apparently his annoying demeanour is a quality Mufasa admires) and Simba outlines how Simba is too young to even consider falling for his best friend, Nala. Cute.

The music, too, is something to behold. Written by the duo of Tim Rice and Elton John, the songs are catchy and quirky. Download them to your iPod or MP3 Player, for example, and you’ll have them on loop (yes, I am guilty of this). The score, likewise, is brilliant – written by acclaimed Hans Zimmer (Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Inception, Gladiator). To pick out one particular instance: Timon and Pumbaa are being “live bait” at their future king’s insistence, and Timon performs a hula-dance. It’s rather hilarious, and one of the funniest bits of the film, in my opinion. However, I did show it to my younger sister the other night and I was almost lying on the floor laughing, yet she just stood there with one eyebrow raised… she just didn’t get it.

So: The Lion King. Now, to reign my enthusiasm in, and to sign off. The Lion King is a five-star film, for me. Full of music (so, if you don’t like music, perhaps not five-star, and more like three and a half- I really can’t go any lower), and jokes, and loveable characters, and a moral. Yes, a moral. It is impossible not to watch this film without cracking a smile, and once you have seen it a couple of times, it also becomes an obligation to sing along to the songs. Watching it more than once will not bore you, it will only become more enrapturing to you than the last time you watch it. I recommend it to all, with my highest endorsements.

Christmas Thoughts - 2011

I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas and that you all had a wonderful day yesterday. I thought I'd, as I did last year, share my thoughts on some animation related gifts I received.

At the top you can see the vast majority of them, I was incredibly overjoyed to receive these presents, as you can see, and as you can probably tell from reading my blog, I quite like animation, so these presents were fantastic for me.

To go through the presents one by one, I got, which is probably my favourite present, 'The Art of Pixar: The Complete Color Scripts and Select Art From 25 Years of Animation'. The book which touts colour scripts from all of Pixar's 12 feature films, as well as from some of their shorts and includes several pieces of art made for each film, is fantastic. Authored by Cartoon Brew co-founder, Amid Amidi, the book is rather scarce on text, but what there is is rich in detail and history. However, as it should be, the main focus of the book is the fantastic, jaw-dropping, beautiful artwork from the artists of Pixar; and if they included the level of detail in the text we see in the individual 'Art of' books, this one would be substantially larger than the 300-odd pages it is at the moment. The book is a brilliant read and I would definitely recommend it. I will likely publish a full review of the book in the coming week.

In terms of DVDs, I got a decent amount of animated films this year, including Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (a fun and quirky animated film that was one of my favourites from 2009), Rio (which isn't pictured, as the box is somewhat trashed, as the security stopper wasn't removed for some reason, so we had to pry the box open) and Kung Fu Panda 2 (which seems even more awesome than it did when I first saw it). While I loved these films and would have been more than content with these, two of the best presents I got were in the form of the Disney classics, Peter Pan and 101 Dalmatians, two of the films that helped form my childhood; utter classics in every form, it meant even more as a present, given that they had to be, not cheaply, purchased second hand as they're in the Disney Vault at the moment.

In terms of other knick-knacks and whatnots, I also received official Wallace and Gromit slippers and an alarm clock, and Muppets socks and a T-shirt (not pictured), all of which were just brilliantly fun and quirky presents to receive.

As I'm sure you can tell, I loved these presents and this is just the animated portion of them, it was a great horde of gifts to receive this Christmas and one that I fully appreciated.

Feel free to share your own lists of presents and what you're thankful for this Christmas, I hope the season treated you all well.

Merry Christmas From A113Animation

At this most festive and jolly time of year, I thought I'd take a minute out of my day of Christmas Eve TV to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Thank you for spending time reading this blog over the past year, it means the world to me. So, I hope you all have a very happy holiday season and I'd like to leave you with these words from Donald Duck in Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas:

"Christmas isn't about candy canes, holly or lights all aglow.

It's about the hearts that we touch, and the care that we show"

Wishing you all lots of love this Christmastime from all of us here at the blog and Merry Christmas from A113Animation!

The Road to Pixar - RES1536

You may remember that, a few months ago, I carried out some interviews with members of the Road to Pixar team, a group who are making a replica of the famed Pixar Pizza Planet Truck and recording a documentary about their journey along the way, their interactions with Pixar fans and, ultimately, their arrival at the famed Emeryville studio.

Now, about a month ago, the team revealed the above video, which shows them adding a few of the finishing touches to the truck, including the registration plate and the group have some big news on the horizon as they are soon to participate in a Christmas parade with the truck.

In the meantime, be sure to follow them on Twitter and pay their blog a visit, and if you can help bring their endeavour to the eyes of any Pixarians, I know they'd be incredibly grateful.

Arthur Christmas Review - A Festive Gift of a Film

Although it may still be over a month until the most festive day of the year, it is very much Christmas time, at least commercially, and Aardman set the mood this year, rolling out the year's first Christmas film, Arthur Christmas. The British animation giants behind Wallace and Gromit, famous for their use of stop-motion, release Arthur Christmas as their fourth feature film, (and their second CGI animated film) and their first under the Sony Pictures banner, after their deal with DreamWorks ended a few years back, and, as we have all come to expect from Aardman, the film was funny, charming, thoughtful, warm and quintessentially British, yet being a broad, entertaining and generally great family to the extent that it will appeal to people all over the world this holiday season.

Arthur Christmas Unwrapped Tomorrow

Aardman's latest feature, the Christmassy collaboration with Sony Pictures Animation, Arthur Christmas arrives in cinemas over here in the UK tomorrow (whereas, US readers will have to wait until the 23rd), and, as such, Aardman and Sony have swamped us with clips.

Above, we have highlights of the star studded premiere of the film. In addition to the creative talent from the studio - director and writer, Sarah Smith, and Aardman head honchos, David Sproxton, Peter Lord and Nick Park - the premiere was attended by members of the film's cast including Bill Nighy (Grandsanta), Ashley Jensen (Bryony) and Outnumbered's Ramona Marquez (Gwen). In addition to some new clips of the film, the video also show's Nighy and Jensen helping to turn on the famed Regent Street Lights.

If this magical event encapsulates the film as a whole, we're all in for a treat when it hits cinemas tomorrow. But, speaking of clips, Sony also rolled out a plethora of new clips from the movie (below), but, be warned some clips are a little spoiler heavy.

 

 

  

I particularly loved that last clip, 'Elf Delivery', it was jaw dropping, both in the ambition of the story, and in terms of the beautiful animation. The film, from these clips at least, looks funny, gorgeous and touching. I can't wait to see Arthur Christmas (I'll be heading out to see it next weekend, so look out for a review around then).

New Arthur Christmas Trailer

Just as I finished posting about the trailer for Aardman's next stop motion film, The Pirates, I noticed that Aardman and Sony have released the trailer for the pair's next film before that, Arthur Christmas.

Although Aardman's main talent has always been stop motion animation, I must admit, this looks absolutely fantastic, the CGI is gorgeous, the polar bear bit in the trailer was hilarious. I just love the entire idea of the film, and Arthur hit the nail on the head, I am already looking forward to Christmas!

I'm loving the Aardman news rollout and can't wait for any of their releases.

Christmas Thoughts

I hope everyone out there had a great, happy and caring Christmastime, and that you all got what you wanted for Christmas.
I just thought I'd share some thoughts on some animation related presents that I received:

I was given DreamWorks smash hit from earlier in the year, How to Train Your Dragon (above), on DVD, this was actually the first time I had seen this film. As such, I had heard and taken in all of the hype, I was expecting a good film, however I wasn't expecting anything spectacular. Sufficed to say, I was pleasantly surprised to find a genuinely, brilliant and touching gem of a film that can more than stack up to and hold its own against Toy Story 3. I loved all of the characters and the animation was beautiful, furthermore I found the relationship between Hiccup and Toothless genuinely moving, something lacking from a lot of animated films nowadays. This is going to make my choice for the A113Animation Awards all the more difficult.

I also received The Art of Toy Story 3 book (above), whilst I have loved all of Pixar's films, I have never got round to buying one of these books, so I was very happy to receive it. The book is extremely interesting and detailed, with beautiful concept art, sketches and developmental drawings. However, the reason I love the book so much, is that it isn't just The Art of Toy Story 3, it details the legacy and genesis of the entire Toy Story franchise, covering Toy Story and Toy Story 2 and gives a great insight into the progress since 1995.

I was overjoyed to receive these presents, I hope you all got great presents and had a wonderful time - feel free to comment below and let me know what you got for Christmas -, on a side note, here are a few pictures I wanted to show you all.

Above is the Christmas Card from Pixar Animation Studios this year, featured on Pixar animator Austin Madison's (who recently sat down, alongside Chris Chua, for an interview with Derrick Clements of the Pixar Podcast) blog. The card, that shows Finn McMissile, Tow Mater and Holley Shiftwell, from the upcoming Cars 2, was entitled Missile, Tow and Holley. Clever.

Finally, this picture was featured as fan art on HeyUGuys and shows Buzz Lightyear in the grid, a la Tron: Legacy. Once again, clever.

Aardman News 2

More Aardman news concerning their upcoming 2011 CGI Christmas film, Arthur Christmas. Set in the ultra high tech North Pole on Christmas Eve, the film stars James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Ashley Jensen as hapless and eager son of Santa Arthur, his older and more capable brother Steve, Santa, Grandsanta (the grumpy and cranky father of Santa), Mrs. Santa and lowly elf Bryony respectively.

The film casts many stars who are also in the upcoming Starz Animation film Gnomeo and Juliet, what really caught my attention is that the film is co-composed by the fantastic Michael Giacchino, a staple of Pixar, who is currently compsoing Cars 2.

The film sounds fantastic and you can read the full article here.

DreamWorks Holidays

DreamWorks have just uploaded two trailers onto their official YouTube page, the first one (above), introduces them both - Merry Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda Holiday -, two Christmas themed TV specials to debut on November 24th. The second video (below) delves further into Kung Fu Panda Holiday, neither look particularly groundbreaking, but both should be really fun and festive.

Wallace and Gromit News

I've just recieved this month's Wallace and Gromit e-Newsletter from Aardman, I thought I'd detail the interesting points from it:
The new Wallace and Gromit TV series, Wallace and Gromit's World of Inventions (airing every Wednesday on BBC One in the U.K.) is now halfway through, the series is a mix of Aardman's great claymation characters, Wallace and Gromit and interesting notes from the world of inventions. They're also now on the U.K. iTunes Store.
Aardman are also advertising christmas gifts for sale on their shop website, they are also offering prints from the movies at 20% off until December 1st.
Finally, the ultra awesome looking, Wallace and Gromit Christmas Stamps (pictured below) are now, officially, on sale from Royal Mail.

More Aardman news coming soon.