First Look: Still from Pixar's Latest Short Film, Lava

A little while ago, we heard that Pixar's next short film was going to be "a musical love story that takes place over millions of years," called Lava. Lava is directed by James Ford Murphy, is going to play before Pixar's next film, Inside Out, and is already winning rave reviews. And now we get our first look at it, with the whimsically charming still above! More details about Lava and its story below.

First Look: Stills from DreamWorks' Mr. Peabody & Sherman

2014 looks to be a really exciting year for DreamWorks. Their hotly anticipated How to Train Your Dragon sequel hits in June, and the Jim Parsons/Rihanna-starring Home is released in November, but their first film of the year is the quirky, and oh-so quintessentially cartoony, Mr. Peabody & Sherman. And via USA Today, we now have our first proper look at stills from that film!

First Look: Bright New Stills from Rio 2

USA Today have got a sneak peek at the next film from Munir's favourite studio, Blue Sky. Rio 2, a sequel to the 2011 hit starring Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway, flies into cinemas next year (this, unlike The Good Dinosaur and Minions hasn't been pushed back yet); we've seen a few teaser trailers for the Sambaing sequel, but this is our first proper look at the film's returning and expanded cast of characters.

First Look: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2

Last year, Sony Pictures Animation had a hit with monster mash-up film Hotel Transylvania, starring the voices of Adam Sandler and Selena Gomez and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter's Lab), which made over $300 million worldwide. The critics didn't all love it though (check out our review here) and indeed SPA's best film to date still remains 2009's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. As such, I'm very excited to check out the sequel when it hits cinemas in September!

UPDATED: Pixar Unveil Title and First Look for Next Short: The Blue Umbrella

For a while now, a Tumblr site, Rainy City Tales 332 (there's a Twitter account too), has been teasing us with little bits and pieces from what it soon transpired was Pixar's next short film. We managed to glean that the short would revolve around umbrellas and involve the Toy Story studio's usual penchant for animated inanimate objects and had assumed it would precede this summer's Monsters University in cinemas. But that was it. Now, The Wall Street Journal has the low-down on the short, which is called The Blue Umbrella!

First Look at Disney's Frozen

Walt Disney Studios UK and Entertainment Weekly bring us our first look at Walt Disney Animated Studios' 53rd animated feature, Frozen (hi-res image via /Film). The loose adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, Frozen sees Anna, "a fearless optimist", (voiced by Kristen Bell) team up with buff mountain man Kristoff to try and stop the perpetual winter cast by the magic of Anna's sister Elsa (Idina Menzel), better known as the Snow Queen. In the actual film, we'll also meet Kristoff's "sidekick reindeer Sven", as well as "a funny snowman named Olaf", but in this piece of concept art, we just meet our two protagonists.

Check out this close up of Anna and Kristoff.

Above you can see Anna (who bears somewhat of a striking resemblance to Tangled's Rapunzel) and Kristoff; I like the character designs, and one thing's for sure, this is going to be a fantastic looking film! EW also grabbed a few words with directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee about the film's themes and production.

Frozen hits cinemas late next year, 27th November, 2013 in the US, and 20th December, 2013 in the UK. Might the trailer screen with Monsters, Inc. 3D (which opens Wednesday in America). Meanwhile, we're still waiting for Wreck-It Ralph over here, which arrives in UK cinemas on 8th February, 2013 (one week earlier than previously planned).

First Look at Brave-Based The Legend of Mor'du Short

Another story I didn't get round to posting before my mini-break over the weekend: Entertainment Weekly have got the first images from Pixar's Brave-based short film, The Legend of Mor'du. The short film, based on the demon bear from Pixar's latest feature, will be a bonus feature on the Brave DVD and Blu-ray when they're released, and features Julie Walters as the Witch.

According to EW, the short goes "a little deeper into the backstory of the movie’s fearsome, snarling villain.". They also tell us that the short is (continuing Pixar's recent run of shorts) directed by a first-timer, Brian Larsen. Larsen worked as a storyboard artist on Ratatouille, and was story supervisor for Brave. Larsen describes The Legend of Mor'du as "like Grimm’s fairy tales" saying there's "not always a happy ending.”

The short is apparently in a different style to Pixar's norm; it seems it'll be like Your Friend the Rat, with CG sequences featuring the characters from the feature, and then more traditionally animated animation for the bulk of the short, more in the style of Mary Blair:

"The short is book-ended by Brave‘s cheerful witch (voiced by Harry Potter’s Julie Walters) recounting the tale of Mor’du for another, unseen customer seeking a potion that might change his fate. But as she flashes back to the savage prince’s backstory, we see it depicted in a kind of hand-painted, paper cut-out style."

Brave arrives on home media on 13th November in the US, and 26th in the UK.

Via The Pixar Post.

First Look at DreamWorks' Me and My Shadow

We heard briefly about this from DreamWorks' Comic-Con panel, and today the official DreamWorks Facebook page gives us the first poster from DreamWorks' upcoming CGI/hand-drawn hybrid, Me and My Shadow. The film, in the words of DreamWorks CCO Bill Damaschke is about:

"what would happen if your shadow, that has been following you around and basically just follows what you do your whole life, just stood up and took over."

Whilst the majority of the film will be animated in the normal DreamWorks mould, using CGI, the shadows of the film will be traditionally animated. This promises a great visual style and will surely make Shadow one of DreamWorks' most striking films!

The official plot synopsis for the film, due Spring 2014, is:

Me & My Shadow reveals the once secret world of shadows and their human counterparts. Stan, our hero’s shadow, yearns for a more exciting life but happens to be stuck with Stanley Grubb, a timid guy with an extreme aversion to adventure. When a crime in the shadow world puts both of their lives in danger, Stan is forced to take control of Stanley. They go on a madcap adventure to investigate the crime and stop the shadow villain from leading a rebellion where shadows take over the human world. During this adventure, Stan empowers Stanley to let go of his fears and embrace life. Through their adventure, they both learn that one cannot be whole without a true friend.

Be sure to like the Me and My Shadow Facebook page for updates about the film.

In related news, DreamWorks just acquired Classic Media, home of Casper and He-Man for $155 million! Read more here.

First Look at Disney's Paperman

A lot of hype has been surrounding Disney's latest short film as of late. Paperman, directed by John Kahrs, - who worked as an animator on a number of Pixar films, before moving to Disney where he acted as an animation supervisor on Tangled - has been received to a rapturously positive response by those privileged to see it already. The film screened at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival a few weeks ago and Tweets about it passed enthusiastic and bordered on frenzied.

The short film, which is set to precede Wreck-It Ralph later this year (or the start of next year in the UK), is making waves for its revolutionary animation technique, which fuses hand-drawn animation with computer animation, combining "the dimension and depth of digital animation with the abstract warmth of traditional line-art. The result is a world seemingly sculpted out of sketches."

That description comes via Entertainmexnt Weekly, who also provide us with our first look at the highly anticipated short, with 3 exclusive stills.

The article also offers up some insight into, and the inspiration for, the techniques behind the short's animation:

“Drawing can have a really powerful, visceral effect on the viewer. You can create anger and surprise or anguish with just a few lines of a pencil,” says director John Kahrs, an animator on The Incredibles and Tangled. “But it can’t just be the same thing it was. I think for 2-D to be revitalized, you have to figure out a way to make it new again.”

It also provides some insight into the animation software behind Paperman, Meander:

"Disney used new in-house technology called Meander to build the world of Paperman. First the characters and backgrounds were rendered digitally, and then hand-drawn art was layered over those shapes, giving the figures a kind of 3-D quality unseen in old-school animation. “What you’re seeing is a very stylized CG layer [underneath], but the feel of the image is very flat and lives in between the two,” Kahrs says."

Finally, I'll leave you with perhaps the most telling comment of all, from producer Kristina Reed:

“If this short had come out with The Little Mermaid, everyone would be excited about the CG,” says Reed with a laugh. “Now here we are in the early part of this millennium, and what we’re celebrating is going back to the handcraft.”

It's a fantastically rivetting read and Paperman promises to change a hell of a lot for animation at Disney! Be sure to read the full article over at EW.

First Look at Blue Sky Studios' Epic

Following the recent title change that turned Blue Sky Studios' (the studio behind Ice Age) 2013 release from Leafmen into Epic, and some big voice cast news, we now get our first look at the characters and animation of the film.

At this year's Licensing Expo, the above image (via comingsoon.net), showed up, showing us the huge, grand and, yes, epic scale of the film, and the heavy fantasy elements prominent in the adaptation of Moonbot's William Joyce's book.

The characters and animation look solid and we can't wait to hear more about Epic as we approach its 24th May, 2013 release date.

Also, if you haven't already, check out our interview with Blue Sky Studio vis. dev. artist, Tyler Carter, who's working on Epic!

Rio at the Superbowl

The above trailer, of Blue Sky Studios' upcoming animated film, Rio, aired at yesterday's Superbowl. Whilst the Superbowl isn't particularly important to anyone outside of the States, having a commercial spot in the Superbowl is a big deal in America and this is certainly great for the publicity of Rio - but from the studio behind the box office smash series, Ice Age, they don't necessarily need it.

The trailer looks great, showcasing more of the musical elements we saw in the first 2 minutes last week. It shows more of the musical sides, as compared to the comedy shown in the first couple of trailers.

Thoughts about the new trailer, comment or use the reaction feature.

Cars 2, First Look

The first images of Cars 2 have finally made their way online, furthering the spy motif that we've been told the film is about, the picture looks pretty awesome. This picture was accompanied by a plot synopsis, presumably in anticipation for the upcoming trailer, which you can check out on The Pixar Times. Thanks to them for breaking the story to me.