First Angry Birds Toon Now Available to Watch

Rovio are gearing up for a feature animation adaptation of their popular Angry Birds franchise. In the meantime, the studio are stretching their animation legs with a series of new animated shorts.The first in the series, revolving around the game's yellow bird, Chuck, debuted over the weekend on all Angry Birds games. To watch it, head on over to any one of those games (they're free to download on Android) and click on the Toons button. Check out a sneak peak below.



I've checked the short out myself, and it's pretty fun. Obviously, it's no Looney Tunes (although that does seem to be the tone it's trying to strike), and it's clearly going to be more entertaining for kids than the rest of us. But there are a few laughs to be had, and the very short runtime means the limited story doesn't factor in - I'm still not sure how a feature film's going to work though. The second short debuts this weekend.

Seen the first short? Let us know what you thought of it below!

Disney Infinity Launch Details

The blogosphere has been buzzing, over the last few weeks, with details and speculation about an exciting new Disney game, one that would allow the player to play as characters from the many facets of Disney - today we got our first look at that game, Disney Infinity.

Similar in idea to the Activision published Skylanders games, in which the player takes one of many real, physical toys and places it on a sensor (which Disney are calling "Infinity Base"), which then makes the character appear, playable, on screen; it's a nifty idea. They're also introducing "power discs", which enable special powers for the character when stacked underneath them on the Infinity Base. What better application of said idea than to allow Disney fans to play as all of their favourite characters: team up Captain Jack, Sulley and Mr. Incredible to fight an Omnidroid? No problem! Stick Buzz Lightyear's jetpack on Mike? Yeah, to Disney Infinity and beyond!



Check out our first look at some gameplay from Disney Infinity, above. The starter pack consists of characters from The Incredibles, Monsters University and Pirates of the Caribbean, with more available-separately packs to be revealed later. Pixar Post has the press release and some cool images from the game; Family Gamer TV has a hands-on with some of the game's physical elements.

Disney Infinity's due for a June release on Wii, WiiU, PS3, Xbox 360, 3DS, PC and mobile platforms. Check out the website here.

Angry Birds: The Movie Due 2016!

Today, on the third anniversary of the release of the original Angry Birds, Rovio Entertainment announced that the planned film adaptation of the insanely popular mobile gaming series will hit cinemas in 2016!

John Cohen (Despicable Me) and former Marvel Studios chairman David Maisel (Iron Man) will produce and executive produce the film, which is being entirely produced and financed by Rovio themselves, respectively. Cohen has worked closely with Blue Sky Studios previously, but, worryingly, "had the idea to reimagine Alvin and the Chipmunks and developed the 2007 film." Otherwise, I'm pretty excited!

"Following Marvel Studios’ example, which was architected by David Maisel, Rovio will produce and finance the movie outside the studio system and retain full creative control while creating innovative entertainment at the highest level of quality." Says the press release.

Angry Birds: The Movie will have finished loading by summer 2016, and, who knows, maybe we'll see a film version of Angry Birds Star Wars one day - presumably after Disney have bought Rovio as well...

Temple Run: Brave Review - A Runaway Success For Disney and Imangi

A couple of weeks ago we reported that the recent string of pairing a popular mobile game with an upcoming animated movie was to continue with the mash-up of the immensely popular Temple Run and Pixar's latest feature film, Brave, with Temple Run: Brave.

Last year Disney released an original film tie-in game for Cars 2 (review here), a 2D platformer in the same vein as Halfbrick's Monster Dash. The game was a big commercial success, and I loved it on a critical level also - recent updates bringing new levels and more playable characters made it even better. But there's something about the familiarity of Temple Run: Brave, due to it being based on an existing property, that makes it that little bit more interesting.

The Wreck-It Ralph Website's Up

Following recent releases for Disney's 52nd animated feature film, Wreck-It Ralph, including the film's first stills and trailer, Disney have now launched the official website. Largely what you'd expect, the site features the trailer, stills, the official synopsis and some downloads including wallpapers and Twitter icons. However, it packs a little extra punch.

You can play the fictional game, Fix-It Felix, Jr., the game in which Ralph is the villain. Not dissimilar to Donkey Kong, your aim is to use the arrow keys to avoid Ralph's obstacles, using the space bar to repair the damage Ralph has done. Contrary to the trailer which sees the inhabitants of the building launching Ralph off the roof, the aim of this game is to see how far you can get before Ralph beats you - he is the star of the film after all!

It's a great little game that gives you a real feel of the world of Wreck-It Ralph and shows how well the team at Disney - led by director, Rich Moore (The Simpsons, Futurama) - understand the retro-game world.

This film already has the feel of a classic...

Brilliant First Wreck-It Ralph Trailer

One day early, and following on from the reveal of the first stills yesterday, the first trailer for Disney's Wreck-It Ralph (above) has arrived online, and it's fantastic.

Introduced by the voice of Ralph, John C. Reilly, and packed full of great cameos ranging from Mario's Bowser and Sonic's Dr. Eggman to a Pacman ghost, the trailer is a great sign. It's funny, the animation is brilliant and it definitely has a Toy Story vibe to it! I'm also loving Game Central Station. Really, I'm just completely in love with this film!

The characters, the story, the voices, the animation; everything looks brilliant, following on from strong efforts with Bolt and Princess and the Frog and hits with Tangled and Winnie the Pooh, Wreck-It Ralph looks like it can be the film to once and for all re-establish Disney as the home of animation. Welcome to the Third Golden Age of Disney Animation.

Wreck-It Ralph is due to be released on 2nd November in the US and 15th February here in the UK - that seems so long away now though.

Via MSN Movies.

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Temple Run: Brave Coming Soon!

The pairing up of popular mobile game franchises with the latest animated releases continues. Last year we got Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots, Angry Birds Rio and Doodle Jump Hop, as well as an original game for Pixar's Cars 2. Today we got news that Pixar are jumping on the bandwagon of pairing their latest release with a popular mobile game: the über popular Temple Run.

The very simplistic game makes the user swipe up to jump, swipe down to slide, and swipe left and right to turn, to avoid obstacles and sharp falls and survive for as long as possible. Temple Run: Brave looks (from the first look above) to expand on that gameplay, with the ability to shoot objects at the side for bonus points. The player controls Merida, the antagonist of Pixar's latest film, and must try and evade the demon bear, Mor'du, for as long as possible.

This looks like a great partnership for both parties, and seems set to be a great app!

Temple Run: Brave will be available on 14th June for iOS and Android devices.

Via Pixar Post and Pixar Tweets.

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.

New Disney Universe Pictures

IGN have just uploaded a lot of new pictures from the upcoming Disney game, Disney Universe. In addition to the characters we have already seen, today we get a whole cast of characters from Pixar's WALL E, including WALL E himself (above) and EVE, BURN E, MO and WALL E's pet cockroach (below), as well as seeing Celia from Monsters, Inc. and Donald Duck.

 

I must admit, this game looks really good.

Cars 2: The App Review - A High Speed, High Octane Blast

Cars 2, Pixar's latest feature film, has been received to very mixed reviews from critics, however, it's holding it's own on the Box Office front. Cars merchandise has always sold like wildfire, as such games dedicated to it are inevitable, however, film tie-in games are notoriously shoddy and poor quality. However, Cars 2 - The App, released by Disney Mobile, is a surprisingly good and fun game.

Disney Universe Details

Disney Interactive have unveiled a new game, Disney Universe (trailer above). A game in which you don famous Disney and Pixar character costumes, such as Mike Wazowski (Monsters, Inc.) and Stitch (Lilo & Stitch) in a romp through the universe of all of the films involved. The official website offers up the following description:

Disney Universe is an off-the-wall non-stop action adventure where Disney worlds and characters mix up for the first time. Suit up in iconic costumes and face challenges in legendary Disney worlds. Defeat enemies, collect coins and powerups, unlock new costumes and explore with friends as you battle in a mix-up of worlds inspired by numerous Disney and Pixar films.

• Suit-up for action as more than 40 classic and contemporary Disney characters including Alice, Mike, TRON and Stitch.
• Mischief, magic and mayhem reign as players explore 6 different worlds inspired by Disney and Pixar films.
• Team up with up to four friends to solve puzzles or defeat enemies or toss your friend into trouble!

The trailer looks great, the idea sounds great and it looks to bring a brand new type of Disney game to the table. We also get some screenshots of the game, showing some familiar settings and characters (all below):

The screenshots show a familiar setting in the form of Monsters, Inc., showing that this game really will combine the best of Disney and Pixar for the first time ever in the video game world.

The game looks great and will be coming to Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii in Fall 2011.