Breaking: Pixar Canada Shut Down

It's a bit of a rough time for Pixar news right now; there'll be no film from the studio next year for the first time in nine years, and now the studio has announced that it's shuttering its Canadian branch, after only three years. About 100 employees will be getting laid off as a result of the closure.

New Monsters, Inc. Blu-ray Trailer

Monsters, Inc. 3D has been and gone, and now Pixar have begun hyping their new "Collector's Edition Blu-ray" set, available 19th February. As such, check out a new mini-promo for the release above.

Monsters, Inc. has been on Blu-ray for quite a while already, but this new release - as well as presumably some new bonus features - will include the hilarious Toy Story Toons: Partysaurus Rex (check out my interview with its director here) and an exclusive new look at the film's impending prequel, Monsters University.

Any time you can return to Pixar's funniest film is a good one, check it out again in glorious high definition two weeks from today!

Animation Titbits: Croods Motion Poster, 'Art of' Books, Partysaurus Rex and Frankenweenie Short

DreamWorks have rolled out a cool new motion poster (in the vein of fellow Fox stablemate, The Wolverine) for their first release of 2013, The Croods. Based on the existing poster we'd already seen, this cool new motion one shows some of the gorgeous sceneries and animals we can expect to encounter come March next year. It's embedded above, but follow this link if that doesn't work - be sure to toggle the definition up to 1080p. Also, try downloading the DreamWorks Animation Augmented Reality app and scanning the poster with your smart phone or iPod Touch - it's pretty cool.

Watch: Partysaurus Rex

It recently showed before Finding Nemo 3D in the States (which is still to come for us UK Pixar fans), it has also premiered on Disney Channel and been released digitally on iTunes, and now Pixar's third Toy Story Toon, Partysaurus Rex, is available to watch online!

The HD Disney stream of the short is as of now only available in the US, but there's always a way to beat the system. Daily Motion user Dr. Malo has uploaded the wonderful short in glorious low-definition, check it out above!

Also be sure to check out our review of Partysaurus Rex and our interview with the short's wonderful director, Mark Walsh.

Toy Story of Terror! TV Special Coming Next Year!

We heard a few months ago that - as well as working on new Toy Story Toons, one of which was just recently released - "two new 22-minute TV specials are in the works for October 2013 and Spring 2014." And now we know what the first of those will be about.

Animation World Network announced that next Halloween, Pixar will release a Toy Story holiday special: Toy Story of Terror! The synopsis AWN provides is:

What starts out as a fun road trip for the Toy Story gang takes an unexpected turn for the worse when the trip detours to a roadside motel. After one of the toys goes missing, the others find themselves caught up in a mysterious sequence of events that must be solved before they all suffer the same fate in this Toy Story of Terror.

Sounds great! After Partysaurus Rex, it's great to see Pixar going a slightly different route with the Toy Story gang going forwards. Bryko from Upcoming Pixar raises a good point too; given Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich's famous love of The Shining, and Toy Story of Terror!'s very Shining-esque sounding story, it seems very likely we'll see him involved with the project in some way.

It's only fitting, given that Toy Story started life itself as a holiday TV special (A Tin Toy Christmas), that things are coming full circle with these Toy Story specials. And I, for one, can't wait!

4 New Wreck-It Ralph Posters (and a Partysaurus Rex Poster!)

Off the back of an awesome new trailer and a game-character packed poster, Disney have rolled out four new posters for Wreck-It Ralph today, courtesy of IGN. The posters mix the film's main quartet with the famous cameos that populate the film, including Sonic, Zangief, Q*bert and Clyde the Pacman ghost.

They're great posters that showcase one of the film's main attractions (and undoubtedly cooler points), the various cameos, but, for me, the poster that shows only the original characters is the best - hopefully indicative of how the film will turn out!

I hate to make predictions this early on, but Wreck-It Ralph looks absolutely phenomenal - it's easily my most anticipated animated film - and it sure would be nice to see a Disney film win the Best Animated Feature Oscar for the first time...

Also, Fandango bring us the above poster for Toy Story Toons: Partysaurus Rex, which director Mark Walsh has showed us glimpses of on Twitter. Be sure to check out our review of the short, and interview with Mark - and head to see it in cinemas with Finding Nemo 3D if you can, it's great!

And remember to vote in our "A113 Ten Years" Round Two polls for Groups 3 and 4. 3 is on Facebook and being led by The Incredibles, and 4 is here on the blog, on the right sidebar, and How to Train Your Dragon looks like it'll be the only non-Pixar film to make it into the final round. Have your say now!

Partysaurus Rex Review - What Up, Fishes?!

A couple of days ago, I had the chance to interview the very talented and very kind Pixar veteran, Mark Walsh, the director of the latest Toy Story Toon, Partysaurus Rex. Following Hawaiian Vacatian and Small Fry, Partysaurus Rex is the third Toy Story Toon, and is currently playing in US cinemas before Finding Nemo 3D. However, Nemo 3D doesn't hit the UK until March of next year, so in preparation for the interview, I was able to watch Partysaurus Rex online, via a secure server, and, as I have been with both of the preceding Toy Story Toons, and in fact with all Toy Story films, short or feature, and in fact with everything Pixar have released, I was very impressed! So, check out a brief review of Toy Story Toons: Partysaurus Rex, after the jump break.

Interview: Mark Walsh, Pixarian and Partysaurus Rex Director

Today, I had the opportunity to interview Pixar's Mark Walsh, the director of the latest Toy Story Toon, Partysaurus Rex! Partysaurus Rex is showing now in America, alongside Finding Nemo 3D - although they don't arrive here until March (unless you can attend the VIEW Conference that is). However, I was able to watch the short online, via a secure link, just prior to our interview, and it's great (I'll post a quick review later)! I've loved all of the Toy Story Toons, but this is definitely the most original one yet.

Thanks of the highest magnitude, again, should also go to Pixar's PR king, Chris Wiggum, for setting the interview up!

Mark is a lovely, down-to-Earth guy, who went out of his way to ask me about my own life; and his enthusiasm and zeal for the characters and the short was abundant. In our conversation, visible after the jump break, Mark and I discuss his inspirations for the short, basing it around Rex, his other work for Pixar, working with Pixar Canada, Finding Nemo 3D, the future and more!

Mark Walsh (And More!) To Appear At View Conference

Tomorrow (as well as the last day of voting in Groups 1 - vote here - and 2 - vote on the right-hand sidebar of this site - of our Round Two "A113 Ten Years" polls; and the day after my birthday!) is the US re-release of Pixar's Finding Nemo, in 3D! Accompanying Nemo 3D is a brand new Toy Story Toon, directed by Finding Nemo's directing animator Mark Walsh, Partysaurus Rex.

However, those of us in Europe don't get Finding Nemo 3D until mid-March - so no Partysaurus Rex until then either! However, a select few won't have to wait that long! Mark Walsh will be appearing at the VIEW Conference, a huge computer graphics and animation expo that runs in Turin, Italy from 16th to 19th October. In addition to appearing at the event, Mark will bring with him Partysaurus Rex, for its European premiere!

In addition to Walsh, Genndy Tartakovsky will be on hand to present exclusive footage of Sony's Hotel Transylvania, as well as DreamWorks' Madagascar 3 co-director Eric Darnell; the VFX supervisor of The Dark Knight Rises Double Negative's Paul J. Franklin; the former director of Pixar's newt, Skywalker Sound's Gary Rydstrom; and even Halo creative director, Josh Holmes, who'll premiere Halo 4 at the event! Check out the website for fuller listings - it certainly looks to be a must-attend event if you can afford the flights!

Check out the full press release which the VIEW PR team sent me, after the jump break - with details on how and when to get tickets.

Two New Partysaurus Rex Stills

The German Pixar Blog brings us two new stills from Pixar's next Toy Story Toon, Partysaurus Rex. The third Toy Story short, developed by Pixar's satellite studio in Vancouver, is directed by Pixar veteran Mark Walsh, and follows everyone's favourite neurotic dinosaur, as he tries to reinvent himself.

Scored by Grammy nominated electro-musician, BT, Partysaurus Rex will play with Finding Nemo 3D which hits US cinemas in just under a month (14th September; UK viewers have to wait until 29th March, 2013 though).

Check out the hi-res images above, and be sure to watch the clip from the short, revealed a few days ago, here!

Partysaurus Rex Clip

Pixar just uploaded a sneak peak from the latest Toy Story Toon, Partysaurus Rex, which will play before Finding Nemo 3D (released 14th September, US; 29th March, 2013, UK). UPDATE - Pixar've made the clip private, fortunately Stitch Kingdom have uploaded it, in HD, above.

The short is being described as "a Toy Story rave", and sees everybody's favourite neurotic dinosaur trying to reinvent himself at Bonnie's house. It turns out having arms makes a toy very in-demand at bath time! Check out the clip (above), which is certainly a bit different for Pixar, but - as with previous Toy Story Toons - is very funny.

Partysaurus Rex is directed by Pixar veteran Mark Walsh, over at Pixar Canada, and the music was created by techno-artist BT. Also, check out Rex's King Fergus look above - surely one of the many Pixar references we've been told the short features.

First Look at Partysaurus Rex

This shouldn't come as any great surprise - given that electro-artist BT spilled the beans (1:12 onwards) a while back, and a line of Disney Holiday toys uncovered by The Pixar Times's Samad were for the short - but Pixar have finally officially announced, through Entertainment Weekly, that their next Toy Story will be called Partysaurus Rex, and released the first images from it!

EW also announced that the Rex-focused short will be directed by veteran Pixar animator Mark Walsh, and that it will be paired with Finding Nemo 3D when that hits cinemas next month (14th September in the US; 29th March, 2013 over here in the UK).

The short, the third Toy Story Toon, is - in the words of BT, who handles the dance music for the short - "like a Toy Story rave!" Rex, the only bath-time toy endowed with limbs, turns on the water to get the party started! And we can expect to see gorgeous underwater, bubble filled, techno-lit animation!

Wallace Shawn, who has voiced Rex since the original Toy Story in 1995, says that Rex is "sick of being the angel of goodness and sensibleness and caution and fear. He wants to stand on the side of pleasure and happiness and joy". And Walsh, the director, also offered up a brief summary:

“If you’re a bath toy you get really intense playtime. It’s like a party. Then when the water goes down you can’t move. You’re helpless. And that’s pathetic, these guys in bottom of the tub all the time. What I was going for was, you move to a new town and make new friends, and suddenly you think you have this chance where you can reinvent yourself. I love that Rex, in his sweetness, thinks he can reinvent who he is in the image of a party animal.”

The short is apparently full of easter-eggs and references; you can even see a few in these images - check out the toilet seat! We'll likely see Partysaurus Rex on Pixar Short Films: Volume 2 in November.

I'm excited for Partysaurus Rex - even if us in the UK have to wait until next year for it - are you?

Disney Holiday Toy Line Confirms Toy Story Toon Rumours

Yesterday, The Pixar Times posted an extensive look at the upcoming Disney Store Holiday Line, mixed in amongst lots of great Brave toys, some new Cars and Toy Story toys, and the Finding Nemo Blu-ray, is one surprise that sheds some clear light on a rumour that's been circling around the past few months.

A while back, we were told that techno/dance artist BT had just worked on a Toy Story short called Partysaurus Rex, but nothing was confirmed.Then at the start of the month, we found out that three new Toy Story Toons were on the way. This lent credence to the belief that the first of these Toons would be Partysaurus Rex.

Again though, no confirmation. I emailed Pixar to follow up on this, and they commented that "We haven't officially announced any additional toons, so Partysaurus [Rex] is just speculation at this point." It seems, however, that this speculation was correct, as The Pixar Times also posted a couple of pictures of a Partysaurus Rex bath set. If this set is going to be included in the holiday line, then it certainly seems that this will be the first of the upcoming Toy Story Toons - possibly even paired with Finding Nemo 3D, or certainly on Pixar Short Films: Volume 2.

Excited? I certainly am! See the rest of the great line at The Pixar Times.