Pixar Short Films: Volume 2 Due in November

La Luna director Enrico Casarosa hinted at it a few weeks back in an interview with this blog, but now we have confirmation and a release date for the Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 2. Enrico, whose directorial debut, La Luna, will be featured on the collection, said we could expect an announcement on the collection soon, and the above image - a German flyer - states a November 2012 release date for the DVD and Blu Ray release.

The first collection featured all the shorts from 1984's The Adventures of André and Wally B. up until 2006's Lifted, this collection presumably picks up where that left off, with 2008's Presto. We can also see from the front cover that Day & Night, Dug's Special Mission, the Toy Story Toon, Hawaiian Vacation, and Partly Cloudy will be featured on the set. Enrico told us that La Luna's going to be on there, and it's fairly safe to assume that BURN-E, the Cars Toon, Air Mater, and the Toy Story Toon, Short Fry, (after failing to appear on The Muppets' home video release) will all be on here too.

Look also for behind the scenes features on the shorts, as Enrico said that "[the commentary track for La Luna is]supposed to be on the DVD of the shorts, you know, there’s a new shorts [DVD], and that’ll be available soon.". Well, we now know when soon is, so expect other special features for the other shorts also.

Via Pixar Talk, who link the story back to us.

Pete Docter and Andrew Stanton Teaming Up

Yes, you read that right, the two famed Pixar directors who brought us, Monsters, Inc. and Up, and Finding Nemo and WALL E, respectively, were recently announced to be working together on a project - an animated short film.

Despite the Oscar winning pair's very hectic schedules - with Stanton directing the live-action space epic, John Carter, for Disney, and Docter directing the Untitled Pixar Movie That Takes You Inside The Mind - Andrew Stanton told us in a recent interview with Ain't It Cool News of the collaboration, which allows him to return to animation at Pixar whilst working on the John Carter franchise.

Stanton said:

"As a matter of fact I’m developing a short film with Pete Docter. There’s an idea that he and I have had for years that we are finally getting around to doing which is kind of funny. We are both way too busy, but we just love the idea of doing this one little project together"

Via Pixar Talk.

Rumour: Monsters, Inc. 2 to be Helmed by New Director

You've met Floyd Norman before. The notorious Disney blabbermouth who has a tendency to leak things on Twitter, last year he was the first to report that Newt was cancelled, most recently he leaked plot details about Pixar's upcoming Toy Story Toon, Hawaiian Vacation; and now he strikes again. Over the past couple of days, Norman has gave us the most information we've received about Monsters, Inc. 2 since the prequel rumours.

Floyd tweeted earlier this week that he'd just seen a screening of "Monsters2", he later tweeted that it is "Nice to see a new director helming Pixar's "Monsters2." Very refreshing.", this spurred all kinds of guesses as to whom this may be.

The Pixar Times has some interesting ideas as to who this director may be, the main choice to come up is one that I would very much like to see as a director, Bob Peterson. The co-director of Up and voice of Roz in the original Monsters, Inc. has never served as a solo director and it would be great to see Bob - who served as a storyboard artist in the first film - helm the sequel. However, it could be a new director all together, a la Lee Unkrich's fantastic effort with Toy Story 3. I guess only time will tell, nonetheless I trust Pixar to make the right choice.

On a side note, Pixar Talk has an article interviewing Pixar's Tom McCarthy, about MI1 director, Pete Docter's next feature; described as "ambitious".

Can't wait to here more about Pixar's 14th feature film, as Norman says "Pixar will tell you when they're ready".