Munir's Pixar Retrospective #2 - A Bug's Life (1998): 17 Years Later.

Previous post: Munir's Pixar Retrospective #1 - Toy Story (1995): 20 Years Later.

Toy Story's enormous success put Pixar on the map but it still wasn't the animation powerhouse it would become years later. When producing its second film, Pixar had the daunting task of not repeating itself but also, to deliver a high-quality motion picture. As a result, A Bug's Life was born but how does it fare almost 17 years after its original release?

Munir's Pixar Retrospective #1 - Toy Story (1995): 20 Years Later

Make Sure You've Read: Pixar Retrospective - An Introduction. 

To talk about Toy Story is a daunting task. After all, since the film's release almost 20 years ago, there have been countless articles, reviews, discussions and more of a film that completely changed the animation industry and put its studio on the map. Toy Story is the modern Snow White, a film that revolutionized the medium, infused it with fresh energy and opened the door to a new technology that has become the standard tool to make American animated films.

Could Lee Unkrich's 'Dìa de los Muertos' be a Musical?

In an interview with veteran Pixar film composer Randy Newman, Classic FM got what could be an interesting bit of information regarding Lee Unkrich's upcoming Dìa de los Muertos. Here's what Randy Newman had to say:

I’m not so sure I don’t have a reputation for being a little trouble. Lee Unkrich isn’t going to use me, I don’t think. And not only that, Lee Unkrich had Toy Story 3 temped with my music and it was limiting to me. It was fine, the movie did great and everything and maybe I’m wrong and if I look back on it I won’t know the difference, but it didn’t fit hand in glove the way I would have tried to do. And he fell in love with the temp, very much so. Now he’s not going to use me to work with him again. He’s doing a musical now.

Munir's Disney Retrospective - Animated Classic #49: The Princess and the Frog (2009)

Last Week’s: Munir’s Disney Retrospective - Animated Classic #48: Bolt (2008).


One of the most exciting things in 2009 was the release of The Princess and the Frog. After a decade of releasing (mostly) misfires and giving traditional animation the death sentence after the abysmal Home on the Range, Disney was finally ready to go back to the technique they practically invented and perfected for over 70 years. Thanks to John Lasseter and his vision, traditional animation was back firing on all cylinders at the studio and with a new fairy tale to boot. Better still, the helmers of this new movie were none others than studio veterans John Musker and Ron Clements and handling the music was Pixar veteran Randy Newman. With all this talent behind it, we could only expect the best film possible and, thankfully, the movie delivered on all fronts.

Randy Newman Set to Score Monsters University

I missed this story until now, but Bleeding Cool reported about a month ago, at the premiere of Brave, that Randy Newman is set to score the Monsters, Inc. prequel, Monsters University!

Newman scored the 2001 original, and it was a toss up in speculation as to whether he or another composer would score the 2013 prequel. Newman scored the original two Toy Story films, and its threequel, yet, after scoring Cars, fellow Pixar favourite Michael Giacchino scored its sequel Cars 2 - to give it a different feel. Aside from Toy Story 3, it's been a while since Newman scored a Pixar film, and I can't wait to see what he does with the score!

When interviewed at the Brave (scored by Pixar newcomer Patrick Doyle) premiere, Newman even sang a brief snippet from the soundtrack that he hasn't started on yet!

Monsters University opens on 21st June, 2013 in the US and 12th July that same year here in the UK!

Via Pixar Corner's Twitter.


Elsewhere in Pixar follow-up news, have you heard the reports about Finding Nemo 2 yet?

The Simpsons Parodies Animation

In the latest episode of The Simpsons, Angry Dad: The Movie, in which Bart endeavours to turn his little animations about Homer from series 13 into an animated film. From there the episode turns into a veritable plethora of animated parodies.

The episode parodies Pixar (or as it is called here, Mixar, above) showing John Lasseter and co. turning up to the Golden Globes on the famous Pixar scooters, also parodying Randy Newman (below), who sings "You've got an enemy" to Bart. It also then parodies Luxo, Mr. Potato Head and WALL E (above). We also get a parody of a Pixar film, condiments, a film about what happens when food comes to life when people aren't around, I can't imagine where they got that idea from!

They also parody Aardman and Wallace and Gromit, with Willice and Crumble, there's even a special guest appearance by W&G creator Nick Park (above).

You can also see snippets of parodies of DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda and Disney's The Lion King (top). As well as a parody of Sylvain Chomet and The Triplets of Belleville.

The episode is hilarious and is definitely one of the best episodes of The Simpsons in recent memory. The episode also contains little digs at celebrities i.e. Ricky Gervais' somewhat questionable hosting of The Golden Globes this year.

Randy Newman Goes to the Oscars

This afternoon A.M.P.A.S. announced that Toy Story 3 composer, Randy Newman, is going to perform his Best Original Song nominated track, "We Belong Together" at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards.

Surely this is a good sign for Newman's chances of scooping up another Oscar.

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards take place on 27th February, 2011.

Pixar: 25 Magic Moments

Just thought it would be a good idea to share my thoughts on a recent show I watched, Pixar: 25 Magic Moments that showed yesterday on BBC Three. The documentray was brilliant, really fascinating, interesting and funny. Whilst a lot of the clips and interviews (specifically the ones with John Lasseter) were just the ones from The Pixar Story, it featured lots of new information (including an interview with Emily Mortimer - who voices Holley Shiftwell in the upcoming Cars 2), and some great interviews with Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, Randy Newman, Michael Giacchino and Billy Crystal, among others. I really reccomend watching it, you can check it out on BBC iPlayer for a limited time.

Also as requested by a blog reader, here is the U.K. WALL E Trailer. Enjoy it Tom.
Also, time for yet another poll. The poll, which you will find to the right, is to determine which animated film, or films, you think will make the biggst impact this year, 2011.

Toy Story 3 Awards

Toy Story 3 is starting off strong in its awards season, as well as all of Disney's Best Picture campaigning for the Academy Awards, today the National Board of Review announced their picks for 2010 and Pixar scooped up the Best Animated Feature prize for the 5th year in a row. It was also named as one of the top 10 films of the year, but it lost out to The Social Network.

Furthermore, the nominations for the 53rd annual Grammy Awards were announced, with Toy Story 3 and Randy Newman being recognised for Best Score Soundtrack Album. You can check out the full list of nominees here. The awards will take place on February 13th, 2011.