Ranking the Best Animated Feature Winners - From Worst to Best

Another Oscar ceremony has passed and another animated film has been crowned as the best of the year. Frozen was awarded the Best Animated Feature prize, marking the first win for Walt Disney Animation Studios in that category. But, how does it compare to the previous winners? Let's take a look at the films that have won in this category since its inception in 2002.

Do All Pixar Films Exist in the Same Universe? Well, No, But this Theory's Magnificent.

I'd say it's extremely unlikely that you haven't thought about the possibility that the talking fish of Finding Nemo exist in the same universe as the talking rats of Ratatouille or the talking insects of A Bug's Life. In fact, a lot of Pixar's filmography could well be interlinked. Well, Cars kinda scuppers all of that... But nonetheless, I doubt you've thought about in as much detail or as cripplingly hilarious a fashion as Jon Negroni.

According to Negroni's "Pixar Theory", which is making the rounds online, A Bug's Life is post-apocalyptic, Monsters, Inc. is set in the distant future and the witch from Brave is actually a time-travelling Boo looking for Sulley through time and scattering Easter eggs to help him find her. Oh, and "Wall-E is basically Robot Jesus". The theory is so massively extensive, at least some of it has to be true... right?

Check out the hilariously ridiculous and ridiculously hilarious theory in all its extensive glory here.

If Pixar Made The Avengers...

Briefly, the above brilliant mash-up of the Pixar universe with Marvel's The Avengers has been making its rounds as of late. I particularly enjoy Horst as Hawkeye; Horsteye if you will.

Via Cartoon Brew.

Brad Bird to Direct New Film for Disney

Brad Bird, who rose to fame at Pixar directing The Incredibles and Ratatouille - after previously directing The Iron Giant - whose most recent film was the fourth instalment in the super successful Mission: Impossible franchise - Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol - has just been announced to be working on a mystery project for Disney.

Via Indiewire and Deadline, we have learnt that the Ratatouille director is now helming a film for Disney called 1952. Not to be confused with 1906 - the film Bird has been working on for a while about the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 - the script for 1952 is being penned by Lost and Prometheus scribe, Damon Lindelof.

Other than this interesting and exciting pairing, we know little about the film - possible scenarios include that 1952 was the year that the first hydrogen bomb was detonated, and a killer fog descended on London; but this is pure speculation. But here's hoping it bodes better than Andrew Stanton's John Carter did for Disney.

At any rate, Bird has never let us down, and I can't wait to hear more about this in the future!

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol Review - High Octane, Action Packed Thrills Galore

In case you haven't been following news on the latest instalment in Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible series and its production, and before you die of shock at seeing a review of a live-action, spy film on a site about animation; allow me to elaborate:

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol marks the live-action directorial debut of Brad Bird, a CalArts alumni who worked to build up The Simpsons - directing the famed episodes 'Krusty Gets Busted' and 'Like Father, Like Clown' - later moving on to features animation, with the critically acclaimed, traditionally animated, The Iron Giant. However, where Bird is most widely recognised from, is in his capacity at Pixar. A member of the revered 'Brain Trust', Bird directed 2004's The Incredibles (for which he also provided the voice of superhero-fashion designer, Edna Mode) and 2007's Ratatouille. Now though, Brad Bird has pointed himself in the live-action direction, as he helms the fourth entry into the popular Mission: Impossible franchise. As there always are when an animation director crosses over to live-action, or vice versa - as visible in early comments Steven Spielberg directing The Adventures of Tintin, and fellow Pixarian, Andrew Stanton, directing Disney's live-action John Carter - there always some consternation and quiet concern that there skills in their first field may not translate to the latter format; however, there are no such problems here for Brad Bird, as M:I-GP is an awesomely action packed, fast paced rollicking ride.

Brad Bird Joins Twitter

Briefly, the director of such animated greats as The Incredibles and Ratatouille - and more recently the live-action blockbuster, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - Brad Bird, has now joined Twitter.

The Academy Award winning filmmaker is joining fellow Pixarians Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich and Ed Catmull on Twitter. His username is BradBirdA113 (rather similar to mine, although he does have more license to use it) and his account can be found here.

Be sure to give him a warm welcome.

Brad Lewis Moving

It was announced today that Brad Lewis, the co-director of Cars 2, is leaving Pixar and joining Tradition Studios, the recently opened animation department of Digital Domain.

Digital Domain, partly owned by Transformers director, Michael Bay, is a visual effects company that recently handled effects on Disney's Tron: Legacy. The company set up an animation subsidiary in Florida back in 2009 and is currently awaiting the completion of a 115,00 square-foot campus, scheduled to open in December.

The producer of Pixar's 2007 Academy Award winning feature, Ratatouille, has been at Pixar for ten years now, after spending over eleven years at PDI and DreamWorks Animation, where he produced Antz.

Lewis, who is set to be a director at Tradition Studios, said to The Hollywood Reporter:

“I am excited to join a company with Digital Domain's talent and expertise and to have an opportunity to be a part of its team in creating family-friendly stories and adventures.”

Lewis will surely be missed at Pixar and will be a huge asset to Digital Domain.

La Luna: Details on an Upcoming Pixar Short

Courtesy of Indiewire, we get a look at an upcoming Pixar short, La Luna. The short (image above) is set to debut later this year at the Annecy International Film Festival, which takes place in France on 6th June 2011. The short is described as a "fable" coming of age film and the official description can be viewed below.

La Luna is the timeless fable of a young boy who is coming of age in the most peculiar of circumstances. Tonight is the very first time his Papa and Grandpa are taking him to work. In an old wooden boat they row far out to sea, and with no land in sight, they stop and wait.  A big surprise awaits the little boy as he discovers his family’s most unusual line of work. Should he follow the example of his Papa, or his Grandpa? Will he be able to find his own way in the midst of their conflicting opinions and timeworn traditions?

The film is to be directed by Enrico Casarosa, who has worked as a story artist on Cars, Ratatouille and Up and La Luna will mark his directorial debut.

The fact that the short is to premiere in France feeds into my next point, the animation on the short looks distinctly french, bearing some resemblance to Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me and a heck of a lot of resemblance to the awesome French animated short film, French Roast (which I whole heatedly recommend). The animation in the short looks unlike anything we've seen from Pixar and the short in general sounds fresh and interesting.

Can't wait to see it.

Pixar Tidbits

Over the past few days we've got some little bits of interesting news from Pixar:

Firstly, we've got a look at 2 brand new Cars 2 characters. Max Schnell and Miguel Camino are two previously unheard of characters and while we'll have to wait a while for some descriptions and turntables the characters certainly look cool and you can view them both above.

Secondly, we have 3 new retro style Cars 2 posters, working even more to promote Pixar's 12th feature, out, here in the UK, in July (above).

Finally, continuing Pixar's repackaging and re-releasing of all of their films on Blu Ray with new Box Art, we have the new cover for the Blu Ray of Ratatouille (above). Can't wait to see the rest of them, it's a really good look.

Update

We now have the 2 turntables for the above characters:

Happy 25th Anniversary of Pixar

25 years to this day on 3rd February, 1986, Pixar was born. When Apple head honcho, Steve Jobs bought the Lucasfilm Graphics Division back in '86, I'm not sure even he knew how huge it would become. Since 1986, Pixar have produced 11 consecutive hit animated films and left a mark on critics and audiences alike that may never be matched.

Pixar, later bought by arguably the biggest film company of all time, Disney, has a legacy unmatched in the film industry and John Lasseter, Ed Catmull and the whole team changed the landscape of animated films forever.

I wish Pixar a sincerely heart felt congratulations on their 25th anniversary and can only wish them the best for the future, not that they need it!

On a side note, Kung Hei Fat Choi, happy Chinese New Year!

A Collection of Things 2

Once again, I've decided to compile a list of pictures, videos and articles etc... that I've found over the past few weeks.

Firstly, I've found some awesome pictures courtesy of The Pixar Times' Pixart section (almost as good as the Buzz in the Grid picture from a while back): firstly is this awesome picture from Mark Crilley, entitled the Increditoys (pretty self explanatory);

Next, entitled Fluffy Friends, and features Bonnie from Toy Story 3 meeting Boo from Monsters, Inc., it is from Andry “Shango” Rajoelina, I encourage you to check out his blog, if not just for more picture like the 2 below (left from Pixart), with the right mashing up Pixar's Ratatouille and DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon.

Finally, in terms of Pixart, we have the below picture by Allen Gladfelter, just great.

Phew... That's a lot of pictures.

Now, we have also seen a great video, which, to put it simply, is what Up would look like if Disney made a live action version in the '60s. Who thinks these things up?



Also, in terms of articles and updates, we have been told (courtesy of Disney, etc.), that DreamWorks' upcoming animated film, Rise of the Guardians, based on the upcoming books by William Joyce, will star the voices of Chris Pine, Hugh Jackman, Jude Law, Alec Baldwin, and Isla Fisher. As well as being executive produced by Guillermo Del Toro. More details here.

Finally, check out this list of Toy Story 3 facts concerning its Oscar nominations, courtesy of Lee Unkrich's Twitter and The Pixar Times.