Check Out This Awesome Comic-Con Poster for Pixar's Toy Story That Time Forgot!

Back in January, Pixar announced that - although they may not be releasing a feature film this year - they will be releasing their second Toy Story TV special this holiday season. Toy Story That Time Forgot is making an appearance at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, and this immense poster - which will be given out to attendees of Pixar's panel at SDCC - has just popped up online!

New Toy Story TV Special To Air This Christmas!

Credit: Bitten by the Travel Bug

Pixar might not be putting out a feature film this year, but they're not resting on their laurels. The studio will release a Monsters U short film with Muppets Most Wanted in March, and just announced a Toy Story holiday special for this Christmas: Toy Story That Time Forgot!

Toy Story of Terror! Review: Terrifically Fun!

Since Pixar closed the Toy Story trilogy (in magnificent fashion) in 2010, they have been very busy making sure that the beloved toys are kept in the audience's minds. Instead of producing a fourth film (thank God), they have given us short films that have always delighted and entertained without falling prey to the burden of meeting the impossibly high expectations of the original trilogy. We got two Toy Story Toons in 2011, Hawaiian Vacation played before Cars 2 and Small Fry before The Muppets; in 2012 we got Partysaurus Rex in front of the 3D re-release of Finding Nemo. But this year, instead of a theatrical short, they turned their focus to TV and made a Halloween special that debuted this past Wednesday on ABC. Here are my thoughts on it.

[UPDATED] First Look: Toy Story of Terror

In October of last year, Animation World Network announced that Pixar were working on a Toy Story Halloween TV special, Toy Story of Terror, that was due this October. Since then, we haven't heard a peep about the project. Until now.

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!

5 New Toy Story Films Coming Soon!

Calm down, it's not what it sounds like. It also seems that those rumours about Toy Story 4 have been quieted for now, as Mike from Big Screen Animation just broke some huge Toy Story news!

A Disney e-catalogue tells us that - following Hawaiian Vacation and Small Fry, which were attached to Cars 2 and The  Muppets respectively - Pixar are developing three brand-new Toy Story Toons. Also, and somewhat more excitingly, "two new 22-minute TV specials are in the works for October 2013 and Spring 2014." This is very exciting news and corroborates what Pixar and Disney Animation President, Ed Catmull, said a while back about the role of Pixar Canada.

Look for these shorts and the TV specials to air on Disney Channel sometime over the next two years.

I assume some Cars TV specials will follow soon, and I'm hoping we hear of some other properties being given this treatment soon - A Bug's Life, Nemo or Up particularly seem like great choices!

Thanks to Big Screen Animation for this huge story.

DreamWorks' Halloween Double DVD Party Pack

DreamWorks have uploaded a new advert onto their official YouTube channel, advertising a new special holiday double back. The Halloween Double DVD Party Pack includes past DreamWorks Halloween specials: Scared Shrekless and Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space as well as a Shrek parody of the Thriller music video.

I have to say, DreamWorks have always produced particularly entertaining TV/DVD specials, and this seems like a fairly decent deal; although, quite who would ever wish to see a Shrek parody of MJ is beyond me, but I'm sure it will be entertaining, as is the norm for DreamWorks.

Prep & Landing: Operation Secret Santa

The sequel to last year's Disney half hour Christmas special, Prep & Landing, hit TV Screens yesterday, I've just saw it now and it was really good. I loved last year's short and thought it was outstanding, whilst this year's was a lot shorter (about 6 or 7 minutes) it was still really funny and original, one of Disney's best efforts in recent years.
The film revolves around the same set of characters from the last film, such as Wayne and Lanny, and introduces Betty White as Mrs. Claus.
You can see some trailers and featurettes on the short's official website.

DreamWorks Holidays

DreamWorks have just uploaded two trailers onto their official YouTube page, the first one (above), introduces them both - Merry Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda Holiday -, two Christmas themed TV specials to debut on November 24th. The second video (below) delves further into Kung Fu Panda Holiday, neither look particularly groundbreaking, but both should be really fun and festive.