Brand New Trailers: The Croods and The Lone Ranger

Yesterday we showed you some brand new images from Gore Verbinski's The Lone Ranger, and told you to expect the debut trailers for that and DreamWorks' The Croods today. They're online now, and they're fantastic - and you can check them out after the jump break!

Aardman News 6 - Trailers Galore and More

The stop-motion giants, Aardman, have been hard at work, in collaboration with Sony Pictures Animation, making their next two feature films, the CGI film, Arthur Christmas, due out this November and the stop-motion film, The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists (internationally known as The Pirates! Band of Misfits) due out March next year, and, today, we get to see some new clips and trailers from both.

Firstly, we have the next theatrical trailer for The Pirates (above), from Peter Lord, the director of Chicken Run, and it is looking phenomenal, as is to be expected from Aardman; funny, clever and with an all-star voice cast, look out for The Pirates as a top animation contender next year.



Secondly, we get a couple of clips promoting the ever approaching release of Arthur Christmas, which, likewise, looks phenomenal. Anyone who knows me personally, or indeed has spoke to me a bit, knows how much I love Christmas, Christmas films included, and I can't wait to see Arthur Christmas in all its glory on the big screen. The extended version of the clip is embedded above, the shorter version can be viewed here.

Although, if I was to fault Aardman, I'd say November 11 seems a trifle early for a Christmas film... nonetheless, we also get a couple of tidbits of news from the studio:

• In news that may not please all, Justin Bieber's version of Santa Claus is Comin' To Town is set to play over the end credits of Arthur Christmas - full story here.
• Secondly, James McAvoy, the voice of the eponymous Arthur is set to appear on the Graham Norton show later tonight on BBC One to talk about his role in the upcoming film - full story here.
• The Guardian has a very interesting interview with The Pirates director, Peter Lord, and a visit to Aardman's Bristol home - full article here.
• Finally, watch the below video. I command it. It's Aardman's latest short film, Pythagasaurus, and it's fantastic. It's hilarious, wonderfully animated, beautifully simple and is, simply, Aardman at it's finest (beware, however, of some mild use of adult language if watching with young kids) - full story here.

Aardman News 5 - Arthur Christmas Trailers and Park's Back

Finally we have enough substantial Aardman news to return to the Aardman News feature here on the blog as today we get a couple of big Aardman nuggets to think about.

Firstly, we have two new, full length, trailers for Aardman's next feature film, the CGI film, Arthur Christmas. Arthur Christmas, a film about how Santa really delivers presents to every child in the world in one night, and what happens, when he misses one, stars the voice talent of James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent and Bill Nighy (a pretty all-star British cast to say the least) and is directed by Sarah Smith.

The trailers (UK one above, US one below) are fantastic, witty and provide far more details on plot, characters and looks at the breath taking, stop motion immitating, CGI animation used in the film - I particularly liked the bit concerning the reindeers' names: "Dasher. Dancer. What are the others called? I could never ruddy remember... Bambi?".

In addition to these two brilliant trailers for the studio's next film (on which they are collaborating with Sony Pictures Animation - the studio behind Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs) we get the extremely exciting news (courtesy of Bleeding Cool) that Wallace and Gromit creator, and four time Academy Award winner, Nick Park is working on a new project!

We currently know nothing of the project other than the fact that it is NOT a Wallace and Gromit film, but that it will be made using Aardman's trademark, stop motion style, as opposed to the CGI animation of Arthur Christmas.

I couldn't be more excited about all things Aardman!

Thanks to Bleeding Cool and Slash Film.

2 New Hop Clips

2 new clips from Illumination Entertainment's (Despicable Me) upcoming Live Action/CGI mash up, Hop, were recently released (above and below). They show some new footage mixed in with some already seen footage from previous trailers.

Personally I don't know what to make of it, I really like the CGI bits and the main character is a great one, however the Live Action/CGI mash-ups have a bad track record (*ahem* Yogi Bear *ahem*).

I guess we'll have to wait until April 1st!

Kung Fu Panda 2, New Teaser Trailer

Another teaser trailer for DreamWorks' upcoming film, Kung Fu Panda 2, made its way online today. Whilst shorter than the previous trailer, and whilst it shows nothing particularly new or detailed about the film, it looks - pardon the pun - awesome. :D

You can watch the trailer below.

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.