Watch: the First 'Ratchet & Clank' Trailer

Ratchet & Clank - the famous video game series from Insomniac Games - is getting a movie next year and iTunes got the first real trailer for the CG film (click on the link to watch it). Ratchet & Clank was originally supposed to hit the big screen this year, but it got postponed to the 29th April, 2016 in the US; there's no official date for the UK yet.

Watch: Free Birds Trailer

This is the first time we've mentioned Free Birds (formerly Turkeys) on A113Animation, and likely the last. The film occurs from the flawed thought that American audiences want to feel guilty about eating Turkey on Thanksgiving, and achieves that by sending time-travellin' turkeys Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson back in time 400 years to the first Thanksgiving.

Watch: Raving New Monster University Trailer

Pixar have put a lot of viral marketing-effort into highlighting the academic side of Monsters University, but the last few weeks have brought the focus onto the other side of the college experience. Continuing that trend, today's new minute-long trailer is packed with dancing, DJs, partying, pranks and a whole lot of fun!

The new mini-trailer also features a new song, "Roar", by Swedish House Mafia's Sebastian Ingrosso. Monsters U is composed by Randy Newman, and also features a track from heavy metal band Mastodon. Head on over to iTunes Movie Trailers to check the latest trailer out.

Pixar's fourteenth feature film hits US cinemas on 21st June, and UK ones on 12th July.

Watch: New Trailer for The Lone Ranger

An action packed new trailer for Jerry Bruckheimer's latest Disney live-action flick has been released, showcasing a lot of sand, a lot of fighting and some very expensive set design.

Watch: Teaser Trailer for Thor: The Dark World

Just ahead of the release of their Shane Black-directed Iron Man threequel (3rd May in the US, this Thursday in the UK), Disney and Marvel have rolled out the teaser trailer for the second film in Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor: The Dark World.

The teaser - which is the latest in the line of big-budget sci-fi flicks that seem to enjoy destroying London - comes via iTunes Movie Trailers, and is embedded above via YouTube. Much as Iron Man 3 seems a lot darker than its predecessors, so too does Thor 2 look a bit more adult - I'm certainly getting a Lord of the Rings vibe from it. That said, it does look freaking great - visually, thematically, it just works.

Thor: The Dark World is directed by Games of Thrones' Alan Taylor, and smashes its way into US cinemas on 8th November, while it hits the UK a week earlier on 30th October.

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I'm posting about this right now, but I won't be doing in the near future; A113Animation has a vacancy for a live-action Disney writer, covering, amongst other things, Disney's Marvel releases. If you're interested in the position, see here for details.

Another New Trailer for Blue Sky's Epic Showcases Stars and Comedy

We only got the previous Epic trailer earlier this month, but Blue Sky and Fox have just released another new look at their May release. The trailer, which again comes from iTunes Movie Trailers, follows the releases of new trailers for Despicable Me 2 and Turbo over the last few days.

As a big Blue Sky fan and an even bigger Bill Joyce one, I'm really excited for Epic (I mean, just look at those visuals), but I've really not been wowed by Fox's advertising for the film. This newest trailer focuses entirely too much on humour - while some of the jokes work, a lot fall flat, and it really isn't in keeping with the more, well, epic tone the studio tried to establish with the teaser. Something else that this new trailer focuses on too much is its cast; clearly Blue Sky are thrilled with the film's star wattage, but spending half the trailer saying who's in it is overkill, especially when a lot of the cast isn't that impressive (fair enough if it was focusing solely on Christoph Waltz).

Epic is directed by Chris Wedge (Ice Age) and stars the voices of... hell, we've heard enough about who's in it. It's released on 24th May.

Watch: Quite Fun New Trailer for DreamWorks' Turbo

Just ahead of their first release of 2013 (The Croods, which opens this Friday), DreamWorks have rolled out the first full theatrical trailer for their summer flick, Turbo. And it's actually pretty good.

I didn't like the teaser DreamWorks put out back in December. It was one-note and generic, and seemed like something DreamWorks would put out back in the bad old days of Shark Tale and Over the Hedge. This trailer, however, was a lot of fun - head on over to iTunes Movie Trailers to check it out.

New Despicable Me 2 Trailer Shows Gadgets, Girls and Gru

After a series of Minion vignettes, Universal have finally cranked out a trailer for Despicable Me 2 featuring its main character. iTunes Movie Trailers debuted the new trailer (embedded above) which returns Steve Carell to his role as the villainous Gru.

DreamWorks Release Turbo Teaser Trailer

DreamWorks have released (via iTunes Movie Trailers) the first trailer for their snail-starring, Cars-like feature, Turbo. Turbo is directed by veteran DreamWorks story artist-turned director (Merry Madagascar), David Soren, and will be the second DreamWorks feature released under their distribution deal with 20th Century Fox - following The Croods in March.

Second Trailer for DreamWorks' The Croods

The second trailer for DreamWorks' first film of 2013 is now online. iTunes Movie Trailers brings us the second look at the Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon) and Kirk DeMicco (Space Chimps) directed caveman-comedy, due for release on 22nd March, 2013.

Not everyone's in full support of the film, some of the character designs are certainly a little blocky, but the world of the film is absolutely breathtaking, and the story promises to be an engaging one, infused with Sanders' usual flair and heart - as well as the abundance of comedy visible in the trailer. And I loved the little wink to Ice Age's Manny at around the 1:30 mark.

I can't stress enough how magnificent this film looks; it's stunning (check out a couple of particularly marvellous shots from the great new trailer above). I have very high hopes for The Croods.

Watch: Brilliant New Trailer for Epic

Blue Sky Studios are great. They get a lot of flack sometimes for their more goofy, comic approach to animation - versus the more sophisticated stories of Pixar or, now, DreamWorks - but their films have heart, have depth, are gorgeous, and, yes, have lots of, sometimes asinine, comedy. I loved the first two Ice Age films (3, not so much; I still haven't seen 4), I loved Robots as a kid, Horton Hears a Who! was fun, and Rio was a great film! That said, the Fox-owned studio's next film, Epic, looks like a departure from their pre-existing mould, and I'm all for that.

New Despicable Me 2 Trailer

Universal and Illumination Entertainment have debuted a new trailer for Despicable Me 2 on iTunes Movie Trailers. It shows more of what we can expect story-wise from the follow-up to the 2010 hit: alien abductions, more minion focus (seguing into that planned spin-off maybe) - the return of Vector maybe? He was stranded in space at the end of the first film, and space is, after all, where most aliens would tend to be found.

Being a big fan of the original, this is quite exciting stuff! Let's just hope it turns out more like Despicable Me 1, and less like The Lorax. Be sure to watch in 720p, Illumination's animation is always fantastic.

This trailer will apparently play in front of Disney's Wreck-It Ralph, starting Friday. Despicable Me 2 is directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, and is released on 28th June, 2013 (UK) and 3rd July, 2013 (US).

New Wreck-It Ralph Poster

Following the fantastic new trailer that we saw a couple of days ago for Disney's Wreck-It Ralph, we now get a great new poster too!

The poster showcases the film's heroic villain, Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly), as well as some of the film's famous gaming cameos, including Sonic, Dr. Eggman, Clyde the Pacman Ghost, Q*bert and more! It comes via iTunes Movie Trailers, or you can check out a slightly darker, but higher-res version, via ComingSoon.net.

Wreck-It Ralph arrives in cinemas on 2nd November in the US, and 15th February, 2013 in the UK, preceded by John Kahrs' acclaim-winning short, Paperman.

Also, be sure to vote in our "A113 Ten Years" Round Two polls for Groups 1 and 2 while you still can! Group 1 is led by Up and you can vote on Facebook, and Group 2 is on the right sidebar of the blog, and is led by Finding Nemo.

Monsters, Inc. 3D Trailer

Finding Nemo 3D hits theatres (in the US) in 9 days, so advertising has begun to slowly turn towards Pixar's next 3D re-release: Monsters, Inc. 3D! The stereoscopic re-release of Pixar's 2001, Oscar-nominated classic arrives in theatres (again, in the US) on 19th December, and today iTunes Movie Trailers brings us the first trailer for it!

You can check out the trailer, highlighting the hilarious comedy of the Pete Docter-directed hit, embedded above, courtesy of Walt Disney Studios UK's YouTube channel.

With Nemo and this in 3D, and Brave recently out, this is going to be a very lucrative year for Pixar!

Monsters, Inc. 3D is due for a UK release on 18th January, 2013 - oddly before Nemo's due.

Also, if you're a big Monsters, Inc.fan, why not vote for it in our "Best of the Last Ten Years A113Animation Awards": Round Two, Group 2 poll to the right? Please also vote in our Group 1 poll on Facebook. Every vote matters!

New Ice Age 4 Characters and Trailer

The official Ice Age Twitter feed has introduced us to a bunch of the new characters that we'll be meeting in the fourth entry in the Ice Age series, Ice Age: Continental Drift. The new characters range from members of the pirate crew (top) that we've seen in the trailers and clips thus far, to new members of Manny and co.'s group.

We've been introduced to self-appointed Master of the Seas, Captain Gutt (Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones), the main antagonist of the film, and his pirate crew, consisting of:

• Shira (Jennifer Lopez) - Captain Gutt's saber-toothed first mate, and presumably a later love-interest for Diego.
• Flynn (Nick Frost, Hot Fuzz) - "a British elephant seal with a heart of gold".
• Raz (Rebel Wilson, Bridesmaids) - "a prehistoric kangaroo" and the ship's weapons expert.
• Squint (Aziz Ansari, 30 Minutes or Less) - a prehistoric rabbit, and a valued member of Gutt's crew.
• Silas (Alain Chabat) - a 'Blue-footed Booby' that "flies ahead of the ship to ensure smooth sailing".
• Gupta (Kunal Nayyar, The Big Bang Theory) - "the Bengali badger" who acts as the ship's Jolly Roger.

There are a bunch of other characters joining the franchise as well, including some new Mammoths - Ethan, his posse and Louis - and some new sloths - Sid's absent family who show up to dump his elderly Granny on him.

In addition to this huge glut of new characters, iTunes Movie Trailers have the second trailer for the film for us, which you can watch here. It certainly enforces the epic feel of the film, as well as Blue Sky Studios' usual comedy; Ice Age 4 is certainly looking good so far!

Ice Age: Continental Drift arrives in cinemas on 13th July.

New Brave Featurette - Kilt

What we've seen from Brave in the past has been, with a few exceptions, very tense, very ominous, very eerie and very badass. However, what we're treated to today is a much more light-hearted, jovial advert for the film - a featurette satirising fashion adverts, selling Kilts. The advert may seem a little adult or low-brow for Pixar, but, in my opinion, this is a very needed move. As fantastic and exciting as Brave looks, up until very recently it's showed very little of its funny side - of the side that'll attract the majority of its audience: kids. Animation may be an art-form that perpetual children like myself enjoy, but the fact of the matter is, their key demographic is actual children, so comedy is an essential.

As it's Pixar, the film will undoubtedly be a deft blend of comedy, pathos and emotion, but it's a smart idea - marketing wise - to try and get that across in its advertisements.

The featurette (above) parodies the oftentimes ridiculous fashion adverts we're regularly subjected to; advertising the traditional kilts that populate Brave. It, as well as being very funny, features a decent amount of previously unseen footage - including a shot of Merida's father, King Fergus, fighting the demon bear, Mor'du.

Brave hits US theatres on 22nd June, and arrives here in the UK a couple of months later on 13th August (up slightly from its previous due date of the 17th).

Via iTunes Movie Trailers.

Final Brave Trailer Revealed

Now that we're just a few months away from the release of Pixar's 13th feature film, Brave, we have been treated to all manner of advertisements, and today, we get the last trailer. And it's amazing.

You can see the newest, and final, trailer, that debuted earlier today on iTunes Movie Trailers, for Pixar's first fairytale, above. Whilst a large portion of the trailer contains footage and animation that we've seen in previous trailers and clips (showing Merida's fiery, rebellious nature) it is very well edited - bringing out more of the Pixar feel - but it's from about 1:30 onwards that things really start to pick up. We get some glimpses into the thus far heavily concealed second act of the film: the witch and the demonic bear Mordu; culminating in the surreal, ominous feel that looks set to make this one of Pixar's most poignant and impressive films to date.

Oh, and the animation is fantastic. Just in case you're blind and hadn't grasped that up until now.

Check it out for yourself, and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section, or on our Facebook, Google+ or Twitter pages.

Rise of the Guardians Trailer

The first intense, action-packed trailer for DreamWorks' upcoming animated film, Rise of the Guardians was released on iTunes Movie Trailers today, showcasing the film's troupe of bad-ass childhood heroes. The film, based on the upcoming Guardians of Childhood book series by Moonbot Studios' William Joyce, and co-directed by Joyce, as well as being co-produced by Guillermo del Toro, follows the story of a group of famed fairytale characters, including Santa, the Easter Bunny, Jack Frost and the Tooth Fairy, who must band together to save the children of the world from an evil force.

Rise of the Guardians will be DreamWorks' second feature release this year, after Madagascar 3, and is due out on 30th November.

First Full-Length Ice Age 4 Trailer

After many clips and short films, both online and preceding films, we finally get the first full-length, theatrical for Ice Age: Continental Drift. The fourth installment in the ever popular Ice Age franchise is due for release on 13th July.

Whilst I'm not overly sold on the idea of a fourth Ice Age - the third, after all, was rather trite and cheesy - I have faith in Blue Sky Studios and there'll always be a place in my heart for Manny and friends. Also, the trailer doesn't look half bad; reasonably funny, what seems like the next logical step in terms of plot, and some truly stunning animation.

Head on over to iTunes Movie Trailers to check it out.

New ParaNorman Trailer

The second full length, theatrical trailer for Laika's (the studio behind 2009's Coraline) next stop-motion animated film, ParaNorman has been released on iTunes Movie Trailers.

I was definitely not a huge fan of the teaser trailer, it just didn't grab me. However, the first full trailer gave me hope, and this newest trailer really impressed me. It was quirky, clever, dark and surprisingly funny. The combination of this and the solid voice cast, including John Goodman, Jeff Garlin and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, as well as Kodi Smit-McPhee as the titular, Norman, means that ParaNorman is definitely one to watch in 2012.

Head on over to iTunes Movie Trailer to watch the latest trailer. ParaNorman is due for a UK release on 14th September.