Tintin 2: "You can expect to meet Cuthbert Calculus."

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, Steven Spielberg's long gestating big screen version of Hergé's famed boy journalist stories, arrived in cinemas last year, and its success (my review here) is evident by the great news we've heard thus far from its upcoming sequel.

The original film, penned by the talented trio of Edgar Wright, Steven Moffat and Joe Cornish, was based on three Tintin books: The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure, but Tintin 2 is taking a slightly different direction. This time around the film, directed now by Peter Jackson, will be written by Stormbreaker author, Anthony Horowitz, and he today shed some light on what we can expect from the second Tintin film.

It was long rumoured that the second film would be based on the Seven Crystal Balls/Prisoners of the Sun stories, but this has since been denied (shame), and no other suggestions have been really confirmed. However, today, Horowitz told this blog on Twitter, that in Tintin 2 we "can expect to meet Cuthbert Calculus". The first film introduced us to Tintin (Jamie Bell), Snowy and Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis), so Professor Calculus, the hard-of-hearing genius, is the last main big character we've still be introduced to.


So, given that we can now rule out Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun, and given that it's also very unlikely to pick up immediately where Secret of the Unicorn left off (effectively ruling out a continuation of Red Rackham's Treasure), the last obvious choice is The Calculus Affair. The Calculus Affair, one of the later Tintin stories, sees Tintin, Haddock and Snowy travelling across the globe to rescue an abducted Professor Cuthbert Calculus; with some fiddling with the story and continuity, this could act as a very effective introduction for the beloved character.

We've heard rumours of this in the past, but it's nice to have some more solid confirmation.

Oh, and yes, I am now a huge Tintin fan.

New Brave Clip Released

Disney and Pixar have released a new 30 second clip from their latest feature film, Brave. Released via AMC Theatres's YouTube channel, the clip (above), entitled Tart Thieves, shows Merida's mischievous little brothers, Hubert, Harris and Hamish in action.

Much like the 'Eyes on the Pies' clip we saw the other week, the short extract from the film shows the troublesome trio trying to pinch some sweets. The triplets are said to be a constant source of comedy in the film, and with clips like this, you can certainly believe it.

Brave arrives in US theatres on 22nd June and UK theatres on 13th August.


Via Upcoming Pixar.

Brave: Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day hit a few months ago here in the UK, but it's fast approaching for our US readers, and today Pixar unveiled a new video clip (above) from Brave to help promote this. The video has a great message and it's very admirable of Pixar to promote the often undervalued holiday, but far more interestingly, from an animation standpoint, is the actual footage used.

The video  showcases a lot of new footage from Brave that we haven't hitherto seen. These new clips include footage of Merida as a child, learning to use her bow, and the strained, yet, at its heart, pure, relationship between mother and daughter; Queen Elinor and Merida.

Brave hits US theatres on 22nd June, and UK cinemas on 13th August.

And also, remember to get your mums something nice for Mother's Day guys - you can't overplay how brilliant they are.

Also, Brave has been given a PG rating due to "some scary scenes and rude humour". It is the third Pixar film to be rated as such. Full story on The Pixar Times.

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.

Aardman News 8 - Wallace and Gromit in A Jubilee Bunt-a-thon

Before you get too excited, this isn't a new Wallace and Gromit feature film, nor is it even really a short film - what this is, is a "new mini animation" featuring the plasticine duo preparing for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The 1 minute long short film, more like the previous Cracking Contraptions series than the half hour TV specials, is being released by the National Trust at a series of events this summer - for a list of locations, visit the National Trust's website. The short film, entitled A Jubilee Bunt-a-thon, sees barmy inventor, Wallace, and his loyal pooch, Gromit, putting up the bunting to celebrate the Queen's big day and you can see a 30 second clip from it above.

There's also a wonderful behind-the-scenes look at the production of Bunt-a-thon (below), showing the painstaking and wonderful process that stop-motion animation undergoes. The video features some words from the duo's creator, Nick Park, and from Creative Director, Merlin Crossingham (one of those fantastic names that makes you proud to be British) who said:

"To complete a minute of film, we have three animators, working flatout for 3 weeks."

It really puts into context the hard work that goes into, not just stop-motion, but animation in general! Look forward to this short film probably making its way online later this year.