July Animation Tidbits

More tidbits for ya... Lovely French Frozen posters, by the way... Now if only there was a third one to make a triptych! Disney has done it before!

Disney wants you to cool off this summer, with more Frozen-related stuff... Such as this international teaser poster featuring comic relief sidekick Olaf...

I love the design of this poster; everything from the water down to the icy film logo. Without showing too much, Disney is just effortlessly capitalizing on the wintery aspect of the film... Makes sense during a hot summer, right? Hopefully we'll be getting a full trailer sometime soon... Ahem, one that doesn't have spoilers in it.

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Blue Sky has given another cute Rio 2 teaser.

And that's just what it is, really... Cute. Nothing special, but I will admit the black jaguar singing bit was kind of funny. I think I'll reserve judgment until I see a full trailer, because I did actually enjoy the first Rio despite its problems.

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Pete Docter has spilled a few details on Inside Out, which is surprisingly one of a few non-sequel films that's slated for release in 2015...

He says the film "takes place inside the mind of an 11-year-old girl, and emotions such as anger, sadness, disgust and joy are the main characters." Hmmmm, three negatives and one positive as the "main" emotion characters? Does this mean that the girl might have a more pessimistic outlook on things? A child wanting to find happiness and joy in life, but somehow has a hard time? If so, that would make for a very interesting character, and it could also imply that the film's emotional content will be quite potent... Up, anyone? This is a Pete Docter film after all. Scratch that! This is a Pixar film, after all...

Then again, he might've just mentioned a few emotions off of the top of his head since there are five in the piece of concept artwork... What's the fifth one? Maybe anticipation? Trust? Who knows!

He also had this to say about the animation itself...

"The characters are created with this energy because we are trying to represent what emotions would look like. They are made up of particles that actually move. Instead of being skin and solid, it is a massive collection of energy. It’s a lot of fun and really takes advantage of what animation can do."

Yep... Pixar sure is dying alright. If anything, I'm curious to see what they do with their style of animation for this film... Or if they try out a completely different one. Could we see hand-drawn elements in a Pixar film sometime soon?

Docter also revealed that the film has two stories, "One story is hard enough. This is two stories that need to talk to each other." Now that sounds like a real challenge, and people say Pixar is running out of ideas or that they have lost their touch? If The Good Dinosaur doesn't shake the idiotic "Pixar is dead" belief, then this should... Like an earthquake! This sounds like nothing they've tackled before, and quite frankly, that's already something to get geared up about. This is another Pixar masterpiece in the making. It's everything you want from them: Risky, ambitious, emotional, rich in terms of the story and characters... I have a feeling that this will be grand.

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What are your thoughts on the Inside Out details? Do you think this will be a great Pixar film? Or one that could potentially be a mess? What do you think of the recent promo materials for Frozen? Did you think the Rio 2 teaser was cute? Or could you care less about that sequel and anticipate something like Anubis instead?

Sound off below!

Quick Pixar Fix

Ohhhh boy... Some juicy Pixar news for you today.

For starters, a "preview" of Monsters University; courtesy of Animation Fascination. Yeah... Where's that official trailer, Disney marketing? Anyways, the bit of footage they showed is great. I love the story already, and you can tell that Pixar has a lot of confidence in this film... More so than another sequel. I think we should not worry, one bit...



Next up, we have an official logo for their 2014 release - The Good Dinosaur!

This logo first appeared a few days ago, but it was unknown whether it was real or fake. Turns out, it's the real deal. I like it, the title itself has a nice simplistic feel and it's cool how they incorporated the apatosaur in the logo itself. To be honest though, I sort of liked this one a bit better. I don't know, maybe it's because I liked the way the titular dinosaur is part of the title itself... Oh well, I still really like this one. It's very different.

And finally, it's been confirmed... The title of their 2015 "Inside the Mind" film is The Inside Out. We got word on this back in December, but now it's true! What a great title, too!

Now, who knows what will be revealed next... A title for the "Dia De Los Muertos" film? Or maybe some surprise announcement that Newt is back... Or maybe what the untitled November 2015 film is... Whatever it'll be, it'll inspire confidence.

Pixar, Pixar, Pixar...

It's that time again. Pixar revealed quite a few things...

It's always big news when Pixar reveals a tiny smidgen of what they have in the works, but just in time for the new year, they gave us one piece of concept art each for three of their upcoming features: Bob Peterson's The Good Dinosaur (opening May 30, 2014), Pete Docter's "Inside the Mind"/Inside Out project (opening June 19, 2015) and Lee Unkrich's "Dia De Los Muertos" film (which I assume will hit theaters in summer 2016).

Beautiful... Just beautiful... The Good Dinosaur's piece is very minimal, but the lighting and use of color is gorgeous. I can already see a Pixar-esque shape and design for the dinosaur, despite the fact that it's only a silhouette. Like I've speculated before, it seems like the film will in fact focus on the boy and the apatosaur that first showed up in one of the Up B-roll videos back in 2009.

The "Inside the Mind" artwork gives us a glimpse at what the film's characters may end up looking like, and so far, I'm beyond impressed. After all, this is Pixar. Also, the drawing proves that the idea is pure Pete Docter at its finest.

The "Dia De Los Muertos" piece is the most stylized here, and again, excellent use of color to give it the appropriate mood. Already looking great! Who is the man in the photo? Will he be a main character in the story? Or not?

Pixar also treated us to this nice slice of Monsters University, another faux-ad for the titular campus...



Even though this clip is no longer than 30 seconds, it shows just how stunning and elaborate this production will be. If I could go to MU, I would!

Last but not least, more breathtaking concept artwork has been revealed for Gary Rydstrom's shelved feature film directorial debut Newt. It's almost like a sneaky message, as if they are quietly saying, "It's coming... It's coming... We still need time to iron out the problems!"

Almost everyone I know pretty much wants Pixar to end up making this film a reality. I have a feeling they will, no idea ever went away for good at Pixar. One thing is for certain though, that concept artwork shows that the film had a ton of potential. I'm curious, what were the story problems that halted this film? That's not all of it either, there's even more on the German-language Pixar Blog.

Pixar certainly gave us our fix for the beginning of the new year. I'm psyched to see more in the coming months!

Scheduling Changes

Disney has revised their upcoming slate, this includes some interesting entries: Another untitled Pixar film, Marvel's Ant-Man and an untitled Walt Disney Animation Studios film.

The currently-untitled Pixar film is scheduled for release on November 25, 2015. If that goes through, then it will be the first time two Pixar films are released in one year. This, and Pete Docter's untitled "Inside the Mind" project. It's possible that the untitled project may move, since Disney has done this before. They have announced two Pixar films coming out in one year, and one of them ends up moving. Remember when The Good Dinosaur was scheduled for release in November 2013 alongside the summer release of Monsters University? It could be Lee Unkrich's "Dia De Los Muertos" project, since the Day of the Dead starts on November 1st and ends on the 2nd. Or maybe not, since that said film has a page on Box Office Mojo. Also, why release a film about Day of the Dead many weeks after said day? I have a feeling this will be a new untitled production.

If so, what could it be? The hopeful fan in me says Newt, but I won't get my hopes too high. Maybe it'll be something new. Before you say Finding Nemo 2, I think that if it was, Disney would flat out say that it is going to be a Nemo sequel. I think it's going to be another original production.

Walt Disney Animation Studios' next film is scheduled for release on November 7, 2014. I had predicted that date a while ago, since DreamWorks' Happy Smekday! already took the November 26th slot. Disney and DreamWorks gravitate around November, so I saw this coming.

What will it be? I want to say Big Hero 6, but it could be that hand-drawn Ron & John film (which was said to come out in 2014 or 2015) or maybe something new. Another one to look out for. I have a gut feeling it's going to be Big Hero 6 though, since that was also said to have been scheduled for 2014 and we have heard nothing else about any other future productions from the studio.

Phineas and Ferb, which was going to be July release next year is now pushed back to 2014 with an undetermined date. Good move on their part, as it was crunched between competition like Despicable Me 2, DreamWorks' Turbo and The Smurfs 2. It seemed like this was going to happen, since we didn't hear much about the film in the last few months, aside from who was going to write the screenplay (Michael Arndt) and what format it would be in.

Another Disneynature film is scheduled to open on April 18, 2014: Bears. Not much to say about this, but the question is, what narrator will they get for this one? The film detailing the production of Mary Poppins, titled Saving Mr. Banks, will open on December 20, 2013. It stars Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, as many of you already know.

Finally, we now know when Ant-Man will hit theaters. Disney announced that the Marvel Cinematic Universe installment will open on November 6, 2015, following the much anticipated sequel to The Avengers. I'm a bit confused here, wasn't this supposed to lead up to the second Avengers? Or is it now going to take place after the sequel and start Phase 3? In other Marvel news, Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World are going to be in 3D. Does this mean we can see them in IMAX 3D as well? I sure hope so, nothing better than seeing the MCU films in IMAX. Thor was great to experience and The Avengers was a whole lot of fun on the huge screen, though I could definitely do without the post-conversion 3D.

That's all the big Disney news for today. We'll probably find out more about the untitled projects a few months later, but in the mean time, it's going to be fun to speculate. What do you think?