The Toy Story franchise is perhaps Pixar’s most important franchise. After all, it was the original Toy Story that launched the animation studio into the spotlight. In 2010, 15 years after the first film, Toy Story 3 concluded the trilogy, and was only the third ever animated film nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. In the years since, we have seen a mixture of Toy Story shorts and TV specials, but the question of whether we would ever see a fourth film remained. That has been answered today, as Toy Story 4 has been officially announced. Find more details after the break! [Read more…]
Pixar Has Apparently “Completely Reimagined” ‘The Good Dinosaur’
Last August, we found out that director Bob Peterson had been taken off The Good Dinosaur after the film apparently hit creative difficulties. A group of Pixar directors including Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3), Mark Andrews (Brave), John Lasseter (Toy Story), and the film’s original co-director Pete Sohn took over. We still do not know who took over as lead director (if anyone did, that is), but we hear that the film’s story has been overhauled. Find more details after the break! [Read more…]
Pixar Wows With Themed Lands At Disney Parks
The ambitious La Place de Rémy in Disneyland Paris is much more than a collection of Ratatouille attractions. It is an immersive experience that transports you to the Paris that was seen in the film, from the Parisian streets, to the kitchen that Remy cooks in, to the restaurant where his family and friends dine. In the final part of our exclusive interview with Roger Gould, the creative director of Pixar’s Theme Parks Group, he describes how Pixar’s films have been turned into groundbreaking lands at Disney Parks and what it takes to bring them to life. Read the interview after the break!
It’s Official: Pixar Working On ‘The Incredibles 2’ and ‘Cars 3’
Last year, Pixar President Ed Catmull detailed the studio’s plans to release an original film every year, and a sequel every other, totaling up to three films every two years. Up to this point, we have seen sequels (and a prequel) for the Toy Story, Cars, and Monsters, Inc. franchises, but there has been one franchise, above all others, that has had a loud group of fans begging for a follow up – Brad Bird’s The Incredibles. Today, Disney announced two Pixar sequels that are in development, The Incredibles 2 and Cars 3.
The Pixar Perspective on ‘Star Wars’
The gravitational pull of the endless Star Wars franchise is inescapable in modern cinema. Though there have only been six live-action films in the series, the vast ocean of toys, theme-park attractions, animated TV series, books, and more make it impossible to avoid, even before there were rumors of a new trilogy. After the Walt Disney Company purchased Lucasfilm in the fall of 2012, the rumors became truth: within just a few years (now under 2 years), a new trilogy of Star Wars films would be unveiled, following up on the events of Return of the Jedi. Since that time, it’s been assumed that Disney wouldn’t just make new live-action films in that galaxy far, far away. Why not make more animated films, or spin-off series, and so on? For now, at least, these are rumors.
The Pixar Perspective on Loren Carpenter
As was discussed in this column throughout 2013, the year 2014 is going to be an interesting one for Pixar Animation Studios. We have to look well into 2015 for the company’s next feature, and between now and that time, there will only be more rampant speculation about the studio’s upcoming slate. (Here’s hoping, of course, that the neverending glut of Star Wars casting rumors as well as this or that Marvel movie’s unveiling overshadows everything out of Pixar, in case people spin it to the negative.) Last week, it was confirmed via Entertainment Weekly that this won’t be an entirely Pixar-free year: the short Party Central, from the Monsters University universe, will be attached to Muppets Most Wanted this March. The short has been ready for a long enough time that it was nearly included on the Monsters University Blu-ray, but its director, Kelsey Mann, mentioned in the article that the party’s bigness lends itself to a silver-screen presentation. Party Central continues a now-long line of Pixar films being extended into the world of shorts, and hopefully it fits well alongside Partysaurus Rex and Small Fry, among others.
The Pixar Perspective on the Pixar Canada Shutdown
Watching business decisions get handed down from on high is always maddening, with the context for such choices being obscured from public view; all that can result is rampant speculation. So it is with the surprising announcement a few weeks ago from the Walt Disney Company that it was shutting down Pixar’s Canadian studio, located in Vancouver, British Columbia. The studio, which employed over 100 animators, had worked primarily in shorts related to preexisting properties, such as the Toy Story shorts Small Fry and Partysaurus Rex, as well as some of the Cars shorts released straight to DVD and Blu-ray. As of now, one of the reasons being bandied about for why the shutdown occurred is that a number of the tax loopholes that existed in the past in Canada have been tightened, giving Disney less profit on this extension of one of their most financially fruitful branches.
‘The Good Dinosaur’ Pushed To 2015, No Pixar Film In 2014
Since 2006, it has been a given that we would see a Pixar film released during the summer season every year. The first indication that this streak was at risk of ending arrived with the news that The Good Dinosaur director Bob Peterson had been taken off the project. The film, which was scheduled to arrive in May 2014, was taken over by a collection of Pixar veterans such as John Lasseter and Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich, but no replacement director was named. For an animated film that was less than one year away, it signaled significant trouble. Today, we have received confirmation that The Good Dinosaur is indeed being delayed into 2015, leaving next year as the first without a Pixar feature film in eight years.
The Pixar Perspective on Replacing Directors
Last week, this column pondered why, exactly, Disney and/or Pixar Animation Studios were holding back on a teaser trailer for their next film, The Good Dinosaur, which is slated to open in May of 2014. By the time the article was published early Tuesday afternoon, the rumor mill was in high churn about the film’s status. Was its director, Bob Peterson, being taken off the project? Would this explain why he wasn’t present at the Pixar presentation at last month’s D23 Expo? Did this explain his ever-changing Twitter biography? (If only that last question was a joke, but no, that’s something fans were left to ponder as Disney stayed silent.) On Friday, the rumor became news: Peterson had indeed been booted off The Good Dinosaur sometime “over the summer,” and presumably before the D23 Expo. The project is now reportedly in the hands of a mix of people, including the film’s co-director Peter Sohn (known equally well for his behind-the-scenes animation work as for voicing characters like Emile in Ratatouille), Lee Unkrich, and John Lasseter himself.
Confirmed: ‘The Good Dinosaur’ Switches Out Director Bob Peterson
After the D23 Expo, speculation ran wild on what had happened to Bob Peterson, the director of The Good Dinosaur, who was nowhere to be found during Disney’s biannual show. A report emerged earlier this week which claimed he had been removed from the project, but Disney/Pixar remained mum on the subject – until now, that is. Today, it has been confirmed that Peterson was taken off the film and a group of directors have stepped in to complete the film. Find more details after the break.
