Three new “Shorty Shorts” from the animated franchise Cars popped up on Disney’s website today. The original film and its sequel show the adventures of Lightning McQueen, a race car who gets stuck in the town of Radiator Springs, and the friends he makes there. Each of the shorts comprises a “tale from Radiator Springs,” giving the viewer insight into more of the day-to-day goings on of the fictional town from the films. While the first Cars was a big success, Cars 2 wasn’t received as warmly. By putting out these shorts, Disney could be hoping to reach out to a new young fanbase, seeing as how Cars came out in 2006. I doubt that there is a Cars 3 in the works due to the underperformance of the sequel, but keeping an interest in the franchise might lead to a possible TV series or other project that could could build up some revenue.  Hit the jump for the shorts.

This weekend, Brave became Pixar’s 13th feature film, the latest addition to an impeccable body of work that started nearly twenty years ago with Toy Story.  Given the storied history of everyone’s favorite animation studio, I think this is the perfect opportunity to try out a new feature, By the Numbers.  Essentially, I will go one by one through each of the Pixar movies and provide a numbers-based snapshot of its place in the filmography by looking at the box office, critical reception, and miscellaneous facts.  Four thousand words later, I hope you’ll agree this is a comprehensive review of Pixar’s work over the last two decades.

Hit the jump for a detailed look at Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monster’s, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, Toy Story 3, Cars 2, and Brave.

This weekend’s box office turned out to be pretty predictable. Brave, the thirteenth feature from fan-favorite Pixar studios, came out on top with an estimated $66.7 million from 4,127 locations. Easy to see that one coming. More of a question mark was Fox’s R-rated counter-programmer Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Many expected the film to crash in epic fashion; and while $16.5 million from 3,106 locations is not great, it is better than Rock of Ages and That’s My Boy managed last weekend so… yay?

If you’re looking for stuff to do this summer, one thing that should be on the top of your list is a trip to the newly opened Cars Land at Disney’s California Adventure.  Prior to the official public opening on June 15^th, Collider was invited to the grand opening celebration that was attended by many of the voice actors from Pixar’s two Cars films (including Larry the Cable Guy, Bonnie Hunt and Cheech Marin), along with Tom Staggs (Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts), Robert Iger (Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Co.) and John Lasseter (Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studio and Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering), who all took the rides for a spin themselves.  Hit the jump for more about what to expect from this $1.1 billion re-tooling and expansion at the Happiest Place on Earth.

I’m going to bypass my usual opening paragraph musings this week and simply wish everyone a Happy Veterans Day weekend. Given that I don’t have any immediate family or friends who serve, I won’t claim to know the first thing about the sacrifices that each serviceman/woman and their respective families and friends are continually asked to make. I reap all of the benefits of their service without any of the concessions. As a result, I owe a debt of gratitude to each and every one of them.

In this week’s “Top 5″ installment you can find the first trailer for Snow White and the Huntsman, a cornucopia of interviews for Immortals and Cars 2, new set images from the set of The Expendables 2 featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme, and a look at the road that led Billy Crystal and Brian Grazer to the top of the 2012 Oscars. Hit the jump for a brief recap and link to each.

After posting a strong start on Friday, Cars 2 went on to finish the weekend with an estimated $68 million from its 4,115 locations.  That was more than double what its closest competitor, Bad Teacher, took in; but not quite enough to get the sequel higher than fifth place on the list of All-Time Pixar Studio champions.

Last year, we reported that Disney was developing Planes, a direct-to-DVD spin-off to their hit franchise Cars.  However, Pixar would not be creating the film and instead Disney would be using Disney Toon Studios, the folks behind films like The Lion King 1½ and other direct-to-DVD sequels.  John Lasseter, in his capacity as Disney Animation Studios Chief Creative Officer, said in 2007 that he was stopping the direct-to-DVD animated sequels after viewing a work-in-progress version of a Tinkerbell movie.  But apparently that policy didn’t last because there have been five Tinkerbell movies since 2008 and now a teaser trailer for Planes has gone online.  I like how the teaser uses the intro to White Zombie’s “More Human Than Human” when the actual song starts with the track being overlayed with the sounds of a woman having an orgasm.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Planes is set to arrive on DVD and Blu-ray in spring 2013.

Recently, I got the chance to visit Pixar in anticipation of their upcoming summer release Cars 2. As part of the press day, I sat down for interviews with Pixar staples like John Lassetter and composer Michael Giacchino, the stars of Cars 2 Emily Mortimer and Larry the Cable Guy, as well some of the people that create the Pixar flicks we know and love (producers, story supervisors, supervising animators, and more). Every Sunday, up until the release of Cars 2 on June 24th, we’ll be running a new interview. If you’re a fan of Pixar and are interested in learning how they generate incredible films year after year, you’re going to want to check back here each week.

First up is my interview with producer Denise Ream. She’s the producer on Cars 2 and was the associate producer on Up. Before joining Pixar five years ago, she worked with Lucasfilm’s ILM on flicks like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. In our interview, she talked about what being a producer at Pixar entails, the challenges she faced during the making of Cars 2, her transition from Lucasfilm to Pixar and more. Hit the jump to check it out.

With Pixar’s Cars 2 getting released in three months, Disney has really started ramping up the marketing machine.  Over the past few weeks we’ve gotten a trailer, an extended trailer and retro posters, and a new TV spot and images.  Now the house that Walt built has released a new Japanese trailer that features a decent amount of new footage.  However, it’s all in Japanese.  Saying that, I think it has the most action and it’s definitely worth checking out.

Cars 2 gets released June 24 and it features the voices of Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Caine, Tony Shalhoub, Emily Mortimer and more.

As we reported last July, Disney is planning a Cars direct-to-DVD spinoff called Planes.  Pixar won’t be involved in the spin-off and the film will be handled by DisneyToon Studios, whose previous movies include The Lion King 1 ½ and Bambi II.  Disney has now officially announced Planes and provided an official synposis:

PLANES takes off with an international cast of the fastest air racers around, in a comedy packed with action and adventure starring Dusty, a small town dreamer who longs to enter the most epic around-the-world air race … despite his fear of heights.  With the help and support of a fleet of new and hilarious characters, Dusty wings his way into the biggest challenge of his life.

Hit the jump for comment on the project by Disney/Pixar Chief Creative Officer and Cars director John Lasseter.  Planes is set to be released on DVD and Blu-ray in spring 2013.

Has a film ever inspired you? This winter, someone was clearly inspired by Pixar’s Cars and the results aren’t just humorous; they’re remarkably spot-on. I would have taken inspiration from Cars as well, had it actually snowed in Dallas — at all. Well, besides that freaky Spring Break snow. That was weird. Check out the full images after the jump.

Pixar Animation Studios classics like Toy Story, Up, Wall-E, Ratatouille, and Cars will soon be commemorated with their own unique stamp designs in 2011.  Citing Pixar’s “exciting, contemporary characters and strong themes involving family and friends,” the United States Postal Service will begin circulating the “Send a Hello” stamps on August 19th, 2011.

To check out the official USPS release and to catch a glimpse of the five designs, hit the jump.

Last week, we reported that Pixar was possibly getting into the direct-to-video business by spin-offing Cars into a home entertainment movie called Planes.  While the success of Cars made a spin-off seem like a reasonable business decision, Bleeding Cool reports that Pixar is not actively working on the movie.  Instead, the movie is being developed over at Disney Toon Studios.  They’re the folks best known for making disposable, direct-to-video sequels like Bambi II and The Lion King 1½.  Pixar isn’t doing the animation and the extent of their involvement is unknown regarding the story.  Bleeding Cool notes that Pixar and CCO John Lasseter are protective of their franchises, so they may serve as consultants in some capacity.  But overall  it looks like Planes won’t really be flying under Pixar’s banner.

Pixar is reportedly developing a Cars spin-off called Planes for the direct-to-video market.  With Cars 2 set to arrive next summer, it makes sense that the studio would try to build on that momentum by releasing a spin-off project around the same time.  Of course, when you consider that Toy Story 2 and 3 were both originally considered as straight-to-DVD project, it’s possible that Pixar may eventually want to release Planes will into theaters.  But as Movieline points out, Cars wasn’t a huge smash not at the box office, but with its merchandising.  Keeping that in mind, it doesn’t make much sense to send the spinoff into theaters when the goal is to push more toys, bedsheets, etc.  I’m going to assume that the success of Cars 2 at the box office will also factor into Planes‘ future.

While the past several years had Pixar releasing its most challenging and original movies with Ratatouille, WALL-E, and Up, the studio is currently moving towards established properties.  In addition to this year’s Toy Story 3 and Cars 2 for summer 2011, the studio is also working on Monsters, Inc. 2 for 2012.  But just because Pixar is trying to expand its coffers, doesn’t mean that any of these projects, including Planes, is going to be a slapshod production that’s unworthy of the Pixar name.

Speaking in London’s Leicester Square this morning, Walt Disney Animation and Pixar COO John Lasseter gave a thorough presentation of Disney’s upcoming films.  Among the highlights:  plot details about “Toy Story 3″ and “Cars 2.”  Pixar normally shies away from sequels and I think that policy has proved to be one of their strengths so I have been very curious to know what makes these movies worth the risk.  Lasseter has talked about wanting to make another Toy Story ever since the second one came out which makes me think that the impetus behind “Toy Story 3″ and the reason for its lengthy development is his genuine love of the characters and a desire to revisit their world, even if that meant waiting years to do so.

“Cars 2,” on the other hand, does not have such a warm and fuzzy backstory.  The original came out in 2006 and, since Pixar takes about four or five years to make a film, the sequel was clearly fast-tracked to the top of the queue.  I guess roughly $462 million will do that, especially considering its characters are much more ripe for new adventures than, say, the robots from “Wall-E.”  Hit the jump to find out what new games Woody is playing and where Lightning McQueen will be racing next.