A few years back, Pixar was working on a film called Newt. The premise was about the last remaining male and female blue-footed newts on the planet who are forced together by science to save the species, but they can’t stand each other. Sound familiar? The film was scrapped after being too similar to Blue Sky Animation’s Rio. I think Pixar could have done more with the premise, but I guess we’ll never know. The best we’ll probably get are leaked pieces of concept art. We saw some back in 2010, and now more has been released online. It’s a great look, but sadly, most concept art for 3D movies tends to get watered down (remember how Tangled was supposed to resemble the artistic style of French Rococo artist Jean-Honore Fragonard’s painting “The Swing”?). Either way, it’s an interesting look at a film that never was.
Hit the jump to check out the concept art.
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Pixar recently sent out a holiday card, and the card contains the concept art for the studios 2013 – 2016 slate of pictures. The card includes previously released concept art for Monsters University as well as a first look at The Good Dinosaur, the Untitled Movie That Takes You Inside the Mind (now titled Inside Out), and the Untitled Dia de los Muertos movie. There’s nothing too revealing about any of this concept art, but it’s still nice to have a glimpse at three Pixar films that aren’t sequels or prequels.
Hit the jump to check out the concept art along with loglines for the films. The Good Dinosaur opens May 30, 2014. The Untitled Movie That Takes You Inside the Mind opens June 19, 2015. The Untitled Dia de los Muertos movie opens in 2016.
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Today’s Amazon Gold Box Deals if the Day are two great musicals: The Sound of Music and Singin’ in the Rain. The Sound of Music (45th Anniversary Blu-ray/DVD Combo Limited Edition) is 18.99 (79% off) and Singin’ In The Rain: 60th Anniversary Collector’s Edition (Blu-ray/DVD Combo) is $39.99 (53% off). If you’re a Criterion fan, Amazon still has a ton of Criterion DVD and Blu-rays over 50% off. Included in the sale are David Fincher’s The Game, Rosemary’s Baby, Seven Samurai, Godzilla, Harold and Maude, and too many others to list here. In addition, Amazon has a number of Pixar movies on sale for 50% off. They’re listed below with the rest of the deals:
Hit the jump for hundreds of other deals.
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by Rob Vaux Posted: November 30th, 2012 at 5:50 am
Would we look at Brave more kindly if it didn’t come from Pixar? Would its flaws and foibles bug us quite so much if another studio took it on? Probably not. It has so much to recommend it – its technical credentials are so strong and its characters sufficiently endearing – that its problems wouldn’t matter so much. Unfortunately, this isn’t another studio and Pixar demands standards far beyond those of mortal men. They did so well for so long that “good enough” no longer cuts it. Brave, sadly, can’t climb any higher than that. Hit the jump for my full review of the Blu-ray.
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It looks as if Safety Not Guaranteed screenwriter Derek Connolly is carving out quite the creative home over at Disney. Connolly made waves with the indie dramedy Safety Not Guaranteed earlier this year, and just this week we learned that Connolly and Safety director Colin Trevorrow have been drafted by The Mouse House to rewrite the remake of Flight of the Navigator. Now it turns out that Connolly has actually been working at Pixar for the better part of this year, penning a new feature film for the animated studio. Hit the jump for more details.
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My recent trip to Scotland was one of the best experiences of my life. In addition to getting to interview Brave director Mark Andrews, producer Katherine Sarafina, and story supervisor Brian Larsen, I went on amazing journey across Scotland and had the opportunity to participate in a wonderful variety of experiences including archery, falconry, bagpipe-playing, wearing a tartan, and more. I’m not saying I was any good at the actual activities, but I still had a total blast.
We’ve now put together a video of my Scotland trip, and I hope you enjoy it. You can also click here to see all the photos I took. Brave is now available on 3D Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD.
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Last week, I was invited to the U.K. for the Blu-ray/DVD release of Brave. During my visit to Stirling Castle in Scotland, I sat down with story supervisor Brian Larsen to talk about the movie. In our conversation, we talked about the research process, working with the art department, developing the script, looking at the finished film, this experience compared to working on Ratatouille, his short movie The Legend of Mordu, advice to aspiring animators, and more.
Hit the jump to check out the interview, and click here for my photos from Scotland. Brave is now available on 3D Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD.
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A couple of great Disney Blu-ray deals are featured as Amazon’s Gold Box Deal of the Day. Both the Toy Story and Cinderella trilogies are 51% off for today only. You can own Pixar’s Toy Story, Toy Story 2, and Toy Story 3 on 3D Blu-ray for $48.99, which is down from the list price of $100. Also, for the Disney Princess fans, the limited edition six-disc Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy combo pack of the Cinderella is on sale for $44.49, down from the list price of $89.99. That’s one hell of a deal, as the combo also includes a collectible jewelry box packaging.
Click here to purchase the Toy Story trilogy, and click here to buy the Cinderella trilogy.
[Note: Collider earns a small referral fee when our readers purchase something on Amazon through one of our links. The money generated helps pay our staff and keep the site running. Thank you for reading and supporting Collider.]
One of the benefits of seeing a new Pixar movie in theaters is catching the short film that plays before the feature. The studio has churned out gems like Day & Night, Partly Cloudy, One Man Band, in front of some of their biggest hits, and this year in front of Brave the wonderfully charming short La Luna was featured. The short has now been released online in full, so if you missed director Enrico Casarosa’s gorgeous pic in theaters, now’s the time to rectify that. Not only is the story top-notch, the film also includes a great guitar-infused score by Michael Giacchino. Though it ultimately lost the Best Animated Short Oscar to William Joyce’s moving The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, it’s still a swell piece of work that’s well-worth your time.
Hit the jump to watch the full short film.
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“We gotta treat it like the Alien. Predator… It’s a cursed thing.” That was Pixar’s approach to designing Mordu, the giant “demon bear” who terrorizes Merida (Kelly Macdonald) and her family in their latest film, Brave. The result is appropriately terrifying, an unstoppable villain who prowls around despite the spears that have accumulated in his hide over his long, cursed existence. “He’s been around for centuries, perhaps. No one knows,” suggests a Pixar team member on a bonus featurette that will appear on the Blu-ray, set for release on November 13. Disney has sent over a clip from that featurette to premiere here on Collider, so watch it after the jump.
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Pixar has added another writer into the fold, at least temporarily, by welcoming Marti Noxon (Buffy). Senior development executive Mary Coleman announced the addition of Noxon to an unspecified project during the Austin Film Festival. Pixar is known for keeping their creative community close-knit, so any new blood comes as a welcome surprise. Especially considering Noxon’s prior experience, having also written for television shows such as Mad Men and Glee, plus feature treatment work for I Am Number Four and Fright Night. Noxon’s producer creds are even more extensive. Hit the jump for more, including what Noxon might be working on.
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Disney has just sent out a press release announcing release dates and changes for their upcoming slate of films. The most notable announcement is that Edgar Wright‘s Ant-Man finally has a release date. The little-big-superhero is due to hit theaters on November 6, 2015. Since this will be the first Marvel movie to follow The Avengers 2 (which opens May 1, 2015), I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Hank Pym pop up in Joss Whedon‘s film.
Here’s the rest of the list:
- Iron Man 3 will now be available in 3D – previously announced 5/3/13 wide playdate is unchanged (Marvel)
- Phineas and Ferb moves to “2014 Undated Wide” (from 7/28/13 wide)
- Thor: The Dark World is final title of previous “Thor 2” and will now be available in 3D – previously announced 11/8/13 wide playdate is unchanged (Marvel)
- Bears is now dated on 4/18/14 wide (Disneynature)
- Guardians of the Galaxy is final title of previous “Marvel Untitled” – previously announced 8/1/14 is unchanged (Marvel)
- DISNEY ANIMATION UNTITLED is now dated on 11/7/14 wide
- PIXAR ANIMATION UNTITLED is now dated on Wed 11/25/15 wide
More Toy Story is headed to the small screen. Though most figured that Toy Story 3 would be the last time we saw Pixar’s loveable band of toy characters in their own story, the studio decided to let Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang live on in short form. The first Toy Story short, the very funny Hawaiian Vacation, debuted with Cars 2, and the studio has continued the trend with two further shorts, Small Fry and Partysaurus Rex.
Earlier this summer we got wind that Pixar was planning two 22-mintute Toy Story TV specials to debut in 2013 and 2014, and now we have a tantalizing title for the first installment: Toy Story of Terror. Hit the jump for more.
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by Jason Barr Posted: September 15th, 2012 at 2:06 pm
In the spirit of TIFF 2012 winding down this weekend, I’m interested in hearing what some of our readers most anticipated pics coming out of the festival are. For me, I was already psyched for films such as Looper, Cloud Atlas, and The Master, but early buzz has also peaked my interest in The Place Beyond the Pines, End of Watch, Spring Breakers, Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp, Dredd 3D, and At Any Price among others. What about you? Where there films that showed up on your radar while following the festival? What about a film you were looking forward to that you were disappointed didn’t fare quite as well as you had hoped (for me, this was Passion)? Let us know in the comments and be sure to check out this week’s fifth spot for a link that can help you get caught up on all of our TIFF 2012 coverage.
In addition to that fifth spot, also on the docket for this week’s Top 5 is a slew of video interviews for Paul W. S. Anderson‘s Resident Evil: Retribution, the first full trailer for Steven Spielberg‘s Lincoln, James Cameron talking the future of Avatar and what his take on Jurassic Park would have been like, and Steve’s video interviews with some of the major names behind Finding Nemo 3D. Brief recaps and links to each lie after the jump.
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Opening this weekend is Pixar’s Finding Nemo 3D. Unlike some post-converted movies that are released as a cash grab, Finding Nemo 3D is absolutely worth seeing again, especially in 3D. When the movie was first released almost ten years ago, the gorgeous ocean-set pic looked beautiful and the animation was stunning. However, when Pixar converted the film, they also re-rendered it (without changing anything) and it’s now even more vivid with higher resolution. Finding Nemo has never looked this good and the 3D actually helps tell the story.
Recently, Pixar held a press day for the re-release at The California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. While there I was able to speak with Stereoscopic Supervisor Bob Whitehill and the Director of 3D Production Josh Hollander. We talked about the collaboration process with directors when converting films to 3D, the technical challenges of turning older Pixar movies into a 3D release, how technology has helped make 3D easier, and what fans can look forward to with the 3D release of Monsters Inc.. Finally, Whitehill and Hollander answer whether they have started to think about 3D re-releases for The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Hit the jump to watch.
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First Red-Band and Green-Band Trailers for WE’RE THE MILLERS Starring Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis and Emma Roberts, Plus the New Poster
17 High-Resolution Images from MAN OF STEEL
THE HANGOVER PART III Review
First Trailer for Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Directorial Debut DON JON Starring Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore
Final Trailer for MAN OF STEEL Features General Zod’s Ultimatum and a Mountain of Skulls