One of the biggest films of the year finally hits home video this week on Blu-ray.  Briefly:

• Beasts of the Southern Wild [Blu-ray] – $24.99 (38% off)
• Brazil (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] – $20.99 (58% off)
• Catch Me If You Can [Blu-ray]- $21.83 (5% off)
• The Dark Knight Rises (Blu-ray/DVD Combo+UltraViolet Digital Copy) – $17.99 (50% off)
• The Dark Knight Trilogy (Batman Begins / The Dark Knight / The Dark Knight Rises) [Blu-ray] – $27.96 (47% off)
• Eastbound & Down: The Complete Third Season [Blu-ray] – $19.99 (50% off)
• Finding Nemo (Five-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition: Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD + Digital Copy) – $27.99 (44% off)
• Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn [Blu-ray] – $16.99 (41% off)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season Two [Blu-ray] – $64.99 (50% off)
• Up (Five-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D/ Blu-ray/ DVD + Digital Copy) – $27.99 (44% off)
• V/H/S [Blu-ray] – $19.99 (33% off)

Hit the jump for all the details.

The theory that audiences would wait for the tentpole movies of July before opening their wallets went down in flames this weekend as two all-original movies (R-rated ones at that) delivered stellar openings. Ted and Magic Mike bested Brave by taking first and second place: nearly doubling their pre-weekend projections and giving box office watchers a lot more to consider than the imminent arrival of The Amazing Spider-Man.

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?

It’s a Pixar extravaganza!  We’ve got some exciting news to share regarding everyone’s favorite animation studio.  First up, a new clip from the excellent-looking Brave has gone online.  It skews towards the comedic side of the film, and I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that the triplets may or may not steal the show when the film hits theaters.  Additionally—and excitingly—Pixar will be re-releasing a few of their classics exclusively in AMC theaters this Memorial Day weekend.  Wall-E, Up, Ratatouille, and Toy Story 3 will return for a limited engagement from May 25 – 28th.  Moreover, tickets will run at the family friendly and affordable price of $6.

Each screening will be accompanied by a behind-the-scenes look at Brave, and Toy Story 3 and Up will be running in 3D (the 3D in the latter is gorgeous).  This is excellent news, and I’ll most definitely be taking advantage of the chance to see Andrew Stanton’s masterwork Wall-E on the big screen once more.  Hit the jump to watch the new Brave clip and to watch the trailers for the aforementioned Pixar films set for re-release.

It’s not too often you get to interview a living legend, but sitting across from Christopher Plummer in a hotel room in New York City a few weeks ago, I was smiling like a kid on Christmas.  That’s because before I understood what a movie was, I had already seen his work, as I grew up watching The Sound of Music with my family every holiday season.  And while most eighty year olds might slow down, Plummer has delivered some of his best work these past few years.  If you haven’t seen Mike Mills‘ Beginners, Michael Hoffman‘s The Last Station, Terry Gilliam‘s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus or Pixar’s Up (he voices Charles Muntz), I strongly suggest checking them out.  I’ll be shocked if Plummer doesn’t get nominated for an Oscar for Beginners.

The reason I got to speak with this great actor is for David Fincher‘s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Plummer plays Henrik Vanger, a wealthy old man who’s been haunted by the disappearance of his beloved niece for the past forty years.  As most of you know, Dragon Tattoo is the first in Stieg Larson’s Millennium trilogy and it centers on a disgraced journalist (Daniel Craig) who’s hired by Vanger to investigate the mysterious disappearance.  Rooney Mara plays Lisbeth Salander, a brilliant young hacker who teams up with Craig.  During the interview, Plummer talked about the last few years, acting in films and in the theater, working with Fincher, voicing Charles Muntz in Up, how he almost played Prospero in Michael Powell‘s unrealized adaptation of The Tempest, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to read or listen to the interview.

I’m not sure how aerodynamic it is, but the folks at Bangerter Homes have done a pretty cool thing and built a life-size replica of Carl and Ellie’s house from Pixar’s Up.  The builders got Disney’s OK before going ahead on the house and now the 2800 square foot replica can be yours for the surprisingly-reasonable price of $399,000.  Granted, you’ll have to move to Harriman, Utah, but assuming the house can fly (and if it can’t fly then what’s the point), you could just take it all the way to Paradise Falls.

Hit the jump to check out the house, which even includes details like the mural Ellie painted in the living room.

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.

After three weeks of rave reviews in selected cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Dallas and Phoenix, Win Win expanded to a host of new cities this weekend.  It paid off with $5,398 per theater, (in the top 5 averages over the past 3 days) and $1.22 million overall.  We’ve spread out our interviews with the film’s Oscar-nominated stars Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan and newcomer Alex Shaffer through the platform release because highly praised independent films which actually exceed that hype are rare and deserve all the extended support that sites like the one you’re reading can provide.

That brings us to our fourth installment: an interview with the film’s Oscar-nominated filmmaker Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent, The Visitor and Up).  For a writer, director and actor who is so meticulous about his work on both sides of the camera, he was surprisingly open about his process in all three disciplines.  Hit the jump for the interview’s audio and transcript, including a look inside Pixar, the latest on The Million Dollar Arm, how Patricia Clarkson one-upped him on The Station Agent and his memories of an indie film trailblazer.  Continued 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.

The first thing I need to say is I’m sorry to Bob Whitehill and Pixar/Disney.  While cleaning up my laptop this holiday weekend, I came across my Toy Story 3 folder and realized I never posted the video interview I did with Whitehill (Pixar’s 3D Stereoscopic Artist) while at Pixar earlier this year.  The video was in the media server, and I had written an intro, but for some reason it never got online.  Again, sorry.

But if you’re a fan of Pixar movies and how they get made, the interview with Whitehill is still worth checking out.  In fact, it might be better now, since most of you have seen Toy Story 3.  Anyway, as the guy who makes the 3D decisions on Pixar movies, Whitehill talked about how they picked their 3D moments in Toy Story 3, how the design of the films always starts on paper, explains a few secrets to look out for in Up, are they thinking about post converting older Pixar movies into 3D releases, and talks a bit about Cars 2 and Brave (which at the time was called The Bear and the Bow).  Hit the jump to watch:

After narrowly beating Megamind for first place on Friday, Unstoppable lost some momentum as it rolled through the weekend. The thriller placed second with an estimated $23.5 million while Dreamworks’ 3D animated Megamind enjoyed a second week at number one and a new estimated domestic gross of nearly $90 million.

The Simpsons has always used social commentary as a staple of its ongoing success, and the second episode (Loan-a-Lisa) of season 22 was no different. Instead of using any of the main characters to parody Pixar’s UP, they actually utilized Scratchy and his female companion from the recurring Itchy & Scratchy Show and gave it a new twist that is all Simpsons. Hit the jump for the video and a bit more detail.

I have never actually written a fan letter — I instead live vicariously through the correspondence of filmmakers I admire and their anonymous enthusiasts.  In October 2008, Pete Docter was best known as the director of Pixar’s 2001 effort Monsters Inc. and was hard at work on the soon-to-be Oscar-winner Up, but made time to scrawl a handwritten note in response to a fan.

Letters from animators are always the best, because they include little cartoons in the margins.  Docter’s note is no exception, in which he doodles himself alongside Monsters Inc. characters Mike, Sully, and Boo.  Check out the letter, including scans of the original, after the jump.

One of the best moments during last night’s Oscars was the intro to the Best Animated Feature category.  Instead of the normal presentation where you have the two presenters come out and say the five nominees and then someone wins, the telecast had Steve Carell and Cameron Diaz introduce the stars of the Best Animated Feature Category so they could say what being nominated means to them.  As you might imagine, the answers were very well done and it’s definitely worth checking out if you missed the broadcast last night.  Also, if you were a fan of either Fantastic Mr. Fox, Up, Coraline, The Princess and the Frog or The Secret of Kells, it’s a way to see new footage of your favorite characters.