Disney has staked its claim in the first two filmgoing seasons of 2012, with 3D tentpoles now set to anchor spring and summer.  When Tim Burton first revealed he would adapt his 1984 live-action short Frankenweenie --- in which a man resurrects his dog from the dead --- into a 3D stop-motion animation feature film, the director had a 2011 release in mind.  However, Disney has officially slated Frankenweenie for release on March 9, 2012.

Fellow 3D flick John Carter of Mars will hit theaters just three months later on June 8, 2012.  Pixar's own Andrew Stanton (WALL·E) is the writer/director behind this adaptation of the first book in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “Barsoom Series,” set on "the wounded planet of Mars, a world inhabited by warrior tribes and exotic desert beings."  Talor Kitsch, Willem Dafoe, Bryan Cranston, and Lynn Collins star.