Toy Story 4 confirmed for 2017

Disney CEO, Bob Iger, confirmed today via an investor call today that Disney and Pixar will release a fourth Toy Story film in 2017. John Lasseter will return to direct as will Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. And, naturally, the film will be released in 3D.

This isn't necessarily unexpected as Toy Story 3 was dynamite and kickstarted the franchise a bit. We have had Toy Story short films since Toy Story 3 and a fourth film has been rumored for a year or two already.
I personally find this somewhat disappointing because I think Pixar is turning into sequel territory and it's unfortunate. We have Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur coming up, but we also have Finding Dory and announced sequels for The Incredibles as well as a third Cars film. I don't like it. Pixar is best with original stories.

Pixar announces Cars 3 and Incredibles 2

Just a day after announcing the intent to re-release The Incredibles and Ratatouille in 3D, Pixar has now announced they are indeed working on a third installment of Cars and a sequel to The Incredibles.

Let this be a confirmation that critics don't control the Pixar team. After overwhelming fan and professional disappointment, and some hate, for Cars 2 the animation mogul is still pushing forward with the Cars franchise because it is profitable. Despite the negativity, Cars 2 netted $560 million worldwide at the box office. Not to mention the ridiculously successful Cars Land opening at Disneyland in Anaheim in 2012.
As far as The Incredibles goes, viewers and critics have been calling for a sequel pretty much since the movie was released back in 2004. The characters remain popular to this day and in addition to the planned 3D re-release, a sequel does make sense.

Personally, I was never a fan of either Cars or The Incredibles so I don't really have much to say other than nothing but sequels for Pixar once again.

Toy Story of Terror premiere date set

The new Disney/Pixar short, Toy Story of Terror, will premiere on ABC this fall on October 16th at 8pm ET.

Returning voice talents for the short include Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Timothy Dalton, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, and Kristen Schaal. Joining the cast is Carl Weathers who will voice Combat Carl and Combat Carl Jr.

The basic synopsis for Toy Story of Terror:

“What starts out as a fun road trip for the Toy Story gang takes an unexpected turn for the worse when the trip detours to a roadside motel. After one of the toys goes missing, the others find themselves caught up in a mysterious sequence of events that must be solved before they all suffer the same fate in this Toy Story OF TERROR!”

Pixar vows to scale back on sequels

Pixar gained the reputation as the animation studio that could do no wrong. It seemed that whatever Pixar touched did well and that they would never fail. They have won and been nominated for Oscars, Golden Globes, Annie Awards, Satellite Awards, Grammys, etc.. On top of the world, right? But then Cars 2 happened.

Ever since Cars 2 it seems that Pixar has been drowning a bit and the biggest part is their propensity toward sequels. Cars 2 is by far the least successful and worst reviewed Pixar film to date and the follow-up, Brave, did better but it wasn't nearly at par with Pixar standards. At least not for the critics. Their solution? Make the next release a prequel to Monsters, Inc.
Prior to Toy Story 3, Pixar had only released one sequel (Toy Story 2) in 10 films. In the past four Pixar films released only one has been an original story (Brave) and they have noticed a significant decline in critic reviews and viewer satisfaction. To add onto this, Pixar recently announced their next film in development is yet another sequel. This time it will be the sequel to 2003's Finding Nemo promptly titled Finding Dory which is set to hit theaters in 2015. The rumors are still flying high for a Toy Story 4 and The Incredibles 2, as well.
Pixar's formula has been to try and release two films each year. They haven't stuck too well with the plan seeing that Brave was the only 2012 release and Monsters University is the only 2013 release. They're trying to turn it around, along with making more original stories, but it doesn't look like the two films per year will fully come back until 2015. The only film Pixar has slated for 2014 is The Good Dinosaur. For 2015 we have Finding Dory and Inside Out along with more untitled Pixar projects scheduled all the way through June 2018.

Pixar chief (and President of Walt Disney Animation) Ed Catmull mentioned these concerns recently while speaking with Buzzfeed:

“For artistic reasons … it’s really important that we do an original film a year. Every once in a while, we get a film where we want or people want to see something continuing in that world — which is the rationale behind the sequel. They want those characters, which means we were successful with them. But if you keep doing that, then you aren’t doing original films.”

If the plan for more original films indeed sticks, I wouldn't expect another sequel or prequel until the second 2017 release or the 2018 release. At least I hope not.
To add onto this whole topic, I think Pixar's issue is also part of the fact that they went nuts with 3D re-releases. Disney did in general. We had re-releases of Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo. In addition to the Pixar re-releases we also had The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast. We were supposed to have The Little Mermaid 3D this September, but Disney scrapped it after the box office failures of Monsters, Inc. 3D and Finding Nemo 3D. Add onto that the fact that just about every Disney and/or Pixar film is released in 3D regardless. Bottom line: This is a problem.

I hope Pixar can turn this around because it is extremely obvious what the problem is. The saddest part is that it is ridiculously easy to turn around.

Disney sets Planes for 2013 release

The upcoming Disney film Planes, a spin-off from Cars, is set for theatrical release on August 9, 2013. It was originally reported to be a Direct-to-DVD movie but John Lasseter is so fond of it, apparently, that he wants it to be theatrical.

I personally think Planes looks dumb as far as concept goes. The photo they released looks just like Cars only with an airplane. I wasn't a huge fan of Cars so I will probably be skipping Planes unless a trailer comes out that seriously catches my attention.

Wreck-It Ralph - Review

Wreck-It Ralph follows Ralph, the bad guy in a 30-year old arcade game who strives to be accepted and to finally be classified as a "good guy." As Ralph jumps between different arcade games he encounters unlikely allies, challenges, and new friends who help him find who he wants to be.


I was excited for Wreck-It Ralph since I first saw a trailer back in May or June. I thought the concept looked awesome and, being quite the nerdy type, I thought it would definitely be right up my alley. I must say that I was not wrong. This was a great movie. The story was great, the animation was fantastic, and it was really funny. It had aspects that were for both adults and children and it even could lure non-gamers and give them something to enjoy.

I liked how each game's generation showed. Fix-It Felix Jr., the game where Ralph is the "wreck-it guy," was a lot older and one of the first arcade games around. The characters were jumpy and more old fashioned. As you were taking through the rest of the arcade you see how the newer games have smoother transitions and graphics and are better overall. That was an awesome touch. I also liked how the abandoned games and characters like Q*bert are technically abandoned in the real gaming world. That was an old Atari game that seemed to die along with the system and didn't quite keep up with newer games or classic games, like Pac-Man, that have stood the test of time.
I also loved how the arcade was set up. The Game Central Station was basically the main surge protector with all of the consoles plugged into it. The characters move between games via power cords after the arcade is closed. It gave a similar feel that Toy Story gave; when you aren't using your toys then what are they doing? This time it was the question of, when you aren't playing your video games what are they doing?

I also must mention the awesome references to video games. We had references to Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros., Frogger, Pac-Man, Street Fighter, Doom, Tomb Raider, and last but not least... Metal Gear Solid. When Ralph was looking through the lost and found bin and the classic " ! " popped up with the sound I just started clapping. I loved it! That was definitely for the big kids, like myself, who went to see this movie.


But gamer geek aside, I thought Wreck-It Ralph had a fantastic message for not just the children but for everyone. You might have a label pinned on you and even though it could be true that doesn't mean you have to let it destroy who you are and make you unhappy. It was a great story about Ralph accepting who he is as a labeled "bad guy" but also realizing that doesn't mean he is incapable of doing good and making friends. I thought it was fantastic. The clip in the trailers pretty much says it all, "just because you're bad guy doesn't mean you're 'bad guy'."

I definitely recommend this one. Take the kids with you or even see it with other adults. My boyfriend and I saw it together and had a blast. It's just a lot of fun.


I also want to give a shout about the opening short film called Paperman. It is a black and white silent animated short by Walt Disney Animation. It basically tells the story of a man and woman who cross paths at a train station. He encounters her in an adjacent building downtown and tries to get her attention by making paper airplanes but it doesn't work. The airplanes then get minds of their own and lead the two together again where they finally speak to each other. It was very cute and for having no dialogue it did a great job of telling the story. My kind of short, for sure.

Brave - Review

The newest Disney/Pixar film Brave follows Princess Merida on her quest for independence but she runs into a bump in the road while trying to change her fate after her parents attempt to arrange her marriage.


I went into Brave excited but, like many others, I was a bit confused on exactly what the story was about. I gathered from the trailers that Merida wanted to change her fate because she was set to be betrothed and was not happy about it but that was about it. Everything else I was a bit in the dark about. However, I think that was the best way to go into it. I really enjoyed this one and I think it definitely was Pixar's redemption from Cars 2. The voices were great, the basic plot was good, and the animation was fantastic. I seriously think visually it was Pixar's best film to date. Merida's hair alone was extremely impressive. I also think Pixar has come a long way with their animation of humans. The facial expressions on those animated characters was great. I was really blown away.

My main problem, and I have heard others say the same thing, is it felt a bit rushed. The film is about 90-100 minutes long and I think they just tried to fit too much in that time span. Certain parts of the film had the potential to be great but they felt a little cut short due to time restraint.

I will now discuss some spoilers to reveal my other issue with the film, so click the jump to see what it is.

Pixar interested in doing a Marvel movie?

Apparently so... if the opportunity presented itself.

John Lasseter, one of the founding members of Pixar, said in a recent junket while promoting the upcoming Disney/Pixar film Brave that if a filmmaker presented an idea related to the Marvel universe to Pixar that he would be open to it. With that said, he also emphasized that Pixar prides themselves on original filmmaking.

"Well, I can’t say anything about that because Marvel just got—[they’ve] been a couple years as part of the Disney company, we’ve been six years as part of the Disney company.  And at Pixar, we stay focused on making original films.  Even our sequels are kind of created internally and we come up with ideas [on our own].  I’m also leading the Walt Disney Animation Studio and all of that.  These studios are filmmaker driven studios, so if a filmmaker comes to me and says, ‘Hey, I wanna do this,’ then I would be really open to it."

I think this is kind of a cool idea because I love Pixar, but a lot of the main Marvel characters have been claimed already. Depending on the character I think it could be a cool idea to pair up Marvel and Pixar. It just has to have the right superhero.