The Good Dinosaur drops entire voice cast

The voice cast for Pixar's The Good Dinosaur was looking pretty awesome. That is until practically the entire voice cast was dropped and replaced.

The cast which previously included Reese Witherspoon, Bill Hader, John Lithgow, Neil Patrick Harris, Judy Greer, Lucas Leff, and Frances McDormand has been completely dropped with the exception of McDormand. The new voice cast is as follows:




Raymond Ochoa as Arlo, the Apatosaurus

Jeffrey Wright as Poppa, Arlo's father

Steve Zahn as Thunderclap, the Pterodactyl

AJ Buckley as Nash, a T-Rex

Anna Paquin as Ramsey, a T-Rex

Sam Elliott as Butch, a T-Rex

Frances McDormand as Momma, Arlo's mother

Marcus Scribner as Buck, Arlo's brother

Jack Bright as Spot, Arlo's human friend





This marks a first time that Pixar has completed a film and recorded all of the dialogue and then re-recorded with a brand new cast. This would also make sense as to why the teaser trailer had absolutely no dialogue in it. This also came after Pixar all but scrapped The Good Dinosaur entirely. We were originally supposed to get the movie last year, but when the studio delayed it to revamp the entire story it resulted in no 2014 Pixar release and two releases for 2015.
I was really excited for The Good Dinosaur until the shit hit the fan... and until seeing the teaser. To me, it looks very subpar for Pixar. The dinosaurs look overly cartoonish and I think dropping the voice cast for, in my opinion, bad voices is a mistake.

Toy Story 4 not a continuation of the Toy Story trilogy

Pixar Studio president Jim Morris dropped a bomb on everyone regarding the announced fourth installment of the Toy Story franchise. Morris stated that rather than making it a continuation of the existing trilogy, Toy Story 4 is being pitched as a romantic comedy.

"The third movie ended in a beautiful way and completed a trilogy. I think this movie is not part of this trilogy. It is a separate story, which in turn I do not know if will be continued. Never begin a project with that in mind. It is not a continuation of the end of the story of Toy Story 3. Temporarily it is, but it will be a love story. It will be a romantic comedy. It will not put much focus on the interaction between the characters and children. I think it will be a very good movie."

So far all we really know about this Toy Story 4 project is it's aimed for release in 2017. In a way, I understand them not wanting to continue the story because Toy Story 3 was truly a beautiful ending. It wrapped up Andy very nicely and it showed how these toys really were a family no matter what happens. But with that said, I don't understand why they have to make another full movie. They've been successful with the short films and TV specials so I would continue on with that. But that's why I don't work at Pixar.

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.

Frozen makes box office history

It's no secret that Disney it the jackpot with Frozen, both fan-wise and financially. The Oscar-winning animated feature has now marked another milestone becoming the highest grossing animated film worldwide.

Frozen has surpassed Pixar's Toy Story 3 with a total of $1.07 billion at the box office. That not only puts it in first in the record books, but it puts Walt Disney Animation on top of Pixar for the first time. It also marks the first animated feature released by Walt Disney Animation to reach $1 billion. The runner up, Tangled, only produced $591 million worldwide. The film also managed to become the biggest digital seller of all time and sold 3.2 million Blu-Ray/DVD copies in the first day. That is the best in over a decade.
That doesn't even include how well the soundtrack is doing. The original soundtrack, composed by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, has sold 1.6 million copies with 5 million individual tracks. The video for "Let It Go" has also reached over 160 million views on YouTube, sold over 2.6 million copies, and managed to take home the Oscar for Best Original Song.

It's a no brainer that Disney will bank on this franchise. There is an average of a 2-3 hour wait to meet Anna and Elsa at Disneyland and there are rumors of both a sequel and a Frozen ride in the Disney parks. With this movie continuing to make money, I don't think we will see the end of Frozen for quite sometime. They will push it until it reaches direct-to-DVD status.

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.

Pixar developing Incredibles 3D re-release

Seeing that Pixar has no 2014 release thanks to a delay of The Good Dinosaur, it seems that they have nothing better to do than plan more 3D re-releases. We have already had re-releases of Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo, and Monsters Inc. Next up on the agenda is none other than the 2004 Oscar-winning feature The Incredibles. Also on the slate is a planned rendering of a less popular Pixar film, Ratatouille.
Josh Hollander, Pixar Director of 3D Production, spoke at the 3D Creative Summit in London about these upcoming projects. Regarding The Incredibles, Hollander said, "It’s been an interesting challenge to work on technology because - while the film was released 10 years ago - the technology is even older as it took four years to make." Apparently there is already a version of Ratatouille finished and they are brainstorming release strategies for it.

This is sort of surprising as Disney seemed to scrap the 3D re-releases after disappointing box office numbers for Beauty and the Beast. We were supposed to get the 3D re-release of The Little Mermaid in September, but it was canceled or indefinitely delayed. However you want to take that one.
The re-releases of Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo weren't that successful at the box office either. Not to mention many have been calling for an Incredibles sequel, not just a 3D re-release.

There is no telling how fast these will hit theaters, but if everything stays the same as it is now we won't see a Pixar film until Inside Out is released on June 19, 2015.

19 animated features submitted for Oscar nominations

A total of 19 films have been submitted to the powers that be to be considered for the Academy Awards in 2014. The nominees will consist of any of these:

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
The Croods
 Despicable Me 2
 Epic
 Ernest and Celestine
 The Fake
 Free Birds
 Frozen
 Khumba
 The Legend of Sarila
 A Letter to Momo
 Monsters University
 O Apóstolo
 Planes
 Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie – Rebellion
 Rio: 2096 A Story of Love and Fury
 The Smurfs 2
 Turbo
 The Wind Rises

 My guesses out of this list are Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, Despicable Me 2, Frozen, Monsters University, and Turbo. A wildcard could be Planes. 

First clip from Toy Story of Terror emerges

Toy Story of Terror doesn't premiere until next week, but we now have the first clip from the new Halloween short. The short finds the Toy Story group with Bonnie as she takes them along on a road trip. After the car breaks down, they check into a spooky motel and one of the toys goes missing.

Toy Story of Terror premieres on ABC on October 16th.

Disney release date shifts include The Good Dinosaur and Finding Dory

Due to the director issues Disney/Pixar's The Good Dinosaur experienced, they have chosen to shift the release date. It is now delayed over a year past the original date of May 30, 2014 to November 25, 2015. This now makes 2014 the first year since 2005 without a Pixar film.
In addition to this shift, Finding Dory has now been delayed from November 25, 2015 to June 17, 2016. This now makes the next Pixar release to be Inside Out which is slated, as of right now, for June 19, 2015.
Disney has also shifted Maleficent to the original Good Dinosaur date of May 30, 2014 instead of June 2, 2014. Now it won't have to compete with Transformers 4: Age of Extinction.


So to sum this all up... this really sucks. I do not want to wait 3 years for Finding Dory.

Release date confirmed for Star Wars: Episode VII

No official title yet, but we did get something big out of D23 this weekend. We learned the rumor of a summer 2015 release date for Star Wars: Episode VII is indeed true. Previously the time frame was "planned for 2015."

Now... with this we still don't have an exact date. A summer release date gives us a window from June to September. Many are speculating that the release will be right after The Avengers: Age of Ultron which is set for May 1, 2015. The reasoning being that all six previous Star Wars films have been released in May.
Confirming Star Wars for Disney's ridiculously crowded 2015 schedule definitely puts it in a pigeonhole for timing. I highly doubt it will join the July schedule which already contains Pirates of the Caribbean 5 and Independence Day 2. If it doesn't share May with The Avengers, it is possible it could share June with the Disney/Pixar flick Inside Out. In the fall we have Ant-Man and Finding Dory, but both are hitting theaters after summer is technically over. In other words, Disney basically owns 2015.
We also have some Disney projects without official release dates that could be in 2015. These include, but are not limited to, Cinderella and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

My guess will be a late May release date to keep the tradition. Putting it in the later half of the month allows The Avengers to fizzle out a bit and open up some screens for Star Wars to come blazing in. If Disney doesn't pair anything with Inside Out in June, that allows even more time for Star Wars to fizzle before Pirates of the Caribbean comes on July 10th.

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!”

D23 Recap: Pixar presents The Good Dinosaur, Inside Out, and Finding Dory

The big Disney convention, D23, kicked off this weekend and we had some presentations from Pixar.

First of all, we got confirmation of who will be voicing Dory's parents in Finding Dory. Those special people will be Eugene Levy and Diane Keaton. We also got a key plot detail explaining the film's purpose is following Dory on her quest to find her parents. To be exact:

"The all-new big-screen adventure dives into theaters Nov. 25, 2015, taking moviegoers back to the extraordinary underwater world from the original film. Finding Dory reunites the friendly-but-forgetful blue tang fish with her loved ones, and everyone learns a few things about the true meaning of family along the way."

Also on board is Ty Burrell (Modern Family) who will voice a young beluga whale. We also got news that the original planned ending for Finding Dory has been changed due to controversy around a recent SeaWorld documentary titled Blackfish. The documentary focuses on the harsh environments on habitat-living aquatic animals. The ending of the Pixar flick apparently ended in a marine park, so now the fish will have the option to leave the park if they choose to do so.
Finding Dory is set to join the big party on November 25, 2015.

Aside from Finding Dory, we got some news on another upcoming film called The Good Dinosaur. The film introduces us to a group of dinosaurs who didn't die from the asteroid and live in harmony with humans. The voice cast includes Neil Patrick Harris, Bill Hader, Judy Greer, Lucas Neff, John Lithgow, and Frances McDormand. The Good Dinosaur opens next year on May 30, 2014.

 
In addition, we received news on another Pixar film called Inside Out. It tells the story within an 11-year old girl's mind as she is forced to move to San Francisco. It is directed by Peter Docter who also directed Up. Voices lined up for this one are Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Mindy Kaling, Phyllis Smith, and Lewis Black. Inside Out opens on June 19, 2015, just a few months before Finding Dory.

Welcome to the new format

See, I listen.

I have been working on this format for a while and I feel like it's finally to my liking. I kind of had enough of the complaints about the white font on black background (that isn't hard to read), so I think this is a little easier on the eyes. It's nothing flashy but I like it.

I also changed the name and the url, as you might have noticed, and if you didn't,,, well, I did! Enjoy the new movie blog, guys.

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.

Monsters University - Review

Mike Wazowski follows his dream of being a scarer all the way to Monsters University where he meets his future scare partner, James P. Sullivan.


When I first heard that Pixar was making a Monsters Inc. film I thought, like everyone else, that it was going to be a sequel and was really looking forward to it. When I discovered that it was a prequel about Mike and Sully going to college I have to admit that I was initially turned off and really disappointed. I had high hopes for where they could have taken these characters and it got stomped on. However, after seeing more previews and promotion I got kind of excited and decided to give Monsters University a chance and I have to say that I did like it. I thought it was really funny and they did a good job mixing in characters from the previous movie into the prequel along with adding some really fun new characters.
As far as animation goes, I don't think it was necessarily the best Pixar has done but it was still pretty impressive. The detail in the monsters surpassed certain aspects of the first, I thought. None of the main characters looked the same so that was refreshing. They took the time to create many different monsters.
The plot surprised me a bit in terms of the actual flow of the movie. I liked how this movie was more for Mike and not so much Sully. From the way the previews looked it seemed that Mike would take the backseat to Sully once again but that wasn't the case. It was Mike's story and Sully was more of a supporting character. It shows how the two actually became friends and that was great.
One thing I do have to reiterate is how funny this movie is. I think this is probably the funniest movie Pixar has done yet and I enjoyed it a lot. Charlie Day's character had be on the floor at one point and a lot of the college-age antics they gave the monsters was hilarious. Definitely one for the kiddos.


Overall I would recommend Monsters University to anyone at any age. It is funny and has the typical good moral story at the bottom of it. It wasn't better than Monsters Inc. but it wasn't by any means bad. Very enjoyable.

Toy Story of Terror will air this October

Disney/Pixar announced a new Toy Story short film along with a new image. The new 30-minute short titled Toy Story of Horror will air this October on ABC. It takes place during a road trip where Bonnie's car happens to break down and she and the toys stay in a spooky motel. One of the toys goes missing and the rest have to unravel a mystery before it's too late.
Executive producer Galyn Susman mentioned that the short will focus more on Jesse (Joan Cusack) but will feature other favorites including Mr. Pricklepants and Trixie from Toy Story 3. It also will show the relationship Bonnie has developed with her new toys (aka, Andy's toys).

One thought going around people's minds, including my own, is if this new television short will be a lead into a potential Toy Story 4 or character spin-off film. I think it's more plausible to continue Toy Story this way with various short films, but they surprised us with a third full-length movie. There is nothing stopping them from making a fourth.

Finding Dory to be released in 2015

The upcoming sequel to Finding Nemo has an official title and time frame. Disney/Pixar announced the sequel will be called Finding Dory and will take place one year after Finding Nemo. They also added the film will be released November 25, 2015. I also have no doubt this will be a 3D release.

This is one of Pixar's many sequels after Cars 2, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, and Monsters University. However, this will be after The Good Dinosaur so there will be some originality still to be had.

Wreck-It Ralph dominates Annie Awards

We knew people loved Wreck-It Ralph but I don't know if people anticipated it would practically demolish the competition at the 2013 Annie Awards. The Disney Animation film walked away with 5 awards (out of 10 nominations) including Best Animated Feature.

Best Animated Feature:
Wreck-It Ralph

Best Director:
Rich Moore - Wreck-It Ralph

Best Writing:
Phil Johnston & Jennifer Lee - Wreck-It Ralph

Best Storyboarding:
Johanne Matte - Rise of the Guardians

Best Voice Acting:
Alan Tudyk as King Candy - Wreck-It Ralph

Best Editing:
Nicholas A. Smith, Robert Graham Jones, and David Suther - Brave

Best Music:
Henry Jackman - Wreck-It Ralph

Best Character Animation:
Travis Knight - ParaNorman

The full list of winners can be seen on Gold Derby.

Disney signs multi-year deal with Netflix

Disney has officially signed a multi-year streaming deal with Netflix. The deal starts in 2016 and includes films theatrically released by the following production companies: Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Marvel, and Disnenature. It states that some films will be exclusively available via streaming and it also includes direct-to-DVD releases.
This also included a deal making previous Disney releases available via streaming including films that are "in the vault." I also would assume this includes Disney owned television which includes ABC and ABC Family shows.

21 films submitted for Best Animated Feature

The competition for the Best Animated Feature category at the 2013 Academy Awards just got a little more intense. A total of 21 animated films were submitted into the category.

The list of potentials:

Adventures in Zambezia 
Brave
Delhi Safari
Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax
Frankenweenie 
From Up on Poppy Hill 
Hey Krishna 
Hotel Transylvania
Ice Age Continental Drift
A Liar’s Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman 
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted 
The Mystical Laws 
The Painting 
ParaNorman 
The Pirates! Band of Misfits 
The Rabbi’s Cat 
Rise of the Guardians 
Secret of the Wings 
Walter & Tandoori’s Christmas 
Wreck-It Ralph 
Zarafa


In my opinion... my final nomination list would be this:

Brave
Frankenweenie 
ParaNorman
Wreck-It-Ralph
Rise of the Guardians

Granted, I have not seen Rise of the Guardians yet but from what I have observed from the trailers the animation alone deserves recognition. I foresee Brave winning it just because Disney/Pixar has dominated the Oscars for years so I don't see why this upcoming awards show would be any different. However, I think ParaNorman and Frankenweenie will give Pixar a run for their money this time around. Both of those films were incredible.

The 2013 Oscar nominations will be released on January 10th, 2013.