Disney and Marvel have announced that they will be scheduling two projects for the US summer of 2014, sending the Interwebs into a buzz about the potential titles.
The first of these will be released on May 16, two weeks after the already scheduled The Amazing Spider-man 2, and the second of these is slated for June 27, 2014. With rumours abounding of a Dr. Strange film and that Ant Man script that has been kicking about for years, Disney is no doubt keen to capitalise on their freshly acquired universe of Marvel characters.
Our money says that there is a fairly safe bet that at least one of these slots would be a perfect playing ground for a sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger or next year’s The Avengers. There’s also the potential for spin-offs from the latter, including a Hawkeye, Black Widow or Nick Fury film, or even another Hulk film, with stars Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson and Mark Ruffalo obvious leading characters.
This may be some mighty future forecasting, but with 2013 already covered, with Iron Man 3 on May 3 and Thor 2 slated for July 26, the summer 2014 schedule is looking for some new franchise goodness.
Disney also announced a mystery Pixar film for may 30, 2014 and an excited untitled Henry Selick film for October 4, 2013.
With Cars 2 topping the box office in the US, Disney/Pixar have wasted no time in delivering a new teaser for next year’s Brave, their first non-sequel since 2009’s Up. In Brave, Scottish princess Merida (Kelly McDonald) defies her parents by persuing an interest in archery, but inadvertently jeopardizes her father’s kingdom in the process.
The new teaser, which played in the US in front of Cars 2 this weekend, only runs for just over a minute, and is much darker in tone than some of the other recent animated efforts on the market.
This comes hot on the heels of the teaser poster that was announced late last week.
Brave is due for release on 22 June 2012 in the US from Disney. No Australian release date has been set.
It might be a marginal improvement over the lacklustre first installment, but it is a far cry from Pixar’s best. To be the least of Pixar is still often the best in animation, but while the visuals soar in this sequel, the soul remains on the tracks.
With 26 Academy Awards under their belt since their 1988 short Tin Toy, including 6 out of the 10 possible Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature to date, animation powerhouse Pixar quickly rivalled Disney as the makers of the finest animation in the world. Indeed, when The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar for $7.4 billion in 2006, the same year that Cars was released, it was an expensive bargain for the House of Mouse. With a string of hits in the years since the acquisition, including WALL-E, Up and Toy Story 3, it seemed that Pixar could do no wrong, producing one magical piece of art after the other. With Pixar founder John Lasseter returning to the director’s chair for the first time since the money-spinning Cars, it seems that run may have come to an end.
When Francesco Bernoulli (voiced by John Turturro) challenges racecar Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson), the latter heads off on a world trip with his best friend and tow-truck Mater (Larry the Cable Guy). While they travel the world to Japan, France, Italy and the UK, Mater inadvertently falls into a super secret spy plot in which British agents Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) and Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer) attempt to take down the big bad threatening to undermine clean fuel efforts around the world.
Despite being one of the most successful merchandising franchises in Pixar history, the original Cars was a critical failure due to a number of inherent flaws. Very much the pet vanity project of the car-obsessed Lasseter, it failed to heed the formula of the previous Pixar successes. Pixar have always been good at taking us into the hidden worlds that lurk just beneath the human ones, from what happens when we aren’t around to play with our toys (Toy Story) to the impact of human intervention on life beneath the sea (Finding Nemo). Cars removed humans from the story entirely, and by extension removed much of the connection we humans have with any of the characters during its bloated running time. The suspension of disbelief required to buy into a world run by cars (they don’t have thumbs, people!) is easy enough for a child, who will undoubtedly remain the core audience for animated films, but Pixar has always been good at finding the right balance between kiddie-oriented and adult fare, ensure that everybody in the audience goes home with a smile on their face. Yet the intention with Cars 2 seems to be nothing more than a giant, and often mean-spirited, advertisement for the toys that are on screen in glorious 3D.
If ever there was a franchise in need of direction, it’s Cars. Shifting gears from the Pixar Buddy Comedy™ to the boys-own-adventure of the spy genre is an attempt at appealing to a wide audience. Cars 2 misses the mark widely, and makes its first error in putting Larry the Cable Guy’s Mater as the lead, ensuring that the humour levels never get beyond the base. There is a certain amount of fun to be had in travelling the world of Cars, and the sometimes amusing takes on ‘Cars-ified’ versions of London (complete with Big Bentley) and in particular the very kawaii Tokyo, the depictions of those countries seem to be stuck in the past. Really, Pixar: jokes about electronic Japanese toilets? Were it not for the often stunning animation, with every chassis gleaming and water and light bouncing ultra-realistically off the hubcaps of the cast, audiences would be forgiven for thinking this was made two decades ago. More than this, Cars 2 is often quite violent for younger audiences, with guns blazing in the opening sequence, and the phrase “kill him” seeming a little bit too much for the kids. While the globe-trotting approach certainly overcomes the sheer boredom of watching cars talk to each other in backwater America, Cars 2 misses the heart of other Pixar films and feels hollow as a result.
Following the sublime ending of Toy Story 3, audiences around the world wept (repeatedly) at the departure of Woody, Buzz and the gang, knowing that all good things must eventually come to and end. Yet it seems that neither Pixar nor audiences are willing to let everyone’s favourite mismatched duo go just yet, as Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation makes its debut with the release of Cars 2 around the world.
Set immediately after the events of Toy Story 3, the toys are all living in Bonnie’s Room and are fairly content with their new life. New couple Barbie (Jodie Benson, The Little Mermaid) and Ken (Michael Keaton, The Other Guys) are ready for a trip to Hawaii where Ken plans to kiss Barbie for the first time, but they stow away in the wrong bag and are stuck in the room. Led by Woody (Tom Hanks, Larry Crowne) and Buzz (Tim Allen, Toy Story 3), the rest of the toys decide to make the room and its surrounds as much like Hawaii as possible and fulfill Barbie and Ken’s dreams.
While it could be argued that the original Toy Story wasn’t in need of a sequel, the sublime experiences of Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 have left audiences the world over with the warm and fuzzies. The third entry in the series was very much about letting go and accepting the mortal coil, making the two sequels not only relevant but absolutely necessary in completing the saga of a cowboy named Woody and a spaceman named Buzz. Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation makes no attempt to reopen the saga, and is instead a short vignette centred on some of the new characters that the last film gave us. Some may think that this is pure merchandising, and the Toy Story Toons moniker might suggest more entries in the series are on the way, there is nothing but pure joy to be found in this short. Like revisiting old friends, director Gary Rydstrom (the Lifted short and the English dub of Tales from Earthsea) and his co-writers Jason Katz (Toy Story 3), Christian Roman (Fillmore, The Simpsons) and Erik Benson fundamentally understand what it is why love about them, and construct a familiar yet original world as we, like Andy at the conclusion of the third film, get to pull out the toys and play with them one more time.
[stextbox id=”custom” caption=”The Reel Bits”]A departure from Pixar’s wholly original shorts, it is virtually impossible to say a bad word about anything with the Toy Story name attached. Thankfully, Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation in no way alters this fact.[/stextbox]
Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation is playing with Cars 2, released in Australia on 23 June 2011 by Disney.
Ka-chow! Cars 2 is in Australia cinemas today, complete with a brand new Toy Story short film called Hawaiian Vacation. To get us in the mood, Disney has provided us with a short featurette on how the filmmakers gave the picture an international flavour.
When star racecar Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) and the incomparable tow truck Mater (voice of Larry the Cable Guy) head overseas to compete in the first-ever World Grand Prix, Mater gets caught up in an intriguing adventure of his own: international espionage.
John Lasseter and the team introduce us to London’s own Big Bentley, along with ‘Carsifying’ world famous cities such as Paris and Tokyo.
For the last few years, Disney/Pixar have been including local voice talent in each of their productions. In Chicken Little, for example, actor Mark Mitchell replaced Garry Marshall as the voice of Buck Cluck. For Cars 2, they have gone a little bit further but including not only the voice, but an Australian decal-heavy character based on V8 Supercar driver Mark “Frosty” Winterbottom.
Star racecar Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) and the incomparable tow truck Mater (voice of Larry the Cable Guy) take their friendship to exciting new places in “Cars 2” when they head overseas to compete in the first-ever World Grand Prix to determine the world’s fastest car. But the road to the championship is filled with plenty of potholes, detours and hilarious surprises when Mater gets caught up in an intriguing adventure of his own: international espionage.
The video below gives us a sneak peek of the character, along with a clip from the film. Cars 2 in cinemas nationally on 23 June 2011 from Walt Disney Studios Australia and New Zealand.
Don’t forget that you can also win tickets to see Cars 2 when it hits Australian cinemas next week.
With Cars 2 due out in cinemas at the end of the month, the Disney/Pixar machine is in top-flight marketing mode for the sequel to 2006 animated film. So it was with some surprise that the glimpse of the next original animation, the Scottish-themed Brave, due out in June 2012.
Total Film has posted this image of Merida (voiced by Kelly MacDonald), the flame-haired archer who inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric old Wise Woman (voice of Julie Walters) for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to discover the meaning of true bravery in order to undo a beastly curse before it’s too late.
(Click to enlarge)
It’s interesting to compare this with the original sketch art that came out a few months ago. More CG, not doubt, but it seems to be very close to the original vision, much as Tangled resembled its painted origins. There are higher-res versions of these as well, and all you have to do is click on them.
Here’s some the official press stuff:
Since ancient times, stories of epic battles and mystical legends have been passed through the generations across the rugged and mysterious Highlands of Scotland. In “Brave,” a new tale joins the lore when the courageous Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald) confronts tradition, destiny and the fiercest of beasts.
Merida is a skilled archer and impetuous daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson). Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the uproarious lords of the land: massive Lord MacGuffin (voice of Kevin McKidd), surly Lord Macintosh (voice of Craig Ferguson) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (voice of Robbie Coltrane).
Directed by Mark Andrews (“The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille,” “John Carter of Mars”) and Brenda Chapman (“The Lion King,” “Prince of Egypt”), and produced by Katherine Sarafian (“Lifted,” “The Incredibles”), “Brave” is a grand adventure full of heart, memorable characters and the signature Pixar humor enjoyed by audiences of all ages. The film takes aim at theaters on June 2012, and will be presented in Disney Digital 3D™ in select theaters.
Brave will be released in cinemas on 22 June 2012 from Disney. The Australian release date is yet to be confirmed.
When Finding Nemo hit cinemas in 2003, Pixar could do no wrong. Indeed, almost a decade later – with the possible exception of Cars – there has been nary a misstep in the cinematic canon. The winners of no less than three Best Animated Feature Oscars, their last two films (Up and Toy Story 3) have even been nominated for Best Picture of the year by the same Academy. While their debut Toy Story may have been the film that put the then-radical Pixar Studios on the map, and was the impetus for birth of a number of other rival computer-generated animation houses, it is arguable that Finding Nemo was the film that shot them into the stratosphere. Coming only second to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at the box office that year, and remains one of the highest grossing animated features of all time.
When clownfish Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks, The Simpsons Movie) loses his wife and most of his spawn to one of the ocean’s more sinister creatures, he becomes the overprotective father his sole surviving son Nemo (Alexander Gould). After reluctantly letting Nemo attend school, tragedy strikes when Nemo is snatched by a group of human divers. Frantic, Marlin swims out into open waters in search of his boy. Teaming up with forgetful but optimistic blue reef fish Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres), Marlin must face sharks, jellyfish and other ocean dangers in the quest to find Nemo.
Regardless of the increasingly outlandish settings of Pixar’s films, more recently taking us into space and away on a balloon-powered house, the attraction of the films have always been their emotional core. Just as the Toy Story films were about dealing with mortality and outliving one’s usefulness, Finding Nemo deals with the very human issue of dealing with children growing up and knowing when to let go. Marlin may be the quintessential overreacting parent, but whether we are parents or not, we can completely relate to the pain and angst this orange clownfish feels. Pixar have an incredible ability to make audiences cry within the first ten minutes of a film, most notably in Up and Toy Story 3. The opening scenes of Finding Nemo are devastating, but are also fundamental in helping us identify with Marlin’s pain and providing a sense of urgency and immediacy to his quest, which begins not too long after the initial tragedy. Part of the reason Pixar is still spoken of in revered tones is not simply because of the quality of their animation, which is sublime, but because their ability to evoke feeling in everything from fish to robots falling in love is genuine and heartfelt.
Despite eight years having passed since Nemo first went missing, a relative century in animation turns, Finding Nemo is as fresh as the day it was released. It is by no means a major departure from Pixar’s earlier (or subsequent) works, essentially sticking to the same mismatched buddy comedy formula that has worked so well in Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Up, Cars, Ratatouille and to a lesser extent, WALL-E. Once again, this reliance on formula has worked for the studio and there was no reason they should depart from it: they have become very good at showing us a secret world unbeknownst to humans. It also provides much of the accessible comedy for both kids and adults: the little ones may laugh at the sheer ditziness of Ellen’s Dory or surfer dude Crush the turtle, while adults will find much to like about a group of vegetarian sharks (voiced by Australia’s own Barry Humphries, Eric Bana and Bruce Spence). Australians are actually depicted as a functioning nation of adults as well, with genuine Aussie voice Bill Hunter as a dentist and Geoffrey Rush as Nigel the pelican. Non-Australian voices, including Willem Dafoe, give additional weight to the film.
Finding Nemo will long remain one of Pixar’s classics, with a timeless quality that will ensure it finds a new audience every generation. Having been the better part of a decade since the film was released, it is time for a whole new audience to discover the wonders of the magical world beneath the ocean.
Finding Nemo screens for FREE as part of the Australian Film Festival next weekend at Coogee Beach in Sydney on Saturday 5 March 2011. It is also available on DVD globally. There is still no word on the Blu-ray release.
