Pixar and everything else - them's the breaks when it comes to judging computer-animated fare these days. Although Pixar has rightfully earned themselves the lead among studios, and by a significant margin, it's all too easy to then marginalize the performance of others.

DreamWorks has certainly raised their game beyond pure pop-culture recitation with the inventive and entertaining likes of Over the Hedge, Kung Fu Panda, and Monsters vs. Aliens (and Aardman or no, I'd even include the winning Flushed Away among their finer efforts). For every Open Season, Sony has given us a Monster House (okay, so that's just one-for-one at the moment). And every time that Fox bequeaths to unwilling audiences something like Space Chimps or Everyone's Hero, Blue Sky has nothing to do with it.

Fox/Blue Sky, however, is the precise pairing that gives us the visually engaging and moderately amusing outings like Robots, Horton Hears a Who!, and the Ice Age films, with the latest of which -- Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs -- falling right in line with that modest-yet-reliable tradition.

When Toy Story 3 was announced to the wider world thanks to that little teaser before Up, a lot of people groaned. I don't know of a single person who hates either of the Toy Story films, and I don't think it's too mushy to say that they hold a pretty special place in everybody's heart. You don't want to see that watered down and exploited.

Thankfully, it's PIXAR at the helm rather than sequel-squeezing Disney, and they assure everyone that the third installment will actually bring closure to the series. SciFi Wire caught up with animator Angus MacLane at the Saturn Awards (he was responsible for Burn-E, and has been with Pixar since Toy Story 2 where he created the crazy Buzz clone), and he spilled a few secrets on the newest adventures of Buzz and Woody. To the surprise of no one that saw Up, their final installment will be a bittersweet one. Lee Unkrich will be directing, and the storyline will center on Andy leaving for college.

"I feel like we've grown up making these movies, and each of the films represents where the filmmakers were at the time of making the films," MacLane said. "Certainly we're approaching this film 10 years later, so I think we're sort of coming at it from the standpoint of [Andy] has grown up, and we've grown up with these toys, and we have a reverence for them, but we also have different things as a priority." In other words, you should start stocking up on Kleenex now, and prepare to feel old and tired when you leave the theater.

Disney buffs are no doubt aware of the theme park's "Living Character Initiative," where guests of Walt Disney World (and the surrounding parks, like Disney's Hollywood Studios and Epcot Center) are treated to a live-action experience with some of the more memorable Disney/Pixar animated characters. I believe the initiative began a couple years ago with the Muppet Mobile Lab, and it continues now with the character Remy from Ratatouille (who hangs around French restaurants at Epcot Center) and the newest edition -- Luxo Jr. (aka the hopping Pixar desk lamp), who visitors to Disney's Hollywood Studios can now see hanging out over at Pixar Place.

We posted videos of both Luxo Jr. and Remy after the jump, as well as the inflatable Up house stationed over at Downtown Disney. And now if you'll excuse me, Wall-E is about to start on cable and the thing looks absolutely smashing in HD. Enjoy your Sunday!

With so many disappointments this summer, it's easy to forget that we'll finally get to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and that we'll finally start hearing more about the final chapter as it makes its way to the big screen.

But of course, the biggest question about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows still centers on where they'll make the split between Film 1 and Film 2. Director David Yates dropped a hint to the LA Times, and if you haven't read the book, here be spoilers:

"We're here in the forest, we've just finished the scene where Harry, Hermione and Ron are captured by the Snatchers after being chased through the woods. The Snatchers are brutal and scary but they aren't the most intelligent of creatures.They're trying to figure out exactly who it is they've caught ... Things can change when you edit, of course, but the idea now is that it will be not long after the sequence that we are filming here today. That's what we're experimenting with. We've had three or four different ideas about where to cut off the seventh film. Traditionally, the movies have ended with a death or a bereavement, some sort of passage or arrival. This time we think we will end with more a cliffhanger. Again, though, that's the thought as of this moment."

I haven't read Deathly Hallows since it came out (and oh, I still remember pulling an all nighter at ComicCon for fear someone would spoil it) , so I had to go back and check this part out. The book is chock full of cliffhangers, but ending it here would definitely give Part 1 a terrifying conclusion, the kind I'm still disappointed Peter Jackson didn't go with in The Two Towers.

Universal has been busy readying remakes of many of their classic horror icons -- The Mummy kicked it off to a slow start ten years ago (gee, it's due for another remake!), The Wolfman hits theaters this fall, and allegedly The Bride of Frankenstein, The Creature From the Black Lagoon, and The Invisible Man will follow. But they're not just planning on remaking their stable, but option a few younger and fresher versions of their icons too.

According to Variety, the studio has optioned Larry Doyle's upcoming novel Go Mutants! It's a teen comedy / adventure story set in a world where all those classic 1950s alien invasion movies actually happened. A few decades later, the offspring of those invasions have assimilated among the rest of the population, and are happily attending high school.

It's too early to tell if it'll be another Monster Squad, as the book doesn't hit store shelves until next summer, but Doyle promises you'll see cameos from Gort and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. One of those is not like the other, so all bets are off as to who else you might see, but I'd put money on the Mole Man and the Metaluna Mutant. Perhaps he'll reach beyond the creature feature cast, and throw in the Invisible Man -- you can't tell me that sly creep didn't use his gift to father a few brats and avoid the child support.

It's very popular to hate on princesses right now thanks to Disney and their frenzied marketing, but there's nothing wrong with a good fairy tale once and awhile, especially if they're served up with a bit of snark. So, I have some hope for Once Upon a Time, an Enchanted sort of story that's being set up at MGM. It's moving pretty quickly too. The script was snapped up in March, and now The Hollywood Reporter says that Mike Mitchell is coming on board to lend his Shrek-honed skills to the fantasy flick.

The story follows three famous princesses: Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Cinderella, who have settled down in domestic bliss with their Prince Charmings, and are prepared to live happily ever after. But the Charming Brothers go missing (clearly, they're charming, but they lack street smarts) and our pretty sisters-in-law must team up, and set out to save their true loves. But a woman's job is never done, and they also have to save their fairy tale kingdom in the process.

It's a live action film, and THR notes that MGM is aiming for a Shrek and Enchanted level of satire. This almost feels like a Shrek spinoff, as all three princesses keep getting more and more screen time in the neverending ogre franchise. Hopefully it'll mix the best of Shrek with a dash of Ever After and Enchanted, and give girls some new princess costumes to wear on Halloween. Ones with swords.

This week we've got more to look forward to than just Public Enemies. According to USAToday, a collection of concept art and publicity images for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland will start wallpapering movie theaters. And they're a lot better than the blurry Hatter pic and first concept pieces!

Luckily, we won't have to die of impatience to see them, because the site included all the images -- a bunch of huge concept pictures that you can drag your mouse around to explore (like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum), our first official peek at Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter, plus our beloved royalty: Helena Bonham Carter's Red Queen and Anne Hathaway's White Queen. The leaked Hatter pic doesn't do the full-color version justice, with Depp rocking a killer clown look, and Hathaway looks excellent. But Bonham Carter really takes the cake (and coolest bobblehead ever prize) with her digitally swelled noggin and heart-pursed lips. (Check it out in the gallery below.)



In this incarnation, Alice is a 17-year-old girl who flees a snooty party when she learns that she's about to be proposed to. She follows a white rabbit down a hole, and re-enters Wonderland. It's been ten years since that first visit, and she doesn't remember a thing.

Alice in Wonderland is scheduled to hit screens on March 5, 2010. Excited yet?

UPDATE: Movies.ie discovered the first image of Matt Lucas as both Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Check it out in the gallery above and in larger form over at Movies.ie. [via Slashfilm]

Someone at DreamWorks is really, really into ghosts ... or they're hearing people talk about Ghostbusters 3 and Ghost Hunters, and cashing in on a perceived trend. Either way, they're shoving a 3-D Boo U into production as quickly as possible, and hoping that it'll haunt theaters on November 12, 2012.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Boo U (not its official title, by the way, but what DreamWorks has nicknamed it) centers on a ghost who is really bad at haunting, and must return to ghost school. Tony Leondis is directing, and Jon Vitti has been sent to pen the screenplay. The ghost film is the "supersecret ghost project" that Jeffery Katzenberg was talking up last May.

The funny part is that Boo U is the third ghost project DreamWorks has picked up. They were developing Freakers, which was being penned by Joe Syracuse and Lisa Addario, and told a ghost story from the ghost's point of view, and in their world. But it was shelved for an unspecified reason. (Or exorcised, if we want to be clever.) There's also a third unnamed and unspecified ghost film that's in the pitch stage at the studio. DreamWorks is going to get its spook on one way or another. Should I be happy or sad that they're not even giving Robert Bright's classic Georgie a pre-production glance?