This news the other day about Pixar making a sequel to the milquetoast Cars really bothers me. I mean, Cars? Seriously? Yawwwwwwwn. Of all the films they've made over there, that's the last one I want to see a sequel to. And now, we also have the official word that Toy Story 3 is coming. While Toy Story 2 was one of the best sequels ever, I'm not sure they can (or should) try to sustain that momentum for a third round. I understand the impulse to build on existing branding, and the desire to market the hell out of a bunch of new toys, but with all those creative minds over at Pixar, surely they can do more than that.

If they must do sequels, I'm infinitely more interested in seeing Incredibles 2 than Cars 2. The Incredibles was a nearly perfect animated film -- visually stunning, great characters with interesting arcs, fantastic voice acting, and a good storyline, to boot. I've heard rumors that Brad Bird doesn't want an Incredibles sequel, but surely he of all people could come up with a fab storyline that wouldn't dilute the franchise.

Pixar did announce some new original stuff coming up; besides Wall-E, which I'm hyped about, we have Up coming in May 2009, and Newt in Summer 2011. Beyond that, though, it's pretty much Sequels-'R-Us around PixarLand, with Cars 2, Toy Story 3, and 3-D releases of Toy Story 1 and 2. What do you think about Pixar and sequels -- especially of Cars? Does anyone really care about seeing more of the adventures of Doc Hollywood Lightning McQueen? Or would you rather see Pixar following up on the Incredibles, or just creating more original stories? Sound off and let 'em know what you think.

It has been over a year since the director and screenwriter were named for Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich and Michael Arndt). Finally, it seems that we're getting some plot details, but there's a case of dueling summaries going on. Over at Empire, they say that The Wall Street Journal got a bit loose-lipped in an article they recently ran about Disney Pixar stopping the outsourcing of their movies' video games. The Journal says: "Woody the cowboy and his toy-box friends are dumped in a day-care center after their owner, Andy, leaves for college." That makes sense. It's been 11 years since the last film, so a whole lot of time has gone by (not that time really matters in the film world).

Now, the twist comes in over at IMDb. Just the other day, the plot summary was updated and it says: "In this new adventure, Buzz Lightyear has encountered a malfunction and is being sent to Taiwan to be fixed. It appears that these malfunctions are occurring with toys all around the world! Now, Woody and a group of his friends are on a mission to save Buzz's destruction."

So, did the Journal really leak something? Is Disney/Pixar putting up a bunch of different summaries to mess with our minds? Or, is this summary on IMDb just b-s?

More importantly: Which would you prefer?

What's hotter Hansel? It's not Derek Zoolander. It's 3D. My good lord, studios are really pushing the hell out of this format. I just don't get the rabid push. Some films, I get. This obsession, I don't get. I saw Harry Potter on IMAX 3D... The entire 3D portion had me dizzy and confused, and it also ruined the goodbye to a character I particularly liked. (Perhaps that was the seating, but since I was just off of dead-center, I don't think so.) Anyhow, with the full-speed-ahead 3D push, Disney has decided to re-release Pixar's Toy Story with the added dimension.

Variety reports that this release is slated to hit theaters on October 2, 2009, a few months before its sequel gets the same treatment on February 12, 2010. Both, of course, are coming out to lead up to the release of Toy Story 3, which is slated for June 18, 2010 -- a film which is already being prepped for 3D goodness. I sure hope they keep to the schedule -- moving the date for one is tricky -- moving the dates for three is trickier.

This move is the latest in the Mouse House's plans to release more of its animated films in 3D. Toy Story follows the likes of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Meet the Robinsons, and Chicken Little. I wonder how far back they'll try to go...

My post-Christmas stomach is in very bad shape ...

Some new artwork from this summer's The Incredible Hulk has arrived online, and while it's still only artwork (in fact, all we've seen so far of this film has been artwork), it's definitely a piece that should whet your appetite for destruction. Arriving in theaters on June 13, this version of the Hulk stars Edward Norton as the emotionally-conflicted Bruce Banner, who's on the run hiding from authorities, as well as his own demons. Tim Roth will play Hulk's nemesis Emil Blonsky, while Liv Tyler (Betty Ross), William Hurt (Gen. Ross) and Tim Blake Nelson (Samuel Sterns) also star. Check out the new artwork to the right, via Coming Soon.

That TV movie/series launch/contemporary re-boot of Knight Rider now has a very very brief 15-second teaser trailer online for all of you to geek out over. While there's not much except the uncovering of the new, updated car, we do get to hear a brief snippet of that classic Knight Rider music, followed by some other, flashy TV music. Ah, and Will Arnett as the voice of KITT -- does it seriously get any better than that? From the official Knight Rider press release: "The movie stars Justin Bruening ("Cold Case," "All My Children"), Deanna Russo ("NCIS," "The Young and the Restless"), Sydney Tamiia Poitier ("Veronica Mars," "Grindhouse") and Bruce Davison ("Breach," "Close to Home"). In addition, David Hasselhoff (NBC's "America's Got Talent") - who starred in the popular lead role as Michael Knight for four seasons during the original series - returns as the same character in a special guest-star appearance. Will Arnett (NBC's "30 Rock," "Blades of Glory") will provide the voice of KITT." Don't you love how Hasselhoff's credit is from America's Got Talent, as if no one would remember the dude's awesome turn in TV's Baywatch. (Check out the teaser after the jump.)

Finally, we haven't heard much about the Pixar film arriving in between Wall-E (2008) and Toy Story 3 (2010), titled Up. Now, Upcoming Pixar has picked up a note from the film's official wikipedia entry which stated that Up may in fact be a "re-telling, somewhat, of the classic Don Quixote fable." Here's what we have so far by way of a synopsis for Up; let the speculation begin: "Pete Docter and co-director Bob Peterson are preparing this "coming-of-old-age story" about a seventysomething guy who lives in a house that "looks like your grand-parents' house smelled." He befriends a clueless young Wilderness Ranger and gets into lots of alter kocker altercations. Says Pixar: "Our hero travels the globe, fights beasts and villains and eats dinner at 3:30 in the afternoon." (via CinemaBlend)

With Ratatouille set to hit theaters on June 29, the latest issue of Time Magazine provides some info on the next three Pixar films for you fanatics who aren't in the mood to wait to see what the animation studio has in store for us down the line. Dark Horizons managed to get a hold of the vague plot descriptions, but the most interesting part came in the announcement of a brand new Pixar flick for 2009; one we hadn't heard anything about until now. First up for Pixar will be Wall * E (to be released on June 27, 2008) and, according to DH, it's being described "as a space-set remake of a 1931 Charlie Chaplin film about a blind girl wooed by a tramp she mistakenly believes is a rich man." However, this film will be set in the year 2700 and, instead of humans, the main characters will be a robot named Wall * E and a female robot named Eve. Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) will write and direct, with Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt voicing the main roles electronically.

On June 12, 2009, Pixar will shovel out a film called Up. I'm not quite sure I follow the plot description, but here's what DH gives us: "A 'coming-of-old-age' story which follows an elderly man who befriends a clueless young Wilderness Ranger and gets into lots of globe-hopping, ass-kicking adventures with villains and beasts whilst still eating dinner in the early afternoon." Make of that what you will; I'll be curious to see how well this one does with an elderly man in the main role. Following Up, Toy Story 3 will hit theaters at some point during the summer of 2010. Lee Unkrich (co-director of Toy Story 2 and Finding Nemo) is currently writing the story, so there's no word on what type of adventure Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz (Tim Allen) will find themselves on this time, but I have to imagine folks will anticipate this one the most. Here's hoping the geniuses at Pixar take a real close look at the failures of some of this summer's threequels so that Toy Story 3 doesn't disappoint. Fingers crossed.

We knew this news was coming since way back when Pixar and Disney kissed and made up: Toy Story 3 is officially a Go. Variety fills us in with all the details: Production on the third adventure of Buzz Lightyear and Woody the Cowboy is about to get underway, but John Lasseter (director of TS and TS2) will not be at the helm this time. (He is the Chief Creative Officer for Disney Animation, don't forget.) This means that directorial duties fall squarely on Mr. Lee Unkrich, but this guy's more than earned the gig by now. (He was an editor/co-director on Pixar beauties like Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo.)

And here's another interesting tidbit: Seems that Little Miss Sunshine screenwriter Michael Arndt has been tapped to pen Toy Story 3. (Hey, score one for the little guy!) Anyway, Disney says that TS3 should be ready by 2009, which is kind of a long time to wait -- but, like most of you, I'm just thrilled that things worked out this way. We came kind of close to getting a Pixar-free Toy Story 3, didn't we?

Last year when things with Pixar started to go sour, Disney quietly set up Circle 7, a computer animation unit dedicated specifically to making sequels to Pixar films. While this was perfectly legal under the rights deal set up between the companies, fans of Pixar - as well as the animators themselves - were much more horrified by the idea of the characters and stories being in non-Pixar hands than they were excited about the prospect of Toy Story 3.

Shortly after Disney bought Pixar, it was announced that only Pixar would make sequels to Pixar films - yet Circle 7 stayed open. Yesterday, however, it was revealed that, as of the end of May, the unit would no longer exist. While this is thrilling news to most everyone who follows animation, it's sort of a bummer for the 32 people who will be laid off. But hey, the LA Times insists that they'll all get new jobs right away, because everyone and his brother is making animation these days. So it's ok to be gleeful after all!

[via The Disney Blog]

Almost a month after it was officially "recalled", it now appears Toy Story 3 is back in business baby. According to Bloomberg (via Moviehole), Disney has handed over the project to Pixar, who are all still very eager to bring Woody and Buzz back to life. Oh, and you thought Disney didn't care. Shame on you.

Apparently, part of the decision was made after evaluating all of the work Disney's in-house animators have already put into the project. Great, so we're getting another sequel because Disney doesn't want to waste man-hours? Is it even any good? Currently, the story will surround a rescue attempt by Woody after Buzz is recalled to Taiwan. No word yet on when we will see the finished product, but Tom Hanks and Tim Allen will be back to voice the leads. It's times like these that make me wonder whether or not Disney and Pixar signed a prenup?