During a Disney showcase in Los Angeles this afternoon, a few fairly big announcements were made -- most notably the fact that Cars 2 is being bumped up from 2012 to the summer of 2011. John Lasseter also announced a series of animated shorts related to the Cars franchise called Cars Toons, and those will air on the Disney Channel, as well as (possibly) screen theatrically. With Toy Story 3 arriving in 2010, this means Pixar will shovel out back-to-back sequels for the first time ever. Those Pixar fans seeking an original product will get one next year with Up.

Also during the showcase, it was announced that Oprah Winfrey has joined the voice cast of The Princess and the Frog, where she'll play Eudora, the mother of the main character Princess Tiana (Anika Noni Rose). Due out on Christmas Day in 2009, The Princess and the Frog returns Disney to their classic 2D animation and it follows a young girl who lives in the New Orleans French Quarter during the Jazz Age. Princess and the Frog also marks the first time Disney has featured an African American princess.

We'll update this post should more info come out ...

Two weeks ago, we learned that Paul Newman has lung cancer (or may have lung cancer). And my first reaction was: will he still be able to do A Walk in the Woods with Robert Redford? Or whatever that long-ago confirmed final film is, if not that Bill Bryson adaptation? A couple years back the Oscar-winning actor said he's retiring after one "last hurrah," and it was speculated that he'd be re-teaming with Redford (his partner in both Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting). Unfortunately, the last we heard about A Walk in the Woods, there was no mention of Newman being involved.

Over at MTV Movies Blog, meanwhile, Shawn Adler's first thought was more like: "Is Cars really going to be his last acting role?" And thanks to MTV News, he somewhat received the answer. Apparently, the fine folks at Pixar (who are releasing their latest, Wall-E, this Friday) are including Newman's character, "Doc Hudson", in the script for Cars 2, which is set to hit theaters in 2012. Cars co-writer/director John Lasseter says they're "just waiting to see" if Newman will be able to reprise the role. If Newman can't do it, though, the sequel will be doubly sad, since it will also be missing Joe Ranft, who co-wrote, co-directed and voiced two characters in the first movie. The longtime Pixar collaborator died tragically in a car accident the year before Cars came out.

Would you still want Doc to appear in Cars 2 if not voiced by Newman?

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.

"Art challenges technology, and technology inspires the art. That's it in a nutshell the way we work at Pixar." John Lasseter

For anyone who's ever enjoyed a Pixar film, or even a cartoon for that matter, might I suggest adding the newly-released Pixar Short Films Collection Volume I to your DVD library. Aside from receiving 13 Pixar short films, there's an excellent behind-the-scenes feature that takes you through those early days at Pixar; how they went about making those first short films -- the long hours, the sleepless nights, the skimpy paychecks -- to how their entire lives changed when Disney called and requested they take a gamble on their first feature film. That film, of course, turned out to be Toy Story. And the rest is history.

And that's exactly what you get with this DVD: A Pixar history lesson. It's best if you, like I did, start out with the bonus documentary on Pixar, featuring folks like John Lasseter and his Pixar crew who take you through what it was like back in the mid-80s to be introducing a new kind of computer animation to the world. The kind of animation that talked, spoke and engaged the audience. Originally, Pixar was a high-end computer hardware company that sold their Pixar Image Computer to government agencies and the medical community. Lasseter was the only animator on staff, and the entire crew would spend days, weeks, months creating these tiny short films they would preview at trade conventions to pimp their product. Problem was, the Pixar Image Computer didn't sell. These shorts made no money (even though they won Oscars), and some considered it a waste of time. Eventually, the Pixar animation department struck a deal to create some commercials for outside parties. Following the commercials, they wanted to make something small; a half hour made-for-TV movie. However, Disney called ... and they said screw the TV movie -- if you could make something 30 minutes long, you could do 90 minutes. Thus, a $26 million, three-picture deal was struck and Toy Story was born.

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?

2006 was the first full year of Cinematical, and it was a very busy year for its bloggers. A lot of big news, shocking news and ongoing news kept us busy as we followed the important stories and passed the significant bits onto you. There was good news, bad news, unexpected news and unbelievable news. There were deaths, births, rebirths and remakes. There was so much going on that it takes an amazing film geek to recall everything (have you tested your memory yet?).

But what was the most important story for film in 2006? The end of the box office slump? The Weinsteins' devilish pact with Blockbuster? Peter Jackson's possibilities of directing The Hobbit? Uwe Boll boxing his critics? Sorry, but none of those affected the consciousness of cinema as much as these other stories from the past 12 months:

• Disney Buys Pixar - When 2006 began, the future of Disney's relationship with Pixar was still uncertain. There had been hint of a new deal between the two companies in the last few days of 2005, but nothing was concrete. Three weeks went by, in which time the new year came in and Pixar's stock prices went up, and then finally the first installment of news came through on January 19: Disney would buy Pixar. Three days later, we were reminded that the deal was not yet done, that it was still awaiting approval from Steve Jobs and the rest of the animation studio's board. On January 23, however, it was in the bag: Disney bought Pixar for $7.4 billion. And John Lasseter was named head of Disney animation.
  
  The story didn't end there. Throughout 2006, the effects of the acquisition continued to be felt. First, Toy Story 3 was killed. But then it was greenlit again. Disney closed its new computer animation studio, Circle 7. Then many months went by before Disney fired a whole lot of people working in its animation departments. Finally, just a few weeks ago, the company announced they'd be trying out the ol' hand-drawn stuff again. By year's end, it felt as though Pixar was the one who owned Disney.
  

Pencil. Paper. Have you two met? I think the better question may be directed to the animator -- do you remember how to use them? I remember when Toy Story came out in 1995 -- it was huge! It broke barriers being the first full-length computer animated film. It was exciting and quickly became the thing to do; seemingly making hand drawing the thing of the past. Disney animation is now putting a stop to the CGI addiction and returning to a more traditional drawing plan.

This change, just announced today by John Lasseter and Ed Catmull, will take place in Walt Disney Co.'s Burbank studios, leaving Pixar to exclusively work onCGI projects. There isn't a specific answer to why the change happened, but one rumor centers around Chris Sanders who is responsible for Lilo and Stitch and the upcoming film American Dog. Lilo and Stitch, if you can remember, was hand-drawn -- and was a huge success. Perhaps they're hoping the same hand-drawn success with American Dog.

I do think it's nice to know that there is an effort being made in preserving this art form. I often times get worried with how great technology has become that we get further and further away from our origins. Being a bit of a technology dunce I don't understand the steps necessary in making a CGI film but I do fondly reminisce about the making of Steamboat Willie. I still vividly remember watching how they drew out the story to create the film. It was exciting seeing the characters come to life right off the page. I find relief knowing that there are many films to come made in that same historical way ... and I'm sure many animators are relieved too.

When I was a kid, my mom used to regale me with tales of how, when she was growing up, she and all her friends and junior relations could all go to the movie theater and, for the bargain-basement price of 10 cents, spend the afternoon watching films: Animated shorts for an hour, newreels, plus two movies back-to-back. Another quarter among you and all your friends would get you snacks for the whole group. John Lasseter remembers those days, apparently, because Disney is bringing them back. No, you won't be spending an entire afternoon at your local cineplex for a dime (fat chance, that), and concessions will still put your bank account in the red, but you will be able to get animated shorts before Disney features at theaters around the country, for the first time in almost 50 years.

Disney will first bring to life an animated short featuring everyone's favorite dorky personified dog, Goofy; future shorts will be hand-drawn animation, computer-generated, or a combination, depending on the story. Pixar Animation Studios, now a part of the giant behemoth that is the Mouse House, is spear-heading the revived interest in animated shorts, but (according to this piece in the International Herald Tribune) the idea to bring back shorts as a training ground for animators came from animation-genius Lasseter himself.

I think this is a fantastic idea. Walt Disney himself used shorts as training tools for animators, and Lasseter's first forays into computer animation were a pitch for The Brave Little Toaster (which led to him getting fired -- read all about it in this fascinating interview with Lasseter on CNN from way back in May) and then The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. for the fledgling Pixar. That short featured the first character-animation cartoon done by computer, and the rest (well, after a decade of fine-tuning the shorts by Lasseter and his team leading up to Toy Story) is Pixar history.

What do you think about this news? Do you think it's cool that you'll get to see a bonus short with your Disney features?

[via Frames Per Second Magazine, with thanks to my animation-geek hubby Jay for pointing me there ]

In case you missed the news, the premiere of Pixar's Cars will take place at the end of this month in Charlotte, North Carolina. Why Charlotte, you ask? Um, duh -- it's because the Lowe's Motor Speedway is there. The premiere, you see, is going to be a NASCAR-style blowout, with four massive screens constructed on the track's infield -- big enough, at least, for all 30,000 ticket-holders to get a clear view of the movie (it's "the first multi-screen digital cinema premiere ever," don't you know). Attending the event will be the movie's voice stars Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Larry the Cable Guy, and Richard Petty, along with director and Pixar god, John Lasseter. All of which begs the question: is Disney making a massive mistake by focusing their advertising so tightly on the motor sports crowd? Massive thought it undoubtedly is, I can't imagine that audience alone will be enough to bring in the profits we've come to expect from Pixar productions.

NASCAR fan or not, if you wanted to go you're out of luck: every single ticket is gone. That's right: 30,000 freaking tickets have been sold, and we're still almost three weeks from the big day. The nice thing, though, is that a proceeds from ticket sales are going to Speedway Children's Charities and Association of Hole in the Wall Gang Camps, two local charities. Good Pixar.