Pixar Short: 'La Luna'

The Pixar Blog has just revealed the above title card and the below still from Pixar's upcoming short La Luna. The short's supposed producer Kevin Reher (who also produced Day & Night and Partly Cloudy) said that "the new short we're finishing production on now... it's beautiful, it's lyrical, it's very different from all the other ones. It's amazing how easy it can be when you just have three characters and two sets."


Here is the synposis for La Luna, which means the moon in both Spanish and Italian:

La Luna is the timeless fable of a young boy who is coming of age in the most peculiar of circumstances. Tonight is the very first time his Papa and Grandpa are taking him to work. In an old wooden boat they row far out to sea, and with no land in sight, they stop and wait.

A big surprise awaits the little boy as he discovers his family’s most unusual line of work. Should he follow the example of his Papa, or his Grandpa? Will he be able to find his own way in the midst of their conflicting opinions and timeworn traditions?

The short is being directed by Enrico Casarosa, storyboard artist on Ratatouille and Up, with music by, of course, Michael Giacchino.

The short, which will most likely be attached to Brave next year, is Pixar's lengthiest at almost 7 minutes.

It sounds very simple and beautiful, and I can hardly wait to see it! . . .

To see more about the director, visit his website here, his blog here, or read a fairly dated (but still interesting) interview with GhibliWorld here.

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My Pixar Pop Art

Here is a gallery of Pixar 'Pop Art' that I created using Photoshop. They are reminiscent of the works of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. I like 'em, and thought you might, too.

(Also, they make great desktop and iPhone wallpapers--click to embiggen!)

















I hope you liked my gallery. More Pixar (and Disney) Pop Art coming soon...

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Giacchino to Score Star Tours 2.0

Once again, John Williams has declined to score a theme park attraction for Disney. So, for Star Tours 2.0, they have turned to music extraordinaire Michael Giacchino--the Oscar-winning genius behind the scores of Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Up, Partly Cloudy, Day & Night, Mission Impossible: III, and Star Trek, among others.

This is great. Ever since The Incredibles, Giacchino has been my favorite contemporary composer. But then he wrote that glorious score for Up, which moved him up to possibly being my favorite composer of all time (he's definitely in the top three).

Hearing how he utilizes the original Star Wars and Star Tours themes to compose his own score is going to be very, very cool. My favorite composer combined with one of the most recognizable film themes ever written? Yes, please.

We'll get to hear his brand new, intergalactic score next year when Star Tours 2.0 makes its debut.

Source: LaughingPlace

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Bringing 'Ratatouille' to a Whole New Dimension

I am happy to say that Pixar's eighth masterpiece, Ratatouille, will be theatrically re-released. Unfortunately, it will be re-released in the 3D format. Bob Whitehill, the stereoscoipc supervisor at Pixar, revealed this during a recent discussion based on his 3D work for Toy Story 3:

Ratatouille is one that we’re exploring doing [3D conversion on] and Brad Bird is very open to some changes, you know, some very subtle changes but slight reframings. If a character’s reaching forward and a pinky goes off screen, we’ll adjust the camera and the character a little bit to have the hand on. So that said, if the director’s open to minor modifications on a library title then that’s wonderful and we’re really excited about doing that.

You can see his complete video interview at the UK movie blog HeyUGuys here.

This is such great and awful news. I love that I'm going to get to see Ratatouille again on the big screen, but I hate that it will be in 3D. The studios have manufactured this 3D phenomenon in order to push their own agendas. I had thought that Disney and Pixar would not sink so low as to join them, but it appears that they are now wholeheartedly embracing the Great 3D Scam of the Early 2000s.

Oh well, like I said, at least we'll all get to see Remy up on the silver screen once more.

Don't expect to see this being released for at least a few more years due to the timely 3D conversion process.

Source: HeyUGuys

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Lasseter to the Rescue!

Cars 2 is the next Pixar feature. It is slated to be released on June 24, 2011, and is currently having some problems. Not as many problems as newt, but more like the development problems that Ratatouille experienced before Brad Bird took over. However, it is fair to say that the problems will soon cease to exist, as John Lasseter has recently been working very closely with Brad Lewis, the film's director, since these problems arose.

Jim Hill of Jim Hill Media states that at Disney's Hollywood Showcase, he was told that Lasseter has been officially named the film's co-director. This is both surprising, and un-surprising. It is surprising because he is one busy individual--working on Disney animated features and theme park attractions. It is un-surprising since he directed Cars, and would want a strong sequel. Plus, if he's already been working closely with the director to hash out issues, he might as well get credit for it.

Whatever the case, Lasseter's presence in a film's development can never be a bad thing. He definitely knows what he is doing...

Source: The Pixar Blog

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Unkrich's Pixar Stuff to Benefit Haiti

Lee Unkrich is helping out the people who are suffering in Haiti by auctioning off his great collection of Pixar things he has accumulated over the years. Each item is being auctioned separately, and they include crew jackets from numerous Pixar films, baseball hats, T-shirts, signed art, and even specially made Monsters, Inc. Jones Soda. I'd like to stress that these charity auctions are being created and handled personally by Lee Unkrich, director of Toy Story 3, and are not being organized by either Pixar or Disney. Also, it is important to note that 100% of the final sale price will go to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. There are some real treasures being put up for auction and I would encourage you to take a look at them. After all, it is for a great cause.

Check out The Pixar Blog for more information and a statement made by Lee.

Very cool.

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Fantastic Pixar Sketches

Blue Sky Disney has a collection of very, very cool sketches from previous Pixar movies. There are sketches of Buzz Lightyear labelled "Lunar Larry" to pictures of the rats of Ratatouille who look much more realistic than they ended up. Even though Pixar's films are all generated on computers, each film and character starts with an idea, and the idea is represented with good old-fashioned pen, pencil and charcoal on paper. . .



See plenty more of these beautiful sketches by clicking "Read More..." below!


Images copyright Pixar Animation Studios

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