Pixar

We usually have to wait until the newest Pixar film hits theaters to enjoy the latest Pixar short, but fans of the beloved animated studio won’t have to wait until this fall to see Dante’s Lunch… A Short Tail. Pixar has released their new short online a full eight months ahead of its theatrical debut, giving fans another sneak peek at the colorful world of Coco via the life of his endearing dog, Dante.

Pixar’s 2016 was something of a mixed bag, having landed a true-blue blockbuster with Finding Dory but then missing out on the coveted Oscar nomination. They’ll get back in the saddle in 2017 with Coco, a vibrant fantasy about the power of music, family, and remembrance of those lost to us. In the film, a lonely young boy finds a link to the past through an enchanted stringed instrument and sets off on an incredible journey with an animal companion, encountering all manner of dreamlike wonders (along with a monster or two) on the way. It bears mentioning at this point that this film is, in fact, not Kubo and the Two Strings.

The development and production process for most animated films is often long, leaving us waiting for years between the initial announcement and the finished product. Pixar’s next original film (and the only one on their schedule that isn’t a sequel) is no exception. We first learned about Coco back in 2012, and now, four years later, with a fall 2017 release on the horizon, Pixar’s new film is officially on a roll — Gael Garcia Bernal and Benjamin Bratt have joined the voice cast, and the studio has revealed some intriguing plot details, along with a new piece of concept art.

It seems like whenever we start to become desensitized to the mix-and-match mash-up nature of popular culture, something new comes along to shock us out of our doldrums. Whether it's Phineas And Ferb crossing over with Star Wars, Hello Kitty teaming with KISS, Archie's hometown of Riverdale getting devoured by zombies, or Minions advertising in the produce aisle of your local supermarket, mainstream society has adopted a comic-con mentality where all things coexist and cross-promote at all times, whether or not the combinations make any logical sense. But even so, I don't think any of us foresaw a world where the stars of Toy Story would be reimagined as giant mecha-warriors, joining together to save earth from the kaiju threat of a mutated Trixie The Triceratops.

There are five key emotions in Pixar’s Inside Out: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. But did you know there were originally over 20 emotions that were going to appear? That’s just one of the surprising facts packed into the latest episode of You Think You Know Movies, which journeys deep into the inner recesses of the Memory Dump to bring you this episode all about Inside Out.

Two new Pixar films this year means two new Pixar shorts, and while many (myself included) were not a fan of Lava, there’s still hope for the studio’s next short, Sanjay’s Super Team. And you can get your first peek at footage from director Sanjay Patel’s heartfelt and personal animated short with this new official clip.

The countdown is on to Incredibles 2.

Today is Mike Mignola’s 55th birthday, and that’s the perfect excuse to look back at a comic and illustration career that spans back to the 1980s. There’s a reason Mignola’s art has not only captivated comic readers for years, but also attracted the attention of Hollywood, where his designs and aesthetics have been applied to both animation and live action. Mignola’s style is deceptively simple, but there is a beautiful elegance in that simplicity, even when manifests in the ugliness of some demon or nightmare creature. There is a mastery in every line and scratch he puts on a skull or statue or monster.

Pixar Animation Studios' fifteenth feature film, Inside Out, opens in theaters across North America this weekend, and it's already receiving rave reviews from critics --- with an aggregate score at this writing of 99% positive on Rotten Tomatoes. It's with Inside Out’s release and the twentieth anniversary of Toy Story in mind that we take you through a visual celebration of Pixar’s history, including behind the scenes production art, promotional pieces, and fan creations.

Just last month, Brad Bird revealed that he is finally (finally!) working on a screenplay for a sequel to Pixar’s The Incredibles — of all the Pixar properties, fans have wanted a sequel to this one the most. And now we’re finally getting one. It may still be a while, given Pixar’s production time, but Bird has confirmed that the sequel to his animated superhero hit is very likely his next project.