Sneak Peek: New Pixar Short 'La Luna'

On Thursday, an upcoming Pixar short entitled La Luna was announced! It is scheduled to premiere this June at the Annecy International Animation Festival, and is directed by Erico Casarosa. Enrico joined Pixar in 2002, and has worked as a story artist on Cars, Ratatouille, and Up. Right now, he is head of story on an upcoming Pixar film. Seen above is the official logo for the short film. It looks extremely nice, and very classy.

Read the first official synopsis for La Luna below. Sounds very interesting. I can't wait to see another short little Pixar tale.

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?

Judging by the fact that "la luna" means "the moon" in Spanish and Italian, many people are assuming that the Moon will be key in the short's plot.

The still seen above was also revealed on Thursday, and it looks quite nice. As you can see, the characters have a very simplistic design, but sometimes simple can be the best way to go.

You can hope to see La Luna in 2012, as it is probably the short film that will be attached to Brave.

Pixar By The Numbers

Have you ever wondered how many people currently work at Pixar? Or how long it takes to make a Pixar movie? Or how many toys are in Toy Story 3? Well, I've gone around the Internet and read my Pixarpedia and tried to answer a lot of those curious questions as best as I could. A lot of the answers are estimates, because it would be almost impossible to get the exact answers to everything. So I encourage you to read on, and let all (or at least most) of your questions about Pixar be answered!

• Around 1200 employees...or more...work at Pixar Animation Studios.
• The average Pixar movie usually takes 4 to 5 years to create...or in other words, about 1460.97 to 1826.21 days.
• As many people know, Pixar has made 11 films up to date, and will release their 12th film, Cars 2, on June 24, 2011.
• Pixar's highest grossing film, Toy Story 3, earned an estimated $1,063,171,609 at the box office. It became the 5th highest grossing film of all time, the #1 animated film of all time, and the highest grossing film of 2010.
• John Lasseter has directed 4 of Pixar's films to this day, and is set to make his 5th debut as director this year with Cars 2.
• So far, there are 9 hilarious Cars Toons, and more will be released in the years to come.
• Randy Newman has scored 6 Pixar movies, including all 3 Toy Story films.
• John Ratzenberger, considered Pixar's 'lucky charm', has voiced 9 Pixar characters, including Hamm the piggy bank and Mack the truck.
• Ever since the Best Animated Feature Film award was introduced to the Oscars in 2001, Pixar has been nominated 8 times, and has won 6 times.
• Not only has Pixar made many fantastic feature films, but the company has created 19 ground-breaking short films, their most recent being Day & Night. Their 20th short, Hawaiian Vacation, will be played in front of Cars 2.
• Pixar has received 10 Academy Award nominations for their short films, and has won 3 times.
• Pixar was founded in 1986, so the company has existed for 25 years.
• Russel, the 8 year-old wilderness explorer from Up, has over 40 badges!
• In Pixar's Ratatouille, the word 'rat' is used 51 times!
• Sulley, the big, blue, furry monster from Monsters, Inc., has around 2,137,000 hairs in total!
• Carl Fredricksen from Up uses about 10,000 to 20,000 balloons to lift his house up into the air!
• In Toy Story 3, Andy only has 12 toys left...but at Sunnyside Daycare, there are probably over 100 toys!
• In Pixar's Cars, there are, of course, over 200 cars seen in the film...probably a lot more!
• There are exactly 96 days left until the North American theatrical release of Cars 2!!!

Of course, those are only a few of Pixar-related facts, because well, with numbers, Pixar always goes.........

To Infinity, and Beyond!

Double Post: What is A113? + New Pixar Parade Coming Soon!

There are two things included in this post today (hence the title "Double Post").

First off, I wanted to explain what "A113" is to anyone who doesn't know. A113 was the number of John Lasseter's classroom when he attended CalArts (California Institute of the Arts), a college founded by Walt Disney that specializes in teaching film making, animation, and more. As you may have heard before, John Lasseter is the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar and Disney. A113 has appeared in every single Pixar movie to date. For example, in the Toy Story films it appears as the licence plate on Andy's mom's van. If you're not so sure, look again. Most of the time, however, the code is quite tricky to find. You can also check out this video, where Chatter Telephone tells you all about this mysterious code.

Second, The Disney Parks Blog tells us that a new Pixar-themed parade is coming to Disney's Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World on January 16, 2011. This new parade will include the characters from Up and Ratatouille along with other Pixar favorites and it will replace Block Party Bash.

That's all for today, but Pixar is always up to something new and exciting, so keep coming back here for more cool news on everything Pixar.

'Ratatouille' Coming to 3D!

Another Pixar 3D re-release is coming to theaters (although it hasn't been announced when), and this time, instead of Toy Story and Toy Story 2, it's Ratatouille, Pixar's hit from 2007.

Could this be a sign that maybe, just maybe, there is a 'Ratatouille 2' in production? I'm not quite sure. I'm only guessing because the TS1 and TS2 re-release was only a few months away from the release of TS3. But I honestly doubt there is a Ratatouille 2 in the works (the film is perfect as a stand-alone film), although it is pretty exciting to get to watch Ratatouille in 3D. Expect to see a release date soon on the blog!