A Look Back at 2013

Here we are, once again at the end of yet another year. While not without its fair share of saddening tragedies in the Pixar realm, this year has nonetheless seen the release of not one, not two, but three fantastic new works from the folks down in Emeryville.

Unfortunately, this hasn't quite been the best year for Pixar. We saw the removal of Bob Peterson as director from The Good Dinosaur - making this the fourth time a director at the studio has gotten the boot. This eventually lead to nearly 5% of the staff being laid off.

Then in October came the headline that probably devastated me most of all - Pixar Canada was shut down. It's a real shame; the Vancouver-based satellite studio had made some remarkable shorts since opening in April 2010, and the studio itself was filled to the brim with talented artists. Those who have followed this blog for a while now may know that I was fortunate enough to visit Pixar Canada this January and tour the studio (you can read about my visit here). I'm more thankful for that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity now than ever before, so a big thank-you is due to Amir Nasrabadi (general manager and vice-president of Pixar Canada at the time of its closure) for allowing this dream of mine to become a reality. The studio itself may have closed, but it built quite the legacy in the short three years that it was operational. So long live Pixar Canada!

Now let's talk about some of the more exciting things that happened this year.

Of course, Monsters University, the studio's fourteenth feature-length film and prequel to fan-favorite Monsters, Inc., hit theaters in June and its reception was generally quite warm, despite a select stubborn few still riding that old bothersome 'Pixar is losing it' bandwagon. Oh well, you can't please everybody. Let them keep riding that bandwagon while we look forward to the studio's future wildly ambitious projects.

The latest short film to be pumped out by Pixar, The Blue Umbrella, also made its debut this year alongside MU. While perhaps not as groundbreaking as, say, Day & Night or La Luna, it's arguably still a splendid and very creative work of art, accompanied by an irresistibly catchy soundtrack, not to mention its gorgeous photo-realistic visuals.

More recently, in October Pixar released its first ever television special! Toy Story of Terror saw the return of Woody, Buzz, Jessie and co. and delighted audiences across the globe, proving that the folks at Pixar are more than capable in handling the half-hour special format. Needless to say, Toy Story of Terror left audiences hungry for more Pixar TV specials, so here's hoping they're cooking up some more for us to enjoy in the near future.

All in all, it's been another great year. 2014 will likely be quite a quiet year in terms of Pixar news, what with no new feature film until 2015, but who knows, maybe the studio will surprise us with another television special later in the year. Whether that happens or not, let's make 2014 another memorable year.

Happy New Year, everyone!

November Pixar Update

There hasn't been a heck of a lot of exciting Pixar news this month, but here's a brief recollection of the little tidbits that have dropped over the past few weeks.

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'Good Dinosaur' Delay Leads to Layoffs

Some sad news indeed. After the sudden and tragic closure of Pixar's offices in Vancouver, Canada last month, the studio announced last week that nearly 5% of its current staff will be laid off in the wake of The Good Dinosaur's recent 18-month delay.

The official statement:

"At Pixar, we are constantly re-evaluating the creative and business needs of our studio. With the release date change of The Good Dinosaur, we have realigned our production and support priorities, which includes a small reduction in our staffing levels." 

My condolences to those who have lost their jobs, and best of luck to them in their future endeavors.

Ed Catmull's New Book Gives In-Depth Look At Birth of Pixar

Pixar president and co-founder Edwin Catmull will provide the public with the first ever first-hand account of how a struggling division of Lucasfilm once known as the Graphics Group eventually became the animation empire it is known as today. Co-written by Amy Wallace, Creativity Inc. is 368 pages long and will be available April 8, 2014. You can pre-order it now through Amazon.

'Monsters University' Enters Race For Academy Award Nomination

The fourteenth feature to be pumped out by the animation powerhouse, Monsters University, has been submitted alongside 18 other films, including DreamWorks' The Croods and Blue Sky's Epic, for contention to receive nominations at this year's Academy Awards. The real competition, however, lies in Walt Disney Animation's Frozen, which hits theaters tomorrow (or today, depending on when and where you're reading this) and has received wildly enthusiastic reviews thus far, many going as far as calling it the studio's best since The Lion King. Pixar will have to once again butt heads with their sister studio to claim the title of Best Animated Feature; Brave's win in February over Wreck-It Ralph stirred controversy and outrage among many who believed that WDAS had produced the better film.

Read Scripts For 'Monsters University' & 'The Blue Umbrella'

If you're interested in becoming a screenwriter some day, or you just like going through the scripts of awesome movies and shorts, then you'll be thrilled to hear that the screenplays for both Monsters University and The Blue Umbrella are now up on the Walt Disney Studios Awards website for your reading pleasure. I spent a good while the other day just reading the first 60 pages or so of MU's rather brilliant script, and The Blue Umbrella's is equally delightful - it reads almost like a poem. Check out both scripts here and here.

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Like I said, nothing particularly thrilling, but the gap between autumn and the awards season is usually pretty quiet anyway in terms of Pixar-related news.

Are you upset by the layoffs at Pixar? Will you be getting Ed Catmull's new book come April? Which film do you think will win Best Animated Feature this year? Do you enjoy reading the scripts for films and short films? Sound off in the comments!

'The Blue Umbrella' Is a Mind Blower

My (delayed) review of Monsters University should be up tomorrow, but before I go on to that, let me briefly share my thoughts on the latest short film that the animation powerhouse known as Pixar has to offer.

The Blue Umbrella is pure delight. Despite having essentially the same basic storyline as Disney Animation's equally astounding Paperman, the way this short executes that story is really quite creative and original. And don't even get me started on the whole visual aspect of the short - it's just, yeesh, beyond words. With all the clever inventiveness you'd expect from a Pixar short, plenty of eye candy to gawk at, and an unbelievably catchy soundtrack, The Blue Umbrella is another charming addition to the studio's flawless library of short films. I look forward to the day when director Saschka Unseld helms his own feature-length film at the studio.

Pixar Website Updated With MU & The Blue Umbrella

After several months of having Brave's Merida posing heroically on the home page of Pixar's official website, the site has been updated with summaries on the studio's latest projects, Monsters University and The Blue Umbrella in the "Feature Films" and "Short Films" sections of the website, respectively.

There's really nothing new on there, but I found it exciting enough to write a blog post on. Plus, Pixar's website is worth visiting every now and then, they have some pretty neat stuff.

February In Review

This month has been bursting with exciting Pixar news, so in case you missed any of it, here it is in a nutshell.

It was a big month for Monsters University, and it looks like Pixar have got their marketing campaign for the film in full swing. This month marked the release of the film's first full-length trailer, as well as the debut of a marvelous new poster - plus several other little tidbits, like a fantastic little promo.

Director Mark Andrews and producer Katherine Sarfian posing with the golden trophy 

The 85th Academy Awards took place just this past Sunday, and the Best Animated Feature statuette ended up going to Pixar's Brave. Congratulations to Brenda Chapman, Mark Andrews, Katherine Sarafian and all the talented artists and filmmakers that put together a wonder of a film!

Monsters, Inc. arrived on Blu-ray 3D this month, bringing with it Partysaurus Rex and a sneak peek at MU! I'll hopefully be picking it up shortly, but if you have already gotten around to buying it, feel free to share your thoughts on the release!

The latest short film to come up of the animation powerhouse, The Blue Umbrella, premiered on the 12th of this month at the Berlin International Film Festival, and a gorgeous poster (above) for the short was also released.

Reports began to show up that the hilarious Albert Brooks, voice of Marlin the clownfish in Finding Nemo, had officially signed on the voice the character once again in the rumored sequel to the 2003 film. If Nemo 2 is indeed a go, then at least it seems Brooks would likely return, because let's face it, you can't make a sequel to Nemo without him. Ellen DeGeneres (voice of Dory) is reportedly in talks to return as well, and director Andrew Stanton would helm the follow-up for sure.

I was originally skeptical of a sequel to Finding Nemo, but if it is really happening then I trust Pixar's judgement, and I doubt they would ever make a sequel just because it would be a huge box office hit. And apparently Stanton has got quite the idea, so I see little chance of them screwing up, especially if they've got the main cast back.

Regarding upcoming films from the studio, the official logo for Bob Peterson's The Good Dinosaur was revealed, and while it had already been rumored, the title for Pete Docter's ambitious 'Inside the mind' film has been officially confirmed to be The Inside Out. Hooray!

So now February comes to a close and we begin March. Rumor has it that a new Monsters University trailer may show up this month, so fingers crossed!

Jon Brion To Score 'The Blue Umbrella'

After sitting down to chat with director Saschka Unseld, Indiewire has confirmed that composer Jon Brion, who recently did the music for last year's ParaNorman, will be scoring Pixar's latest short film, The Blue Umbrella.

I'm quite looking forward to seeing what Brion has to offer, and that tiny bit of score we got in the 30-second clip released a few weeks ago sounded really promising.

On why they selected Jon Brion to score the short, Saschka Unseld said:

“He has this ability in creating these really catchy short melodies that stay with you. And that was something that we really needed for the short.”

The Blue Umbrella looks all set to become a huge critically-acclaimed hit. Speaking of critically-acclaimed shorts, Walt Disney Animation Studios uploaded onto YouTube yesterday their brilliant 2012 short film Paperman, which played in theaters back in November with the studio's equally amazing feature film Wreck-It Ralph. If you haven't already seen Paperman, you don't know what you're missing. Disney have proven with both this and Ralph that they are capable of creating masterpieces like those of Pixar. Watch and you will not be disappointed. Kudos to director John Kahrs and the entire crew at Disney Animation - Walt would be proud.

'The Blue Umbrella' Logo Revealed

The German Pixarblog has our first look at the logo for the upcoming Pixar short film, The Blue Umbrella, directed by Saschka Unseld. Over the years Pixar has developed the habit creating things that are simplistic yet elegant, much like this logo.

If you missed the official reveal of the short earlier this month, you can read more and watch a clip here.

The Blue Umbrella arrives in theaters this summer with Monsters University!

Pixar Unveils New Short "The Blue Umbrella"

With every new year comes not only a brand new feature film from Pixar, but also a magnificent little short which seems to always break new ground. Each of the studio's shorts is usually only around five minutes long, and yet they have such a powerful impact on those who see them, and each one is even more breathtaking than the last. This year Pixar presents a short film unlike any other they've ever done; The Blue Umbrella.

Have a look at a brief yet incredibly appetite-wetting 30-second clip of the short below:

Not even a full minute of footage and already this looks set to be one of the most astounding shorts Pixar has ever set out to make. YouTube commenters are saying things such as "30 seconds and already a better love story than Twilight" (and I quite agree).

The Blue Umbrella is six minutes long, directed by Pixar technical artist Saschka Unseld and tells the story of a lonely little blue umbrella falling for a red one in a world where inanimate objects come alive (and we all know how much Pixar loves bringing the inanimate to life). The short marks the first time that the studio attempts to create something that looks absolutely photorealistic, which you probably noticed when watching the short clip above. The crew had to overcome several challenges in order to nail the look, and who knows, now that they seem to have mastered how to do so we may see a full-length feature Pixar film done like this in the future.

I can't express how excited I am to see this, it looks like Pixar's most unique, spectacular short film to date - but I probably say that for every new short from the studio.

Read more over at The Wall Street Journal, and be sure to follow the short's director on Twitter, as well as the official viral marketing account for the short. Catch The Blue Umbrella in theaters this summer in front of Monsters University!