Disney/Pixar Unveil New Films For Man-Childs Around The Globe

At a major Disney event in London today, Disney/Pixar bigwig John Lasseter let a whole flurry of details slip about Disney and Pixar’s upcoming animated slate.

First, he confirmed the rumors that there will be a new “Winnie the Pooh” film, hitting in the spring of 2011 which made males in their ’20s weep with joy (me included). What isn’t confirmed is what shape the new film will take. Earlier reports had it as a kind of “Fantasia 2000,” with bits from earlier Disney adaptations of A. A. Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh” mixed in with brand new animation. Eeech, sounds potentially worrisome for everyone who grew up with the cherished animals. While the news reports claim it to be an “all new movie,” the fact that it’s based on “five of the author’s original stories,” sounds a lot like an anthology film of some kind. It marks the first time in 35 years that a feature film has tackled the beloved character. If they fuck this up there will be hell to pay.

Lasseter also revealed details of two upcoming Pixar sequels — “Cars 2” and next summer’s “Toy Story 3.”

In regards to “Toy Story 3,” he revealed that Timothy Dalton has joined the cast, playing Mr. Pricklepants, described by Empire online as “a hedgehog toy with thespian tendencies.” Mmkay. Empire speculates that Mr. Pricklepants will be the film’s villain, although our money is still on Lotso, the pink bear glimpsed briefly in “Up.” They also showed the footage from “Toy Story 3” (which, it should be reminded, was written by “Little Miss Sunshine’s” Michael Arndt) that was just screened in Venice, with Woody being accidentally thrown away, as well as a new trailer that should be attached to the “Toy Story”/”Toy Story 2” 3-D double feature in a few weeks.

There were also details on “Cars 2,” with the basic plot outline being summed up by Empire as: “The story sees Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson), his pit team and new pit boss Mater head around the world for the Race of Champions, to take place in five different countries and involve the champions of different disciplines”…. blah, blah, blah, lots of Happy Meals sold at some point.

This A storyline seems to intersect with a B storyline where Mater falls into a Hitchcockian case of mistaken identity with a James Bond-esque Aston Martin named Finn McMissle, and getting into separate adventures along the way. We all know that “Cars 2” is just in development to sell a whole bunch of merchandise, so with a whole continent full of new characters, they should be selling like hotcakes. Also, this will be timed to the opening of Cars Land at Disney’s California Adventure (summer 2012 – program it into your Blackberrys now), the centerpiece of which will be a sprawling thrill attraction called Radiator Springs Racer. Every little boy in America will be decked out head-to-toe in his “Cars” gear that summer. — Drew “I Collect Figurines” Taylor