To be released after Brave and Monsters University...

The recent controversy about the importance (or otherwise) of story in blockbusters, sparked by comments made by the CTO of Disney, aside, there’s no doubt that for Pixar, story comes first. So any news of further Pixar films is always cause for joy and happiness.

At Disney’s D23 convention in Anaheim today, John Lasseter announced two more upcoming Pixar films. Though untitled, the provisional titles nonetheless provide some indication of the nature of each project.

The first will be Untitled Pixar Movie about Dinosaurs, scheduled for (presumably Christmas) holiday 2013. According to THR, “The story is set in a world where an asteroid didn’t hit the Earth, thus allowing the creatures to keep living and evolving.” It will be directed by Bob Petersen (co-director of Up) and produced by John Walker. There’s no word on whether Toy Story's Rex (voiced by Wallace Shawn) will appear, though there’s obvious potential for him to be faced with a (no doubt highly amusing) crisis of identity on discovering the continuing existence of real dinosaurs.

And such a crossover would be in line with Pixar’s strategy of continuing the Toy Story franchise in short films such as those preceding this summer’s Cars 2 and the upcoming The Muppets, as well as the purported, arguably less advisable Toy Story 4. Though little in the way of details are known about that project, so who knows? Perhaps Pixar, who notably set out to avoid going down the route of making a bad, cash-in sequel with Toy Story 2, and arguably surpassed the original, can find a way to make it work, despite Toy Story 3’s pretty much perfect ending to the trilogy.

The second has the unusual working title of Untitled Pixar Movie that You See Inside the Brain, which conjures up images of watching it using technology such as that featured in Bryan Singer’s upcoming web series H+. However, director Pete Docter (Up) has said that the story will concern “how we forget, why certain songs get stuck in our heads”. So, like a family-friendly version of Dollhouse, then…?

It’s set to take audience members inside the head; as Docter says, “It’s a place that we’ve all been to but have never seen.” Scheduled for summer 2014, and produced by Jonas Rivera, the film is in the early stages now.

This is in addition for the two mysterious Marvel projects slated for May 16, 2014 and June 27, 2014. Some have speculated that these could be Captain America 2 and Dr. Strange, though no further official details have been released. Speaking of Marvel, the live blog of a reportedly awesome Avengers panel from D23 can be found here.

In celebration of Pixar’s 25^th anniversary, the animated part of the presentation ended by bringing out lots of the creators at the studio, and announcing “Cupcakes for everyone!”, which staffers then duly dispensed to the audience. Wonderful films and cupcakes? It’s like Pixar’s a sunshine and happiness factory run by puppies and kittens! Or something.

Go Into the Story

See also:

Disney Pixar's Brave trailer hits the web

Aardman’s The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists trailer

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