What is Movie News After Dark? It’s your definitive source of Pixar pandering, at least for tonight. But hey, at least we get it out of the way in a single article. Try reading other sites — it’s Pixar this, Pixar that, even the new Batman reboot will be done by Pixar. Good grief. That said, we watched The Incredibles on Blu-ray this evening and it was INCR… you get the idea. Now on with the news. We begin tonight with news that excites me. It’s no secret that Max Brooks’ book “World War Z” is a personal favorite of mine. It’s exceptional in every possible way and one of the great zombie apocalypse stories ever written. So to see it come to life as a movie is risky, but worth it. When the project was reportedly in danger a few weeks ago, I was sad. But now I’m happy(ish) again, as a new report says that World War Z could get financing and even begin shooting this summer. If I could, I would will this project to happen. It may be impossible, but I’m going to try.

Pixar’s great, wonderful, incredible, stellar, etc. That goes without saying but must be said in every post about Pixar ever, because them’s the rules. However, one of the things Pixar has been lacking is a sole female lead to go on an adventure and win the day while learning a lesson. They’ve definitely distanced themselves from the Disney princess aesthetic, and it’s time for them to come a little closer. Brave is the story of a young Scottish princess named Merida who is skilled with a bow and with defying mystical, sacrosanct acts that bring down terrible fates on her people. So, she sets out to make things right with a sage older character, a magical wish, and some comic relief. The cast here is fantastic. Kelly MacDonald will voice Merida. Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson, and Robbie Coltrane are all on board as well. That’s a strong list right there. Plus, EW has some pictures that show off the view point and computerized beauty of their fictional Highlands (and what looks like painstaking concept art):

Why Watch? It’s from Pixar and it features a magician and a wily assistant bunny rabbit. The reasons to watch are pretty obvious. What Will It Cost? Just 5 minutes of your time. Does it get better any better than that? Check out Presto for yourself:

The director of such celebrated kiddy fare as The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, and Coraline is putting together his own production studio in San Francisco. Their first project, Shademaker, looks to frighten children and is already boasting some impressive talent behind the scenes. A job recruitment post for the production dug up by Cartoon Brew says this: “Cinderbiter is a new stop-motion company whose mandate is to make great, scary films for young ‘uns with a small, tight-knit crew who watch each other’s backs. Joining Henry on Cinderbiter’s first production will be veteran team member Eric Leighton and the celebrated production designer, Lou Romano. That’s right – Lou Romano!” Cinderbiter has since been renamed to Shademaker Productions, but clearly the important bit of info in that blurb is Lou Romano. He is a production designer who has worked on Pixar projects like Cars, Up, and Ratatouille. Pixar is probably the most successful movie studio going today and Selick’s films have legions of devoted fans (even if 90% of them think that Tim Burton made his movies).

There’s no secret that the certified sub-sections of “best picture” are not only somewhat backhanded, they’re getting increasingly more robbed of any shred of surprise at who the potential winner is as the Academy expands the number of films qualifying for the biggest prize. Increasing the number of nominees to ten whilst retaining the sub-categories of, generally, the same award (best animated *film*, best foreign *film*, best documentary *film*…) seems nearly needless; especially in this particular category because Pixar has removed any degree of competitiveness the past two years.

It isn’t because Pixar has a stronghold on the award of Best Animated Film itself (despite their current 4 for 6 record and running on 3 consecutive), but mainly because now that the Best Picture category has been extended to 10 films they’re more likely to have already announced the winner of a sub-category film by having announced the nomination of one (and only one) of the sub-category films in the larger category.

It is still nice to see as many films as possible get deserved recognition even though there’s about as close to a guarantee that they will lose as can possibly be without actually being able to guarantee a guarantee. Though, assuming the illogical can actually occur it would be interesting to see the black hole in the Oscarverse that would develop if Toy Story 3 is not announced as the victor.

As such, the Winner and two “Waydagoers” are…

Despite Toy Story 3 wrapping everything up in a neat little package and putting it away, Pixar isn’t finished with Woody and Buzz and all of their other little marketing machines from the franchise. While no new Toy Story feature has been announced (and I think to make one would be a mistake), there are some shorts featuring the characters that will be attached to upcoming films. It was first reported that the short attached to this summer’s Pixar movie Cars 2 would feature the Toy Story characters, and would be about the gang creating a tropical paradise for Barbie after she is left home during a Hawaiian vacation. Today it has been announced that yet another Toy Story short is being produced, this time to be attached to The Muppets, which is coming out in the fall.

Somewhere out there is a movie called Rio about a bird who’s afraid to fly. You’ve probably seen the commercials for it and bristled at George Lopez’s voice. Somewhere in the same universe, DisneyToon Studios is planning a spin-off of Cars called Planes about a, get this, plane that’s afraid to fly. His name is Dusty, and he’s going to prove everyone wrong by entering a race that goes around the world. A spin-off with a propeller. Fancy that. The project isn’t brand new, but it’s news that it won’t be a direct-to project. It’s getting the full theatrical release. According to JoBlo, the press release also says absolutely nothing about Pixar. In a way, that makes sense. Pixar is incredibly picky about their projects, so it stands to reason that if they didn’t want to take on this project, Disney wanted to for the sheer marketability of it. In the meantime, we’ll be thinking of more movies about things that are afraid to fly and counting the days until Trains gets announced. Hopefully it’ll be soon.

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this stuff late at night, what do you expect?

This year is the first in a while that Pixar hasn’t had a movie on our Most Anticipated List, but that might change next year since they’ll be re-introducing the world to Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc Fortunately, they’ll be doing so by taking us all back in time to the rowdy college days at the University of Fear where the two became friends. They’ll most likely go on some epic, wacky adventure between rounds of fear pong and chasing one-eyed co-eds. Making Monsters Inc 2 a prequel is a potentially great idea because it opens up the world to more explanation and the kind of adventure that won’t seem quite as forced as seeing Mike and Sully take down another bad guy in the corporate structure. Plus, you know, all the raves. [Twitch]

The year 2010 may have ended, but the cycle of movie news keeps on a-cyclin’. Most of the news this time of year has something to do with a list — the best, the worst and the otherwise notable performances, directorial efforts and nude scenes, just to name a few. Everyone wants to have their say and we at FSR may be the worst among them with our Year in Review. So you’ll have to excuse me if my innagural edition of Movie News After Dark, the movie news column you can read while mostly asleep, is full of other people’s “best of” lists. There are also some worthy surprises, I assure you…

If you were to tell me that you thought Cars to be one of the more mediocre and “kiddy” titles in the Pixar catalog, I’d be hard pressed to find any sort of argument for that. It is, on the Pixar spectrum, the low end of things. Charming, sure. But it lacks the heart and humanity the storytellers of Emeryville were able to pull of with far less human characters (see Wall-E and Toy Story 3). So the fact that the release of a trailer for Cars 2 comes not with a bang, but a whimper, should come as a surprise to absolutely know one. The gang — Owen Wilson voicing race car Lightning McQueen and Larry the Cable Guy voicing Mater the dimwit tow-truck — is back and this time they are headed oversees to Tokyo. There they get caught up in a world of flashing lights and international espionage. Espionage that will involve a British Aston Martin voiced by Michael Caine. At least I think it’s Michael Caine…

I’m sitting on the second row of my Senior year English class. My teacher, Mrs. Kallas (which was appropriately homophonic), uses her stringent voice to tell us the story of populism within the universe of The Wizard of Oz. The symbols of the political fight, the shoes, the farming scarecrow, the working tin man, something about William Jennings Bryan. It’s a great story, and all the symbols fit, but it’s not a good interpreation. For some reason, the myth of Wizard being an allegory for populism in the early 20th century has been perpetuated despite the true personal politics of L. Frank Baum. It’s a sign that anything can be read into anything. Enter Andrew Klavan and his editorial about Toy Story 3 as a political message against the politics of the current Democratic Party. Director Lee Unkrich responded to the infantile shoehorning of something relevant into something entertaining by saying, “Really? REALLY? Please keep Toy Story 3 out of your politics,” which is the appropriate response as a creator. Since I’m not the creator, I figured I’d have some fun with the idea and show how absurd Klavan’s article is by doing some shoehorning of my own. Here are three just-as-nonsensical interpretations of Toy Story 3.

For 36 days straight, we’ll be exploring the famous 36 Dramatic Situations by examining a film that exemplifies each one. From family killing family to prisoners in need of asylum, we brush off the 19th century list in order to remember that it’s still incredibly relevant today. Whether you’re seeking a degree in Literature, love movies, or just love seeing things explode, our feature should have something for everyone. If it doesn’t, please don’t put a snake in my boot. Part 35 of the 36-part series takes a look at “Rivalry of Superior and Inferior” with Toy Story.

The Marvel train is still rolling with Dr. Strange in the hopes of taking a C-level comic book and turning it into another hit. The tees aren’t crossed yet on any real deal, but the possibility that the magical man might end up at Pixar is still out there. The most recent sign – an interview with comic artist Brendan McCarthy saying, “I was over in Hollywood earlier this year mooching about, and I had a meeting at Disney and the conversation drifted around to Pixar animating a Dr. Strange movie.” It’s nothing set in stone, but putting the Pixar name behind the hero would definitely give him a popularity boost. On the other hand, taken on something out of their wheelhouse might hobble Pixar in a way. A Marvel fantasy hero doesn’t exactly fit into their body of work. They’ve seen an old man hit a construction worker and a batch of toys almost come to a violent death, but are they ready to take on a neurosurgeon learning black magic in the Himalayas? And does the world really want him animated? [Cinema Blend]

After a record-breaking opening weekend, it’s time to see how much Toy Story 3 can pull in in its second weekend out. It has Adam Sandler and that Tom Cruise guy to worry about, so I think it’s pretty safe.

On one hand we have Toy Story 3, a film that was able to break all kinds of box office records over the weekend. On the other hand, we have a film that had a worse opening weekend than Supergirl.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr opens up his toy box to look at Toy Story 3D and Jonah Hex.

Kevin and Neil meet up in the miraculously bird-free Magical Studio in the Sky to gush over the latest Pixar release – Toy Story 3. They also shrug their shoulders at Jonah Hex, not having had a chance to review it at the time of recording.

It’s time to take out your childish things. The toys are back, and they are looking to make buckets of cash. Toy Story 3 is, without a doubt, going to dominate this weekend, but are the anticipated numbers being thrown out just a little, too high?

Toy Story launched everything, and after millions of fans, billions of dollars in box office, and a shelf full of Academy Awards that might as well be labeled “Reserved for Pixar,” we find ourselves on board a train that refuses to slow down and seems to keep getting better with every new stop along the tracks. I was fortunate enough to speak with Lee Unkrich, the director behind Toy Story 3, and we discussed what makes toys upset, the personal tragedies in life that helped him tell the story, and what Pixar’s goals are for the future.