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First trailer for Pixar's 'Lightyear' shows the man behind the toy
The first trailer for Pixar's Lightyear just arrived, and it sure paints a different picture than what we're used to in the Toy Story universe. For one, the titular character isn't a toy, but a real flesh-and-blood human who appears to be the inspiration for the Buzz Lightyear figure we know so well.
Pixar animation pioneers win computing's most prestigious award
Every industry has its own version of the Nobel Prize. Film has the Oscars, the internet has the Webby Awards, music has the AMAs. Computing machinery, meanwhile, has The Turing Award, and that's just been given to the two individuals responsible for shaping 3D animation into the slick movies we know today. Patrick Hanrahan and Edwin Catmull -- both pioneers of Pixar's animation technology -- have been named as this year's recipients of the prestigious prize, which has been running since 1966.
Disney's Bedtime Hotline for kids is back for two weeks (starring Yoda it does)
Getting your wee ones to head to bed can be a chore. But what if the kids had a goodnight phone call from Spider-Man or Elsa from Frozen to look forward to? Polygon reported that Disney's Bedtime Hotline, which allows kids to hear good night messages from classic Disney characters like Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald Duck, is back in operation. Children will now also be able to hear from newer characters from the Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar universes, such as Yoda from Star Wars, Spider-Man, Woody from Toy Story and more.
Create your own 'Toy Story' sequel with free tools from Pixar
Renderman is the in-house software that Pixar uses to produce its amazing animated films, oh, and Cars. The studio charges a pretty penny to license it out to its rivals, but doesn't feel that hobbyists and students should cough up those same fees. That's why it's going to give the full version of Renderman v.19 away for free when it launches at SIGGRAPH in August. Unlike other trial versions of high-end software, the company isn't hobbling the tool, instead, it's just trusting you to use it for non-commercial purposes only. Who knows, maybe you'll spend the next year building up a showreel that'll swing you a job over at Emeryville -- wouldn't that be the dream, eh?
Toy Story's claw machine among five toy boxes added to Disney Infinity
Disney Interactive offered five new toy boxes for Disney Infinity owners to play with this week. Two of the toy boxes are inspired by the Toy Story films: the Toy Story Claw and Toy Story Racer stages. Toy Story Claw has players searching for ten lost aliens in a claw machine, whereas Toy Story Racer takes place in a space-themed racetrack. The other new Disney Interactive-created toy boxes introduced this week are Big Thunder, inspired by the Big Thunder Mountain attraction at Disneyland, as well as Sky Gauntlet 2 and The Sky Trials. Disney Infinity recently received new characters, including Wreck-It Ralph and Tangled's Rapunzel.
Video: Full presentation of John Lasseter accepting the Disney Legends Award on Steve Jobs' behalf
While Apple will always be remembered by the general public as Steve Jobs' greatest accomplishment, his contribution to film history by helping build Pixar may end up being his unsung legacy. Pixar's cutting edge technology and commitment to exceptional storytelling changed children's films from something parents could enjoy to something adults should seek out. At this year's D23 Expo, a Comic Con of sorts held by Disney for Disney fans, Jobs was posthumously awarded the Disney Legends award for his work in building Pixar into the inspirational source of storytelling magic we know and love today. Jobs' longtime friend and Pixar co-founder John Lasseter (at right above) accepted the award, giving an emotional speech that tells the history of Pixar while providing a thoughtful look at his friend's legendary work ethic. Lasseter is often moved to tears throughout the speech, recalling a thoughtful conversation the two had during a difficult portion of the development of Toy Story. "We were having dinner one day, in the middle of the hardest part of making 'Toy Story', and he started looking off again in the distance and he said: You know John, when we make the computers at Apple. He said the lifespan of that computer is what, three years? He said in five years it's a door stop. Ya know, that's how technology goes. But he said 'if you do your job right what you create and what Pixar creates can last forever." Clips from the speech were published online following the event but now the full presentation has been uploaded, including Lasseter's introduction which highlights Pixar's accomplishments over the years. You can view the full presentation below.
Rumor: Disney Infinity is a sandbox game for consoles, iOS and Android
Next month, Disney Infinity will be revealed to the press at an event in Los Angeles. Aside from a lenticular invitation, there's nothing else concrete on Disney Infinity right now.According to a Polygon source, what we're going to see is an open-world sandbox game with characters from Disney and Pixar. It mixes elements of Minecraft, such as building, with Just Cause's open-world gameplay – if you played Toy Story 3: The Video Game, it sounds reminiscent of that game's Toy Box mode. In fact, "Toy Box" is a codename for a project that sounds an awful lot like these rumors about Disney Infinity.Disney Infinity is rumored to be on multiple platforms, including current consoles, iOS and Android devices, with development duties falling squarely on Utah-based Avalanche Software, the same developer responsible for Toy Story 3: The Game. According to Polygon's report, the mobile versions of Disney Infinity lacked the building aspects seen in the console versions. It also suggests that Disney considers the game as a "platform" to be expanded with more characters and scenarios as time goes by.
Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure CES screens are new, recycled
Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure brings five modern-classic animated films into real, still-animated life this March. The following screens offer a glimpse of each movie -- Cars, Toy Story, The Incredibles, Up and Ratatouille -- and how they'll transfer to motion controls. We're not entirely sure which full-body gesture is required for "riding sewage like it's a boat," but it appears we'll get the chance to find out with Kinect Rush. Thanks, Pixar. %Gallery-144735%
Oh god, they're probably making a Farmville movie
Never before have our hearts received news with such confusion: In a recent interview with IGN, Toy Story writers Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen hinted at their next project: A movie adaptation of Zynga's Farmville franchise. "We're in conversations with Zynga to do something with one of their brands," they teased. "Can't really say too much on that front yet, but 'Old MacDonald' didn't have a factory, if you get our drift." We do not get your drift. Your drift makes us sad. We trust the two to craft a compelling story, but we worry there's not enough rich source material for them to base it on. All we know is we're not looking forward to receiving a hundred daily invitations to go to the movie from our distant, distant cousins and fourth grade math teachers.
Pizza Planet invades LittleBigPlanet 2 with Toy Story costumes and level kit DLC
As if the Toy Story universe wasn't endearing and heartwarming enough, Pixar's plastic pals will be upping the adorable ante by donning sackboy skins and setting foot on LittleBigPlanet 2. Come August 8, Buzz Lightyear, Slinky Dog, Rex, and Hamm costumes will be available individually for $1.99, or as a toy-chest of memories for $5.99. Costumes aren't the only thing The Claw managed to grab however, as a Toy Story Level Kit will also be available for $5.99, featuring 9 new levels and 2 new music tracks, as well as materials, decorations, stickers, and an Alien costume exclusive to the pack. To quote a great philosopher: "OOOOOOOooooooo."%Gallery-129610%
VUDU, Walmart and Disney join forces, add a free streaming copy to Toy Story 3 Blu-ray discs
Walmart is showing how it might make use of VUDU after purchasing the 1080p movie streaming house earlier this year, now that the two have teamed up with Disney to throw in a free digital copy of Toy Story 3 with each one purchased at the store on DVD or Blu-ray. When the movie goes on sale today, customers will receive a download code they can use on their nearest VUDU player (now including Boxee on the Box, PC or Mac) to stream some Buzz and Woody at any time without a disc involved. Walmart and VUDU are quick to describe this mix of physical and digital access as the future of content, and we're thinking this type of promotion is about to become much more widespread since Amazon's already offered a similar deal with Disc+, and Best Buy purchased CinemaNow specifically for this type of offer. The only question now is if customers will start asking "which streaming service does this connect to?" before they run out to buy a new Blu-ray instead of simply looking for the lowest price or other promotional tie-in.
Toy Story 3 Blu-ray listed on Amazon for December 10, could it be 3D?
If you're hoping to see more domestically released Blu-ray 3D titles this year you may want to raise your alert level as Blu-ray.com reports, among other retailer information, on a mysterious listing for Toy Story 3 on December 10. The regular release has already been listed for November 2, in both two disc Blu-ray set, three disc BD/DVD/digital copy combo pack and 10-disc trilogy form, but since it's not among the exclusives announced earlier this week from Disney, seeing the top grossing flick of 2010 at home in 3D this year seems like a real possibility.
Toy Story 10-disc box set pops up for preorder on Amazon
If you were worried that the upcoming four disc Blu-ray/DVD/digital copy release of Toy Story 3 (the highest grossing animated film of all time, btw) on November 2 just didn't have enough discs, a 10-disc set with all three Toy Story movies on Blu-ray, plus digital copies and DVD versions of all of them has appeared on Amazon. TheHDRoom pointed out the listing and that there's no official info, but right now $70 brings home the aforementioned discs plus one more that likely holds bonus features. We've gone back and forth on the value of these extra disc sets for various reasons, but this may just be pushing it too far.
Toy Story 3 Hybrid Premium Edition contains PS3 game and original movie
If your concern for the well-being of mother nature has already led you to purchase a hybrid automobile, you might want to think of incorporating your environmentalist considerations into other aspects of your shopping habits. For instance, if you were thinking about picking up Avalanche's video game adaptation of Toy Story 3, perhaps you'd be interested in the title's "Hybrid Premium Edition," which includes the game and the original Toy Story film on a single Blu-ray disc for $64.99. A recent PlayStation.Blog post announced that the bundle will be released to retailers this week, so keep an eye out for it at your local brick and mortar in the coming days. In the meantime just think about all the endangered species you're preserving by placing the two products into one container.
The Daily Grind: What do shelved characters think while they wait for us to love them again?
Did you see Toy Story 3? I didn't, but that's because I'm a grown man who's trying to cut down on the number of times that I cry in public. I'll wait for the DVD release, thank you very much, and curl up on my couch sobbing for computer-generated toys who have been somehow possessed with souls and are accompanied by a whimsical soundtrack. Anywhodiddle, the appeal of the Toy Story series is in flipping perspective and seeing the world through a toy's eyes instead of a child's. In a silly yet fun way, it's interesting to speculate on what a toy might think and do when we're not around. Likewise, we might wonder what our MMO toons think while they wait patiently on the character selection screen until we come around again. When we abandon a game for a long stretch of time -- or even forever -- it's not uncommon to feel a pang of guilt at the thought of a lonely avatar sitting there, hoping that we'll come back to join her in further adventures. Pardon for this somewhat whimsical Daily Grind topic today, but if MMO characters had a secret life of their own, what do you think they say and do as they wait for us to return?
Toy Story 3 in 4K 3D: does higher-res equal higher enjoyment?
We'll be straight with you, the Engadget staff is somewhat ambivalent about 3D: some of us believe it to be a gimmick, while others see it as a legitimate advance in film technology that takes our movie enjoyment up to its next logical station. What you won't find us disagreeing on, however, is that everything looks better when it's taken to a 4K resolution. Sony has been busy rolling out its new 4K projectors across the US and Europe, and invited us yesterday to see Toy Story 3 in some ultra-advanced 4K 3D. Because of it having four times the resolution of the more conventional 2K stuff -- which Avatar, the big 3D (and 4D) flagship, was delivered in -- Sony's projector is able to deliver both the left- and right-eye frame on the screen at the same time, rather than having to alternate them in hummingbird fashion. That should ideally provide a more pleasurable overall experience for the viewer and ultimately pay off for the company in more people ponying up more cash for the extra goodness. So, we moseyed along to an Apollo Cinema in central London -- the chain has already installed Sony's hero 4K projectors in 11 of its venues -- and all you'll need to do is click past the break to see what we thought.
RealD's smaller 3D glasses ensure your kids look a little less goofy in theaters
Some things work when it comes to "one size fits all," but other things don't. Hats? Maybe. 3D glasses? Not so much. Thankfully, then, RealD is introducing sets of specs for theater goers aged eight and below -- or really anyone with a kid-sized head. Like the other glasses handed out at theaters these are individually packaged to ensure they're "clean and fresh for every moviegoer." Because, you know, nobody likes a skanky pair of peepers. These little-sized glasses will be available for your little ones at showings of Toy Story 3 starting this weekend.
Toy Story 3: The Video Game: The Developer Diary
You probably don't want to write off Toy Story 3 just because it's a licensed title. We actually had a lot of fun with it and the latest dev diary above shows that Disney and Avalanche are committed to putting out a quality product. It's not simply a slapped together title attempting to cash in on the movie. There's an actual deep experience here, from the promising platforming shown in the video above, down to the unique character abilities and meticulously recreated environments. And let's not forget that "Toy Box" mode our inner child yearns for. Toy Story 3 launches on June 15 for pretty much everything.
Toy Story 3 on PS3 features Move support, exclusive character
As with most major children's films, Toy Story 3 will have a licensed video game counterpart, releasing on nearly every platform imaginable -- including platforms from the future. Disney Interactive Studios has confirmed PlayStation Move motion controller support for Toy Story 3. Like Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition, the game won't offer motion controller support out of the box. The reason? Toy Story 3's release date -- June 15 -- is months before the Move controller is even available. A press release clarifies that "players will be able to download mini-games that will be playable with the PlayStation Move when the new motion controller is available." Excellent, motion controller mini-games! We can't wait! Until then, PS3 owners will be able to enjoy additional content exclusive to the platform. As with Batman: Arkham Asylum, Sony has secured exclusive rights to yet another playable villain. The slightly less disturbed Emperor Zurg will be playable in the game's "Toy Box" mode, a sandbox mode that allows players to create and play free-form challenges.%Gallery-92107%
Toy Story 3 trailer explains the customizable 'Toy Box' mode
We've got to hand it to Avalanche Software: You guys sure know how to inject a modicum of ingenuity into an extremely tired genre. For instance, the upcoming game adaptation of Toy Story 3 was off our proverbial radar moments after it was first announced -- however, a recent trailer for the game's "Toy Box" mode, which allows its (presumably juvenile) players to make their own levels and missions, it's now taking up a tiny place in our minds. (And our hearts.) Check out the highly customizable trailer above.