Brave; trailer for Pixar’s latest animated film...

A lot of people think Pixar made their first, big, misstep with Cars 2 this year. The first of their films to get a negative critical response (38% / 5.5 on Rotten Tomatoes) Cars 2 was seen as a largely commercial affair designed to make Disney billions of dollars in merchandising revenue by making the brand more popular overseas. John Lasseter refutes that suggestion and the fact remains that the film made an impressive $551.7m worldwide (including a jump from $217.9m to $360.4m from international markets.) and kids loved it.

Synopsis...

“Since ancient times, stories of epic battles and mystical legends have been passed through the generations across the rugged and mysterious Highlands of Scotland. In "Brave," a new tale joins the lore when the courageous Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald) confronts tradition, destiny and the fiercest of beasts. Merida is a skilled archer and impetuous daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson). Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the uproarious lords of the land: massive Lord MacGuffin (voice of Kevin McKidd), surly Lord Macintosh (voice of Craig Ferguson) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (voice of Robbie Coltrane). Merida's actions inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric old Wise Woman (voice of Julie Walters) for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to discover the meaning of true bravery in order to undo a beastly curse before it's too late.”

Brave features is the first Pixar film with a female lead character and it will be hoped that the film represents a return to form for Pixar, for those who didn’t like Cars 2 that is, and it is certainly looking beautiful. As ever there is an impressive voice cast with Kelly MacDonald, Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Julie Walters, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson and Robbie Coltrane all helping to remind us, just a tad, of Dreamworks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon.

Mirror, Mirror Trailer; Snow White movie number 1 has Julia Roberts play the Wicked Queen ‘Princess Bride’ style...

Fashionably late, or just late? Whilst Tarsem Singh’s Snow white film won the race of the release dates with Rupert Sanders Snow White & The Huntsman (SWATH) and Disney’s Order of The 7 (that was never in the race really); it’s been playing catch up, and losing, since the summer with SWATH in terms of releases and must see factor. After SWATH debuted its trailer last week, to an awful lot of praise & Buzz, Mirror, Mirror, which has only recently gotten a title, finally gets its teaser trailer out.

Snow White & The Huntsman trailer. Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron & Kristen Stewart take Snow White to war; is this trailer the fairest of them all? Yes, yes it is...

To set the scene SWATH has had 6,597,872 YouTube views since its trailer went onto YouTube 5 days ago; and that was after it had a day of iTunes trailer exclusivity! If you want to know more about what all 3 Snow White films have going for them please read this...

Snow White & The Huntsman - Snow white (Untitled Lilly Collins film) – (Snow White &) The Order of The Seven! A look at the three Snow White movies on the way & their directors work so far...

If this trailer shows us anything it is that the first two Snow White film should be able to coexist very easily as they are very different in approach and style. (Let's just say 'The Pricess Bride'!). Starring Julia Roberts, Lily Collins, Armie Hammer, Nathan Lane and Sean Bean. Mirror, Mirror is due out on the 16th of March 2012


Over to you Mirror, Mirror...

SWATH...

Happy Feet 2: 'Lil P-Nut' introduces the final trailer...

I admit I wasn’t the biggest fan of Happy Feet. I found it disjointed and a little dull in places. However millions did enjoy it and spent $384,335,608 so a sequel is definitely something the public wanted to see.

The film has managed to get an even bigger list of star names on the credits this time around as well as adding 3D to mix. Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Hank Azaria, Alecia Moore (P!nk), Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Sofia Vergara, Hugo Weaving, Richard Carter, Common, Magda Szubanski and Anthony LaPagila. 

So far, and it is early days, the film isn’t winning over critics. That’s hardly likely to put a dent in the film’s box office; however some fierce global competition from Tintin, Arthur Christmas, The Muppets, Puss In Boots, Hugo & Alvin & The Chipmunks 3 (shudders) could stop the film from making massive improvements on the first film’s gross though.

Synopsis...

“The sequel to the Academy Award(R) winning animated smash hit, "Happy Feet Two" returns audiences to the magnificent landscape of Antarctica in superb 3D. Mumble, The Master of Tap, has a problem because his tiny son Erik is choreo-phobic. Reluctant to dance, Erik runs away and encounters The Mighty Sven - a penguin who can fly!! Mumble has no hope of competing with this charismatic new role model. But things get worse when the world is shaken by powerful forces. Erik learns of his father's 'guts and grit' as Mumble brings together the penguin nations and all manner of fabulous creatures - from tiny Krill to giant Elephant Seals - to put things right.”

The Muppets are back in parody land! Twilight feels the force of Muppet Parody, but only in poster form this time...

I know I’m not the only one who was saddened by the news that the Muppet movie parodies were finished. Watching them has been a genuine highlight of the past 5 or 6 months and a lot of hopes for the movie come from the quality of the trailer parodies.

But here we get another slice of Muppet lampooning and it is also a reminder that, however difficult logistically, a Muppet hosted Oscar ceremony would have been epic!

The Muppets: Muppet Montage and 2 other movie clips...

Bella Swine just would not be funny coming from anyone else but the Muppets would it?

Synopsis...

“On vacation in Los Angeles, Walter, the world's biggest Muppet fan, and his friends Gary (Jason Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams) from Smalltown, USA, discover the nefarious plan of oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) to raze the Muppet Theater and drill for the oil recently discovered beneath the Muppets' former stomping grounds. To stage The Greatest Muppet Telethon Ever and raise the $10 million needed to save the theater, Walter, Mary and Gary help Kermit reunite the Muppets, who have all gone their separate ways: Fozzie now performs with a Reno casino tribute band called the Moopets, Miss Piggy is a plus-size fashion editor at Vogue Paris, Animal is in a Santa Barbara clinic for anger management, and Gonzo is a high-powered plumbing magnate.”

Release dates...

Country	Date
Canada	23-Nov-11
USA	23-Nov-11
Brazil	02-Dec-11
Singapore	08-Dec-11
Australia	01-Jan-12
New Zealand	01-Jan-12
Italy	04-Jan-12
Czech Republic	12-Jan-12
Hungary	12-Jan-12
Germany	19-Jan-12
Hong Kong	19-Jan-12
Turkey	27-Jan-12
Portugal	02-Feb-12
Denmark	09-Feb-12
Sweden	10-Feb-12
UK	10-Feb-12
Netherlands	15-Feb-12
Ireland	17-Feb-12
Lithuania	17-Feb-12
France	10-Apr-12