Christmas is many things to many people; a time of happiness, a time of reflection, a time to be grateful for what you have. It is a time for a veritable barrage of films which literally cut-and-paste the same plot elements every. single. year. Now, I have absolutely no problem with Christmas, and I like to think I’m quite tolerant when it comes to giving films a chance, but when it comes to Christmas films, I’m a complete Scrooge. Christmas with the Kranks, then, represented something of interest to myself, given the plot is to Christmas what I am to Christmas films.

Luther (Tim Allen) and Nora (Jamie Lee Curtis) decide to use their first Christmas without their daughter at home to escape on a cruise, a deal sweetened by the fact that their trip costs just half of what they normally spend on the holiday season. With these savings in mind, Luther takes the inexplicable and completely unexplained decision to create a self-imposed ban on Christmas for himself and his wife – no decorations, no cards, no Shrek the Halls (presumably). If Luther’s move to completely veto Christmas seems odd and extreme at first, it appears nothing short of suicidal when it becomes apparent that Christmas with the Kranks is set in a nightmarish parallel universe where the ritual of putting up Christmas decorations is enforced by a sort of neighbourhood-watch Gestapo.

Comparing decorating the street for Christmas with Nazi Germany may seem excessive, but Christmas with the Kranks really must be seen to be believed. Suspension of disbelief is not an option here. The neighbours spy, guilt trip, and intimidate, and the Kranks even make the front page of their local paper for skipping Christmas, but still they stick to it. In fact, Luther is so steadfast in his Christmas boycott that he refuses to make any charitable donations, and makes ice all over his driveway so he can stop the postman getting to the door (how dare he try to do his job?). Naturally, by the end of the film he has seen the error of his ways, but not before convincing the viewer that he’s a miserly, risible character.

If it’s not enough that the entire plot centres around an entirely avoidable situation (the Kranks are saving money by going on the cruise, not spending more, which would have been more understandable), essentially all the jokes and set-pieces do as well. One lengthy sequence has Nora and Luther crawling around on their hands and knees to try to avoid being seen by carollers. It’s never explained why they’re so desperate to get to the front of the house and thus as close to the people they’re trying to avoid as they can, rather than just going to the back of the house. In another scene, Luther appears having had Botox. Again, no reasoning is given as to why, other than a cheap visual gag, and it completely defeats the point of trying to save money by skipping Christmas. It’s lazy, formulaic stuff.

There are a couple of occasions where Nora believes her husband is propositioning her and ‘readies’ herself, which is not what you expect or want to see in a wholesome family Christmas comedy, particularly when the chemistry between the two leads is best described as slightly creepy. As Nora tells Luther ‘make sure you shut the curtains!’, you’ll be praying they shut the lens cap too. Allen and Curtis are both fine in their roles, but there’s only so much they can do with such a limited script and such unlikable, irritating characters.

Naturally, the film can’t have the Kranks succeeding in their revolutionary war against the police state ruling their street and going on their cruise, as that wouldn’t be Christmassy. Instead, the final hour of the film is dedicated to their efforts to pull off a complete about-face as their daughter announces she will be returning to surprise them for Christmas and expects all her favourite traditions. The two halves of the film contrast so violently (one avoiding Christmas at all costs, one the stock ‘need to get ready for Christmas with very little time’ plot) it feels as though two separate scripts have been forced together to make one whole.

The plot limps through the second half of the film, again relying on the audience not picking up on the various contradictions and frankly implausible situations. Given their relentless harassment campaign of the Kranks to put up their decorations, the Gestapo seem extremely reluctant to give Luther and Nora any help whatsoever and revel in their disorganisation. Christmas must just bring out the bastard in people. Luther is even arrested at one point, one officer (Cheech Marin) sneering ‘shoulda bought a calendar’. The key question the film poses is not ‘will the Kranks manage to avoid Christmas?’ or ‘will they have their party ready in time?’, nor is it about what Christmas ‘means’, but simply, ‘why the hell do they live on this street?’

Written by Matt Clough

The Muppets is in US cinemas today and we have to wait flippin ages until February 2012 to see it. No, we are NOT happy! Another reason that we are not happy is that the short film which will sit in front of The Muppets is a new one from Pixar using Toy Story and has the name Small Fry. We’ve seen a couple of images and a clip already but I think this one might be my favourite as it shows Mini Buzz getting to meet Mini Zurg. I guess if he met normal-sized Zurg it would be an unfair fight!

The voice cast is comprised of Tom Hanks​, Tim Allen, John Ratzenberger​, Wallace Shawn​, Joan Cusack​, Estelle Harris​,Don Rickles, Jane Lynch, Teddy Newton, Emily Hahn, Angus MacLane, Lori Alan​, Josh Cooley, Jess Harnell​, Bret Parker, Emily Forbes, Kitt Hirasaki, Peter Sohn, Carlos Alazraqui​, Bob Bergen​, Timothy Dalton, Jason Topolski, Jim Ward with Angus MacLane helming the short.

Buzz Lightyear is left behind at a fast food restaurant when a kids’ meal toy version of Buzz takes his place. While Bonnie’s toys are stuck with the annoying three-inch-tall Buzz impersonator, the real Buzz is trapped in the restaurant at a support group for discarded toys. As Woody and the gang devise a way to rescue their friend, Buzz tries to escape the toy psychotherapy meeting.

This image comes from the Toy Story official Facebook page.

Disney Pixar have just sent over the first clip from Small Fry, the Short that will sit in front of The Muppets when it’s released next year on 10th February. Last week we got to see the first two images it and now we get our first clip which is just as awesome as every other Toy Story movie that we’ve seen! In it, we get to see Buzz trying to escape the fast food restaurant and ending up in a support group for ‘Discarded Fun Meal Toys’.

The voice cast is comprised of Tom Hanks​, Tim Allen, John Ratzenberger​, Wallace Shawn​, Joan Cusack​, Estelle Harris​,Don Rickles, Jane Lynch, Teddy Newton, Emily Hahn, Angus MacLane, Lori Alan​, Josh Cooley, Jess Harnell​, Bret Parker, Emily Forbes, Kitt Hirasaki, Peter Sohn, Carlos Alazraqui​, Bob Bergen​, Timothy Dalton, Jason Topolski, Jim Ward with Angus MacLane helming the short.

Buzz Lightyear is left behind at a fast food restaurant when a kids’ meal toy version of Buzz takes his place. While Bonnie’s toys are stuck with the annoying three-inch-tall Buzz impersonator, the real Buzz is trapped in the restaurant at a support group for discarded toys. As Woody and the gang devise a way to rescue their friend, Buzz tries to escape the toy psychotherapy meeting.

Disney Pixar have just sent over the first image (and Stitch Kingdom provided the second) and some new details about the brand new Toy Story short, ‘Small Fry’ which will sit in front of The Muppets when it’s released February 10th in the UK.

Buzz Lightyear is left behind at a fast food restaurant when a kids’ meal toy version of Buzz takes his place. While Bonnie’s toys are stuck with the annoying three-inch-tall Buzz impersonator, the real Buzz is trapped in the restaurant at a support group for discarded toys. As Woody and the gang devise a way to rescue their friend, Buzz tries to escape the toy psychotherapy meeting.

The voice cast is extensive and includes Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn, Joan Cusack, Estelle Harris,Don Rickles, Jane Lynch, Teddy Newton, Emily Hahn, Angus MacLane, Lori Alan, Josh Cooley, Jess Harnell, Bret Parker, Emily Forbes, Kitt Hirasaki, Peter Sohn, Carlos Alazraqui, Bob Bergen, Timothy Dalton, Jason Topolski, Jim Ward with Angus MacLane helming the short.

We CANNOT WAIT to see it and it feels so good to be writing about Toy Story again!

Love this image, click it below to enlarge.

In an interview with Tom Hanks on the BBC Breakfast Show this morning, he told the BBC that not only is Toy Story 4 going ahead, but that it’s being worked on right now, Ain’t It Cool News report.

A decade had lapsed in between the releases of the second and third films, which left a lot of fans in doubt as to how good Toy Story 3 would be, but when it was released last year, it was received with rapturous applause from all over, being the first animated film to clear the $1bn. mark.

So whilst some people may take news of Toy Story 4’s announcement with a bit of a small sigh, just remember how good Toy Story 3 was, and have faith in Pixar that they’ll be bringing back Woody and co. in another brilliant film in the Toy Story series. Lee Unkrich didn’t miss a beat in his direction of the third film, and having worked on the series since the beginning (as an editor on the first film, and co-director on the second), he clearly loves these toys as much as we all do.

It was Toy Story 3 that was the first of the series to win an Academy Award, winning both Best Animated Feature Film (for Unkrich) and Best Original Song (for Randy Newman’s We Belong Together), so clearly the series is still doing tremendously well. And though a lot of people felt the third film did have quite a nice feel at its close to finish off the Toy Story films, I think Pixar will make sure that this coming fourth film will stay true to the series and give the fans something we’ll all love.

Since it was Unkrich who delivered such a brilliant film with Toy Story 3 as director, there’s every chance that he’ll be coming back to direct the fourth film. It was first time directing a feature solo, and he won an Academy Award for it, so he’s already proven in my mind that he’d be the perfect choice for the next film. Having said that, there is of course a good chance that he’d return to co-direct the film with John Lasseter, director of the first two and chief creative officer at Pixar.

Being such a big franchise, I don’t think any of us need to worry about the original cast reprising their roles; that’s pretty much a given. Everyone knows that Tom Hanks is the voice of Woody and Tim Allen is the only one who can do Buzz Lightyear, and I’m definitely already looking forward to hearing them and everyone else bring those characters back to life.

No news yet as to a potential release date, but given that work is already underway on the film, hopefully we can look forward to seeing this released in a few years’ time. Monsters University, the Monsters, Inc. sequel, has a summer 2013 release date currently scheduled, so maybe we’ll be seeing Toy Story 4 in the summer of 2014, or with any luck, even before then. I don’t think anyone will begrudge them wanting to take their time to make sure they get it right.

I’m also hoping that Hayao Miyazaki’s Totoro will be returning in CGI form for the fourth film after his cameo in Toy Story 3, but I’ll have to wait a few years to see whether or not that happens. Until then, I’ll leave you with this brilliant line from the third film to spark a little nostalgia into the start of your week:

“The thing that makes Woody special is: he’ll never give up on you. Ever.”

Building on their years of work in sfx when part of the computer division of LucasFilm, and their subsequent incarnation as a pioneering hardware company with an animation department that produced computer-animated commercials for other companies, Pixar’s Toy Story was their first feature-length film and the first in a three-picture $26 million deal with Walt Disney Feature Animation. Prior to Disney’s confirmation that they would distribute Toy Story as a major release during the 1995 holiday season, owner Steve Jobs (who purchased the company from George Lucas in in 1986) considered selling the company as it was losing money, even after selling off the hardware division and dramatically scaling back the number of employees. The world’s first entirely CGI-animated feature went on to gross over $360 million U.S. world-wide, and literally changed the course of feature-film animation, announcing the arrival of a truly innovative force not just in animation but in American cinema.

In 1995-96, I was working as the UK label manager for French soundtrack imprint Milan Records. We licenced score albums from most of the major studios, including Disney, which is how I came to be on the mailing list for taste-maker screenings of their animated features. These were always held on Sunday mornings at the Leicester Square Odeon, and were usually a few months ahead of UK theatrical release dates. These screenings were full of industry and media people (and the occasional footballer and his family), the idea being to get good word of mouth circulating amongst the cognoscenti with children before their films opened, and Disney always gave out a cool bit of promo swag for the kids as well. My oldest son was around 3 at the time, and I had managed to secure two double passes for these screenings, which I usually invited my son’s best friend from nursery and her dad to come to with us. My memory might be playing tricks with me, but I think Toy Story was the first of these Sunday screenings that we had tickets for.

I recall an excited buzz in the cinema that Sunday morning as the film had already opened to great acclaim and success in North America. This was however before the days of the web and the world of chatter, promotional onslaught and finely tuned anticipation that we live in now, so I really had no expectations (I hadn’t see any clips or a trailer) other than a fun Sunday morning outing with my boy. Within five minutes of the screening beginning, I was enraptured by the story of Woody and Buzz and the other toys in a way that I could not have imagined I would have been viewing a ‘children’s’ film under the auspices of Disney. Not only was it stunning to look at, but the script was genuinely witty and knowing and possessed of real heart, and didn’t talk down to children (it was the first animated film to be nominated for a Best Screenplay Academy Award – Adapted or Original). As a parent who hated all things twee and PC (from Barney to the painfully naff offerings of most children’s entertainers), it was fantastic to be able to watch something with my son that I enjoyed every bit as much as he did – and probably even more.

As we filed out of the cinema afterwards, that all too rare communal sense of real joy was in the air; we adults knew we had just witnessed something extraordinary, and there was much grinning and head shaking all around. The film that started it all is the lowest grossing of Pixar’s 11 feature films to date (with Toy Story 3 at the top of their table, and all animated features ever, having grossed in excess of $1 billion world-wide), and while I look forward to every new release (I took my friends’ seven year old Theo to see Toy Story 3 last year), it’s impossible to re-capture that real sense of cinematic magic I experienced on a Sunday morning in Leicester Square some 15 years ago.

Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich is often to be found on Twitter in a state of excitement as his wonderful film continues to break records and garner critical and commercial love and affection wherever it goes.

We followed him through the development of the acclaimed third Toy Story film and he was a willing and generous tweeter, and he’s clearly still in big love with his film, and last night he tweeted this.

The answer is obvious and you can go to the Disney Awards 2010 page to download the script. It’s a testament to the actors and filmmakers that even the words on the cold page convey the charm and character of the film, and with a story from John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich screenwriter Michael Arndt must have had the time of his life.

While it downloads click here for more toy related fun.

You may remember back in March, along with a group of other awesome bloggers and YouTubers from around the world, I got to visit Pixar, see a very early screening of Toy Story 3 and the short that sits before it, Day and Night and meet the creators of the phenomenal movie that is released in UK cinemas TODAY.

While I was there, I got to meet Pixar Archivist, Christine Freeman (view here), Stereoscopic Supervisor , Bob Whitehill (view here), Production Designer, Bob Pauley (view here) and Lead Animators, Bobby Podesta and Mike Venturini (view here) and finally director Lee Unkrich and producer Darla K. Anderson which went up earlier today here.

One thing we didn’t get to do was interview the cast but fear not as our friends from Upbeat did and managed to get us our own interviews which you can see here. In the interview, we get to meet, Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Michael Keaton, John Ratzenberger, Timothy Dalton, Joan Cusack and any more talk about Toy Story 3 of which they are all very proud and so they should be!

Thanks to Simon Thompson especially for conducting the interviews for us. As I mentioned, Toy Story 3 is out today in UK cinemas. Whatever you’re doing this evening, cancel it and go and watch this movie, then, tomorrow, cancel everything else and go and see Inception! So far the two best movies of the year so far. Then, roll on Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Tron: Legacy!

Threequels: traditionally the point when a movie franchise sells out and quality goes out of the window.

The Matrix, Spider-man, Shrek, even The Godfather: all series that were creatively bankrupt and utterly out of steam by the time their respective third film lurched into cinemas.

So all hail Pixar then, who have confounded the ‘threequels are rubbish’ rule with this stunning (and hopefully final) third installment in the Toy Story saga.

Why “hopefully final”? Don’t get us wrong, we’ve certainly not fallen out of love with Woody, Buzz, Mr Potato Head or the rest of the gang. Far from it. No,  it’s because Toy Story 3 deals with themes like death, mortality and growing up in such a subtle but gut-wrenching way that dragging the characters back again in five years time – after what they go through this time round – would feel just plain sadistic.

There’s an ‘end of an era’ vibe in Toy Story 3 that is simply and beautifully set-up ten minutes in. After a stunning opening action scene showing Andy, back when he was a 10-year-old, playing an elaborate and hugely imagination scenario with all his favourite toys (the highlight is a nuclear-mushroom cloud of monkeys) we cut to 8 years later. Andy is packing for college, and the toys are relegated to the toybox. In their desperation to simply “be played with”, Woody and friends hatch an ill-fated plan involving Andy’s phone to try and get his attention. It fails however: Andy’s just not interested in playing anymore. Rex the dinosaur is so grateful for any human contact that when his owner picks him up, only to toss him away he shouts “Andy touched me!” excitedly over-and-over again.

It’s a funny scene, but also one that’s also desperately sad and one that tells the audience that the toy’s ultimate destiny – the loft (heaven) or the trash can (hell) – is looming ever closer.

However – via an inventive series of narrative contrivances – the toys soon arrive at a kind of purgatory instead in the form of the sinisterly-monikered ‘Sunnyside Day-Centre’. Upon their arrival they meet a whole crew of new toys lead by the initially charming Lots O’ Huggin’ bear (Lotso for short). His cronies however (apart from the metrosexual Ken) – including the creepy Big Baby and the psychotic Cymbal Monkey – are not quite so welcoming.

Indeed it soon becomes clear that Lotso is rotten to the core and that Sunnyside isn’t the toy haven Andy’s playthings imagined. They are dumped in the room with the youngest (“age-inappropriate”) kids to be chewed, thrown and smothered in glue by day, and locked up in boxes by night.  Sunnyside is a prison, and (of course) the setting for a perfectly realised ‘great escape’ set piece two thirds through the movie.

If all this all this talk of prison camps and mortality makes Toy Story 3 sound rather depressing then you couldn’t be more wrong. This is still utterly adorable and incredibly funny flick. As you’d expect, Pixar has packed in some comedy gold, the highlights including a Spanish-speaking Buzz Lightyear, Ken’s dressing up room and (our favourite) Mr Potato head swapping his usual torso for a taco. Trust us, it’s hilarious. As you’d expect from the studio, the dialogue is also as snappy and (mercilessly) just as un-reliant on contemporary pop-culture references as ever.

Nonetheless, whilst Toy Story 3 is often as breezy and effortlessly snappy as Pixar’s other concoctions, it also has perhaps the darkest moment in any of the animation house’s films. We won’t spoil the scene, but suffice to say for a while you believe that some of the most beloved characters in cinema history are going to meet a shockingly brutal demise.

It all works out alright of course, but the conclusion is still a bitter-sweet and – we admit it – tear-drenched affair that is a monument to the animation studio’s singular ability to mix cutting-edge animation, razor-sharp dialogue and utterly charming characters that you can’t help but care deeply about. Pixar, rather boringly, have pulled it out of the bag once more with their last ever Toy Story. Spider-Man 3 it ain’t.

Review by Orlando Parfitt.

I think the answer to that question is probably no. When I spoke to the director and Producer of Toy Story 3, Lee Unkrich and Darla K. Anderson, they seemed pretty sure that what they had made would round up the franchise (you can see my video interview with them on Monday when TS3 is released in UK cinemas – that’s right America, we STILL haven’t got it!!). That said, they never said never! And we’ve already heard that a Toy Story short is going to sit in front of Cars 2 when it’s released summer 2011so maybe if the right story came along, we could have another.

So why am I talking about a fourth Toy Story movie? Well, The Wrap have learned that Tim Allen actually has it in his contract to make a fourth installment should the movie come along. But they do stress that this doesn’t mean that another will actually be made! They do mention that Tom Hanks was quoted to say “Bring it on” when asked about a fourth movie at the Los Angeles Premiere of the movie which seems like ages ago now.

Head over to The Wrap for the full low-down. More on this as we get it but…. would you want a fourth movie? Having seem the movie twice already, personally, I think it ended just the way it should.

Thoughts?

The US may have had Toy Story 3 in their cinemas for weeks but fear not UK readers as we now have less than two weeks until it hits UK cinemas on July 19th. In this new featurette, we get to see some of the new faces / characters from the third installment in the Pixar / Disney movie which has been 11 years in the making!

The movie is directed by Lee Unkrich and has a voice cast which includes Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf, R. Lee Ermey, Jodi Benson, Ned Beatty, Bonnie Hunt, Timothy Dalton, Jeff Garlin, Whoopi Goldberg and Michael Keaton.

Synopsis: The creators of the beloved “Toy Story” films re-open the toy box and bring moviegoers back to the delightful world of our favourite gang of toy characters in TOY STORY 3. As Andy prepares to depart for college, Buzz, Woody and the rest of his loyal toys are troubled about their uncertain future.  Directed by Lee Unkrich (co-director of “Toy Story 2” and “Finding Nemo”), TOY STORY 3 is a comical new adventure in Disney Digital 3D™ that lands the toys in a room full untamed tots who can’t wait to get their sticky little fingers on these “new” toys.  It’s pandemonium as they try to stay together, ensuring “no toy gets left behind.”  Meanwhile, Barbie comes face to plastic face with Ken (yes, that Ken).  Pixar veteran Darla K. Anderson (“Cars,” “Monsters, Inc.”) produces, while Michael Arndt, Academy Award®-winning screenwriter of “Little Miss Sunshine,” brings his unique talents and comedic sensibilities.

Yesterday I brought you the first batch of exclusive concept art that I gathered while I was on my fabulous Pixar trip back in March and today is what you’ve all been waiting for, Part 2!

The lovely people from Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios invited me over to San Francisco to not only meet those involved in making their latest movie, Toy Story 3, but also to see it! While there,  myself and a few other bloggers and YuoTubers also got to meet the archivists who showed us loads of concept images from Toy Story 3 and let us take photos and video (which you’ll see in future posts) of it all.

Toy Story 3 is released in US cinemas this comiong weekend and I thought now would be the best time to show you some of the images that were drawn well before the movie was put into it’s now digital state. You’ll notice that some of the images have been signed and dated around December 2008 so yuo can really see how long ago they are drawn. Just think what’s being created in Pixar Animation Studios right now for two years time!

One thing I would say is that if you know nothing about Toy Story 3 and want to remain that way, then you probably don’t want to look at these images as there are a few things that you’ll get out of them that you may not have known before unless you’ve seen the latest trailers and featurettes and then I think it’s pretty clear.

Here in the UK, we don’t get Toy Story 3 until 19th July but I can tell you now that you’re going to absolutely love it. It’s directed by Lee Unkrich, produced by Darla K. Anderson and has a voice cast which includes Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf, R. Lee Ermey, Jodi Benson, Ned Beatty, Bonnie Hunt, Timothy Dalton, Jeff Garlin, Whoopi Goldberg and Michael Keaton.

Toy Story 3 is released in UK Cinemas July 19th so a while to wait but you can enter our competition to win tickets to see it this Sunday here!

Click the images to enlarge…..

You may remember that back in March, the lovely people from Walt Disney Pictures invited over to San Francisco to not only meet those involved in making their latest movie, Toy Story 3, but also to see it along with a select group of other bloggers and YouTubers from around the world! While we were there, we also go to meet the archivists who showed us loads of concept images from Toy Story 3. I have decided that today and tomorrow are the days I have chosen to share them them all with you.

Toy Story 3 is released in US cinemas this weekend and I thought now would be the best time to show you some of the images that were drawn well before the movie was put into it’s now digital state. You’ll notice that some of the images have been signed and dated around December 2008 so you can really see how long ago they are drawn. Just think what’s being created in Pixar Animation Studios right now for two years time!

One thing I would say is that if you know nothing about Toy Story 3 and want to remain that way, then you probably don’t want to look at these images as there are a few things that you’ll get out of them that you may not have known before unless you’ve seen the latest trailers and featurettes and then I think it’s pretty clear.

Here in the UK, we don’t get Toy Story 3 until 19th July but I can tell you now that you’re going to absolutely love it. It’s directed by Lee Unkrich, produced by Darla K. Anderson and has a voice cast which includes Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf, R. Lee Ermey, Jodi Benson, Ned Beatty, Bonnie Hunt, Timothy Dalton, Jeff Garlin, Whoopi Goldberg and Michael Keaton.

Toy Story 3 is released in UK Cinemas July 19th so a while to wait but you can enter our competition to win tickets to see it this Sunday here!

Click the images to enlarge and if you like this little lot, check back tomorrow for a load more!

It’s the movie we’ve all been waiting for. 11 years have passed since the last Toy Story and now Disney Pixar have brought us the third installment of the franchise that is loved by all, both young and old!

The Lee Unkrich directed Toy Story 3  has a voice cast which includes Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf and many more. The movie is released in the UK July 19th but why wait until then to see it?

Disney have been kind enough to give us 2 pairs of tickets to a preview screening on Sunday June 20th in a London West End Location at 11am. That means you’ll get to see the movie an entire month before it comes out across the UK!

All you have to do to enter is answer this question using the form below;

In the Toy Story franchise, who voices the character Hamm?

The small print:

• This competition is open to the UK only.
• Only one entry per household will be counted.
• The competition will close Wednesday 16th June at 23.59 GMT.
• The winners will be picked at random from entries received.

The usual T&Cs can be found here.

Competition now Closed

Disney Pixar have released a whole new batch of images of their latest movie, Toy Story 3 which we heard a couple of days ago has been moved forward another couple of days to 19th July in the UK.

These new images come from our friends at PixarTalk.com and get to show us loads of new scenes from the movie as we get to see pretty much all the characters.

Toy Story 3 is directed by Lee Unkrich and features voices from Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and many more!

Disney Pixar have released a new TV spot for Toy Story 3 which is released July 21st in the UK. Toy Story 3 . This third installment is directed by Lee Unkrich who is currently on a world tour to promote Toy Story 3. You can keep track of him with his twitter account here where he’s currently using ‘Big Baby’ to help him on his journey. You’ll see images of Big Baby popping up all over the place. I think the last one I saw Big Baby was eating a Mickey Mouse pancake!

The movie features voices from Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf, R. Lee Ermey, Jodi Benson, Ned Beatty, Michael Keaton, Timothy Dalton, Jeff Garlin, Bonnie Hunt, Whoopi Goldberg, Kristen Schaal and Blake Clark.

Another International trailer has been released for the latest Disney Pixar movie to be released, Toy Story 3. This new ‘Character Mission’ trailer focuses on Rex and Hamm in the the Lee Unkrich directed movie which I know everyone will love!

The movie is released 23rd July and features voices from Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf, R. Lee Ermey, Jodi Benson, Ned Beatty, Michael Keaton, Timothy Dalton, Jeff Garlin, Bonnie Hunt, Whoopi Goldberg, Kristen Schaal and Blake Clark.

Watching a movie in the cinema that is nearly 10 years old may seem a bit odd but when it comes to Toy Story, I’ll take any chance I can get to see it on the big screen, especially if it’s screened at the world famous, Oscar winning digital effects company, FrameStore!

You may have caught the original movie back in October when it was released in 3D and the good news is that Toy Story 2 will be back in the cinema from 22nd January 2010 ahead of the 3rd installment, which is released July 23rd 2010.

Earlier this week, Disney UK sent us to watch Toy Story 2 in 3d. This was the first time in a few years that I’ve seen the movie and I think that’s probably a good thing just so that it wasn’t completely fresh in my mind. Toy Story 2 reunites the cast of the original movie (made back in 1995 believe it or not!) which includes Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn and includes Joan Cusack and Kelsey Grammer in the 2nd installment.

I thought everyone on the planet had seen Toy Story 1&2 but from the laughs that jokes got in the cinema, it was quite apparent than in a room full of movie critics, there were still a lot of Toy Story virgins out there!

Toy Story 2 for me was the perfect sequel to the original movie. The only thing I didn’t like was that the little soldiers weren’t in it enough! I think the reason I like them the most is that I wish they were real. Having my own little plastic box full of tiny soldiers would be so handy for so many things and watching them complete each mission I set them (and there would be many!) would be glorious! Anyway, back into the real world…

The 3d in the movie really does add another dimension to the story making you feel like you’re actually in there with the characters rather than just watching a screen. Seeing Zurg fire his rubber balls at Buzz Lightyear and have them firing into your face was great!

Here’s a bit of blurb from the production notes which tells you how Pixar have gone about converting the original source material into 3d. I was going to try and explain it but the words written here will be much more concise than anything I can produce! This is techie so sorry for geeking out!

Bob Whitehill, the lead stereographer for the “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2” conversions as well as stereoscopic supervisor for “Up,” says the filmmakers’ top priorities were to make the films’ 3D versions “comfortable, consistent and captivating.”

“First and foremost, our focus was to make films that are graceful and easy to watch,” Whitehill explains. “We also wanted to be consistent to the original intent of the film’s visuals in composition, lens choices and elements of that nature. And finally, we wanted the experience to engender a robust and dimensional visual experience that draws the viewers into the toys’ world, ultimately enhancing and strengthening the effect of the story. Story is always the main focus here at Pixar.”

The filmmakers had to adapt the images for modern software and re-render them as if they had just finished creating them. “Through a technical process we dubbed ‘triage,’ we were able to bring the shots up to modern software fluency,” explains Whitehill. “We then re-created every single frame using two different cameras—one for the left-eye view and one for the right. The films are thereby a perfectly true representation of the world created in 3D.”

Other recent 3D conversions have taken a slightly different tack, notes Whitehill. “Some take the final frames of the original 2D movie and split that image apart to create the stereo effect. Our process does not estimate what the 3D would look like; it captures the original compositions exactly.”

John Lasseter is a pure genius when it comes to making these movies. Although he isn’t directing the third installment (that honour falls to Lee Unkrich), Lasseter will still be massively involved as Creative Director for Disney and let’s face it, this is his baby so he’ll make sure it’s steered in the right direction.

So check out Toy Story 2 in 3d at your local cinema in January so that you’ll all up to date for the 3rd installment in July. We here at HeyUGuys can’t wait!

Not content with entering millions of British homes in his role in today’s highly anticipated episode of Doctor Who, Timothy Dalton is bringing his formidable Welsh tinged brogue to Toy Story 3, and in the new clip from the Disney channel we get our first look at his character, Mr Pricklepants.

This toy hedgehog with thespian tendencies is being touted by many people as the villain of the third film, and while there is nothing to confirm this, Dalton’s fantastic turn in Hot Fuzz makes this possibility an enjoyable potential.

Upcoming Pixar pointed us to the new clip in which an animated Lee Unkrich talks us through what we can expect from the third film in the series, and it’s nice to see them poking a little fun at the 3D twist Unkrich and his team are putting on Woody and his friends.

Check it out below.

Another image from the third installment of Disney Pixar’s Toy Story has been released via Empire Online. The image shows all the gang that we’ve come to know and love. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen both return voicing Woody and Buzz Lightyear with all our favourites from the previous two movies.  We know that there are going to be quite a few new characters but as yet we’re not sure who.

Empire give us a little more information:

In this shot, all the toys – bar Woody and Buzz – have been boxed up, presumably ready for the ride to their new home, where complications will arise, in the form of over-friendly, unrestrained kids and a parade of new toys, not all of whom have friendly intentions…

Toy Story 3 is released in both 3d and 2d 23rd July and just like everyone else on the entire planet, we can’t wait to see it! If you need a reminder of what happened in the 2nd movie, you’ll be pleased to hear that Disney / Pixar are releasing it back in cinemas for a limted run in 3d! You can find out more information here.

Click the image above to enlarge.