There have been rumours for ages – particularly since Disney/Pixar told trade folk it would be happening – about a sequel to 2002’s Monsters, Inc. Now it’s official, with Disney chairman Rich Ross announcing a release date for the film in November 2012.
Which means the Pixar bods are already hard at work on it, and have been for a while now. Sadly, no mention was made in Disney’s press release about a director, and when Pete Docter was doing the rounds for Up, he refused to say whether he was making it. Although, then again, he didn't say he wasn't. We're going to go ahead and hope that he's still the man with the plan on this one; while a new director doesn’t mean it won’t be just as good – this is Pixar, after all, and everything we’ve seen of Toy Story 3 makes us think they can avoid that syndrome – we’d just be sorry to see that Docter’s not returning to guide Mike and Sulley through a new adventure.
Among the many announcements made at the big Disney presentation was the latest world on Brave, formerly titled The Bear And The Bow, which has been slowly developing at Pixar for a while and is described as the company’s first fairytale.
Brenda Chapman has the helm for this one, with Reese Witherspoon voicing a Scottish princess whose headstrong ambitions put her family in danger. It will now arrive in June 2012.