The folks over at Collider.com have learned more about Pixar's plans are for the upcoming theatrical re-releases (in stereoscopic Disney Digital 3-D) of Toy Story and Toy Story 2, on October 2nd, 2009 and February 12th, 2010 respectively.Talking at a press event at Emeryville for the WALL-E DVD/Blu-ray (coming Nov. 18), Pixar general manager Jim Morris revealed that Pixar is re-rendering the films using current rendering and shading technology, resulting in them looking "much better" than when originally released in 1995 and 1999, bringing them closer to the level of detail that will be seen in Toy Story 3 in 2010.
At the same time, the films won't feature any new shots, etc. "It’s exactly the same movie you saw before," says Morris. (Be sure to read his complete comments in the post.)
Collider went on to ask about the possibility of future Pixar films getting an IMAX release. Morris explained what has been known for a while that Pixar had looked at the process but that nothing ever came "to fruition". Thus Pixar is "not specifically talking about an IMAX release at this point in time".
(To insert some opinion here, Pixar should really take another look at IMAX, considering the immense success of The Dark Knight. IMAX presentation would sure have brought a lot to a movie like WALL-E. The same goes for Up, with all the flying and, I assume, wonderful panoramic views. And no, I'm not being partial to IMAX 'cause I'm Canadian!')
Finally, WALL-E co-producer Lindsey Collins clarifies that 'TS' and 'TS2' will be released exclusively in 3-D, while 'TS3' will be released in standard presentation and 3-D.
(via /Film)
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8 comments:
Re-rendering and 3D?! I can't wait! Even if I don't like the new style, I'll always have the DVDs to go back to.
I think we all knew that Pixar wasn't going to pull a George Lucas on us. Unlike Mr. "I'm out of my mind" (as Collider put it), Pixar has enough respect for the past to know when it's best left alone. Anywho, thanks for posting, Mike.
It will feature better shading, which is awesome. I think it's a shame though they wont do much else. I mean, I think they should have added back in the extended rain sequence. Even in the commentary they say in hindsight if they could go back they would probably put it back in. and I agree the extended scene where Woody begs Buzz help him get out from under the crate was much more effective. I would have loved to see the finished version of that in the final movie.
I can't wait! This is my favorite Pixar movie by far.
It is disappointing, to a degree at least, to hear that Pixar is shying away from IMAX releases, but look at it from their perspective and also that of the industry. Pixar's priority is story. Throwing a parallel release on a gigantic format brings certain dictations with it such as shot selection, framing, how much movement and how fast such movement can be. Remember the Episode 2 IMAX release? Even with Dark Knight there were visual elements in some scenes a viewer could just not grasp unless viewed in a normal theater. So from a creative, story telling perspective, having normal freedoms taken away is very limiting.
From an industry standpoint, look at Sony. They entered the 3D IMAX parallel release model and are now locked into it. When was the last time they released an animated film without a 3D IMAX version? That is a whole lot of time and money just spent on a second final render which I would be willing to bet had it's own team doing fixes on before the final render could go forward.
While it is a bit disappointing in that Pixar is staying away from the IMAX format, I believe the pursuit of their craft is forefront in the decision making their final products that much better.
Pixar has done reframing before, for fullscreen home video releases, so that shouldn't be too much of a challenge.
If anybody in the industry can do it right, it's Pixar. They could really take it to the ultimate level...
Keep in mind, though, that Pan and Scan, the process of taking a widescreen presentation and full-framing it for another format (e.g. full screen Television) is a process that takes place after the entire production/post production process. It's something in the back of the mind during production, but doesn't put much restriction on shot selection, action blocking, lens types, etc. That's the point I was going after with dual theatrical releases where the production team would be thinking about both releases through the whole process and being limited by one or the other.
Thanks for replying, Jondale. I can definitely see where you're coming from.
Just to point out that what I meant by "reframing" is actually different from "pan and scan".
While with pan and scan (on a fullscreen home video release) basically two sides of the original widescreen image are 'chopped off', resulting in a "fullscreen" 4:3/1.33:1 aspect ratio, reframing can actually move certain scene elements, such as characters or objects, from their original positions in the widescreen image so they fit into the new frame. This can be done on scenes where pan and scan would leave too much out. (Obviously, reframing can't be done with live-action films.) Another way is to expand the picture on the top and bottom, which is not great for small TV screens but could be amazing on a giant screen.
Pixar is one of the only studios to have used the process in the past (who wants a fullscreen DVD these days?), so I could see them doing something similar for an IMAX release, to make sure that the shots match up between the two aspect ratios.
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