8/22/2011

New clip from Pixar short film, Cars 2: Air Mater


There's been some worry that Pixar has finally run into some sort of creative glut. Cars 2 wasn't exactly their most inspired film, although the $500M it's made worldwide, not including merchandise sales, will keep the animation stalwart rolling in cash for many years to come. And those worried about the "dry spell" should be appeased by the unique slate of films on the horizon: Brave, Wreck-It Ralph, and whatever this Pete Docter mind flick is. Yeah, I left Monsters University out of the equation on purpose, because the perception seems to be that Pixar is doing too many sequels all of a sudden. Whatever. I don't buy that for a second.

What Pixar is doing is keeping their most popular(and lucrative) franchises alive through short films. A smart move in my opinion, because it keeps these characters fresh in our minds. So if there is ever a decision to make say....Toy Story 4, Pixar doesn't suffer the same recognition gap that something like Conan the Barbarian or Fright Night just experienced. You saw how those movies turned out over the weekend, didn't you?

Pixar has released a brief clip from the short film, Cars 2: Air Mater, which will be included in the Cars 2 DVD/Blu-Rays released on November 1st(along with the Toy Story short, Hawaiian Vacation). As you can tell by the title, it focuses on the rusty towtruck voiced by Larry the Cable Guy, so if you grew tired of his drawl the way I did then this might be a film you can skip. The story is a prequel of sorts to the Cars 2 straight-to-DVD spinoff, Planes. Check it out below...