One was a slam dunk, the other was a blockbuster to be that came into the weekend stinking of behind the scenes drama. Yet in the end both hit theaters this week and obliterated expectations.

Monsters University is the prequel to one of the older PIXAR classics, telling the tale of how everyone’s favorite boogie men, Mike and Sully, learned their scare trade. The film took in $82 million over the weekend giving PIXAR its second highest opening ever, and their 14th strait number one debut. Lets just ponder that for a second, even as the creative armor of the premier animation house of the west shows some chinks in their armor, they maintain a perfect record on the financial side of the movie equation. The quality of the recent PIXAR films is up to some debate, but what can’t be denied is they still know how to make a movie people want to see.

While everyone and their mother knew MU would be a hit, the big surprise of the weekend came from the Brad Pitt zombie blockbuster, World War Z. The studio had modest expectations initially, and the general geek community had no expectations. The film veered far from the source material that is much beloved, the movie was plagued by re-shoots and seeming instability from the set, and it is a PG-13 zombie film which just feels wrong. Despite all of that working against it in the buzz department, the film was well sold and generally positive reviews helped to make all those other issues all but disappear. The net result was $66 million at the box office and a lot of turned heads.

This looks pretty fun. Look for the movie to arrive on June 21. Meantime, enjoy the trailer below.

It’s difficult to know if this is a good thing or a bad thing but nevertheless, it’s happening. Disney is buying Lucasfilm and the rights to the Star Wars franchise for a reported $4 Bilion. That’s “Billion.”

Here’s the full press release:

Burbank, CA and San Francisco, CA, October 30, 2012 – Continuing its strategy of delivering exceptional creative content to audiences around the world, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) has agreed to acquire Lucasfilm Ltd. in a stock and cash transaction. Lucasfilm is 100% owned by Lucasfilm Chairman and Founder, George Lucas.

Under the terms of the agreement and based on the closing price of Disney stock on October 26, 2012, the transaction value is $4.05 billion, with Disney paying approximately half of the consideration in cash and issuing approximately 40 million shares at closing. The final consideration will be subject to customary post-closing balance sheet adjustments.

I’d seen Finding Nemo only once before, when it was originally released, in the spring of 2003. Children were just a gleam in my eye, as they say, and at the time I enjoyed the film simply as a highly entertaining romp, with stunning visuals and a thoroughly engaging storyline. The film went on to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature and was second in grosses only to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. According to Wikipedia it’s also the best-selling DVD of all time and was the highest grossing G-rated film ever, until it was eclipsed by Toy Story 3, another Pixar triumph.

That’s a good place to start this review, because like Finding Nemo, the Toy Story films were also conceived, written and directed by Andrew Stanton, and like Toy Story 3, Finding Nemo is a story kids immediately adore, while being completely unaware of the incredibly poignancy and emotional power it has for the parents sitting next to them. But of course I didn’t understand that back then, being callow and young.

I enjoyed Marlin, Nemo’s father, as a fine comedic character, but my appreciation went only fin deep. I didn’t understand how amazingly inspired Albert Brooks is in the role, how his comedy—being from the very beginning of his career always driven by pathos and humiliation and self-awareness and self-delusion and conflicting impulses—encapsulates the complexity and fallibility in every moment of parenting.

John Lasseter once said that no sequel would ever be made at PIXAR with out the original director’s involvement or explicit permission. It is that mandate that has caused the biggest no brainer at PIXAR, Incredibles 2, to not happen… yet.

I say yet because it almost seems as if PIXAR is now dead set on returning to all of its former glorys. Deadline is reporting that Finding Nemo Director Andrew Stanton might be returning to the ocean for another Nemo based adventure:

[Deadline has] been hearing for months that he would come aboard to direct the sequel to Disney-based Pixar‘s Finding Nemo, with the idea that Disney would give him another shot behind the camera on a live-action film.

Finding Nemo is my favorite of the PIXAR catalog and often ranks among my top five favorite films of all time. So I like to think I can speak with some authority on the film, and a sequel is kind of baffling to me.

I have immense trust in Andrew Stanton, and I don’t hate the concept of a return to the sea, it is just hard for me to see the scenario for a return. Nemo ends in kind of a perfect place, and given the character growth in the film, another adventure to find Nemo would seem rather cheap.

It is said that Stanton has a concept that Disney loves, so perhaps he cracked that code. Or maybe he is just returning to the Nemo ‘universe’ and has a whole different type of story to tell. We can only wait and see.

Ted has set the new standard for original R-Rated comedies, bringing in just over $54 Million dollars during the weekend. The Seth McFarlane directorial debut has established a record for comedies not based on an existing franchise, and led the pack of a very big box office weekend.

In addition to the big Ted weekend, Magic Mike came out strong for an R-Rated male stripper opus. The duel R-Rated comedies actually both over performed estimates to combine for an incredibly strong June weekend.

Magic Mike was able to capitalize on the fervent female movie going audience that was more than ready to swarm to the theater to see Channing Tatum swing his groove thing. Even though the film brought in a very respectable weekend number, it was very top-heavy, with more than half of its opening weekend coming from Friday alone.

Disney/PIXAR’s Brave rounds out the top three with another $34+ Million. The solid third place finish places the PIXAR film well on the path for another $200+ Million domestic total for the venerable animation studio. That said, the 48.7% drop represents a higher than normal number for PIXAR.

Monsters Inc is one of those classic PIXAR films that somehow manages to get better with age. It also happened to be the first PIXAR film that was released that confirmed that the animation studio was entering into a golden age, and not one hit wonder.

So people have been interested in a sequel for quite some time, structurally the movie doesn’t lead directly into another story so the filmmakers needed to come up with a good reason to revisit these characters before they moved forward with one.

That good reason presented itself as a prequel that exposed our main characters younger days in college. Check out the synopsis for more full story details:

Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan are an inseparable pair, but that wasn’t always the case. From the moment these two mismatched monsters met they couldn’t stand each other. “Monsters University” unlocks the door to how Mike and Sulley overcame their differences and became the best of friends.

A lot of people have the idea PIXAR is in a  bit of a slump, I respectfully disagree. Cars 2 might not have been the same level of artistic high like so much of the PIXAR catalog, but it was way better than people gave it credit for. Hopefully the upcoming slate of films, including Monsters University, restores the luster to the greatest force in animation since Walt himself.

Check out the full trailer after the jump.

Andrew Stanton might have taken a blow with the commercial dud that was John Carter, but he is still responsible for two of the greatest animated films of all time, Finding Nemo & Wall-E. If anyone deserves a do over pass, it is that guy.

Recently the director shared something rather fun with the guys over at LA Times Hero Complex:

The two-time Oscar winner was the guest after our Sunday matinee screening of the most cosmic of Pixar films and he mentioned that the editorial department at Pixar had a bit of fun by taking a reference model of M-O over to the Sears Portrait Studio where warm family memories are preserved forever, um … tasteful flair?

PIXAR has long been known for adding mountains of humanity to animated inanimate objects, and Wall-E might have been their pinnacle. It is amazing how much personality and soul they managed to put into these, mostly, speechless robots.

Clearly that humanity was fostered behind the scenes too, as evidenced by these silly pictures. It is amazing that these characters make so such of an impact that even reference models paraded around in a series of family portraits can provoke an emotion.

Take a look at these adorable pictures after the jump, and don’t forget to catch the next PIXAR film, Brave, in theaters June 22nd.

The internet is a many-splendored thing. You can get lost at one turn and find yourself staring at something all together unexpected and beautiful. Which is exactly what happened to me when I ran into the very fantastic art work if Daniel Araya.

First spotted by the eagle-eyed guys over at Bleeding Cool, this set of art work posits a word where the Justice League gets its own Pixar style big budget CG animated movie. Any fan of the iconic DC characters or just animation in general have to appreciate this experiment.

Just for fun I started doing concepts for a faux Justice League CG movie. I’ve always been a huge fan of Bruce Timm and the DC Timmverse he helped create, and I thought it would be cool to basically design the JLA movie that I would direct if given the chance. I didn’t do any huge drastic changes because I didn’t want to betray the characters in terms of who they are and what they’re about.

And cool it very much is. Of course we will NEVER see a Pixar Justice League film, mostly in the same way we will never get a Warner Bros. released X-Men film or a Pepsi brand Coke bottle. But it is fun to think what the possibilities would be if Warner Bros started doing some smart things with their DC stable and gave a guy like Bruce Timm the budget required to do a Pixar size film.

Pixar has set into a pretty stead pattern of releasing one film a year. This summer we have Brave to look forward too, and next year brings us Monsters University. But what about 2014 and beyond? Worry not, Pixar is not letting up anytime soon.

Variety is reporting that Pixar has come clean on several projects targeted for 2014 and 2015:

Pixar has announced its latest project in development, setting a 2015 release target for a toon based on the Mexican holiday of Dio de los Muertos… Other Pixar news from Las Vegas: The studio has titled its dino pic “The Good Dinosaur,” set for May 30, 2014; and has dated its “Untitled Pixar Movie that Takes You Inside the Mind” for June 19, 2015.

So The Good Dinosaur for 2014 and a potential double dip in 2015. What is most exciting is the news of the newly announced film that is based on the Day of the Dead. There is a wealth of culture and history to be mined out of the Mexican holiday, and of all the studios willing to go down that hole, Pixar is by far the most capable of giving it the proper due.

We here at The Flickcast will keep a close eye on this future project, but in the mean time we can all brace for the potential awesomness that is Brave this summer.

The titan of quality that is Pixar might have stubbed it’s toe last year with the release of the sub-par Cars 2, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are still riding a nearly two decade long winning streak. Creatively, their mandate of doing what isn’t expected has paid off in droves.

What makes Brave such an interesting next step for Pixar is the fact that it is the first film with a female lead who is for all intents and purposes a princess. That’s right, this is a classic Disney princess fairy tale, but done the Pixar way. Fans of Disney and Pixar have reason to be very excited at that prospect.

Disney has just released a third trailer for the film, but instead of just hyper cutting more footage to beautiful music, they opted for an extended scene that does a brilliant job of summing up the general conflict of the movie. You can tell immediately that this film has that Pixar charm we all know and love.

Check out the new trailer after the jump.

There are very few things Pixar could do that would get me more excited to see one of their films. Between the overall popularity of Toy Story, Up, The Incredibles and tons more, there is very little the animation studio can do that would be considered a bad move (Owen Wilson vehicles not included).

With that said, it’s hard to believe they’ve found a way to speak to their audience even more with their upcoming video game parody film, Wreck-It Ralph, but it looks like they just might. Here’s the official synopsis of the film. Consider it Donkey Kong from the gorilla’s perspective.

Wreck-It Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) longs to be as beloved as his game’s perfect Good Guy, Fix-It Felix (voice of 30 Rock’s Jack McBrayer). Problem is, nobody loves a Bad Guy. But they do love heroes… so when a modern, first-person shooter game arrives featuring tough-as-nails Sergeant Calhoun (voice of Jane Lynch), Ralph sees it as his ticket to heroism and happiness. He sneaks into the game with a simple plan—win a medal—but soon wrecks everything, and accidentally unleashes a deadly enemy that threatens every game in the arcade.

Ralph’s only hope? Vanellope von Schweetz (voice of Sarah Silverman), a young troublemaking “glitch” from a candy-coated cart racing game who might just be the one to teach Ralph what it means to be a Good Guy. But will he realize he is good enough to become a hero before it’s “Game Over” for the entire arcade?

As if the concept of several video and board games being parodied in a Pixar film isn’t enough to guarantee your $10, the studio has recently released some images that will give us an idea of how this video game-based world will look. Take a look after the jump, and catch Wreck-It Ralph in theaters this November.