This Day in Pixar History: Pixar Announces Coco

Five years ago today, on April 24, 2012, Pixar announced their film lineup through 2015 at CinemaCon. This was an exciting time for Pixar; it was only a couple of months before the release of Brave, and Monsters University was well into production with a release date of the following year, and all of us Pixar fans were clamoring to hear about a couple other untitled films. Back in 2011, Pixar had announced that Bob Peterson and Peter Sohn were working on a film, and all we knew is that the working title was The Untitled Film About Dinosaurs. Well, during the conference Pixar tweeted the official title, The Good Dinosaur. In addition, we knew Pete Docter was also working on a new film, appropriately titled The Untitled Film That Takes You Inside The Mind, but at the conference it received its official release date, June 19, 2015.


The final announcement was that Lee Unkrich was teaming up again with Darla K. Anderson to bring us a film about the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos. Unkrich and Anderson had last worked together on the 2010 blockbuster Toy Story 3. Very little else was known about the film, no release date was provided (although rumors were that it would come out in 2015 or 2016) and all we were left with was this short synopsis:

From director Lee Unkrich and producer Darla K. Anderson, the filmmaking team behind the Academy Award®-winning “Toy Story 3,” comes a wholly original Pixar Animation Studios film that delves into the vibrant holiday of Día de los Muertos.

 Now, 5 years later, we're just a little less than 7 months away from the release of Coco!

Coco looks to be a visually stunning and unique film! Thinking back to the announcements from that day in 2012 fills me with anticipation and excitement for Pixar's future. Between those announcements and now, not only did we get the films we knew about (Brave, Monsters University, The Good Dinosaur and Inside Out), but Pixar also released Finding Dory last year, which was the number 2 film of the year, only behind Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. And before Coco comes out later this year we're getting Cars 3 this summer! I'm so excited to go back and explore this world, and expect it to be one of the biggest hits of the summer. That's a total of 7 films. What does that mean for the next 5 years? After Coco, there are only 2 officially announced films, The Incredibles 2 for 2018 and Toy Story 4 in 2019. Plus, there are 2 untitled films scheduled for 2020. What are those 2 films, and what's in store for the following 2 years? And then what will be on the slate 5 years from now? Here's a few names to think about: Pete Docter, Pete Sohn, Bob Peterson, Dan Scanlon, Ronnie del Carmen, Enrico Casarosa, Angus MacLane, Mark Andrews, Andrew Stanton. Thinking about these folks and what they may be dreaming up just gets me pumped for Pixar's future!

The Good Dinosaur Giveaway! UPDATED With Winner!

The excitement for The Good Dinosaur is really starting to build! A couple weeks ago was the bloggers press event, and last week Pixar released a new trailer for the film. We're only a little more than a month away from its theatrical release!

I was very fortunate to go to the Pixar studio last month. It had nothing to do with The Good Dinosaur press event; rather it was due to the amazing thoughtfulness of my friends Santi and Laura, and the generosity of Pixar Supervising Animator Victor Navone and his wonderful wife Candy. I had a great time, and was able to meet some Pixar legends like Ralph Eggleston and Bob Peterson.

While there, we of course had to stop at the Pixar Studio Store. At that time they didn't have much Good Dino merchandise, but they did have some cool t-shirts and I picked up a few. So with the film just a few weeks away, I thought it would be fun to give one away in a Good Dino giveaway!

This is a women's medium Arlo tee. It a soft tee with the film's protagonist on the front. The word "Pixar" is on the left sleeve, and on the back is the film's title. I just love the minimal, clean design. What a great way to show your Pixar spirit at The Good Dinosaur theatrical release!

So how do you win this Pixar Studio Store shirt? Hopefully it's not too tough, just fill out the form below and hit submit! There are a couple of rules. To enter, you must be at least 18 years of age and live in the 48 contiguous United States. If you are under 18, you can have a parent enter. Only one entry per person - multiple submissions will be ignored. No purchase necessary to enter. The giveaway starts NOW and will end Saturday, October 17, 2015 at 11:59pm Central Time. One random winner will be chosen and contacted via the email address used to enter the contest. Once the winner claims their prize, I will announce it here in this post and on Twitter. Good luck!

UPDATE (October 18, 2015)
Congratulations to Jenny Y. on winning the contest!

As part of the contest I asked, "Which upcoming Pixar film are you most excited for". Perhaps not surprising, The Good Dinosaur was the overwhelming favorite, taking in over 55%. Next was very close with The Incredibles 2 coming in at 18% and Finding Dory at 16%. Coco only received 9% of the votes, which surprised me.