Andreas here, with a scoop courtesy of The Pixar Blog: a few tantalizing details have been released about two original, untitled projects on the Pixar slate, due out in 2013 and 2014.
The first, from Up co-director (and voice of Dug) Bob Peterson, will be about "a world where dinosaurs never went extinct." Pixar's already proven their aptitude for speculative fiction (i.e., WALL•E) and dinosaurs, especially when voiced by Wallace Shawn. And after seeing The Tree of Life's prehistoric interlude, who doesn't want more sensitively rendered big-screen dinosaurs?
The second, to be directed by Pixar mainstay (and unqualified genius) Pete Docter, "explores a world that everyone knows, but no one has seen: inside the human mind." I have no idea how to react to this, other than to squeal with childish glee. The Playlist adds that it's "wildly ambitious" -- and coming from the creators of The Incredibles and the Toy Story saga, that means something.
Between the abomination that was Cars 2 and the announcement of Monsters University, many of us had begun to fear that Pixar was entering a long, self-cannibalizing slump. But maybe they were just messing with us? That's what this news, coupled with the oh-my-god-it's-gorgeous teaser for Brave, seems to suggest. Ohh, Pixar, you were just lowering our expectations so that you could raise them absurdly high again, weren't you?
So, which of these Best Animated Feature nominees-to-be whets your appetite the most? The one with the dinosaurs, or the one that sounds like Inception, Pixar-style (but better)?