Turbo is being produced by Lisa Stewart. Stewart was also behind Monsters Vs Aliens, which will be forgotten by the time Turbo comes out in summer of 2013. (via Variety)

• Kung Fu Panda 2 (May 26, 2011)
• Puss In Boots (November 4, 2011)
• Madagascar 3 (June 8, 2012)
• Rise of the Guardians (November 21, 2012)
• The Croods (March 1, 2013)
• Turbo (June 7, 2013)
• Me and My Shadow (November 8, 2013)
• Mr. Peabody & Sherman (March 21, 2014)
• How to Train Your Dragon 2 (June 20, 2014)

The schedule doesn’t appear to be too consistent, averaging 2-3 releases per year in the spring, summer, and Thanksgiving. 4 of their 9 releases are either sequels or spinoffs, which seems to be the industry average for big-budget releases.

Not ones to be bested, expect Pixar to disseminate their release schedule through 3714, including a business plan to beam Cars 27 directly into people’s brains, and their plans for zero-gravity movie theaters on Mars colonies. (/Film)

The story centers around a magician’s rabbit (probably voiced by Steve Carell) who hops at the chance to become a witch’s familiar and learn real magic. When he learns that he’s actually a pawn in a game between two rival witches, he has to find a way to outsmart them and save himself in the process.

Tim Johnson will direct with Jim Herzfeld (Meet The Fockers) helping with scripting duties.

“The fascinating world of witches and witch’s familiars is perfectly suited for the medium of animation, where anything goes,” said DreamWorks Animation’s Chief Creative Officer Bill Damaschke in a statement.

It’s also the best way to get Emma Stone to voice a black cat. (Variety)

Berkeley Breathed’s Flawed Dogs has been optioned by the studio in their never ending pursuit of giving Jonah Hill voice over work. The story follows Sam, a dachshund who goes on an epic adventure to reunite with his family after being ousted by a spoiled show dog. He must survive on the streets until he finds his way back. Just like the Incredible Hulk. (Variety)

The plot of the movie will be based on the Indian epic poem “The Ramayana,” which according to Wikipedia is about “the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife and the ideal king.” More specifically, the story will be about ““two monkeys who try to stop an ancient demon from conquering the world.” There is no release date yet, but there will probably also be a funny fat monkey, perhaps with a stereotypical Indian accent. And it will make more money than you or anyone you know will ever see in your entire life. Bring a date! (SlashFilm)

DreamWorks Animation is ready to clean up at the box office again. They’ve snagged the film rights to the Oni Press comic Maintenance, which was in turnaround at Warner Bros.

Originally slated to be a sucky live-action film directed by McG, Maintenance follows two janitors who work for and must clean up after the world’s biggest collection of evil scientists. With DreamWorks Animation on board, this has the potential to be a big hit along the same lines of Monsters Vs. Aliens and Megamind. Let’s ge Paul Rudd and Danny McBride attached to this and call it a day. (THR)

Megamind is going to suffer for being the second animated superhero movie. In fact, it follows a long line of Dreamworks being second to Pixar (fish, monsters although they did beat them to insects). I’m not saying it’s The Incredibles, but Megamind is the best Dreamworks animated movie and certainly the best animated movie this year.

This is a complex story with very sophisticated forward momentum. There are five and a half characters involved with heroics, villainry, romance and training. It’s about what makes people a hero or villain, and the answer is not just simply one is bullied and the other is revered. Many characters play alternate identities because they feel their original selves are inadequate. These are deep themes for any movie, let alone a genre movie, let alone a mass appeal movie.

Both sent to earth from the same planet Megamind (Will Ferrell) lands in a prison and grows up to be a villain, while Metroman (Brad Pitt) lands with rich folks and grows up to be a popular superhero.  They take turns kidnapping and rescuing reporter Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey), but things start to break formula about 20 minutes in. Ritchi’s cameraman Hal (Jonah Hill) becomes much more than the generic Jimmy Olsen and Megamind’s Minion (David Cross) has a character arc too.

The film begins with irreverence for the tropes of superhero genre. Ferrell and Fey definitely contribute some knowledge of the genre, and Ferrell’s desperation is so engaging he has fun with the villain monologues.  It has something to say about hero worship, from children to grown-up society, even before it messes with the genre further. There’s some pop culture reference but it’s the smartest possible reference and it’s not the crutch of the movie’s humor.

The trailers are already giving away too much, so I don’t want to ruin it, but Megamind asks questions that have never been asked in a superhero movie before.  What does a villain do if he actually gets to be in charge? The answer isn’t a simplistic life lesson. It just sends the film in another deeper direction.

Ritchi, Hal and Megamind face real relationship issues, albeit with vague kid-friendly language. Ritchi may say she doesn’t want to “be with you” but the grown-ups know what she’s really talking about.  These feel like real characters, not caricatures with one-liners.

The classic rock soundtrack makes the movie feel relatable to our world. These are artists we’ve heard of, not cover versions or pop songs created just for the soundtrack. And it rocks, much better than the “Move It Move It” song from Madagascar.

Dreamworks Animation has released the first five minutes of their upcoming film Megamind starring Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, and Jonah Hill. The trailers seemed a little too The Incredibles-y to me, but this new footage has peaked my interest. Just the fact that Brad Pitt and not Steve Carell is voicing the film’s hero, Metro Man, is intriguing. Carell must have been busy on one of his fifty-thousand other projects.

Check out the prologue (which autoplays) after the jump…

(/Film)

Guillermo del Toro has inked a deal with DreamWorks for his first animated film: Trollhunters. Based on a children’s book authored by del Toro himself, the story will be geared toward kids (duh) and will focus on…wait for it…trolls!

"I wanted very much to develop a story that could be written for kids but dealt with a genre that was scary," he tells the Heat Vision Blog. "It essentially combines fairy tales with modern times and is about how difficult it is to be a kid. Normally, kids are idealized in animated films. But the growing pains, married with the notion that there is a world right next to us that is completely plagued by creatures of ancient lore, it’s thematically fitting with the rest of my stuff."

No word yet on whether these trolls will deny the holocaust and claim Obama is a secret Muslim Homojew, or if they’ll just stick to living under bridges and eating bones. (Heat Vision via Empire)

_{Stroke humor in its purest form.}

Dreamworks has released a full length trailer for their new animated film Megamind. It wants so very badly to be The Incredibles, but without the voice talent of Coach, a.k.a Craig T. Nelson, it’s pretty much S.O.L. They could have at least tried for Jerry Van Dyke.

The trailer plays out more like a teaser that pimps the voices of Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, and Jonah Hill. I had to read the film’s official synopsis to get a firm grasp of the plot, and the major turning point isn’t even revealed in the trailer. Also, can we please put a cap on how many animated movies an actor can lend their voice to? Brad Pitt was a good get, but Jonah’s shuffled up to the microphone in his P.J.s far too many times recently.

Check out the trailer after the jump, and the synopsis so you can fill in the blanks. Megamind takes over theaters November 5, 2010.

Megamind trailer – Watch more Movie Trailers

From the studio that brought you “Shrek,” “Madagascar” and “Kung Fu Panda.” “Megamind” is the most brilliant supervillain the world has ever known. And the least successful. Over the years, he has tried to conquer Metro City in every imaginable way. Each attempt, a colossal failure thanks to the caped superhero known as “Metro Man,” an invincible hero until the da Megamind actually kills him in the throes of one of his botched evil plans. Suddenly, Megamind has no purpose. A supervillain without a superhero. He realizes that achieving his life’s ambition is the worst thing that ever happened to him.  Megamind decides that the only way out of his rut is to create a new hero opponent called “Titan”, who promises to be bigger, better and stronger than Metro Man ever was. Pretty quickly Titan starts to think it’s much more fun to be a villain than a good guy . Except Titan doesn’t just want to rule the world, he wants to destroy it.  Now, Megamind must decide: can he defeat his own diabolical creation? Can the world’s smartest man make the smart decision for once?  Can the evil genius become the unlikely hero of his own story?