The hottest and the oldest American animation film studios are now joined and unleashing an avalanche of features together. Russell Baillie reports from New York
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They call it a "slate" - a list of films a studio has on the go.
But as entertainment media who gathered this week in New York saw the details of the forthcoming releases by the now-aligned Pixar and Disney animation studios, it soon felt like someone had been quarrying the stuff.
For the titles just kept on coming throughout the presentation hosted by a clearly excited John Lasseter, director of the Toy Story films and Cars, and now chief creative officer for both animation studios since the Disney Corporation acquired Pixar in a US$7.5 billion ($9.4 billion) deal in 2006. Last year's hit Ratatouille was the last product of an independent Pixar.
The two studios have 10 new cinema titles coming out between now and Christmas 2012. Eight of them will be released in the 3D format, which Disney and many of the other major Hollywood studios are banking on to lure the home theatre generation back into the cinema.
As well there will be 3D reissues of the first two Toy Story movies leading up to the release of Toy Story 3 - a film which was once a bone of contention between Pixar and Disney during tenser times in their pre-merger relationship - in mid-2010.
Starting later this year there will also be four straight-to-DVD films telling the origin stories of Tinkerbell, released, yes, just in time for Christmas.
So far as the cinematic releases go, there's still an easy way to tell the two studios apart - the Pixar films will be generally coming out mid-year in the northern hemisphere's summer blockbuster season (and presumably on DVD for Christmas) while the Disney Animation Studio films are the pre-Christmas cinema fare.
And there are signs that the past traditional differences in approach between Pixar and Disney are crossing over under Lasseter's direction.
The 2011 Pixar release The Bear and the Bow is Pixar's first foray into Disney's traditional territory of feisty princesses from history.
Meanwhile, early footage of Disney's Bolt being released at the end of the year, about a TV star dog who thinks he's a superhero, shows he has something of a Buzz Lightyear about him.
And as he teams up with a cat named Mittens and a unhinged hamster named Rhino, early footage of the film suggests it might be The Incredible Journey meets Toy Story.
But Disney still has the majority share on fairytale princesses in its CG adaptation of Rapunzel, a film which the studio's original animators from the Walt Disney era had planned on doing after the 1937 classic Snow White.
And there's a return to classic Disney tradition with the hand-drawn musical The Princess and The Frog, which is set in New Orleans but is sure to be heading to Broadway one day where there are now three Disney productions which were animated or part-animated films in a former life - The Lion King, The Little Mermaid and Mary Poppins.
But early footage, some of it just storyboards showing a fascinating work-in-progress, suggests Pixar is retaining its idiosyncratic edge on films like the forthcoming Wall.E, Up and Newt.
Just what the 10 new films represent in terms of money makes for daunting calculation. Budgets are kept close to the chest by the two studios but each film would be in the US$100 million ballpark and based on Pixar's past successes (see sidebar) would be hoping to earn four to six times that amount internationally. Funnily enough, the presentation in a theatre at New York University might have suited the academic-looking - mostly bearded, bespectacled or both - animation boffins from both studios who took it in turn to pitch their films to the press conference.
But it's also just a couple of blocks from Wall St. Judging by what's on display, you can bet that Disney's shareholders are planning on living happily ever after.
THE SLATE OF THINGS TO COME
Wall.E
(Pixar)
What: The tale of the last robot on earth after humankind has evacuated and left the place a real mess, which he is programmed to clean up. His 700-year task is interrupted when another android named Eve arrives and he realises there's something more to life. The hilarious half-hour of highlights shown in New York suggested the film by Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton will clean up at the box office too.
Who: Among others, it features a sci-fi geek-friendly guest appearance by Sigourney Weaver as the voice of Eve's spaceship computer.
When: Opens in New Zealand for the school holidays in September
Bolt
(Disney)
What: Bolt the TV wonderdog doesn't realise his action hero life isn't real, until he ends up in the real world of New York and has to get home to Hollywood with a couple of other oddball pets in tow.
Who: John Travolta gives Bolt his bark while tween superstar Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana) is the voice of Penny, Bolt's owner and TV co-star.
When: Due in time for Christmas this year.
Up
(Pixar)
What: Shaping up as possibly Pixar's greatest flight of fancy is this tale about one grumpy old man and his mission to transport his house to South America. By balloon. To give more of the story away would be spoiling what is possibly going to be a very lovely movie described as its makers as a "coming of old age" story. Even the mix of storyboards and unfinished animation on show had many reaching for their hankies.
Who: Ed Asner gives the grumble to cranky Carl Fredricksen while Christopher Plummer also puts in an appearance at the microphone.
When: Mid-2009
The Princess and the Frog
(Disney)
What: Traditionally-animated Disney musical set in New Orleans telling a story of love, voodoo and jazz, complete with a trumpet-playing alligator named Louis.
Who: Broadway singing star Anika Noni Rose will provide the voice of Disney's first African-American princess while longtime Pixar-associate songman Randy Newman is writing the music.
When: Christmas 2009
Toy Story 3
(Pixar)
What: Ten years after their last adventure, the gang returns to face the day that Andy is off to college.
Who: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and everybody. Oh, and Barbie's back.
When: Mid 2010
Rapunzel
(Disney)
What: The Brothers Grimm classic fairytale gets its long-awaited Disney treatment
When: Christmas 2010
Newt
(Pixar)
What: A story about a pampered laboratory-dwelling newt named Newt who is the last of his breed. And who, says the film's director Gary Rydstrom, is "waiting for the last female to be captured and brought to him. Who can't relate to that?"
When: Mid 2011
The Bear and the Bow
(Pixar)
What: Pixar goes into myth mode with a story about Scottish highlands princess Merida, whose strong-willed tomboy ways get her into strife with head-of-the-clan folks.
Who: Features the voices of Reese Witherspoon as Merida and Emma Thompson and Billy Connolly as her folks, and is helmed by Pixar's first female director, Brenda Chapman.
When: Christmas 2011
Cars 2
(Pixar)
What: The all-American racers from the first movie head off-shore
Who: Presumably the same gang who voiced the first.
When: Mid 2012
The King of the Elves
(Disney)
What: Sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick's only foray into fantasy: a story about elves in the Mississippi Delta who make a human him their king.
When: Christmas 2012
