The sequel to the 2006 Disney/Pixar film, Cars, is due to be released Summer 2011. This time Lightning McQueen and co are heading overseas as McQueen competes in the first-ever World Grand Prix. Featuring the return of Owen Wilson as the voice of Lightning McQueen, and introducing Michael Caine as Finn McMissile, a secret agent who mistakes Mater for a fellow operative, Cars 2 looks like it has the potential to be even better than the original. The addition of several new characters also means the inevitable expansion of the highly collectible die-cast Cars toys and other merchandise! Check out the trailer below.

In celebration of E1 Entertainment’s latest film release Astro Boy (starring Samuel L Jackson, Nicolas Cage and Matt Lucas), Selfridges have teamed up with print house Art You Grew Up With to host an exclusive event for children in their Bookshop, just in time for half term.

For Astro Boy superfans, there will be limited edition artwork from the animated film for sale, including an exclusive print that will only be available on the day.

As well as the opportunity to be photographed with Astro Boy himself, kids can also attend a drawing master-class with animator and graphic designer Huw-J, from Art You Grew Up With.

The event is being held this Saturday 20th February, between 14:00 and 15:00, at the Bookshop, Lower Ground Floor at Selfridges

A thrilling tale of a true hero, Astro Boy is an all new, feature film full of action, adventure, humour and heart, brought to life on the big screen in breathtaking CGI animation. Check out the trailer below.

Astro Boy is release on DVD on May 31 in the UK and you can preorder Astro Boy here.

Not exactly Kids TV, but I expect many of you will be taking your little ones to see this at the cinema. The trailer for Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story 3 has finally hit the web. It looks fantastic, as you might expect, but we’ll have to wait until June 2010 to see this one.

It was confirmed a little over a week ago that Disney/Pixar are definitely going ahead with a sequel to 2001′s Monsters Inc.  The original saw best pals, Mike and Sully, trying to return Boo, a little girl, back to her own world after she stows away on the back of another monster.  It was a great film and created a new world full of interesting and funny monsters.

No details have been given about the plot to the new movie, but it was apparently revealed to buyers at a licensing fair in Las Vegas that the production was definitely going ahead.  This ties in nicely with the news that a new Monsters Inc ride will be opening in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Florida, in 2011.

This inverted coaster will recereate the amazing door hanger scene from the end of the original Monsters Inc. According to Jim Hill Media the ride will also incorporate several other elements from the movie:

This family-friendly attraction will be housed inside of Soundstage One. Though — in order to queue up for this ride — WDW Guests will first have to go around to the backside of this building and then enter through the old Jim Henson Creature Shop.

Here, they’ll find an elaborate recreation of the Monsters, Inc. lobby. With Ceilia (You know? Mike Wazowski’s one-eyed, snake-haired girlfriend?) working behind the reception desk. Given that this attraction will be set in the post-film world (After monsters have learned that laughter is 10 times more powerful than screams), Monsters, Inc. is holding an open house today. Actually inviting humans in the Monster world to come tour their energy-gathering facility.

Speaking of energy-gathering … As they make their way through the queue, Disney World visitors will periodically encounter scream / laugh cannisters with funnels sticking up out of them. These Guests will then be encouraged to scream / laugh into these funnels. Which will cause the sides of these cannisters to light up and reveal how much energy was just gathered.

As they make their way up to the attraction’s load area, these WDW visitors will learn that this Open House is all Mike Wazowski’s idea. That — along the route that their coaster is supposed to travel through the Door Hangar — this wiley one-eyed monster has placed even more scream / laugh cannisters. Which will then collect all of the energy that these humans produce as they scream & laugh their way through this attraction.

These Guests will then board a train that’s two seats wide and eight-to-ten cars long. After chugging up the lifthill past show scenes where Mike & Sulley will quickly recap the backstory of this attraction, these WDW visitors will drop down into the Door Hangar building. Where they then quickly whip past various comic tableaus featuring some of the more memorable characters from the “Monsters, Inc.” film. Not to mention some far-too-close encounters with huge scare / laugh cannisters (Whose sides — once again reinforcing this attraction’s interactive aspect — will light up depending on how loudly the Guests on board that particular coaster train scream).

As for the finale of this two-minute-long attraction … Well, it seems that these Disney World visitors will produce so much energy with all of their screams & laughter that the cannisters in the Door Hangar just can’t contain it all. So there’s this huge explosion near the end with bright lights & smoke. And just before their train rolls back into the station, these Guests will see a slightly charred versions of Mike & Sulley. With Wazowski telling his big blue friend “I think we need to get some bigger cannisters.”

Dreamworks Animation, the studio behind box office hits such as Shrek and Monsters Vs Aliens, have a number of new films scheduled for release in the next couple of years.  Some are brand new titles, while others includes sequels to popular franchises.

SCHEDULED FOR 2010:

How To Train Your Dragon (March)

Based on the 2003 book by Cressida Cowell of the same name, the film tells the story of 11-year-old Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the son of a chieftain and leader of the Hairy Hooligans.  Hiccup and his peers must catch a dragon as part of a rites of passage ritual in order to stay part of the tribe.  Along the way they 10 youngsters must learn how to train their dragon after they discover that the How to Train Your Dragon book in the library only has one page.

Hiccup is to be voiced by Jay Baruchel, with further voice talent from Gerard Butler, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and America Ferrera (best known from Ugly Betty).  With 7 more books in the series, this could spawn several sequels if it performs well at the box office when it opens next year.

Shrek Forever After (May)

The fourth film to feature the friendly Scottish ogre sees our hero get involved with the dodgy Rumpelstiltskin (surprisingly voiced by Paul McCartney).  He enters into a pact and finds himself stuck in an alternative version of Far Far Away, where Rumpelstiltskin is King and Shrek and Fiona have never met.  He must now find a way to undo all this spell and put everything back to normal.

This film will apparently fill in some blanks about Shrek’s past and will tell how he arrived in the swamp.  It will also show Donkey’s earlier life and possible feature an ecological story line too.  The original cast, including Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy, still feature.

Oobermind (November)

After supervillain Oobermind defeats his sworn enemy Metro Man, instead of having the time of his life, he slips into depression after his life becomes boring.  To remedy this, he creates a new arch-rival, a new superhero.  Unfortunately his plan goes wrong when the new hero decides he wants to be a supervillain too.  With the tables turned, the only person that can save the day is Oobermind!

With the voice of Robert Downey Jr (Ironman), this is a mickey-take of traditional superhero movies, and may even be a direct shot at the Disney-Pixar hit, The Incredibles.

SCHEDULED FOR 2011:

Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom (June)

The sequel to the 2008 original wil see the original cast reunited (including Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen and Lucy Liu), this time to defeat a new villain.  This emerging threat promises a weapon so powerful it “threatens the very existence of Kung Fu!”, but Po must face his past before he can protect the future.

The Guardians (release TBC)

Based on books by William Joyce, The Guardians tells the tales of the worlds most unlikely superheroes – Jack Frost, North (aka Santa), Bunnymund (the Easter Bunny), Tooth (the Tooth Fairy), and Sandy (the Sandman).  Together they must defeat Pitch, aka The Bogeyman, an ancient spirit intent on pluging the world into darkness.

SCHEDULED FOR 2012:

Puss In Boots (March)

A spin off from Shrek, this film follows Puss (voiced once again by Antonio Banderas) and his love interest, Kitty (Salma Hayek).  Described as a “swashbuckling ride through Puss’s early years”, it expands further on the ideas set out by the Shrek series, introducing characters like Humpty Dumpty and the Goose that lays Golden Eggs.

Madagascar 3 (May)

The third film sees Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Gloria the Hippo, and Melman the Giraffe still fighting to get home to the Big Apple, but this time they’re navigating Europe under the cover of a travelling circus.

The Croods (November)

This looks like Dreamworks big Christmas film for 2012, The Croods tells the story of a caveman looking after his family, taking them across the treachourous landscape to safety.  Things are made more complicated when they are joined by a rather modern caveman, with very different ideas as to how things should be.

Contains the family films ICE AGE and its sequel, ICE AGE 2 – THE MELTDOWN.

ICE AGE is set at the dawn of the Ice Age. Twenty thousand years ago, a group of three creatures finds an infant child and team up together to return him to his father. There’s Manfred, a depressed woolly mammoth, Sid, an amusing sloth and Diego, a mischievous sabre-toothed tiger. Along the way they are joined by a squirrel named Scrat, who is constantly trying to bury his much-loved acorn.

With their habitat under threat from flooding caused by the ending of the ice age, ICE AGE 2 sees unlikely friends Manny the woolly mammoth, Diego the sabre-toothed tiger, and Sid the sloth set out on a quest to find a boat that is rumoured to be at the other end of the valley.

Buy now for only £4.98 from Amazon UK

On Christmas Day, many houses will be filled with the sound of Wall-E being repeated on the DVD player, this years amazing Pixar creation. Well, for all Pixar fans (and deep down, who doesn’t like Pixar films), the countdown has started until the next computer-animated blockbuster is released from the Disney camp, and this time its the turn of Up!

From Wikipedia:

Carl Fredricksen is 78 years old. When Carl was a child, he met and eventually married a girl named Ellie who grew up in a small midwestern town. Ellie always dreamed of exploring the mountains, but she died before she got a chance. Now, when developers threaten to move him into an assisted living home, Carl decides to fulfill his promise to Ellie. To accomplish this, he befriends a chubby eight-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell. The two opposites match up for thrilling adventures as they encounter wild terrain, unexpected villains, and all the terrifying creatures that wait in the jungle.

Sounds good.  But it looks even better.  Pixar films have traditionally avoided using people as the main characters, with the exception being The Incredibles in 2004.  But this time round they’ve had a go and the results are fantastic.  Click here for the Up trailer.