Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category

YouTube – Best Halloween Costume

YouTube – Best Halloween Costume.

New Toy Story 3 Trailer

A tough decision for Andy

Toy Story 3 hits the theaters June 18, 2010! OK, we have a little wait yet.

But, in the meantime, Pixar has a new trailer out, and it looks great!

Andy is growing up and going to college and must decide what to do with all his old toys. His decision? Donate them to a daycare. How does that work out for the toys? Check out the trailer and find out.

The best place to watch the trailer is on Apple’s Movie Trailer site. Be sure to watch it in HD if you can. It is absolutely stunning. To jump right to the preview, click here.

New to the excellent cast from the previous movies is Michael Keaton, Whoopi Goldberg, Ned Beatty, Timothy Dalton, Jeff Garlin, and Bonnie Hunt. I’m not sure at this point what characters they portray. There is a new actor, Blake Clark, portraying Slinky Dog due to the death of Jim Varney.. John Morris, the child actor who originally portrayed Andy will be voicing him again. The actor is now about 24 years old and Andy is 18 in the movie, so that is very cool. Presumably, Stinky Pete will not be appearing in Toy Story 3, as he was "adopted" by a young girl in Toy Story 2.

A bad day for potato head

Can’t wait for Toy Story 3? Starting this weekend, for 2 weeks, you can see the first two Toy Story movies back-to-back in 3-D in theaters. There is even a 3-D sneak peek at Toy Story 3.

Also, be sure to visit the official Toy Story website for lots of cool things to do and to buy tickets. You can also give the gift of an alien to friends on Facebook and enter for a chance to win tickets to the Toy Story 3 premiere. Or, you can keep the alien for yourself . Each alien you gift or keep earns you a chance to win.

All Toy Story movies are rated "G".

Transformers: What’s next?

Tranformers, Revenge of the Fallen, came out this week. I haven’t seen it yet, but my older son went with friends to a 12:01 showing and according to his Facebook posting it was "Awesome!!!!!" (there were a lot more exclamation points than I’m willing to put here.)

My younger son and I had to be contented with watching the original Transformers movie on DVD.

The first eight minutes of the new movie were filmed in June of 2008 here in our home town of Bethlehem, PA in the previous Bethlehem Steel facility. For several nights we could hear explosions and gun fire in the middle of the night while they filmed a scene that takes place, in the movie, in Japan. I went down to the location with my kids and some of their friends on two nights. The first night it rained and there wasn’t much to see. The second night we were able to watch helicopters flying low and in formation over our heads while explosions and gunfire took place at the Steel facility down the road from where we were standing. I tried to get photos, but it was dark and it all happened very fast and without warning, so most of my pictures were not very good. I’ve posted the better ones here. At one point the amazing pilots of the helicopters came out to the crowd and were warmly welcomed. I believe they were retired military pilots. And the director, Michael Bay also came out to the crowd while we were there and thanked the residents for putting up with all the noise, which was very nice of him.

Of course the Transformers are toys from our childhood, soon to be followed by GI Joe. When I was growing up, my cousin and I played with GI Joe all the time. We had lots of great Joes and accessories. Then, years later, they change Joe to a small action figure, then eventually (in 1992, I think) the 12 inch Joe came back. My younger son was a big GI Joe fan (I’m so glad he had the full size figures available by then) and still has all his toys, so we’re looking forward to the new movie.

What childhood toys will be made into movies next? Check out the very early preview of upcoming toy-based movies:

Dave’s Cool Toys

Toy Story 3. Yay!

Dave's Cool Toys Toy Story 3Save this date! June 18, 2010. This is the release date for Toy Story 3.

After a long and very troubled history including rewrites, shelved plots, controversies, and bickering between Pixar and Disney, Toy Story 3 began animation in April, 2009. The director and animation team Shaved their heads at the beginning of animation and will be seeing who can go the longest without a haircut or shaving.

The plot involves Woody, Buzz, and the rest of Andy’s toys being dropped off at a day-care center when Andy (who is now 18) heads off to college.

All the original cast members are back onboard for this sequel including Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, Annie Potts, John Ratzenberger (of course), Estelle harris, and Jodi Benson. They are joined by Michael Keaton as Ken and Ned Beatty. Jim Varney, who was the voice of Slinky Dog passed away and will be replaced by a close friend who reportedly sounds very much like him. Joe Ranft, the voice of Wheezy also passed away. Wheezy doesn’t seem to be in this film.

Just in case you didn’t know, I said "of course" for John Ratzenberger because he is in every single Pixar feature movie ever made (sometimes briefly). If you weren’t aware of this, I will post all his characters at the end of this post. See how many you know.


The "Teaser" trailer for the movie is being shown with the current Pixar movie "Up". But you can see it now by scrolling down. To watch a better version of the trailer, visit the Apple Movie Trailer site.

Oh! Also save the date for October 2, 2009. Toy Story and Toy Story 2 will be re-released as a double feature in Disney Digital 3-D in theaters. Reportedly the double feature will be for the price of one ticket.

It’s hard to believe it, but Toy Story originally came out in 1995. Coincidentally, that is the same year I started Dave’s Cool Toys. (Pixar has been slightly more successful.) Although it doesn’t seem like it was that long ago, when you think about the many amazing and successfull Pixar movies that have come out in the meantime (and not one bomb among them), it suddenly becomes clear how long it’s been.

John Ratzenberger’s roles in Pixar films:

Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3 – Hamm the piggy bank
A Bug’s Life – P.T. Flea the circus leader
Monster, Inc. – The Abominable Snowman
Finding Nemo – A school of fish
The Incredibles – The Underminer supervillain
Cars (and Cars 2 due in 2011) – Mack the tractor-trailer
Ratatouille – Mustafa the waiter
Wall-E – John
Up – Tom the construction foreman
He also appears at the end of Cars as all of his previous Pixar characters in car form.

Dave’s Cool Toys

Dave’s Cool Toys Blog
We post news about new toys on our site, new toys in the market, general toy information, or stuff we just thought was cool (usually toys).

We welcome your feedback and comments.

Be sure to check out our toys at Dave's Cool Toys. We work hard to find toys you won't find at the big box stores. Now go out and play!

Dave Ference

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