Pixar plans films on dinosaurs, the mind

ANAHEIM – Pixar Animation Studios announced Saturday it was planning two new features for 2013 and 2014 – one on dinosaurs and the other on the mysteries of the human brain.

Disney and Pixar Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter unveiled the new projects during the D23 expo for Disney fans in Anaheim south of Los Angeles.

Neither of the films, which will follow next year’s “Brave” and “Monsters University” due out in summer 2013, have titles yet, but the first will be devoted to dinosaurs and directed by “Finding Nemo” screenwriter Bob Peterson.

Rather than winding back time to the dinosaur era, the film due out for Christmas 2013 will work off the premise that dinosaurs never disappeared.

“In our movie, dinosaurs continue to live,” Peterson told fans at the three-day expo.

For summer 2014, the studio plans to release “the untitled Pixar movie that takes you inside the mind,” said its director Pete Docter, who was behind “Up” and “Monsters, Inc.”

“We are excited to take you to a world that everybody knows but where no one has ever been: the world inside your own mind,” he said.

During the presentation, Pixar revealed footage from “Brave,” its first fairy tale. It will be the studio’s first film with a female protagonist – a Scottish princess.

Pixar, which celebrates its 25th birthday this year, has become one of the most profitable studios in Hollywood with titles like “Toy Story,” “Ratatouille” and “Up.”

The studio saw its first setback this year when critics snubbed “Cars 2” and theatre-goers followed suit, with worldwide ticket receipts totalling just over $476 million – a disappointment by Pixar standards.