Pixar Popcorn Trailer Released By Disney+

In case you didn't know, Tuesday, January 19th is National Popcorn Day, and to celebrate, Disney+ has released the trailer for Pixar Popcorn, a new collection of 10 mini shorts featuring characters from beloved Pixar favorites including Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Cars, The Incredibles, the recently-released Soul and more. The short, which will see the characters in all-new "bite-size" stories from Pixar Animation Studios, will debut on the streaming platform on Friday, January 22nd.

As you can see in the trailer in the video above, there are a lot of favorite characters here. Ducky and Bunny, Toy Story 4 characters originally voiced by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele for that film, make an appearance in the trailer, as does Buzz Lightyear, Finding Nemo's Dory, and various other characters. The trailer also features the titles of many of the shorts at the very end. They are Dancing with the Cars, Unparalleled Parking, Soul of the City, Cookie Num Num, Chore Day The Incredibles Way, Dory Finding, A Day in the Life of the Dead, To Fitness and Beyond, and Fluffy Stuff with Ducky & Bunny.

Popcorn was announced during Disney's Investor Day presentation back in December. It is just the latest release from Pixar on Disney+ with the studio having released its latest feature, Soul, directly to the platform on Christmas Day. That film, from Pete Docter and co-directed by Kemp Powers, starred Jamie Foxx as Joe Gardner, a jazz musician, and Tina Fey as new soul 22 in a story that takes viewers to the Great Before to discover what makes each person unique -- as well as what makes life worth living.

Pixar also has another major release coming up in 2021 with its next feature film, Luca. That film tells the story of a young boy and his friend who appear completely human when outside of the water, but who are really mysterious sea creatures whose lives begin to change when they befriend a young girl from the surface world. That film is expected to debut in theaters on June 18th.

Disney's Soul Pays Tribute to Late Pixar Animator Behind Cars and Toy Story

Soul pays tribute to late Disney and Pixar animator Joe Ranft, a 20-year animation veteran whose credits include Toy Story and Cars. When middle school band teacher and jazz musician Joe (Jamie Foxx) suffers an accident, his soul separates from his body and ends up in the Great Beyond. To buy time and reunite his soul with his body back on Earth, Joe poses as a soul counselor in the Great Before and becomes the unwitting mentor of 22 (Tina Fey). As an eons-old soul who has never found her "spark" — despite the teachings of notable figures like Abraham Lincoln, Mohammed Ali, and Mother Teresa — 22 proudly shows Joe a wall collecting the nametags of her many mentors.

 Conspicuously placed in the center is a name tag for Ranft, who died in a 2005 car accident aged 45. Ranft and Soul director Pete Docter worked together on Toy Story, the first Pixar feature film, where they broke the story with Andrew Stanton and director John Lasseter.

Ranft also served as the story artist on Docter's first feature as director, 2001's Monsters, Inc., where Ranft voiced the blue-skinned monster who panics when he's nearly touched by a human child. Ranft's other voice roles include always-hungry caterpillar Heimlich in A Bug's Life and penguin squeaky toy Wheezy in Toy Story 2.

Ranft made his directorial debut on Cars, serving as writer and co-director with Lasseter. The film released posthumously in 2006 and was dedicated to his memory.

Soul is just the latest Pixar film to honor Ranft in the form of an Easter egg. An engraved portrait of him appears in 2012's Brave, and the home to brothers Ian (Tom Holland) and Barley Lightfoot (Chris Pratt) in Onward gets its address from Ranft's birthday. Docter also paid tribute to Ranft in his previous film, Inside Out, by modeling the Jangles the Clown character after Ranft's real-life clown costume.

"We wanted a wall full of stickers. So there were plenty of chances for people to fill in their own," Docter told /Film about 22's Easter egg-filled wall of name tags. "Another one for me was Joe Grant, who was one of the great Disney story artists and development guys back in the ‘40s. He worked with Walt Disney. I got to know him when he was like 95 or something, and he was a great mentor to me. As well as the father of Frank Oz, this guy named Mike Oznowicz. He lived locally in Oakland, and we would meet him every weekend, and his was just a fantastic, full of life guy. And a bunch of other folks."