Disney Schedule Update: Cars and Car-toons

Cars 2 speeds up but won’t get a ticket.

Variety has news from the Walt Disney Showcase today. One of the biggest announcements was about Cars 2, the sequel to 2006’s Cars: the studio is so excited about the amount of money the first movie has racked up that it plans to bump the second film’s release up from 2012 to summer 2012. Until then, the studio hopes to keep the film in the public eye by producing a number of short cartoons featuring the Cars characters. The shorts will be shown in theaters before movies and on TV.

Cars, a decent-sized hit in the theaters, has gone on to be a real moneymaker for the studio, particularly in the area of merchandising. It’s earned $462 million since its release. It’s also earned a place at Disney theme park California Adventure, where “Cars Land” will open in 2011. Raise your hand if you thought Cars was capable of creating this kind of excitement. Mine’s down–it’s a nice little movie but didn’t really blow me away. I guess if you can make the right toys, you can make the money.

Other news included an announcement that there will be a National Treasure 3, provided we have any national treasures left after everything’s been sold to bail out the economy. Also, Oprah Winfrey will voice the role of the Princess’s mother in The Princess and the Frog, a fairy tale set in New Orleans. That lucky princess, with her rich talk show host mom. Who needs a Frog prince when you’re the princess of all media?