Animated movies to go 3-D, Disney says

The Pixar animation studio plans to release all future movies in 3-D format beginning in May 2009, the Walt Disney Co. announced Tuesday.

Most animated films from Walt Disney Animation will alsohave 3-D versions, chief creative officer John Lasseter said at a presentation in New York.

"I love 3-D. I made a 3-D computer-animated short in 1989 called Nickname, and in fact my wedding pictures with my beautiful wife Nancy were made in 3-D," he said.

DreamWorks Animation announced last summer it would make all its computer-animated titles 3-D.

Disney is following suit, with plans for both conventional and 3-D releases for 10 upcoming movies.

There could be up to 2,000 3-D cinemas across the U.S. by 2009.

Pixar's upcoming releases include:

• Toy Story 3, with Andynow college age and ready to leave home, in June 2010.
• A re-release of the original Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in 3-D.
• Newt, a love story involving the lasttwo remainingblue-footed newts, in summer 2011.
• The Bear and the Bowat Christmas 2011.
• Cars 2 in summer 2012.

Before going 3-D,Pixar will release Wall-E, the story of a lonely robot cleaning up an Earth abandoned by humans, who falls in love witha visitingrobot.

Walt Disney Animation Studios, a separate arm of the studio, will continuein traditional hand-drawn format with The Princess and the Frog this summer.

Disneyplans both 3-D and traditional releases for the upcoming films:

• Bolt, with John Travolta as the voice of a dog who believes he has super powers.
• Rapunzel, set for releaseat Christmas 2010.
• King of the Elves, set for release at Christmas 2012.