Could Pixar be working on a film about a boy and his dinosaur? If you take a look behind Pixar sculptor Greg Dykstra, you will notice concept drawings and photos on his office wall showing a dinosaur and a boy. Could this be a design for an upcoming Pixar feature or short film?

Upcoming Pixar reader Bryko614, who noticed the concept art above while watching B-Roll footage from the making of Pete Docter’s Up, took that question to Pixar story supervisor Ronnie del Carmen. del Carmen responded on Twitter by saying that he does know what they are from “But not telling. Nothing to do with anything Toy Story, tell you that.”

Some have suggested the possibility that the designs could have been created for earlier concepts for Russell the wilderness explorer and what eventually became Kevin the Bird, but neither of which appear in The Art of Up book, and both designs seem far too different from the final cartoony character design style of the film. So it doesn’t seem likely, and Ronnie’s response leads us to believe the designs are part of a future project.

There are many possibilities. The sculpting phase usually doesn’t happen until late in the process, after the designs have become more finalized, but before they start the heavy duty animation work. Past Pixar books have listed these sculpts as being 1 to 2 years before the film’s release, but not much more than that. Since these designs aren’t from Toy Story 3, and don’t seem like a likely fit for Newt (the upcoming 2012 film about the last surviving pair of a rare reptilian species known as the blue-footed newts), I would venture to guess that the designs were created for an upcoming animated short.

Anyone have any ideas?

Update: /Film commentor bsdseagle notes that “William Joyce (Storybook teller and concept designer) used to work for Pixar, he also contributed on the Blue Sky movie Robots. Now the interesting part is that he has a children book called Dinosaur Bob about a kid and a Dinosaur friend)” Could there be a connection?