Mr. Pricklepants Revealed In New Toy Story 3 Mini-Featurette

While there's very little new material in the new Toy Story 3 featurette Drawn to Animation, what little there is has premium fan value. Finally, we're given our first look at Mr. Pricklepants, the pretentious thespian stuffed-toy Hedgehog who seems set to be one of the major additions to the cast. Of course, we still have no idea at all what role he actually plays in the story. Maybe he's fundamental, maybe he's not but you can pretty much guarantee he won't just be an irrelevant adjunct. Those kind of narrative loose ends just don't exist in Pixar pictures.

See the full clip for yourself after this break and get to hear Pricklepants speak. He's been voiced by Timothy Dalton, who has probably the most geek-centric resume of any Bond – Dr. Who, Hot Fuzz, some Ghibli dubbing, Looney Tunes, even the Flash Gordon movie...

According to Upcoming Pixar, this clip premiered on the Disney Channel. They also observed that Pricklepants looks somewhat like Winnie the Pooh, and I can definitely see that.

Good stuff, huh? And a fun take on what 3D is going to offer us.

When Disney held a pick press event back in the autumn and then later at the D23 event, they showed this footage of Pricklepants alongside the first full length Toy Story 3 trailer. I think we mere mortals who were not in the room are now up to date on all of the Pixar footage that has been showcased.

Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich yesterday tweeted:

Enjoying the last day I can say "Toy Story 3 doesn't come out 'til next year."

And today, we can all enjoy the fact that it's out this year. Finally. To say there's a lot of expectations suspended over this one would be putting it mildly. There was a while when Pixar and Disney were going their separate ways, when the Circle 7 team were put in charge of making a third Toy Story, that the future of the franchise looked rather bleak... thankfully, that now all feels like a fading bad dream.