THQ, Disney Interactive, and Disney's new animated slate

Yesterday Disney unveiled its feature animation slate all the way through 2012, as we detailed at length in Variety. It includes two movies a year -- in most cases one from hit factory Pixar and one from the less successful (these days) Disney Animation Studios.

That has some big implications for THQ and Disney Interactive Studios, the Mouse House's own videogame publishing arm. As I reported in February, DIS got the rights to publish a game based on "Toy Story 3," which comes out in 2010, but THQ still has one game left in its deal with Pixar, which was made before the animation studio was acquired by Disney, after this year's "Wall*E" (which looks like it could make a natural puzzle/exploration game) and next year's "Up" (pictured left, about 78 year-old on some kind of adventure with a little kid -- a movie starring an old man looks like even less of an obvious game than "Ratatouille," which didn't do very well for THQ).

So we can probably assume that one of Pixar's two 2011 toons (2011 is an odd year in which Pixar will actually have two games) will turn into a game for THQ -- either "Newt," a romantic comedy about two mismatched amphibians, or "The Bear and the Bow," a mythical adventure set in Scotland. I think it's safe to bet which one THQ would prefer to get, but we'll see whether it has to deal with the romantic comedy instead.

Another question left unanswered... THQ made the original "Cars" game, which was a big hit, plus this year's follow-up "Mater-national." But does it get to keep making "Cars" games through 2012's "Cars 2?" Does it lose that right at some point? I'll be looking into it.

Meanwhile, there's a lineup of Disney animated films  for which we can safely bet DIS will be making game adaptations. They include all of the Disney Animation Studios releases: this year's "Bolt," 2009's "The Princess and the Frog, 2010's "Rapunzel," and 2012's "King of the Elves." Also, as we already know, it's doing the game based on Pixar's 2010 release "Toy Story 3." And then there's a good chance it will do one of the Pixar films -- either "Newt" or "The Bear and the Bow' -- in 2011 and probably "Cars 2" in 2012.

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[Chan]

The Walt Disney Studios unveiled a diverse and ambitious slate of 10 new animated feature films from Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios to be released through the year 2012 at a New York press conference held today by Dick Cook, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, and John Lasseter, chief creative officer for Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios. Its must be excellent and it well known.