News broke this morning that Andrew Stanton is back on staff full time at Pixar after a regrettably bitter taste of the live action world. Despite the dismal performance of John Carter, let us not forget his lead role in two of Pixar's most beloved, and successful films, Finding Nemo and WALL•E — with, of course, a significant say in all of their other films. But more interesting than the fact that he is working full time at Pixar again, is what he's working on.

Deadline has it on supposedly good authority that Stanton has pitched a winning storyline to the Pixar Braintrust for a sequel to Finding Nemo, the second highest grossing Pixar film and best selling DVD of all time, and is now moving into full production on the film set to be released in 2016.

Before you get your scales ruffled over the prospect of losing Nemo all over again, and another Pixar sequel in the pipeline, do keep in mind that after Monsters University there will be three straight original films released before the Finding Nemo sequel.

One disconcerting thought mentioned in the article that I choose to attribute to sensational reporting, and hopefully less to actual fact, is the report that Disney used the sequel as an ultimatum for his return to the director's chair for a live-action film. Such motives are a bit disheartening to hear, but as we all know, entertainment blogs are all about drama. Ahem.

Blu-ray and 3D blu-ray combo packs for Brave were recently made available for pre-order on Amazon. I added links to them last night on the Brave page, but I figure it also deserves a mention on the blog, especially since there hasn't been much to talk about the last couple of days.

There are currently two options showing: the 5 Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition including the 3D blu-ray, blu-ray, DVD and digital copy, and the 3 Disc Collector's Edition which includes the blu-ray and DVD formats of the film.

Nothing is said of an official release date on the pages, but there are a couple reasonable possibilities. Pixar's summer release films are almost always released in the first half of November, the majority of which fall on the first Tuesday of November. That is the tentative estimation in the Pixar Portal countdown timer in the sidebar. Both UP and Finding Nemo are slated for 3D blu-ray release on the 4th of December. That date may also be a possibility, but Disney may be hesitant to overwhelm the pocketbooks of Pixar fans with 3 large, relatively pricey 3D blu-ray collections to buy all on the same day.

Some interesting evidence has sprung up that suggests that Tumblr blog, Rainy City Tales 332, that chronicles the production cycle of an as-yet unannounced short film project, is actually about the next Pixar short film. The Pixar Times points to clues like an abundance of Pixar employee followers on Twitter, and an image of some whiteboard scribbles that read "stealing MU system" — with "MU" presumably referring to Monsters University, Pixar's next feature-length film that this short would likely be screened with.

As I was digging back through the Tumblr blog myself, I found what I believe to be the most compelling evidence in a post written on May 4th:

Who would have thought snow days happen even in California. Well, if you think of hydrogen as California's snow. Ah well, so I'm off to a 3 day weekend, planning a few city walks to collect stories, details and observations to enrich the lovely world we are creating.

Rainy City Tales 332

This in reference to the hydrogen leak in a bus yard near Pixar that forced the evacuation of Pixar and several nearby schools and businesses.

The Tumblr blog talks a lot about inanimate city objects expressing emotions true to their natures, a concept not unfamiliar to Pixar. There is also an unusual focus on the study of rainy cities. Take what you will from those clues about the story.

Rainy City Tales 332 said repeatedly a few weeks ago that the official reveal would happen on July 3rd, but then decided to postpone it to the following week (this week) so as not to be overshadowed by Independence Day in the states.