Disney-Pixar previews its upcoming slate, including Monsters Inc. 2 and details on the new Muppets movie 

As an antidote to all the ceaseless bickering of the past 24 hours, let’s all take a minute to talk about Pixar, the beloved modern animation company whose output is, if not across-the-board worshipped, then at least generally agreed-upon in its difficulty to out-and-out loathe (except by the patently unlovable). In conjunction with Disney, the studio recently outlined a full slate that extends well into 2012—ensuring cuddly anthromorphs and gentle Randy Newman tunes will be around to ease us into the apocalypse—and which includes several sequels to their most successful properties. Toy Story 3 is up first, of course, followed by the already-announced Cars 2 in June 2011; after that we can expect new films Newt and Brave (previously known as The Bear And The Bow), and then it’s on to the just-announced sequel to Monsters, Inc. due in November 2012. No word on whether key Pixar director Pete Docter will return for that one yet, but it seems like a safe bet.

Other Disney projects in the pipeline include a new, hand-drawn “retelling” of Winnie The Pooh and a feature-length adaptation of Tim Burton’s old Frankenweenie short (which probably won’t help those recent, South Park-spurred accusations that Burton hasn’t had an original idea since the ’80s, but whatever). But perhaps most interesting of all is Disney’s confirmation that a new Muppets film is definitely in the works, to be helmed by Flight Of The Conchords co-creator James Bobin, who also helped create Da Ali G Show. All that’s known about the project so far is that it will introduce a new Muppet named “Walter,” and that its script has already been written by Jason Segel and his Forgetting Sarah Marshall director Nicholas Stoller. So these ain’t your Daddy’s Muppets and so on and so forth. Hey, here's a question: Will the ever-expanding distaste for all things tangentially related to Apatow extend to the Muppets? To put it another way, are all you guys who generally hate the Apatow Getalong Gang going to get together with all the folks who just can’t stand Flight Of The Conchords, and are you dudes seriously going to hate on some Muppets? Seriously? The Muppets? Discuss!