Watchmen & WALL-E Mashup Trailer

Early Reviews of Wall-E are Starting to Appear

Aint it Cool News ran the first screening of Pixar's latest film Wall-E, and even though formal reviews can't be released yet, due to a press embargo, the early word is extremely positive. For example, one lucky attendee had this to say: "Masterpiece. That's it. That's truth in one word. WALL*E is a masterpiece. It tells its story with economy, with little dialogue, but there is no question what is going on. It's like a Buster Keaton silent film mixed with the wonder of the original STAR WARS and the morals of the best fables, except this moral is an imperative one, and one to which we must pay attention. It's emotional, but not overly so. For children, it is instantly accessible, maybe more so than a film with more dialogue, because it's from the character's actions that the story is propelled. WALL*E and EVE and the rest of the robots are unique characters and they do it with deeds, not words." You can read the full article at aintitcoolnews.com

New Wall-E Trailer

The film I am most excited about seeing this summer is definitely The Dark Knight (as the few loyal readers of my blog know), but Wall-E, already a close second, is gaining in momentum. Check out the new trailer and let me know what you think!

New Wall-E Commercial

New Wall-E Trailer (Super Bowl Ad)

Pixar Does 2D Animation

The upcoming DVD of Disney/Pixar’s Ratatouille will include the first hand-drawn animated 2-D short film in Pixar history. Hand-drawn animation is dead? HA! The piece is called "Your Friend, the Rat" is 11 minutes in length, making it the longest Pixar short-film ever.

The movie follows Remy the rat (voiced again by Patton Oswalt), and his brother, Emile (Peter Sohn), who talk about the “history and behavior of rats in an effort to persuade human viewers not to kill the ubiquitous rodents.” The director, Jim Capobianco claims is reminiscent of 1960s-era educational films, old UPA shorts and classic Ward Kimball animation from Disney.

There is also a mix of 3D computer animation, 2D line animation, live-action filmed segments and even a little stop-motion animation which is another Pixar first.

My guess is that this short was a lead up test to next year's Wall-E, where Fred Willard will be the first live-action actor in a Pixar film. They are starting work on a film called 1906 rumored to be directed by Brad Bird (Dir. of Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Iron Giant, etc.) that is the first full live action film by Pixar about the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Sounds very cool!

Ratatouille was a delightful little film that has earned over $500 million world wide, and will soon surpass the earnings of "Cars". Not bad for a film about a rat. The film was beautiful in design, full of emotion and real character development, and just an uplifting film in general. I'll write up my full review on the DVD when it arrives with my Pixar Shorts DVD from Amazon.com next week.

New Trailer for Pixar's Wall-E

The new trailer for Wall-E comes out tomorrow, but here is a sneak peek from a French website.

http://www.allocine.fr/video/player_gen_cmedia=18752463.html

There is one short commercial (in French) but then the video trailer will play. I love the new Pixar opening animation with Wall-E helping out the desk lamp.

The great thing about the films from Pixar is that story comes first and foremost, with everything else supporting the story. Their films don't hire celebrities as voice actors, they hire the right voice for the right character. In this case, Wall-E doesn't talk, he just makes robot noises similar to R2D2 in Star Wars. I have heard the first 1/3 or more of the movie has no dialogue, but tells the story through sound (Wall-E's robotic sounds) and facial/body acting.

This trailer is in French, and I understood every bit of it. That's the genious of Pixar.

No release date yet, just sometime 2008. It can't get here soon enough.