Friday, June 27, 2008

Wall-E by Pixar Animation Studios

Ok ok ok... I'm kinda geekin' out right now. Admittedly, I'm extremely biased when it comes to Pixar in general. But I am downright exploding with ... I dunno... SOMETHING about Wall-E. And I haven't even seen it yet.

In fact, emily tried to talk down my excitement a tad the other day, just on the off chance that I'm disappointed by the movie. What can I say, she's looking out for me :).

"Dan, I come here on the off chance that you posted a comic, and occasionally for videos. Not movie reviews for movies you haven't seen yet. Honestly. This blog jumped the shark back when you posted 'Rejected'."

Fine, fine. You want videos? I'll give ya videos. MORE WALL-E VIDEOS. These are more in the "Wall-E Meets" series of vignettes. Don't worry, not a spoiler in sight.












This last one has caused me to contemplate thievery on multiple occasions. I hear these things are wandering around the Disney theme parks, which happen to by right down the road from where I live. I could probably fit one in my car, right?




Lastly, check out Disney's website and wait for the intro to load up. Careful though, after the intro a trailer plays, so be prepared to hit the pause button if you're trying to save the movie for when you actually go see it.

GO SEE WALL-E.

7 comments:

ToddS said...

Wheezy, help me understand why people are going nuts about this Pixar release over all the other Pixar releases in the past. All the film blogs can't stop talking about it. What makes this film so amazing and so much better than others?

D Wheezy said...

Well, seeing as how I haven't seen it yet I can only guess.

For one thing, it's a pretty big risk for Pixar. I heard it cost around 180 million dollars to make. It's the first release for Pixar since they were bought by Disney, and people are curious how that is going to affect both studios. It's about robots in love, which doesn't immediately scream out "audiences will love it". And to top it all off it goes against the traditional idea that actors sell movies, not plot lines (see anything released by any studio in mainstream Hollywood).

Not only does it avoid prominently featuring a big named actor, but it has very little dialog at all! This is essentially a silent film (when it comes to the dialog at least). Risky move.

As far as the animation goes, a movie without dialog is an animator's dream. Think about it for a second. This is a LOVE story without words. What an impossible task to undertake! Think of every love story you've ever seen. It all climaxes with a big speech by the guy that ultimate wins over the girl. Even the great love stories lean on that crutch (see When Harry Met Sally).

Without words every single emotion has to be conveyed through the body language of what is essentially a cube. Incredible.

But that doesn't really answer your question. That's just a list of risks. If any studio tried to do all that, most likely they would fail. All those film blogs want this movie to succeed because Pixar takes risks. I think (like myself) they are sick of studios coming out with the same crap over and over (See any remake of anything from your childhood, sequels, anything with the word "Movie" in the title). Pixar makes new ideas, and they are one of the few studios to do that consistently.

I doubt you would see as much on the internet about Wall-E if Pixar had failed. Generally, if you're seeing a lot of press on the film blogs about a film, it's because the film is fantastic. That's my guess.

On another note, Disney has spent an absurd amount of money in advertising for this movie. Probably because A)The poster alone isn't going to immediate appeal to your average consumer and B)Because they believe it has a chance to not only make millions, but according to some it's got a shot for a Best Film nomination. Not Best ANIMATED Film, Best FILM. The last animated film to do that was Beauty and the Beast, and that was before they had created the Best animated category.

Hope that at least starts to answer your question. Go see it!

ToddS said...

Great response! Thanks for the detail. I plan on seeing it, I'm just amazed at all the coverage it's received. I even thought that Pixar may have bought out the bloggers to write them up (Incredible Hulk did the same thing).

I thought Disney and Pixar recently split? Weren't Toy Story and Cars a Disney/Pixar combo?

D Wheezy said...

Disney and Pixar had a deal where Disney was financing 5 or so Pixar releases, but they were separate entities. In 2006 Disney bought Pixar for 7.4 Billion dollars.

Here's an interesting article on how well the merger has been working so far.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/business/media/01pixar.html?partner=rssnyt

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wheezy Waiter said...

hey, I just saw Wall E today. It was amazing. Probably my favorite Pixar movie and one of my favorite of all time.

P.S. I just discovered your blog. Can you guess how?

D Wheezy said...

Mmm. Blogger search for the name "Wheezy" ? You're name isn't Ashleigh by chance... ;)