Will the Real Wall-E Please Stand Up?
As the fervor for the newest Disney-Pixar film increases, more and more merchandise and neat little tidbits do as well.
A small promotional website is where the trail starts. The site is called Buy n Large. It appears to be a company within the canon atmosphere of the Wall-E universe which sells both space condos and robots. These robots are cute little things with names like Sall-E, Wend-E and Gar-E. This site was clearly created for promotion of the movie and is packed with cute little tidbits of non-information dealing with this fictional company. It looks very much like any well-designed corporate website might and I think the Pixar team did a good job in the creation of this as advertising. I’m a sucker for things like this, unnecessary though they may be.
The biggest piece of promotional gobbledegook (and, frankly, the best) is the totally real and functional Wall-E robot. Disney called it the Ultimate Wall-E Robot when it was debuted at Maker Faire 2008 in early May. The Wall-E robot can sense your presence and the presence of surrounding objects which enables him not to run into things, he has sound sensors on multiple sides which can allow him to go toward the voice which speaks to him (or the crash which accidentally happens too near to him, but one can’t be too picky), and he’s a generally functional (toy) version of the robot that we will see in the movie next month. (You can bet I’ll be going on opening day if I can swing it.) I think the best way to display this really awesome robot is through video taken at Maker Faire 2008. Here - don’t hurt yourself with excitement:
The Pixar Story: To Infinity and Beyond
The adventure started when Johnathan and I were at the Cleveland International Film Festival. Last Thursday, we saw a movie around mid afternoon and out of sheer curiosity, checked the movie listings for the rest of the festival (which runs through today). Imagine our surprise when we saw a movie called The Pixar Story listed among more obscure international titles! Unfortunately, by the time we noticed it and went online to check for ticket availability, we found that it was on standby, which meant lining up an hour or more before the movie was scheduled to start, then waiting around to find out if we would be able to be seated after all the current ticket and pass holders had been seated. Thankfully, we got tickets five and six, so we were able to get in, though it meant sitting in the very front row. John Lasseter was pretty much right in our faces!
The film chronicles Pixar’s history starting with John Lasseter’s college days and early career at Walt Disney Animation. It goes through the early days of their inclusion in LucasFilm, branching into the very early days of Pixar as its own studio with Steve Jobs as the primary investor. It follows Pixar’s meager beginnings while they struggled just to pay the bills, through its contractual friendship with Disney and repeated movie successes. It continues on to tell the story of the poor politics of Walt Disney Studios and how greatly it had the potential to affect Pixar’s future as well as how it affected the morale around the somewhat untraditional smaller studio. The film wraps up with information about the new merger between Disney and Pixar and the shakeup that merger meant for Disney as well as the possibilities that it allows for Pixar in the future.
Overall, it was an excellent documentary - well-paced, including enough information to enlighten anyone but not so much as to bore the less enthusiastic fans. It included interviews with various people who worked for or with Pixar over the years, including John Lasseter, Ed Catmull, Steve Jobs, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson, Brad Bird, Lee Unkrich and Joe Ranft. It also includes interviews with greats such as Roy E. Disney, Michael Eisner, Robert Iger, Ollie Johnson, George Lucas, Frank Thomas, Glen Keane and Diane Disney Miller.
After the documentary, however, we found that we were in for an unexpected (for us, at least) treat. After the credits finished and the lights came up, we were introduced to none other than Lee Unkrich. He obliged those who were able to get in to see the documentary with a fairly lengthy Q&A session. (For those who are obliging me with blank stares, Lee Unkrich has been with Pixar for over fifteen years and is the director for the the coming Toy Story sequel, Toy Story 3.) He answered questions from everything to what Steve Jobs is like (he had only good things to say about the contribution of the well-known Apple company founder) to what the future of 2D animation is at Walt Disney Studios.
Some facts that came out of the Q&A:
- John Lasseter has plans to revive the 2D animation studios at Disney, giving a new place to the art form on which the Walt Disney Studios were built.
- There will be no more Direct-to-Video sequels as was announced last year, but John Lasseter has something up his sleeve that will go directly to DVD. However, according to Lee Unkrich, this project is something “original.” He did not share any additional information about this project, just that it would not follow the way of the Direct-to-Video Sequels which, in his words, lacked in integrity.
- Brad Bird is moving on to live action films, as he has interest in making many different types of movies.
- And in truly unannounced news, Lee Unkrich revealed that for the first time in Pixar history, a woman is scheduled to direct a full-length Pixar film. The feature has not been announced to even be in production yet, so many thanks to Lee Unrkrich for the scoop!
The Pixar story was educational and interesting, but more than that, there is nothing that can beat the energy of a room full of people who love Pixar. Johnathan and I came away feeling positive about the futures of both Disney and Pixar, especially with John Lasseter at the helm of Disney Imagineering and as Chief Creative Officer for Disney Animation. The future at Disney once again looks bright, and with Pixar now at a release schedule of one movie a year, the future of Pixar looks set to prosper as well.
Disney Linkspam!
Y YES I LIVE! Sorry for the lack of updates - Banana 1 had finals this week (I wrote an 15 page paper on the Holocaust in an hour and a half, so BEAT THAT, BITCHES) - so to compensate, here’s a massive amount of linkspam.
Disney and More is holding a contest, and the prize is a rare Disneyland Paris “from sketch to reality” book! All you have to do is answer 12 questions related to Disneyland Paris. Deadline’s April 12th, 2008.
The Disney Blog is also holding a contest, and they’re giving away copies of the Platinum Edition of 101 Dalmatians! Just fill out their contest entry form, and the deadline is tonight, 12th March.
Disney Interactive Studios has released Disney Friends for the Nintendo DS to North America. It’s a simulation game that allows children to interact with characters in “The Lion King”, “Finding Nemo”, “Winnie the Pooh” and “Lilo and Stitch”. Apparently you’re supposed to make “long lasting friendships” with these characters by doing nice things such as questing and buying these characters things to keep them happy. DISNEY’S TURNING INTO SANTA. IT’S NOT REAL, CHILDREN!
My Friends Tigger and Pooh as well as the 2 Disc Platinum Edition of 101 Dalmatians (if you didn’t know already). For the latter, one special feature of note is the mangling rendition of “Cruella De Vil” by Disney Channel star Selena Gomez, and the usual “making of” blah blah.
Walt Disney looks for a collaboration to produce “cartoons to Asian tastes”. Dude, I’m Asian, and I can tell you the people who obsessively fangirl anime are decidedly NOT Asian.
Ratatouille (the game) becomes a “Platinum Family Hits” edition. I still don’t get why they want to make these things so special. It’s been barely a year; you don’t have to relegate it to “A CLASSIC GAME EVERYONE NEEDS TO PLAY” status yet!
The newest addition to the Baby Einstein DVD collection is Baby’s First Sounds: Discovery for Little Ears. Apparently you’re supposed to replay the DVD over and over again to your child and “expose [them] to the first sounds of language they will encounter in their daily lives.” Oh gee, I guess instead of just talking as you normally would, you should buy a DVD to teach your baby how!
Okay, that was shorter than I expected.
Soosi Teh Liddle Bloo Coupehy
According to Pixar, Cars was inspired by the style of the old 1952 animated short, Susie The Little Blue Coupe. It’s directed by Clyde Geronimi, who also directed Cinderella, Peter Pan and supervised Sleeping Beauty. Sterling Holloway, AKA Kaa in the Jungle Book, served as narrator for this film.
The short is available in a number of places, should you wish to see it on a TV screen - it’s an Easter Egg on The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad DVD, Herbie - The Love Bug Special Edition DVD, and Walt Disney’s It’s a Small World of Fun Vol.2, which also features a bunch of other shorts.
Alternatively, you can just watch it here. (Quickly, before Disney takes it down!)
