Wall-E!
Johnathan and I braved late night and possible teeny-boppers to see Wall-E at the midnight release last night. Once upon a time, we would have had no problem with the midnight showing, even with work following the next day. Our schedules being what they are, though, it was a bit rough managing to stay up until the movie started.
The night was unfortunately laden with small disasters. The first was that the second the “first look” came on, it was painfully loud. We were hoping the assault on our eardrums would cease when the previews came up, but we had no luck there. It was only after Johnathan sought someone out and informed them of our dilemma that they even realized there was one. They did bring the volume down to a level that wasn’t painful, even if it was still over-loud for a movie theater.
Later on, during the middle of the film, the reel got off so that we were seeing the bottom part of the frame at the top and the top was in the middle. It was incredibly annoying and it probably took almost five minutes for someone to fix it. If it had kept up much longer, I’d have probably pitched a fit and demanded my money back - which would have been the first time I’ve ever done that at a movie theater. It was fixed before the climax of the movie, at least, and we were able to enjoy the rest of the movie in peace.
After being slapped in the face again by the trailer for Beverly Hills Chihuahua and having to see Brendan Frasier try to act again (as well as a couple of previews for some movies that look entertaining), we got to see the Pixar short! It was about a magician and a rabbit, and past that, aside from the hat that was remniscent of the Sorcerer Mickey hat, I can’t bring myself to divulge any further information about it. Pixar still has that spark and talent that I think you should see it for yourself rather than read my inadequate description of it.
Movie review continues beyond here. There will be spoilers.
Read the rest of the snark » »
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:
Linkspam time!
Yes, sorry darlings. I’m not dead, and I’M GONNA REVIEW SOMETHING SOON, DAMMIT.
Disney (Animation Studios) and Pixar have announced their upcoming movie slate for 2008-2012, the list which as follows, is:
- WALL-E. DWEE.
- Bolt. Christ, another dog movie again?
- Tinkerbell (Straight to DVD). WHATTT?! WHAAAAAT?! DIDN’T BOB IGER SHUT THIS DOWN? (Oh wait, he didn’t. Le sigh.)
- Up. Spacetiemz 4 old man dreamz come tru. You just know this is going to be heartwrenching story. I’m taking my hanky.
- Toy Story in 3D. Not interested. 3D makes me all crosseyed and dizzy.
- The Princess and the Frog. I seriously cannot contain my joy at 2D making a comeback.
- Tinkerbell: North of Neverland (Straight to DVD). Okay.
- Toy Story 2 in 3D. Still not interested. Speaking of which, I need to go dig out my TS2 DVD.
- Toy Story 3. I’m… really okay on this. I didn’t like 2 very much, I adored 1, so… we’ll see.
- Rapunzel. YEAH! YEAH YEAH YEAH GLEN KEANE ILU!
- Tinkerbell: A Midsummer Storm (Straight to DVD). … Okay.
- Newt (Pixar). It’s the same guy who directed ‘Lifted’, if you remember that hilarious short. I’m definitely looking forward to this.
- The Bear and the Bow (Pixar). It’s Pocahontas meets Brother Bear, from the synopsis of it.
- Tinkerbell: A Winter Story (Straight to DVD) (Disney). Okay, I give up. !$*&#!@$*(!#^$!*(#$^!@(*#&!*(#&!@(*#
- Cars 2 (Pixar). The synopsis didn’t give too much away, but since it’s directed by Brad Lewis, I have good faith in it. It does puzzle me that they would choose Cars of all the movies to get a sequel - in comparison to the other Pixar films, this one didn’t do as spectacularly at the box office, neither did it fare as well with the critics.
- King of the Elves (Disney). Snow White in guy form. Sounds like it.
New Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian posters and promo images. Yum, although he looks like he’s 15.
New promo images for Cars 2, Toy Story 3, Bolt and a bunch of others.
Next Prince of Persia rumour: Jake Gyllenhaal. Still DO NOT WANT.
High School Musical 4 in the works already, even before HSM 3 has begun shooting. President Rich Ross already stated the whole cast isn’t coming back in HSM4, so I think they’re going to dub it ‘the next generation’ as their subtitle or something. Too much of a good thing isn’t good, Disney! Remember the boybands mantra - when one guy leaves, everything goes to pot!
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.
