Wall-E

[t***@aol.com]

So I saw it today... I'd be interested in hearing what others
thought...

[9Lanterns]

I thought it was amazing. But that should not be surprising; it's
Pixar after all. It's a gutsy, surprisingly adult movie that is
hilarious, touching, adorable, and beautifully rendered. If Brad Bird
is the most adept Pixar director at plot and action, and Lasseter is
the best at character, Stanton is the best at presenting filmic,
beautiful images. And of course he's fantastic at the other stuff
too. I think Stanton tends to tackle deeper, more thoughtful
projects. And he excels at it.

This is not just one of the best animated movies, it's also one of the
best sci-fi movies. The world is utterly and completely believable,
and it seems at once to resemble Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, 2001,
Blade Runner, the Matrix... I'm awed at how far CGI has come.

I don't know where Wall-E stands in the Pixar pantheon. I like them
all so much, it's hard to rank them. But Wall-E deserves to be
considered "one of the best". Feels like that's true of practically
all the Pixar movies. I don't know how these guys keep doing this
year after year. It's Pixar's world. Everyone else is just playing
in it.

-Shane

[t***@aol.com]

I was amazed as well at how adult this film is. You really can see
that Pixar is now playing by it's own rules... it is like Apple in
that way. They create things that THEY want to see and if their is an
audience for it then great, but creating mass hits just does not seem
like the purpose or motivation behind the creation of them. Kung Fu
Panda may in fact be a great film, but it was created and crafted to
sell as many tickets to as wide a range of people as possible... that
is why it exists, Wall-E feels like it comes from an EXTREMELY
different place.

I was also floored at the level of the quality of the animation...
just far and away the best I have ever seen, especially the Earth
segments. I do have SLIGHT issues with how the humans were rendered.
I don't want to spoil anything here but the way we see the humans
early on are VERY different than how they look later on in terms of
style, and I found that to be a little bit of a disconnect.

Otherwise I have little to complain about. There is virtually no
dialogue in the film and I know that will bother some, it may limit
the mass appeal of it (or maybe not) but this is yeat another
strikingly original and creative home run for Pixar. Who says they
must have a bomb, why?

[T***@aol.com]

Post by 9Lanterns
This is not just one of the best animated movies, it's also one of the
best sci-fi movies. �The world is utterly and completely believable,
and it seems at once to resemble Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, 2001,
Blade Runner, the Matrix... �I'm awed at how far CGI has come.

Judging by the rave reviews, plus what I've seen in the
clips, and just plain gut instinct, I'll predict Wall-E does $75
million this weekend.

[t***@aol.com]

Trav, does it count to make a prediction AFTER the events have already
happened?

Even so you are off by about 10 mil or so, Wall-E pulled in something
around 64 Million which actually
makes it the biggest opening ever for a Pixar film and among the
biggest ever for animated films.

[t***@aol.com]

OK, OK, I was WAY WRONG with the above post... sorry.

I got my facts mixed up/ First of all Wall-E made more like 65.5 mil
or so, secondly that puts it THIRD for Pixar movies, not first
(Incredibles and Nemo both opened north of 70 mil).

What I had read which confused me is that Friday was the biggest
SINGLE DAY ever for a Pixar film. It was however the second biggest
June opening EVER behind only one of the Harry Potter films. The
bottom line is that it did very, VERY well... at least on opening
weekend, now we will see if people can warm up to it or not.

[t***@aol.com]

HA! Even when I try to CORRECT a post a typo screws it up. I meant
to say 63.5 million.

[T***@aol.com]

Post by t***@aol.com
Trav, does it count to make a prediction AFTER the events have already
happened?

I made my estimate before hearing the first b.o. returns
yet. Did the betting window close?

[t***@aol.com]

I trust you, and it was not a bad prediction. However even though
Wall-E fell short of your prediction it performed VERY well meeting
even optimistic predictions from those in the industry (or so I have
read).

It becomes very difficult to predict these things for us amateurs
because of theater counts and all of that.

[R***@aol.com]

Kung Fu Panda may in fact be a great film, but it was created and crafted to sell as many tickets to as wide a range of people as possible... that is why it exists, Wall-E feels like it comes from an EXTREMELY different place.

Lets not fool ourselves into thinking that Wall-E isn't tailored to
make money...lots of merchadising potentional in thems robots ;)
Honestly you can't compare the two films because they are so
different, yet both entertaining. I probably give KFP an edge
because it was just so darn fun...I've seen it 3 times...not something
I do often with movies. Wall-E I enjoyed a lot and I want to see it
again...maybe just not 3 times. It does have more adult themes which
is GREAT to see in American animation. Since the rest of the
animation world looks to see "what is Pixar doing"...maybe we will see
more films with stories aimed at a higher audience.

I really like the themes of over dependence on technology, pollution
and the need to social interaction.....all very subtle....kids
probably won't get much of it...but great all the same.

Truthfully my only real problem with Wall-E was the live action....it
grounded the film in our reality....but then when the humans become CG
they take on a different reality which caused a disconnect. Maybe
they wanted to try a mix which is new for them, but i would have stuck
with all CG. Other things bothered me but I could dismiss
them...like: if everyone was stuck in their hover chairs all the time
where did the babies come from, what caused the huge cloud storm that
sent Wall-E ducking for cover all the time, once back on Earth what
did they do with the building size mounds of garbage, even after 700
years they were still tossing HUGE cubes of garbage into space...isnt
pollution the reason they left to begin with?

Some of you may know more....but I found it real interesting that Wal-
Mart is carrying no Wall-E merchandise....I have found NONE. Maybe it
has something to do with how the first couple shots of BuyNLarge look
like Wal-Marts...interesting.

I'm not sure where i would rank Wall-E among Pixars other
films.....honestly as much as I enjoyed Rat, I never feel like
watching it again.....but Wall-E is up there on the rewatchable list.
All of Pixar's films are good, some more than others, so it's hard to
say....

Incidentally Presto is on iTunes....I so loved that short

So far its been a good year for animation!!!!

http://www.raymation.net

[t***@aol.com]

Oddly enough I was not a huge fan of Presto, especially strange since
I enjoy magic and know a lot about it... it just did not work for me.

I had previously mentioned how the disconnect between the CGI and live
humans was bothersome to me so I obviously agree with you there Ray.
I had also thought os many of the same concerns you had but they are
easily dismissed... they have some sort of reproduction artificial
insemination program for the kids... whatever. No one said that the
humans would not continue to live in space for that matter, simply
that Earth was no longer going to be forgotten and ignored. I took
the end to mean that the humans had a reawakening and a reconnection
with what is really meant to be human (interaction with living beings)
and so the Earth would now be saved. Maybe it would take generations
more to save it but it would now happen when previously the entire
balance of the Earth rested solely on one ancient robot and a corrupt
outreach program created to look for life.

As compared to Kung Fu Panda I cannot even put them in the same
league. KFP is a ton of fun and well done but by comparison to Wall-E
it is simply a silly popcorn movie, a throw away, nothing truly
classic. It is fast food... REALLY good fast food but nothing I will
remember a year from now while I think Wall-E has potential to be a
true classic, and certainly the actual animation in Wall-E leaves KFP
looking crude by comparison.

Finally, while there are of course merchandise tie ins and both Pixar
and Disney want Wall-E to be a MASSIVE money making hit I would still
argue that the motivation behind it's creation is VERY different from
that of KFP. I think the actual film makers on Wall-E set out to make
a movie THEY wanted to create and the marketing people are finding
ways to make lots of money off of it. With KFP it feels much more
like some talented film makers were hired to tell a story as best they
could, but that the motivation behind making the story in the first
place was to have marketable characters and so on. It is just a very
different approach and one which usually (but not in this case) leads
to really bad films (Space Chimps anyone?)

[R***@aol.com]

Post by t***@aol.com
As compared to Kung Fu Panda I cannot even put them in the same
league. KFP is a ton of fun and well done but by comparison to Wall-E
it is simply a silly popcorn movie, a throw away, nothing truly
classic. It is fast food... REALLY good fast food but nothing I will
remember a year from now while I think Wall-E has potential to be a
true classic, and certainly the actual animation in Wall-E leaves KFP
looking crude by comparison.

Well I gotta say that I disagree with you on the above points. Now I
won't get into which will be a classic or "what defines a classic"
because thats a moot point ... as with both movies, time will tell. I
would not say that KFP is a throw away however....I think it has
amazing staying power, lines from the film are already leaking into
pop culture. Now once they make 5 more......any specialness of the
first film will be beat to death. Again comparing the two films is
pointless because they are different movies. I hate when people start
comparing Wall-E to other Pixar films. Each film stands on its owm
with TS2 and TS2 being the only films you can really compare because
they're sequels.

As for the animation...as an animator, there are some amazing shots in
KFP. The acting choices and sublties are wonderful. Most all of the
artists I know feel mostly the same. Wall-E has some amazing shots as
well.....great great use of pantomine....in fact many friends enjoyed
the first 40 min the most because of the wonderful acting between the
bots. But while both have amazing shots the styles are "slightly"
different.....much like the style of Presto is different than both KFP
and Wall-E.

I am both excited and "raising a eyebrow" over the Wall-E-fication of
Tomorrowland that is rumored to happen in the next several years.
Seems like Pixar is indeed taking over the parks....and do we really
want BuyNLarge ruling TOMORROWland when we know what they end up doing
to the planet in the future...


www.raymation.net

[t***@aol.com]

In regards to your last point Ray I HATE any of the characters going
pretty much anyplace other than Fantasyland. To me much of what made
WDW such a cool place in the early days (and of course this applies to
Disneyland even more so) was that the attractions were wholly unique
creations. They did not rely on other material and did not come with
any of that baggage. As we have discussed here many times they did
not so much tell stories (something people, even fans, often have a
hard time understanding) but rather created environments and
foundations in which stories could be built. Most of the actual
details of those stories was left up to the guests to flesh out as
they saw fit. We were in some Caribbean town with some pirates
attacking it, we were in a Haunted Mansion or a run away train or what
have you. As soon as you make it about Wall-E or Nemo or Stitch or
whoever then you have all of that backstory to deal with... it is
unnecessary and bothersome and in the case of the animated characters
it also lends an air of cuteness to areas never intended to be so.

It is clear that management is making the MK into kiddie land
characterville and that is really sad to me.

[R***@aol.com]

Your buddy Jim Hill just posted about the proposed Shanghi Disneyland
and mentioned about how Pixar-fied it will be. I'm not as hard core
as you when it comes to the characters being in other lands, however I
can certainly see your point. The unique attraction is replaced with
the latest hit film.....Pixar film. Disney's film library has been
forgotten.

With Disney World, its just a mess. You could argue that the Disney
characters run WDW...so to see Mickey and the gang show up in the
other parks isnt a big deal to me. And honestly Mulan appearing in
China or Belle and Beast in France doesn't make me foam at the
mouth......its for the kids in a park with little for kids. But now
at Hollywood Studios you have Pixar Place...would this not be the
place to find all your favorite Pixar rides? Well no because there
are a couple at MK, one at Epcot and one at AK. So why have a Pixar
Place at all....it would be like putting a Star Wars ride in
Tomorrowland or building IJA in Adventureland. Why not but it all in
one park.....ah because there is no plan....we just shoehorn it in
where ever it fits.

A couple weeks ago we were in Disneyland....first time in 9 years. I
really love Disneyland. We had a great room at the Grand
Californian..all we could see was trees and bit of the IJA box...felt
like we were NOT in Anaheim...awesome. Anyways, my wife and I really
liked that we could walk to both parks and back to ours rooms but one
thing we both really liked was that we didnt have to visit 4 different
parks to see our favorite attractions....they are all right there.
WDW, things have become spread out in a mesh mash fashion where at
some point I think all the parks are gonna feel the same; maybe its
already happened. Truth be told the mega plan for the Cars-land for
DCA has me thinking that, that park will always have the mesh mashed
feeling....no matter what they do..

www.raymation.net

[t***@aol.com]

Well Disneyland is clearly superior to any one park at WDW with out
question, in fact it could easily be argued that Disneyland is
superior to ALL of the WDW parks combined... but that is a different
story.

We already know that Jim Hill literally knows nothing, so whatever he
writes about Shanghai Disneyland is probably wrong though also
probably based a LITTLE on some factual content, so who knows.

Like you Ray I don't really mind Mulan walking around the China
pavilion or even the occasional attraction popping up in an
appropriate spot (say Buzz in Tomorrowland). I can live with that ind
truth be told it is not much different than the Swiss Family Tree
House in Adventureland or some Davy Crocket tie ins in Fronterland.
But it is all about balance and measure and the scales have tipped too
far at WDW, especially in the MK. It is all getting homogonized so
that the only difference between lands is which character you may see
or a general color scheme. It used to be that every land had a VERY
distinct and different feel and I loved that, and miss it.

I think you also react to loving Disneyland because it is still
overseen by people who REALLY DO care. Tony Baxter is in charge of
the creative direction of Disneyland and you will truly never find a
bigger fan of Disneyland than Baxter. You have people who are
passionate and "get it" and deeply care about it at WDI and they tend
to put their focus on Disneyland because they grew up with it in many
cases, it is the original and the only park Walt was directly involved
with on a deep level. All of that can be seen and felt, even the
history of it comes through and it creates a park experience that
cannot be easily duplicated.