WALL-E!

Pixar is the animation king, and that's a fact.

When they can take a love story between two robots and make it not only believable but beautiful, the magic of what Andrew Stanton and his brilliant team of animators are doing cannot be denied. And the love story IS beautiful - from WALL-E's first glimpse of EVE zooming around Earth to their dance among the stars - mostly because of its wonderful simplicity and its unshakable truth: we all want someone to share our life with - someone to hold our hand.

The animation is also extraordinary. Really, I wish I had a stronger word to use - breathtaking might be a good one. Pixar continues to outdo itself with the absolute brilliance and clarity of it settings and characters. We all thought nothing could get better after The Incredibles, then Ratatouille proved us wrong. WALL-E once again raises the bar for beautiful animation. I can't wait to see what comes next.

Of course, the movie is not perfect (nothing is). The human part of the story - which involves the evolution of the humans into sedentary, oblivious beings that are unable to to anything on their own - was not as magical or as well explored (though it contained an important message) as the robot part. I also missed the dialog. Though the animation did a wonderful job of conveying the emotions of the story, the writer in me would have liked some more dialog to help out.

These are small complaints. Mostly, the movie was very good. I know that the audience I watched with - a sold out audience, by the way - laughed almost from start to finish at the many, many sweet, funny, and clever moments.

Anyway, in honor of this great movie, today's special is cupcakes - in a cup! :-)

WALL-E Update

First of all: I just took another look at IMDb, and John Ratzenberger's participation in the movie is now listed at "rumored," as is the involvement of Sigourney Weaver and Kathy Najimy. I would think that such things as cast lists would be released by now, since the movie is only about 2 months away from opening, but I guess not. Anyway, I REALLY hope that Ratzenberger will be in the movie... I think its a nice tradition to keep.

Second: I've become aware of something of a controversy (among fans, at least) about the similarity of WALL-E to another famous robot with a personality - Johnny 5 from Short Circuit. I think its probably just coincidence - there are some similarities, but there are also quite a few differences. Take a look:








The "feet" look a lot alike - but they also look a lot like the tires (or whatever they're called) used by backhoes and other heavy construction equipment. Aside from that, WALL-E and Johnny 5 have different bodies (boxy vs thin and rectangular), different eyes (binocular-like vs. camera-lens-like) and at least slightly different arms. Bottom line: I don't think there are enough similarities to accuse anyone of stealing.

UPDATE (again): The "rumored" disclaimers have been removed from names on IMDb's WALL-E page. So that means a DEFINITE role for John Ratzenberg, right? *crosses fingers and hopes*

Hooray for WALL-E!

I just saw the trailer for Wall-E, the upcoming film from Pixar, and all I can say is:

YES!!! WOOHOO!!! Bring it on!

I am incredibly excited for this movie! First of all, its from Pixar, a studio that has yet to disappoint - a point they made in excellent fashion by showing shots from all the previous amazing Pixar films in the Wall-E trailer. Pixar consistently makes films that feature not only beautiful animation but also memorable, loveable characters and strong, moving stories that make you forget all about the technical aspects of the film and just let yourself get caught up in the storytelling.

Reasons I'm especially excited for Wall-E:

• The movie is directed by Andrew Stanton, the same man who directed the AMAZING Finding Nemo. Bottom line: this guy knows what he's doing.
• "EVE," the female robot who befriends Wall-E, is one tough chick. It's nice to see some girl power on the silver screen. :-)
• I found out that it WILL have the voice of John Ratzenberger. I didn't see his name on the cast list at IMDb, but I read a press release that confirmed that his voice is in the movie. John Ratzenberger is considered Pixar's "lucky charm" (he's been in every Pixar movie to date), so his presence in the film is a good sign.