Friday, June 27

• An Interview with Wall-E Director Andrew Stanton
  

  Pixar director Andrew Stanton (A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo) doesn't try to guess what the audience wants to see. Instead, he trusts his own instincts and invites the audience along for the ride. Hopefully Stanton and the audience are able to connect by the movie's end -- and judging by Stanton and Pixar's unending string of success, it seems to be working.
  
  Brent Simon spoke with Stanton recently about Wall-E, which is drawing rave reviews (including Brent's perfect 10 review of Wall-E). Check out ReelzChannel.com's interview with Wall-E director Andrew Stanton.
  
  
  

  Posted 06/27/2008 by Jeff

  Andrew Stanton | Wall-E

• Ratzenberger Works the Cocktails

  

  Jill Simonian is a correspondent for Dailies (ReelzChannel TV, weeknights @ 6PM ET), and occasionally shares stories from the field. This week: WALL-E

  No, we're not talking drunken stoopers.

  In WALL-E, John Ratzenberger's character -- "John" -- is a human floating around in space. But Ratzenberger himself has his feet planted firmly on the ground. After putting his friendly-but-know-it-all mailman Cliff Clavin from TV's Cheers to rest in 1993, Ratzenberger quickly –- and affectionately -- became Disney-Pixar's "good luck charm." Since 1995's Toy Story, he's been the only actor to voice a role in every Disney-Pixar movie to date. (After Hamm the Piggy Bank, P.T. Flea, Abominable Snowman, Fish School, Underminer, Mack, Mustafa... finally he gets to play a "John!")

  At the junket for this impeccably-animated sci-fi love story last weekend, Ratzenberger himself told me that "feeling like a rabbit's foot" is a good thing. But when I asked WALL-E director/writer (and Pixar's ninth employee) Andrew Stanton about it, I found out how Ratzenberger pulled off this feat:

  To become Pixar's pet he simply went to cocktails with Toy Story's creative team after the press junket for that movie 13 years ago. As Stanton recalled, the team invited the entire cast to meet at the hotel bar for celebratory drinks that night after their interviews were over, and Ratzenberger was the only actor who showed up. Amazing. Stanton and the rest of the Pixar team appreciated his down-to-Earth personality that night, so they wrote a part for him in 1998's A Bug's Life, and the rest is history.

  Finally! The secret to having a steady gig for the rest of your life! (I guess all that work from Cheers paid off?) Drinks, anyone?

  
  
  Next Showing: WALL-E opens nationwide Friday, June 27

  Posted 06/27/2008 by Jill

  Dailies | John Ratzenberger | Andrew Stanton | Wall-E | Toy Story | A Bug's Life

Thursday, June 26

• Review: Wall-E
  

  Pixar's Wall-E hits screens in just two days and the early buzz is pretty positive.
  
  Directed by Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, A Bug's Life), WALL-E is a Waste-Allocation-Load-Lifter-Earth-Class who has been left all alone on the planet Earth. He's been spending his lonely days collecting knick-knacks until he meets a new robot named EVE and discovers his true purpose.
  
  ReelzChannel.com's Brent Simon got into an early screening and you can hear all about his reaction in his extensive, slightly gushing, full review of Wall-E.
  
  
  
  

  Posted 06/26/2008 by Jeff

  Andrew Stanton | Wall-E

Saturday, July 28

• Wall-E footage, animation tests and more   

  Disney/Pixar just finished their presentation for next summer's Wall-E.

  It was met with great enthusiasm. Besides the usual exceptional Pixar visuals, the creative design of the characters, including Wall-E, his romantic interest Eve, M-O and Auto, is different and quite intriguing. Where as Fox's Robots took the standard approach to robot animated characters we've seen a million times before, Pixar's creativity shines through in a very original way.

  We got to see a pretty extended clip from an early segment of the movie where Wall-E was digging through and compacting garbage at a junkyard.

  Finally a ship arrived where it appeared that is future romatic interest was about to be revealed. The film then melted, a playful jab from Pixar at the pre-digital age.

  We also saw animation tests of the four characters mentioned above. The sound designer played a number of effects being used in the movie and also revealed the voices and sounds of the four main characters.

  All in all, the Wall-E presentation was great. It's directed by Andrew Stanton, who previously helmed Finding Nemo and A Bug's Life. Wall-E comes out next summer and, as of the current status, it appears Pixar is on the right track once again.

  
  
  Next Showing: Wall-E releases Summer 2008.
  

  A first look at Pixar's Wall-E

  Meet Pixar's next big star, Wall-E.

  Posted 07/28/2007 by Jeff

  Andrew Stanton | Wall-E