WonderCon: WALL-E - New Footage & Digital Disney 3D Possibilities?
It’s no secret that the film I’m most anticipating in 2008 is Pixar’s WALL-E. I fell in love with the movie when I saw the first teaser trailer and have been closely following the film ever since.
Andrew Stanton, the Academy Award winning director of Finding Nemo, came across the bridge to San Francisco to premiere five video clips from WALL-E.
Partly inspired by Luxo Jr, the idea was created machine first, character second. Stanton said the idea was born at an A’s game (the audience booed), Stanton quickly added “rooting for the Red Soxs” (the audience cheered). He spent an entire inning playing with binoculars. Able to get a whole personality just from that simple design. The rest of his look came directly out of the functionality he was supposed to have.
“I wanted to believe that a robot is really there. I wanted to believe he is really a robot and not just a human in a robot shell.”
An audience member asked if Short Circuit partly inspired the design. It seemed like a question Stanton is already tired of hearing. He said that it might be possible that he was subconsciously inspired by Johnny 5 but probably not. The bionoculars served more to inspire WALL-E’s eyes. Stanton also admitted that he had seen Short Circuit only once, long ago.
Stanton talked about his formative years, and growing up in the golden age of sci-fi films. He really missed the feel of that genre of films. He said the biggest improvement to the technology behind this film involved the filming techniques. He wanted to capture the look and feel of the 70mm sci-fi films from his youth, and tech has attempted to emulate things like barrel distortion and lens flares, but not accurately. He says that some of it might not be noticeable to most.
Stanton set up the footage explaining that somewhere in the future, over commercialism has left earth covered in trash. The Human race took off on a space cruise, leaving robots to clean up the mess. All the robots broke, except one, and the humans mysteriously never returned.
The first video clip begins with WALL-E turning on after a full solar charge. He is on the trashed brown looking earth we have seen in the trailers. WALL-E gathers his BuyNLarge cooler with a few human artifacts. While leaving his truck, WALL-E almost runs over a roach he has befriended. He compounds some trash, examines a bra and collects some more human artifacts including a fire extinguisher which gives him a quick scare.
Stanton sets up the second clip by explaining that a probe droid named Eve is sent down. Wall-E “falls head over heels.” They finally meet and Walle shows Eve his home, which is decorated with some of the more interesting human artifacts he has collected. He shows her a sheet of bubble wrap and teaches her the fun of popping the bubbles. Eve pops all the bubbles in machine gun like speed. Wall-E shows Eve a light bulb, which she is able to light up. And Eve solves a rubix cube in record time. Wall-E pops a tape in and a musical comes on an old television. WALL-E begins dancing. Eve tries but shakes the whole truck, spins, throwing Wall-E into the wall.
“Their relationship gets more complicated. It’s a love story.”
In the third clip, WALL-E stows away on the outside of Eve’s spaceship. We see a sad shot of WALL-E’s roach friend looking sadly up as the ship rockets into space. WALL-E quickly discovers zero G and almost floats away from the ship, but grabs hold. They fly by the moon, which has a holographic billboard from years ago. Traveling by the sun, WALL-E recharges. And traveling by Saturn, he trues to grab some of the rock particles that make up the planet’s ring. The ship approaches the starliner, parked way out in space. Thomas Newman’s score sounds very reminiscent of John Williams’ Star Wars. Some of the footage was unfinished, but I really couldn’t tell. Andrew apologized to the audience about some “overblown or dark shots”.
In the fourth clip, WALL-E had made things worse for EVE, who is trying to usher WALL-E aboard a pod ship which would send him back to Earth. WALL-E keeps trying to impress Eve and doesn’t understand why she is trying to get rid of him. Suddenly a third robot shows up and delivers a boot with a plant growing out of it into the pod. I assume that this was probably an item that Eve had collected, but they were unaware it had life growing in it, so they were sending it away so it can’t contaminate the starliner. Again, this is just my speculation. It’s not made clear in the clip. Reguardless, WALL-E enters the pod to give the plant to Eve. The door seals and the pod rockets off with 20 seconds to self destruct. WALL-E is traying everything to stop the self destruction sequence, but to no avail. Cut to Eve’s POV where the podship explodes. Eve looks visibly sad, until then never having shown any sign of emotion. A few seonds later WALL-E comes flying towards Eve. He used his fire extinguisher to rocket away from the pod.
Someone asked during the question and answer session if WALL-E would be released in Disney Digital 3D. Stanton nervously replied “Its hard to say, we’re not planning for 3D, but you never know. It can always be done in the post process.” I think WALL-E is the perfect movie for the 3D treatment. And from what I understand, minimal effort is required since the film is created in a 3D computer space.
Stanton also revealed that John Ratzenberger will be featured in WALL-E as a character named John.
“John Ratzenberger will always be in all of our films, don’t worry!”
Someone asked if the Pizza Planet Truck will make a cameo in the film. Stanton told the audience to pay attention during the first 20 minutes of the film.
The footage shown today was the most extensive and most impressive shown thus far. It has become immediately clear that the interaction between WALL-E and Eve is key to this story. Stanton insists that while this is a sci-fi film, that it’s a lvoe story at heart. I think that when America sees some of this interaction they will all come on board for the ride.
John Cleese Joins Keanu Reeves on The Day the Earth Stood Still
“Hey, little girl. Want to buy a lemur?”
One film that no one around here seems curious about sans me is December’s remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. I’ve read some recent interviews with Keanu Reeves and he seems to think this movie is going to drastically change the world for the better. Not only do I like sci-fi films that are crazily ambitious, I dig them even when they fail miserably. Unlike most, I am glad to live in a world where a $75 million Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 gets the green light, complete with a star push on Oprah. And I want to see Keanu land on Earth in a UFO as an alien named Klaatu, even if he’s not wearing a suit accessorized with giant, rubber appendages. Even if it’s just Keanu in an American Apparel hoodie, I want to see that movie. Bring it on, like Dunst.
To a cast that also includes Oscar Winner Kathy Bates, Oscar Winner Jennifer Connelly, and Afro Winner Jaden Smith, we can now add A Fish Called Wanda’s John Cleese. The Monty Python legend will play a physicist named Dr. Barnhardt who is pivotal in communicating to the world why Klaatu’s arrival on Earth is important. If you’ve never seen the 1951 original film, Klaatu tells humankind that unless we stop the violence, the E.T. peace keepers of which he is a member will destroy the planet. Wow, thanks Klaatu, you sound like every Earth-bound warlord ever.
On IMDB, it says that in the film “Laptop Woman” will be played by actress Alison Down. Now I can sleep soundly. In related news, did any readers purchase a MacBook Air yet? Heard they are kind of womp womp, but I still might pillage my bank account anyway.
Sundance Movie Review: Sleep Dealer
When Sundance lead programer Geoffrey Gilmore introduced Sleep Dealer, he claimed that it would be hard to describe the film without saying that “it’s unlike anything you’ve seen before.” And while his claim is very true, Sleep Dealer very much reminds me of George Lucus’ THX 1138. I am convinced that if Alex Rivera can do all this on such a low budget with a super 16 camera, that he will someday follow-up with a Star Wars sized epic. Rivera tells a story set in the backdrop of the near future to explore rising issues of today such as governments controlling oil and international border control.
Set in a future where people can plug into a global computer network using installed body modified holes that tap in their nervous system. The U.S. has installed a wall along the Mexican boarder, but the country still allows outsourcing through node workers who plug in and control remote control robots. A private company has hijacked control of a small Mexican village’s water supply, selling it back to them at a higher price. Memo Cruz is a young man living in this isolated non-tech village, with dreams of working in high-tech factories up north. One day he builds a transmitter that allows him to tap into signals from around the world. But when this transmission is intercepted, it changes his life forever.
The low-fi special effects might be too cheap for mainstream audiences. Sleep Dealer is sure to become a cult classic with the sci-fi geeks, and rightfully so. It’s so ambitious for its price-tag, you can’t not admire the indie spirit that went into this film. There are so many interesting political messages that are debated with subtilely and care, which is why this story transcends most of the modern sci-fi films.
The Chubbchubbs! Sequel attached to Daddy Day Camp
Sony is trying everything they can to get people to go see Daddy Day Camp. They shouldn’t worry, they have a bad family comedy on their hands, America will probably show up in droves.
Their latest plot involves attaching a follow-up to the 2002 Academy Award winning computer animated short film The Chubbchubbs!. According to Peter Debruge, “The ChubbChubbs Save Xmas” will be attached to the family “comedy” which hits theaters this Friday. But smart viewers will wait until October, when the short film will be attached to the DVD release of Surf’s Up (which I’m also willing to be is a much better movie).
If you’ve never seen The ChubbChubbs!, it’s a nice little animated short with a lot of cool geek references to sci-fi films. Oh yeah, and did I mention it features these really cute little alien creatures? Check out the original film at this link.