Joss Whedon awarded the Bradbury Award (and "Wall-E" win as well)

As part of the 2009 Nebula Awards, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America awarded the Bradbury Award to Joss Whedon.

Here's Joss's acceptance speech.




Oh, and "Wall-E", written by Andrew Stanton and Pete Doctor, also won for Best Script. :)

Oscar-Nominated Animated Film Symposium - February 19, 2009

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, otherwise known as the folks that do that little Oscar thing every year, often holds various events at its headquarters in Beverly Hills. Sometimes, they are tickets you have to purchase, and sometimes, they are free events. You can be added to their mailing list to receive their monthly newsletter with upcoming event information. The events are usually held in their auditorium, the Samuel Goldwyn Theater. I've been there for a couple of events and for a number of film screenings, and for obvious reasons, it's a really gorgeous theatre.

Earlier this year, one of the mailings had indicated that they would be holding various symposiums for films nominated in various Oscar categories. This year would be the first time they would have a symposium for the films nominated in the Best Animated Feature category. The directors of each film - Chris Williams and Byron Howard for "Bolt", John Stevenson and Mark Osborne for "Kung Fu Panda", and Andrew Stanton for "Wall-E" - were expected to be in attendance.

The page on the Academy's site about the event alternates images from each of the three nominated films.







Information about the host and other details are also included.


Well, I loved "Wall-E" and I really, really liked "Bolt", so two out of three ain't bad. It was a free event, but you still had to order tickets, as a means of crowd control so they didn't overbook the auditorium.





Free parking was also provided at two different nearby lots, which was nice as parking can be difficult to find in that area.


It didn't take me as long as I thought it would to get there from work so I arrived at about 7pm. The event was sold out, so they were giving out stand-by vouchers. The husband was still en route from his work, so I went inside to get seats. I was surprised that they used a metal detector at the front door, and I couldn't remember if they'd had them on my previous visits. The seats in the middle of the auditorium were blocked off for special guests, so while I initially was going to take seats behind them, I decided that being closer and to the side would be better than being way in the back in the middle, so I found seats on the right side of the auditorium. As I waited for the husband, it turned out that another friend had come to the symposium as well, so he sat with me and then the husband joined us shortly thereafter.

The symposium was hosted by Tom Sito, who I'm not familiar with but who has his own credits in the animation industry. He was ok with some of the commentary and questions that he asked, but for someone moderating a discussion, he stumbled over himself a lot, which is even more surprising since he's also a professor and has written books.

Each of the films was discussed separately, with a clip shown first, and then the director(s) would come up, and Tom would talk to him/them about how the project came about and development and such, and then they'd show another clip. I'd had no interest in seeing "Kung Fu Panda", so the two clips they showed were completely new to me. One of the clips was when the master decided to use dumplings to teach the panda, which was funny in parts but there were elements that bothered me, but it was totally a random personal thing, so I won't go into it here. I hadn't known the character name of the master (played by Dustin Hoffman), but when I heard it, I laughed at the name they'd chosen for him - nice touch! Seeing clips from both "Bolt" and "Wall-E" just made me want to watch each movie all the way through again!

After each of the films was discussed, all the directors were brought back up on stage, and Tom then asked various questions of them. After that, it was open to questions from the audience.

I think my favorite story of the night came from Andrew Stanton, as he talked about working with Ben Burtt, and how Ben amassed the various sounds that would form the language/vocabulary of Wall-E, Eve and each of the other robots, and then they had to go through and decide which "word" would fit in which scene/sequence.

The symposium finished shortly before 10pm. It was really interesting to listen to all of them talk about various aspects of bringing each film to the screen and the challenges of making an animated movie in general. If you can make it to an event, I highly recommend it.

news roundup - "Wall-E", "The Dark Knight", a church as a gift and what's not on the menu at Cracker Barrel

news item #1

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has voted "Wall-E" as the best film of the year, with "The Dark Knight" coming in second. Since I love both movies, I'm thrilled! I do plan to see "Milk", but since I expect it to be in limited release for the rest of the month, I don't think I'll have a chance to see it until the new year unless I decide to trek to the Arclight in Hollywood.

There's talk that both "Wall-E" and "The Dark Knight" even have a shot at Best Picture come Academy Award nomination time. Either nomination would come as a surprise, since with the inception of Best Animated Film, it's been conventional wisdom that an animated film would never again be nominated for Best Picture (like "Beauty and the Beast" was). And in the case of "The Dark Knight", a nomination for the late Heath Ledger is probably expected, and the film could even be in contention in the screenplay and directing categories in addition to the expected tech categories, but a blockbuster movie like that, based on a comic book property no less, is not the usual kind of film that the Academy nominates for Best Picture. It will be interesting to see what transpires on the morning of January 22, 2009. This will probably be one of those years where I'm interested enough to be up early in the morning to hear the announcements live.


news item #2

I saw this blurb about a church in Texas that received a $1.5 million donation. I know nothing about this church, but I think it's great that someone saw the need and was generous enough to fulfill it. And remained anonymous through it all. Maybe the anonymous benefactor wanted to remain such so other people wouldn't come asking for money as well, but in staying anonymous, he/she also doesn't get any public credit. But I'm sure all the members of the church are immensely grateful.


news item #3

I have some friends who sing the praises of Crackel Barrel (I'm still trying to come up with an excuse to go somewhere that would have a Cracker Barrel nearby so I can try it), so this story that peripherally involved a Cracker Barrel restaurant caught my attention. Good for the woman and her husband for returning the money. It was foolish of the elderly woman to be carrying around that kind of money in cash, since it was probably her life savings, and I can't imagine how devastating it would have been to have lost that money, so I hope she takes better care of it. (There's a part of me that's kind of suspicious, but I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt that her having that kind of cash lying around is all above board.) It was also nice of the woman and her husband to decline the reward money - I hope their good deed comes back to them tenfold.

Wall-E - more toys and cutest videos ever

Yeah, OK, so it's been almost two months since "Wall-E" came out, and I'm apparently still obsessed with the movie and all the toys. We finally had a chance to see the movie again this past weekend, and I still had the best time.

We had to drop by a Toys R Us anyway to look for some Star Wars toys that were supposed to have been released this weekend (we didn't find them), but we did find the ever elusive Space Adventure Wall-E toy, which is listed on Thinkway Toys' website in the Wall-E toys section.




The husband has been wanting this since we first saw it on the website. I think the only thing left that we're waiting for that's shown on Thinkway Toys' page is the electronic truck play set, which I can't seem to find any release information on.

Oh, and I had mentioned previously that we'd only seen InterAction Eve at Disneyland, and that was some time ago, and we've not seen her anywhere since. Well, we came across two boxes of her at Toys R Us - maybe they've finally started to make more?


So a friend had told me a week or so ago that the Disney Store had gotten more Wall-E toys in. When I'd been in a store a while ago, they didn't have much stuff, other than some cute t-shirts, one of which I bought for myself. So I finally got around to visiting a Disney Store on Monday, and oh my goodness - they had Disney Store exclusives that I hadn't even heard about. They had three smaller figures (of Wall-E, Eve and M.O.), but I wasn't interested in those. The ones I was interested in were the remote control Wall-E and Eve figures, different from all the other ones I've seen or heard of. Or have.

By "Disney Store exclusive", they must mean the actual stores themselves, because I went to their website, which actually takes you to DisneyShopping.com, and there was no hint of the two robots. The only mention I could find about the Eve robot was in this ebay ad, which shows the toy.





I can't find anything that talks about or has pictures of the Wall-E version, which says it has a head and arms that extend and retract, which none of the other Wall-E toys do. Of course, I had to buy them. I'm not sure who makes these two toys, since I don't see the Thinkway Toys logo on them, like you see on their other products, and neither is included on Thinkway Toys' Wall-E page. Once I have a chance to open them, maybe it'll have more information about the manufacturer. They do look pretty cool, though, and they're also supposed to talk to each other, like the InterAction Wall-E and Eve. And no, I don't think these are the same - these are advertised as doing things that those didn't. The controllers are also different - Wall-E's remote control is actually colored to resemble him.


And then, of course, there's the granddaddy of all Wall-E toys - the Ultimate Wall-E, which is now available for pre-order. Toys R Us has it for $249.99 whereas it's $259.95 at DisneyShopping.com. However, I would presume that both places will add shipping, and this is definitely not a toy that I really want shipped to me in case something is wrong with it, so I expect we'll see if we can pre-order it in person at a Toys R Us store. If not, then we'll have to decide if we're going to bite the bullet and pre-order it anyway or just wait and hope we can find one actually in stores.

Toys R Us claims the toy will be released in September, but I've found other sites, including this one, which says it won't be released until October.


I found this picture searching the net for Wall-E info. Don't they make a cute family?





When we had previously visited the Disney Store, we noticed that they were periodically showing a short Wall-E vignette on their giant video screen. I found it online, and here's the one they were playing.

Wall-E playing with a hula hoop.




Well, then I found a whole bunch more, which were apparently created to be used in different places to promote the release of the film.


Here's a short one of Wall-E and Eve playing baseball.




Here's another short one of Wall-E playing with a soccer ball.




In this short bit, Wall-E investigates the camera.




In this vignette, Wall-E encounters a scatter of bouncy balls - I *love* this one.




Here, Wall-E comes across some cups - this one is tied with the bouncy ball one as being my favorite because it combines so many cute elements. The first time I saw each of these two, I literally laughed out loud.




Wall-E finds a magnet.




Wall-E encounters a fire hydrant.




Wall-E is break dancing. ("Wall-E 2: Electric Boogaloo"?)




Hip-hop Wall-E.




This one uses similar elements of hip-hop Wall-E when he meets the Mac. Yes, I *do* mean THE Mac.




Wall-E plays with a basketball.




This longer video shows InterAction Wall-E and Eve talking to each other.




Yeah, still obsessed. And much poorer. And waiting to become poorer still.

Slight Wall-E merchandise information from Disneyland and River Belle Terrace at Disneyland - lunch review

Walking through the Candy Palace on Main Street at Disneyland tonight, I happened to glance over at a machine and much to my surprise and delight, I noticed that it was a nickel press machine featuring Wall-E. There are actually three different designs: one of just Wall-E himself, one of Eve with her "plant indicator" on, and one of Wall-E holding the plant. Each costs $0.80 (three quarters to pay for the process and the nickel to be pressed that you get back). The machine is located just to the left of the fudge counter.





Also, my review of our lunch today at River Belle Terrace in Disneyland is up. Here's the link.

2008 Hallmark Christmas ornaments

In mid-July, we went to Hallmark's annual Keepsake Ornament premiere weekend release. Yeah, I know, it was July, and we were buying Christmas ornaments, but that's when Hallmark releases them, so what are we supposed to do? We have a particular Hallmark store that we've been going to for ornament releases, and because there were a few ornaments that were apparently in short supply, we arrived shortly after store opening.

Among the ornaments that we got was this really cute Disney one, pictured below.




I love it because you can see both sides of it, so you can see Minnie's face, but you can also see Mickey's expression, which is just too cute and funny.

Here's a close-up of Mickey's face, where you can better see the reddish color and the dripping sweat.





Among the other ornaments we got was a really cute one with three penguins who have popsicles. There's a button on the back that you can push, and the middle and right penguin pull apart the double popsicle they're holding together. However, I thought that was pretty unfair, because the left penguin has a red double popsicle, and the middle penguin has an orange double popsicle. The right penguin has a green double popsicle, but that's also the one the middle penguin has hold of. When you break them, that means the right penguin only has a solo popsicle while the middle penguin has a double popsicle *and* the other half of the right penguin's popsicle. Popsicle hog!





There's a second penguins ornament that we really liked, but these are playing in the snow. I especially love the penguin making a snow angel - the expression on his face is just too cute.




For some weird reason, I could not for the life of me find this ornament on the Hallmark website. I went through all of the ornaments, and there's no trace of it. It was billed as a special, limited quantity release for the July 12 and 13 release event, and I saw it on a flyer that I received. I looked for a few of the other limited quantity ornaments on the website, and they're not there either, so I don't know what the deal is with those not being on the website.


Another ornament that we really like isn't coming out until October.




Isn't he just the sweetest thing?

black and white (cats, that is)

I have come to the realization that while I say that my favorite kitties are calicos, I can't really say I love them all that much because I haven't had any vague connection to a calico since a kitty I had when I was probably about 8. What I apparently really have an affinity for are black and white cats. I came to notice that many of the cats I like and associate with are black and white. And I think I've come across the "culprit" that's the source.




What? You don't know who that is? Why, it's Pussyfoot, of course! Seriously, you *still* don't know who she is? *big sigh* Yeah, I know, lots of people don't know who she is, and many of those who do happen to know *who* she is don't know her name. She is a Warner Bros. character, created by Chuck Jones, that appears in only a few cartoon shorts and is barely marketed, so I suppose it's understandable to some degree that she's not well known, but *I* know who she is, so I'm not sure what everyone else's excuse is. In any case, once you've seen her, how can you not fall in love with her? (Oh, by the way, the dog that's always with her is Marc Antony.)


Here's "Feed The Kitty", her first short. Yes, it's the one with the cookie.





"Kiss Me Cat" - In this short, you actually hear her being referred to as "Pussyfoot". However, I'm also noticing that they keep referring to Pussyfoot as a "him", but I've always considered the cat a "her". Maybe I just like female cats better and so pretty much assume "her" - no matter what. So, beyond all evidence to the contrary, I'm going to keep referring to "her". In any case, this has the wagging finger bit, the chariot, and best of all, Pussyfoot's new look.





"Cat Feud" - This short has her with a different dog, who still looks a bit like Marc Antony but is a different color. It's funny to watch her hiss at the other cat.





She's in another short that I kind of vaguely remember but I can't find it on youtube, but youtube does have yet another short with her, but I watched part of it and don't like it, so I'm not including it here.


If you've ever seen the Pixar animated film "Monsters, Inc.", you may or may not know that there's a connection to Pussyfoot. (I love the movie for lots of other reasons anyway, but this was just an extra little gem.) There's a scene when Sulley is trying to hide Boo where Boo ends up in a trash can, the contents of which gets dumped into the trash chute. Sulley thinks that Boo has been dumped along with the other trash, but unbeknownst to him, she had already climbed out, leaving one of her "antenna", which is why he thinks she's still there. He watches as the trash is crushed and flattened and made into a cube. (And yes, the cube trash made me think of Wall-E, also a Pixar creation. Hmmm...) He melts as he watches all of this through a window and is very sad when the finished cube comes out but then rejoices when it turns out Boo is still alive. This entire sequence is an homage to the "Feed The Kitty" segment when the woman makes the cookies and Marc Antony thinks Pussyfoot has been mixed in. When we saw that part of "Monsters, Inc.", the husband and I were laughing hysterically, and yeah, when we told people about it, they stared at us like we had two heads. Each. And then there are the other people who claim Pixar stole that segment from Warner Bros. Because, you know, they don't know a tribute when they see one. I also think it's funny that Pussyfoot is often just referred to as "kitty", which is exactly Boo's nickname for Sulley.


Someone has put together footage from both "Feed The Kitty" and "Monsters, Inc." so the comparison can be better seen.





Here's a collection of some of Pussyfoot's looks. Isn't she adorable? Yeah, I know, it's the eyes.





As I mentioned, Pussyfoot is not a character that is marketed much, but years ago, back when the Warner Bros. stores were still in existence, they had some porcelain figures, and one day, I saw that they had an armchair with Marc Antony on it, with Pussyfoot perched on top. Wow! Merchandise with Pussyfoot and a really cute one at that! I looked at it for a while, walked around the store and kept going back to look at it. I finally asked for them to take it out of the case so I could see it better. (The husband, SO at the time, said that as soon as I asked them to take it out, he knew it was coming home with me.) And then they showed me that the bottom of the armchair had a secret drawer you could pull out - and in the drawer is the kitty cookie from "Feed The Kitty". That sealed the deal. I had to have it. I absolutely love that piece, and as much a Disney fan as I am, it would probably surprise a lot of people that my most prized and treasured possession is not a Disney property, but rather, this object from Warner Bros.


A number of years ago, on a trip to Magic Mountain, I actually found the cutest t-shirt with Pussyfoot on it. One problem - it was only available in kids' sizes. But I couldn't pass it up, so I bought it, and my giant Thumper plush wears it.


In recent years, Pussyfoot has been marketed a little more, and a friend surprised me one year for my birthday with a cute pillow with Pussyfoot on it. She also told me that there was a whole bedding set as well, which I went looking for.




The pillow on the floor is the one she gave me, and I bought just the comforter from this set.


And then another year for my birthday, the same friend gave me one of the best presents I've ever gotten.




Oh. My. Goodness. Cuteness overload.




Another cat that I'm incredibly fond of is Disney's Figaro, who is probably best known as being in the film "Pinocchio" but is also in some Disney shorts as well.

Here's what she looks like in an Armani piece that the husband got me for my birthday a few years ago.





And here's what she looks like from Robert Olszewski's Storytime Collection.





Here are two other Figaro pieces I have. No, they're not my pictures, and I have no idea what the deal is with the water/lake.










Another well-known black and white cat is Felix, who I'm not as fixated on as Pussyfoot or Figaro, but I still watched his cartoons all the time, and I loved his bag of tricks.







And then, we get to real-life cats. Our cat Orkid is - wait for it - black and white!


On her first day home, she was exploring, and she apparently liked being under my chair.





Here she is next to the Screamin' coaster toy from Disney's California Adventure and the remote control R2-D2, so you can get an idea of her size if you know those items.





I liked how the lighting fell on her face.





Though she doesn't do it as much anymore, she likes sitting in one of the sinks in the master bedroom/bath. She doesn't like it as much if you actually turn the faucet on, even a little.





She loves rustling around in bags and boxes. She decided to hide in this Disney bag.





Here she is, snuggled up with Q, which must be mortifying for him.





One of the more recent photos of her - yeah, I know, I've included it in a blog post before, but I just really love this picture of her.

"Bolt" and more "Wall-E"

The only thing I had previously known about "Bolt" was having seen a one-sheet of sorts inside the Animation Building at DCA. I knew that the movie was about a dog, but that was it. For some reason, I had thought it was live-action, not animated. And since it really just brought to mind "Underdog" (which I didn't see), I wasn't sure this was something I was going to be interested in seeing. And then they showed the trailer for "Bolt" in front of "Wall-E", and now, I'm there. Guess that means we're going to the El Capitan the night before Thanksgiving. It looks like it's going to be a cute and fun movie, and I don't think I'm even going to mind that John Travolta is the voice of Bolt. I actually didn't even recognize him until his name came up as a credit. I'm kind of amused that Ronn Moss does a voice in the movie - I wonder if he's going to sing or if he's just going to marry the same stable of women over and over again. The official website for "Bolt" now has the trailer that we saw. Here's the link - click on the trailer link at the top middle.


the Wall-E zone

There had been reports previously that the walk-around Wall-E who had been making appearances at various museums and such around the country would be arriving at DCA this summer. Well, apparently, contrary to those previous reports, Wall-E won't be showing up at DCA anytime soon. He seemed to be doing fine at the other appearances, so I don't know what the issue is. Maybe they're afraid that he'll get mobbed and they won't be able to control the crowds coming up to him, and maybe he can't handle that like Push does. OK, so have him in the amphitheatre, where people can see him but still be kept at a sort of distance. Not nearly as good as having him wandering around freestyle, but better than nothing. Oh well, at least the Disney spokesperson quote leaves the possibility that he could show up later in the year.

As customary with other Pixar and most Disney animated films, we saw "Wall-E" at the El Capitan. I've posted a write-up of our visit that includes pictures of the marquee and the giant Wall-E as well as the themed dessert at the Soda Fountain. There's also a short video of the moving marquee images and a longer video of most of the new live action stage show that precedes the film.

Slashfilm has an article that includes a list of the hidden things to look for in "Wall-E". I think the hidden Mickey is bogus, and a friend who's seen the movie again says that it's not actually Hamm. There are other things that I've heard mentioned, and I want to see the movie again at least one more time in theatres anyway, so I'm hoping to be able to go back in the next couple of weeks.

Here's an article from Disney Insider about Ben Burtt, sound designer extraordinaire, but since I don't know if the link will go away, I'm reproducing the article below.

In the studio with Ben Burtt

Do you hear what WALL·E hears? Chatting with Pixar's Sound Guru

If a robot falls on a deserted planet, does it still make noise? According to sound designer extraordinaire Ben Burtt, the talent behind the stars of Disney·Pixar's "WALL·E," it most certainly does. And you'd be surprised at how many years of research and development it takes to make every squeak, creak, click, and clank seem so real.

"The assignment was inventing original voices and all the sounds associated with the main characters ... mechanisms, movements, force fields. Since WALL·E doesn't use conventional dialogue, I had to convey the story through the types of sound each character made. By providing the illusion that they had feelings, the audience would care about them," Ben explains. With a visual start from preliminary paintings and sketches, he began creating possibilities for WALL·E, EVE, M-O, Autopilot, and other characters.

"I'd audition sounds for Andrew [Stanton], who'd then give his critique -- just like any other artist working for a director. It took about a year to finalize the basic sounds and three to produce the film. Usually sound is introduced late in production, which works for undemanding films. But when a customized world is required, it's best to be involved in the development early so the sounds and visuals become embedded as the storyline evolves. Pixar's collaborative process inspired me to invent sounds based on character art and allowed the animators to listen and create tests inspired by the sounds."

"Different techniques were used to produce thousands of sound effects -- everything from characters touching a wall to spaceships hovering. Many originated by wandering around with a recorder and collecting sounds in the real world, like bank vaults closing, doors clicking, and miniature jet planes flying. When real sounds are imposed into a fantasy world, it helps form the illusion that things are real. And people associate real sounds with something real."

Inspiration was everywhere. For example, WALL·E's a low-tech robot, with lots of squeaky, cute-sounding motors and noises each time he raises his hand or tilts his head. Though carefully selected, many of those sounds were ordinary mixing bowls or electric shavers. But when Ben searched for a particular whirring sound for WALL·E's various driving speeds, he didn't go far. While watching an old war movie, he heard exactly what he wanted thanks to a scene featuring a hand-cranked generator. After some research, he purchased the generator online, brought it into the studio, and was able to tailor the sound's speed with WALL·E's onscreen movements.

EVE, on the other hand, is a high-tech robot accompanied by various musical sounds as if she's floating or being held together by a mysterious magnetic force. So those sounds were enchanting as well as threatening to express her charming and aggressive moods. Ben adds, "The tones associated with EVE are a little bit like music in the sense that you're trying to color the situation emotionally with the sound you're putting in."

"The characters' voices were the hardest because people are highly critical of voices and hear them differently than sound effects. We're experts at interpreting voices and the emotions behind them. I built special circuitry for my computer that allowed me to record my voice, digitally break it down into component parts, and reassemble it ... processing the sound as if it were a musical instrument. The trick with robot voices is to retain the human element so people can identify and care while also giving it a machine-like quality -- you don't want the audience to think it's just an actor in front of a microphone. That was my biggest challenge."

No stranger to robots, Ben was the genius behind the sounds and voices in the "Star Wars," "Indiana Jones," and "E.T." films. He modestly admits, "I'm happy I had the opportunity, though at the time I had no idea of the impact it would have on my career." This 30-year movie veteran grew up loving fantasy, mystery, adventure, and make-believe as an escape to another time and place. "Movies allow my daydreams to become reality." But sound design wasn't Ben's first and only aspiration. He studied physics and wanted to be an astronaut. After graduating from USC Film School, Ben thought he'd make films for a year or two and then go back to being a scientist. "I never went back."

Ben concludes, "Satisfaction for a sound designer is creating a whole world of sound. If you get to do the voices as well, then that's just about as big a job as it comes. 'WALL·E' was my first feature animation ... working with newly invented characters was very exciting. It was certainly challenging to create something we hadn't heard before. That's what appeals to me the most -- solving the unknowns." When "WALL·E" opens on June 27, you can hear for yourself how this audio expert reached for the stars and orchestrated an entire galaxy!

Following is another article about Ben Burtt, this time from the Los Angeles Times, written by Tom Russo.

Ben Burtt: The man behind R2-D2 and Wall-E's beeps

AUDIO PUPPETEER: “We wanted to have this illusion that the voices for Wall-E and Eve and the other characters are part of their function,” sound designer Ben Burtt says of Pixar’s “Wall-E.”

Burtt speaks the characters' language. In fact, he's created a galaxy of unusual noises in his 30-year career: the crack of Indy's whip, Chewbacca's yowl, the lightsaber hum.

IT'S A RISKY MOVE by anyone's standards. Pixar's delightfully adventurous robot-in-love story “Wall-E” boldly unspools without any human dialogue for the first hour or so. This trick seems akin to having R2-D2 carry half of a "Star Wars" film, speaking only in his emotive whistles, beeps and boops. In fact, Wall-E's "voice" comes from the same source as R2's idiosyncratic technobabble: Oscar-winning sound designer Ben Burtt.

In a renowned three-decade career with Lucasfilm, Burtt, 59, created everything from Darth Vader's heavy breathing and Chewbacca's yowl to the hum of lightsabers (the latter famously conjured from the sounds made by an idling movie projector and some chance microphone feedback). The native of Syracuse, N.Y., also came up with the signature crack of Indiana Jones' whip in "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

Soft-spoken and unassuming, Burtt is nevertheless sufficiently sound-fixated that he dots a phone interview with a few illustrative beeps and boops. Laughing, he remembers how "Wall-E," which topped the box office this weekend, earning an impressive $62.5 million, came his way: "I had just finished my 29-year, 10-month tour of duty with 'Star Wars,' and I thought, 'Well, at least I don't have to do any more robots.' But when Pixar called, I could see this was something more like a Frank Capra romance with Buster Keaton thrown in. And you had the challenge of not only creating the sound for this fantasy world, but the even bigger task of creating principal characters built out of sound."

Opening on a toxic, abandoned future Earth, the movie introduces Wall-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) as a rolling trash compactor who's developed a sweet-natured personality in his centuries of lonely service processing mountains of garbage. When a sleek robot called Eve lands for an environmental evaluation mission, Wall-E is smitten, determined to follow her to the ends of the earth and far, far beyond.

Director and co-writer Andrew Stanton ("Finding Nemo") admits that at the outset, he didn't know how he wanted his characters to sound -- hence his recruiting call to Burtt three years ago. The story brings to mind George Lucas' "Star Wars" dilemma in the mid-'70s, when he needed someone to confect a whole galaxy of unusual ear candy, and found his and Francis Ford Coppola's preferred sound man, Walter Murch, already booked. Lucas asked contacts at USC's film school to recommend the next Murch, and was pointed to Burtt, then a standout student who held a bachelor's in physics from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa. Burtt would go on receive special achievement awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his work on "Star Wars" and "Raiders" plus Oscars for "E.T." and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." (Naturally, he also took part in the new "Indy," supplying the otherworldly pulsation for the crystal skull of the title.)

Although layering in sound effects is a late-game process on many films, Stanton consulted with Burtt from the project's earliest stages, much as Lucas did on "Star Wars." Before there were even concrete visuals for Wall-E and friends, Burtt spent a year recording motors, fiddling with vocal manipulations on his computer and "auditioning" hundreds of audio clips for Stanton as they tried to find the characters' voices, literally. Burtt estimates that he created as many as 2,600 sound files for "Wall-E," as opposed to his usual 700 to 1,000 for a "Star Wars" installment or other special-effects films.

"We wanted to have this illusion that the voices for Wall-E and Eve and the other characters are part of their function," Burtt says. "The idea is that there are little voice chips inside them creating their 'dialogue.' It's audio puppeteering. Wall-E will look at something and there'll be a little click of his hands or squeak of his head, and that's all you need to give a sense of him."

Among the more inspired sound sources for Wall-E's movements: an old hand-operated generator that Burtt snagged online after remembering the device from a John Wayne film.

In the end, Burtt used his own heavily tweaked voice for Wall-E's rudimentary speech. "I was experimenting with processing human voice input," he says, "and it was like Dr. Jekyll in his lab: 'Well, there's nobody else around -- I guess I'll drink the potion.' " Audiences have an infinitely easier time recognizing Sigourney Weaver as the computer voice of the Axiom, the space-faring cruise ship that 28th century mankind calls home. "I thought it would be so funny if Ripley was now Mother from 'Alien,' " Stanton says. "She's sci-fi royalty."

One imagines there must have been development meetings in which Pixar had its Disney partners fidgeting over it taking so long for the familiar voices of Weaver and others to turn up. After all, might not an average 6-year-old fidget too? "It was just luck, but the movie's formative years came during Disney and Pixar's [threatened 2005] divorce, so there was a distraction," Stanton says. "By the time people started paying attention, it was obvious it was working."

While Pixar's gambit with dialogue can be seen as ambitious (or even risky), there are creative precedents for what they have done. "There have always been mute characters," notes Jerry Beck, an animation historian and co-writer of the blog Cartoon Brew. "Road Runner, Tom and Jerry, the Pink Panther. But that's what Pixar does -- they take classic animation elements and create something new. And don't forget, their logo is that Luxo lamp -- an inanimate object communicating through movement and sound effects, but no dialogue."

In the end, Stanton had his own issues with speechlessness when making the movie. "It took me probably the entire first year to get over the fact that I was working with Ben Burtt, one of my heroes," he says. Laughing, he adds, "I tried not to reference 'Star Wars' when we were working. But I did have one moment where I needed a sound, and finally, I said, 'All right, Ben, you know in 'Episode IV,' when they're in the sand crawler?' 'Oh yeah, the gonk-gonk robot.' 'Yeah, I'm looking for that.' "

With thanks to the LaughingPlace.com daily Disney newsletter for including many of the story links above.

"Wall-E" - spoiler movie review (also includes review of "Presto" short)

I wasn't on board with Wall-E from the first second I saw him like I know happened with some other people. And I'm not one of those who necessarily loves everything Pixar does - I wasn't that enamoured of "Cars" and "The Incredibles". But after seeing the first real trailer, I was hooked. He was funny and cute and lovable. And I couldn't wait to see the movie. But true to form, when I become seriously invested in a film, I'm usually wanting toys. And boy were there toys galore. And great toys at that. Toys that I wanted bad enough to go hunting for them at multiple stores.

And then I worried about being over-saturated. There were longer trailers of the movie being shown on TV, but I avoided them. I didn't want to know any more about the movie - I knew enough. I just wanted to see it. And I wondered if I was setting myself up for a let-down because I was so excited to see this movie.

I was not let down in the least. Some of the cute bits (like the bra over his eyes and the fire extinguisher blowing him backgrounds on the ground and Eve trying to blast the heck out of him as he hid behind a rock) were ho-hum now that I'd seen that footage so many times in trailers, but there was so much more to enjoy.

The movie is the story of Wall-E (waste allocation load lifter - earth class), who is alone (mostly) on planet Earth. Consumerism has run totally amok (I wonder if they reached the shoe event horizon as well), making the planet uninhabitable, so the humans have left for a luxurious life in space, leaving behind a planetful of trash. Wall-E's job is to process the trash, scooping it into his little body, compacting it into a cube, and then stacking all the cubes into giant high-rises. Wall-E's only companion is a pet cockaroach, and an old VHS tape of "Hello Dolly", until the mysterious appearance of a ship that leaves robot Eve (extraterrestrial vegetation evaluator), who Wall-E immediately falls in love with. Eve is much less receptive to a friendship, but she thaws when Wall-E saves her from a storm and takes her back to his trailer shelter, where he shows her all his treasures. One particular treasure, a plant that Wall-E had discovered, scooped up and deposited into an old boot, triggers a programmed reaction in Eve, which eventually leads to her being picked up again by the ship, with Wall-E as the stowaway on the hull. The ship goes back to the Axiom, mega-company Buy N Large's luxurious space yacht, but life aboard the yacht is not as idyllic as the promotional films had shown. Wall-E and Eve find an unlikely ally in the ship's captain to accomplish the mission of getting the ship and its inhabitants to return home to Earth.

Since Wall-E is obviously the one the audience is supposed to connect to and identify with, the movie does a good job of spending the early part of the film establishing his character. While he does talk a bit later, mostly saying his own name and Eve's, most of his verbal communication is done with tones and beeps and intonation, which coupled with his eye and body movements gets his point across. We see that Wall-E is not your ordinary programmed bot. He has apparently managed to train the cockaroach, and even though his job is to process the trash that has resulted from the runaway consumerism, he rescues bits and pieces that he collects and keeps back in his trailer. There doesn't necessarily seem to be a pattern of what catches his fancy that prompts him to collect it. He has a sort of ferris wheel contraption with compartments that hold the items he has decided to keep, and there's a funny bit where he has brought back a spork and he can't decide whether it should go in the cup of spoons or the cup of forks, so he ends up laying the spork in between the two.

Eve's arrival seems to be the answer to Wall-E's problem of being lonely, and he watches her for a while before their actual meeting takes place - brokered by the cockaroach no less. Eve's interaction with the cockaroach is the first glimpse into her non-business personality, and it's the cockaroach's familiarity with Wall-E that seems to get Eve to at least accept him. Wall-E's attempt to show Eve what he does (compacting trash followed by an especially funny and triumphant "ta-da" by Wall-E) didn't do much to impress her. It was also funny to see his continued fixation on holding her hand.

I didn't really understand the storms that seem to sweep over the land, but I loved the scene when Wall-E has taken Eve back to his trailer, and he's showing her all of the things he's collected, including a Rubik's Cube. And I was laughing hysterically when Wall-E pops in the video tape of "Hello Dolly" and shows Eve that he can sing and dance along with the video.

When they got to Axiom, the contrast in color and style was so amazing, but we see that nothing has changed. Consumerism and technology have continued to run out of control so that no one even walks anymore, and they even have machines that play sports for them. Everyone has become obese and disconnected and do nothing but watch their screens all day, whether with programming or in talking to others, but even to the point where they're talking to someone on a screen who's actually right next to them. When Wall-E inadvertently causes a couple of accidents resulting in two different people becoming disconnected from their screens, the man and woman seem to come out of a trance and for the first time take note of their surroundings. That reminded me of "THX-1138" when he had stopped taking his meds and was no longer letting the drugs control him.

We meet the current captain of the Axiom, who's really just a figurehead with nothing to do since the ship is run by the autopilot. But Eve's arrival with the plant causes an upheaval since that shows that Earth is now ready to sustain life again, but the bots in control of the ship have been programmed to not allow that to happen. And I'll admit that I didn't even get the "2001" connection until the theme from the film played as the captain stood on his wobbly legs for the first time. However, I loved it later when the captain turns off the autopilot and his light goes out just like Hal's.

When they get back to Earth, Eve rushes Wall-E to his trailer, where there are spare pieces that she uses to replace all his damaged parts. The last thing to replace is his damaged chip - which she then replaces and Wall-E reboots. And then he just stares blankly at Eve, with no hint of recognition. It was really interesting to see how animated and full of personality he was before, but with the same design, he was not really just a programmed bot. It was especially heartbreaking to watch him compact the treasures he had previously brought into his trailer, but now, he was back to just being a trash bot. The only complaint I really had with the entire film was how they brought Wall-E back to being himself. It took me a second to realize that his personality had changed because he now had a different chip, which effectively meant he was a different bot. Changing out an eye like he had earlier wasn't going to matter, but changing the chip was basically changing out his brain - of course he wasn't going to remember anything, including Eve. Obviously, you can't end the movie that way, but his transformation back into the Wall-E we knew didn't really work for me. There was no explanation for that, and even Eve holding his hand wasn't enough. I would have liked some kind of throwaway indication that he had some kind of internal memory chip where most of his personality had been stored, and it just took a few minutes for that to be copied over onto the normal chip. Otherwise, the sudden return of his memory seemed forced and unexplainable.

I did find it interesting that Pixar, a company who has been at the forefront of technology and innovation when it comes to computer-animated movies, created a movie that actually warned about the dangers of technology and automation. However, in the end, it is the combined efforts of humans and bots that ends up activating the program that brings them all back to Earth as well as that enables them to re-colonize the Earth. It's also a bit ironic that the film seems to warn against the detrimental effects of ultraconsumerism, but the film itself has led to the release of quite a bit of movie-related merchandise.

I thought the environmental message of the film was ok and not too overbearing, but mostly, I really enjoyed the humour and heart of the film. I found myself laughing through much of the film, and sometimes, they were at bigger, more obvious moments, and other times, it was just little things, and there were a lot of little things. It was funny to see Wall-E hang up his treads after a hard day at work, and he's really groggy in the morning when he wakes up, until he has his burst of energy, which in his case is not caffeine, but rather, sunlight to recharge his battery.

When Wall-E was making his way back to his trailer the first time, it was pretty creepy to watch him roll by all the other Wall-E bots that have since broken down and lay in bits. It was funny, though, when he saw them, saw that one of them at least had better treads than him, and he even stuck his "foot" up to make sure it was the right size!

I think it's difficult to make a cockaroach cute, especially one that actually looks like a cockaroach, but they did as good a job as I think possible. It was also funny and fitting that of course it would be a cockaroach who is the only living thing on the planet (at least that we know of), and it survives what both Wall-E and Eve do to it. The cockaroach was also a good way of showing the difference between the Wall-E we knew and the Wall-E with the new chip because of the difference in reactions between the two when the cockaroach is run over. However, I'm not sure I can ever, *ever*, EVER eat another Twinkie again for the rest of my life. Ewwwwww.

Because there's not much dialogue in the film, there aren't too many vocal performances, but those that were there were all around terrific. Jeff Garlin does the voice of the captain, and he's not someone I've ever heard of, but he did a good job. Pixar mainstay John Ratzenberger plays the man who gets released from his trance first, and Kathy Najimy plays the woman who is similiarly liberated by Wall-E. Sigourney Weaver provides the voice of the ship's computer, which we hear mostly as the ship's captain is learning more and more about Earth, including about the pizza trees. And Fred Willard is the only live-action character, doing a hilarious turn as the CEO of Buy N Large. But the star of the show, the god of sound, is Ben Burtt, the "voice" of Wall-E (as well as M.O.) Ben Burtt is the genius sound designer (I'm wondering if that title was originally created especially because of him) that most notably created the "voice" of R2-D2, even though he was pretty much responsible for much of the sound that we now associate with "Star Wars". The body movements of Wall-E did a lot to show his character, but it's also in the sounds and tones that he emits, just as was the case with R2.

I loved the scenes of Wall-E and Eve flying around in space, but I did wonder exactly how much was in the fire extinguisher cannister to let him fly for that long.

I didn't see any of the normal in-jokes that you find in Pixar films, but the film is so visually stunning and full that it's hard to see everything. I'm thinking there might be a lot of hidden things to see in all the sequences where the residents of Axiom are zipping around, not to mention all the things that Wall-E has collected. I'm one who normally watches the credits, but there was so much going on during the credits that I barely really paid attention to the credits. Oh, and as cute as Wall-E was, those Wall-A machines were kinda creepy, but that's probably having mostly to do with their imposing size.

I loved the character of M.O. (microbe obliterator), whose job is to detect "foreign contaminants" and clean up after them, and who finds Wall-E to be a great challenge indeed, chasing him around the ship and cleaning up his tread marks. It's a great scene when the M.O. first encounters Wall-E, cleaning up the dirt he left as Wall-E watches. When all is clean, Wall-E sticks out his treads to make a new mark, which M.O. cleans up. And then, showing a mischievious streak to Wall-E, he runs over the M.O., leaving a dirty tread mark on his head. A friend that we saw the movie with said she thought of me during that part. I'm not sure how to take that! But, I do apparently share Wall-E's penchant for collecting "junk", so I guess she might not be too far off the mark.

There is also a great new song by Peter Gabriel that plays over the end credits of the film.


The film is off to a good start at the box office. Variety is reporting that the film earned $23 million on Friday, which is Pixar's best opening day ever.


In the list of Pixar releases, I would put "Wall-E" as my second favorite, tied with "Ratatouille". Both are incredible films, but with totally different styles and stories that I can't really decide which I like better. It's probably not surprising that I like "Wall-E" so much since it's written (and directed) by Andrew Stanton, who also wrote "Monsters, Inc.", my favorite Pixar film, and who wrote the story for and directed "Finding Nemo", probably third on my list of Pixar films.

Since everyone does this, here's my list of the Pixar films in order of preference:

Monsters, Inc.
Ratatouille/Wall-E
Finding Nemo
Toy Story 2
Toy Story
The Incredibles
Cars
A Bug's Life


Preceding the film was the new Pixar short "Presto", about a magician who has a magic hat from which he pulls the perennial rabbit, but in this case, the rabbit is completely distracted by being hungry, and his hunger makes him a bit testy. "Don't make me hungry. You won't like me when I'm hungry." Hmmm, maybe that line was more appropriate for the rabbit in the short instead! As with the previous short "Lifted", this one is full of humour and clever bits (like poking the magician's eyes with his own fingers!).


I am impressed that in 2008, a movie (and an animated one at that) is so heavily influenced by "2001" and "THX-1138" and uses "Hello Dolly" as an integral part of the storyline, and it even manages to touch on the very popular subject of global conservation, and all the while injecting a ton of humour and heart. "Wall-E" is definitely a film that I want to see again while it's still in theatres, and it's also a DVD that I will be excited to add to my collection.

"Wall-E", "Iron Man" and the Fourth of July

For some reason, "Wall-E" is on my mind today.




A friend sent me the link to this article about an origami Wall-E - made from one uncut sheet of paper. Origami has always fascinated me. I couldn't do it to save my life, but I have a friend who's pretty good at it, and when I was in college, she would periodically mail some to me for my amusement, but not in a Gaff/unicorn kind of way.


But Wall-E wasn't this artist's first amazing creation.




This article shows the origami Iron Man he'd made - the picture above is just of the mask.

And yes, the comments on both articles are funny to read too.



On a separate note, most people have probably made plans on how to spend their Fourth of July next week. For multiple years now, we've spent it at the same place - Disneyland. Yeah, I know, it's crowded - a billion people are there - especially when the Fourth falls on a weekend or at least weekend-adjacent. But we don't actually go on rides or anything - don't be silly! Our main reason for going is to see the fireworks. Disneyland always has an amazing display. They've been particularly good for the last several years, when they've had two new regular fireworks shows that incorporated some pretty nifty new techniques, and on the Fourth of July, in addition to their regular show, they have an added bonus at the end. Disneyland's recent fireworks shows are not your run-of-the-mill kind where shells are just thrown up in the air. Yeah, those are nice too, but Disneyland's current and previous fireworks show are synced with music, so it's really a complete show in the sky. Regular fireworks shows might have music they play during the show, but it's really just background music - in Disneyland's case, the music is an integral part of the show. Well, according to this blog entry, this year's Fourth of July show is going to be even more spectacular. We would have been at Disneyland anyway, but now, I'm looking forward to it even more!

"Wall-E" at the El Capitan Theatre

I'm subscribed to the email list for the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles. It's a gorgeous theatre owned by Disney, so of course, they only show Disney releases, and it's very much a movie palace from days of old. They also only show digital prints of their films, which I *love* - seeing regular film is so disappointing nowadays.

Anyway, I got an email earlier this week announcing that they're actually doing a midnight screening of the film on the early morning of opening day - 12:01am on June 27. Wow, I think that's the first time they've had a midnight screening for the opening of a new film. (We were there at something like 12:30am for a movie once, but that was for a singalong screening of "The Nightmare Before Christmas".) That's pretty cool. I would think about it, except that we've already got tickets for an evening show on Friday, opening night. And there are going to be a ton of friends there, with all of us in the same general section, so that should be a blast, not to mention I'll get to see a film I've been really looking forward to.





3 more weeks to go!

Wall-E does Philly and D.C.

LaughingPlace.com's daily news letter today included a link to this entry on Geekadelphia about Wall-E recently visiting the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. The video seems to be an edit of two different videos shot from different angles during the presentation, but it's pretty cool to watch.




Wall-E is going to be at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. tomorrow, Saturday, May 31, 2008 from 11am to 1:30pm.

Wonder when he'll get to the left coast and where he'll be.

first Wall-E toys!

OK, I've never had three entries for one day before, but today, I can't help myself.

We were at the mall today running an errand and decided to wander into a couple of shops, one of which was KB Toys. We don't buy a lot of stuff from them, but we sometimes find some gems, and today, we hit our first Wall-E jackpot. I knew that merchandise was usually released a little before the film came out, but I hadn't expected to see any yet, though I know the Wall-E iDance is imminently supposed to be available in stores. (The cashier mentioned that they'd gotten the Wall-E merchandise in on Thursday.)

Well, what greeted us in the store but an eyeful of Wall-E toys! Yes, I got a lot of them, but no, I didn't get them all.

My favorite is the U-Repair Wall-E, an action figure that breaks apart into "20 highly detailed parts" that you can snap back together. He's also fully poseable, and he's the only one of the toys I've seen so far where his wrist turns left and right, instead of just having arm movements and rotation. He's also got working treads.

Then there's the Cube 'n Stack Wall-E (for some reason, Toys R Us calls this toy the "Wall-E Lift and Load"), where he can pop out compacted trash. The treads themselves don't work, but there are wheels underneath, and you can pop each of his arms into two different locations. He comes with two trash cubes, and you can make him "pop" one of the cubes out of his compartment. You can also make additional cubes yourself with play dough, and the panels imprint trash details on two sides.

There's also the Dance 'n Tap Wall-E with wacky action. When you pull the cord on his back, he dances and taps. What he really looks like he's doing is frenetically whacking himself on the head with the hubcap. The description on the provided link confuses me as some of the stuff it describes doesn't seem to be true. Pushing him forward just moves him forward - nothing else. And I've tried to open the front panel but the only way that would seem to work is if I break it. BTW, none of those extra points is indicated on the toy packaging.

It's not just Wall-E though. While he's already got me, I'm not as enamoured with Eve, but that might change after I've actually seen the movie. She doesn't have the automatically cute features that Wall-E does, so I have to get to know her better, but we did get Search and Protect Eve. You can press her head to change among her six eye expressions. That part is really funny. She has a button in the back that you can push to reveal her secret compartment in front, which fits both the plant-in-a-boot and light bulb that comes with her. Her arms also pull away from her body, and you can also replace one of her arms with a cannon blaster arm (which looks cool but doesn't actually do anything). Also included is a rock with a button you can push to simulate the rock exploding.

The packaging also indicates that there's a "Space Adventure Wall-E" where he's holding a fire extinguisher, but there's no indication of what that does, so I hope we'll find that sometime to have a look.

We saw the Clean 'n Go M-O, but he didn't seem as cool, so we didn't get that.

They also have three scenes from the movie, and I picked up one of them, called "Wall-E in Awe", which has Eve with a light bulb and Wall-E with the hubcap and his little Buy 'n Large mini-ice chest, which actually has the little bug crawling on it.

There are also individual action figures of the various characters. There's two of Wall-E, a regular one and a "factory new" version. They're pretty much the same except that factory new Wall-E is perfectly clean whereas regular Wall-E has been dirtied and banged up. They have decent posability factors, so they're cool. There are a few others in the collection (defibrillator-bot, vacuum-bot, beautician-bot, massage-bot and paint-bot) that I might be interested in once I see their figures and probably after I've seen the film.

This Wall-E is not one I've heard of before. We dropped by a Target last night, and they had no Wall-E merchandise yet. Really need to go to Toys R Us tomorrow.

Here's a page with a little more information about the toys I've talked about.

All of these toys are from ThinkWay Toys, and the weird thing is that there was nothing on their website about Wall-E at about 3:30 this afternoon, but when I got home tonight, there's this whole page up, which includes things I hadn't heard about. I am assuming that the U-Command Wall-E is the Ultimate Wall-E we've been hearing about. But oh my gosh, did you see Transforming Wall-E? We've been saying wouldn't it be cool if they had one that actually was a cube like Wall-E does when he's scared? And this is the most information I've seen about iDance Wall-E. He sounds so cute. The Electronic Truck Playset sounds cool too. This is going to be one seriously expensive movie!

BTW, in case you haven't already seen the video of walk-around Wall-E, check out a friend's post about that.

We have our tickets to see the movie already, opening night at the El Capitan Theatre!

ultimate Wall-E toy

In this entry, I made reference to a friend's blog entry about some cool new upcoming merchandise of Wall-E. Well, there's now footage available from Maker Faire that shows the ultimate Wall-E toy. Here's the link to pictures and video of that Wall-E.

It was interesting to read the U.S. comments. I agree that the video doesn't show that much of what Wall-E can actually do, but I don't care. He is just the epitome of CUTE-NESS. The friend who sent me this link has been in love with Wall-E since she saw the first teaser trailer, and it took me a while longer, but I'm right there with her now. I think it's the eyes. So I would probably be content to just stare at him. But movement and other abilities - that would just be icing on the cake. However, I do agree with the sentiment in the first comment about wanting a version that retracts into a box. I loved when they showed Wall-E doing that in one of the trailers/TV spots because he got frightened. Again, CUTE-NESS in action.

I think it's funny that a lot of the comments are about getting the toy to use as a base and then adding stuff to convert it into something more (or different, like the hunter-killer). Note the third-from-the-bottom comment, from Marco. I've heard rumour about that too - I can't wait to see it!

9:15pm - edited to add: OK, here's a better post on the ultimate Wall-E toy with a much better video.

Want. Now.

"Iron Man" - movie review with spoilers at the end (and minor notes on Indy IV trailer and in-theatre "Wall-E" display)

Iron Man is not one of the comics stories that I've familiar with, but the trailer looked interesting, and I really like Robert Downey, Jr., so with a busy schedule this weekend, we ended up going to a morning screening, unusual for us. Considering how crowded the theatre was for this 10:45 screening, predictions for big box office for this film seem to be coming true. It's being reported that Friday's take was $32.5 million (with Variety putting that number at $33.4 million), which puts the film on track for a stellar opening weekend.

OK, slight detour here - inside the theatre lobby was a display for "Wall-E". I thought it was so cute!




Here's a close-up of the bench next to Wall-E.




At the screening we attended, they showed quite a number of trailers in front of the film, making the 2 hour plus movie an even longer theatre experience. Among other trailers, they unsurprisingly showed trailers for comic book-inspired films "The Incredible Hulk" and "The Dark Knight". Since "Iron Man" is being released by Paramount Pictures, it also wasn't surprising that the last trailer to be shown was a longer trailer for "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". It really does look like they've captured the spirit of the series. Karen Allen looks like she hasn't aged at all, and while I'm not necessarily fond of Kate Blanchett, she actually looked good in the clips they showed. Here's a link to the new trailer.

OK, onto the movie at hand.


Overall, I thought it was a pretty terrific movie, and if it wasn't for the multitude of films coming out in the next few weeks, I'd probably be interested in seeing the film again. As you'd expect, the action sequences were amazing, with lots of things spectacularly blowing up and lots of fire everywhere. But one thing I've noticed about comic book-inspired movies in recent years is that there's much more emphasis on acting than previously. The movie wasn't good just because of the good action - the acting was pretty stellar all around. Since Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan were cast in starring roles in "X-Men", it seems like many of the subsequent superhero movies have been cast with name actors in the lead with a history of turning in good performances in more "serious" roles. I think that has elevated the stature and quality of these kinds of movies, so they're not simply live-action versions of comic book stories but bona fide good and even great movies in their own right.

"Iron Man" is about Tony Stark, head of a successful weapons-building company who is shown first hand the destruction caused by the things that have made his fortune. An attack of conscience leads him to build a suit with amazing abilities that allow him to turn the tide of the destruction being done with his weapons, but not everyone is happy about his change of heart.

I thought Robert Downey, Jr. did an amazing job as Tony Stark. He captured both the carefree days early in the film as well as all the developments in his character as the film progressed. Unlike Superman and Spiderman and the Hulk and the X-Men, he does not have superhero powers himself, but rather more like Batman, he is able to build devices that give him the ability to do extraordinary things. Even though Iron Man is based more in reality than most other superheroes, Tony Stark does come up with some fairly incredible things, and Downey, Jr. sells it completely believably. He plays the harder beats not as you might expect in a run-of-the-mill action flick but more from what you'd expect from a "serious drama". I've always liked him as an actor, and I'm glad to see that his star seems to be rising again. This is the second film I've seen him in this year, with two more coming up in the next few months.

Gwyneth Paltrow was terrific as Stark's personal assistant Pepper Potts. Paltrow and Downey, Jr. had very good chemistry, and it was fun to watch them play opposite each other. Paltrow is obviously a very beautiful woman, but they did manage to "plain her down" for the most part with her hairstyle, costuming and mannerisms.

Terrence Howard was also terrific as Stark's long-time friend. Howard looks very familiar to me, but in looking over his credits, I can't pick out anything that I specifically remember him from. The only thing I can come up with is that while I didn't see "Hustle and Flow", I do remember there was quite a bit of press when he was nominated for an Oscar for his role in that film.

I haven't seen Jeff Bridges in quite some time, so I was a bit surprised at how different he looked compared to the last time I saw him. He was good as usual in this film.

Leslie Bibb plays a Vanity Fair reporter who has a sexy scene in the film. I found that fairly distracting because I knew her as a detective on "Crossing Jordan", so I was used to her being totally conservative and professional rather than a fairly typical blonde bombshell.

And yes, Stan Lee makes his standard cameo.

Oh, and a quick mention that the end titles are fabulous - you should definitely stay and WATCH ALL OF THE END TITLES UNTIL THEY'RE FINISHED.

One bad effect of the film is that because I've seen the trailer a number of times, and the song "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath is used in the trailer, I've had that one riff from the song running through my head continuously today.


OK, so now that I've made all my general comments, here's the part where there be spoilers galore. You've been forewarned.






































OK, so, presumably, anyone still reading has already seen the film. Wasn't that an awesome film? Seriously!

I loved the back-and-forth between Tony and Pepper. It was sad but also sweet that each was all that the other had. I loved the scene where Pepper had to pull the copper wire from Tony's innards, and the scene at the charity function when Tony sees Pepper in that fab dress and then they dance and then go up to the roof and they come *thisclose* to kissing was just really funny. Of course, it's funnier later when we find out that Tony just left her up there. I liked that they never actually showed a romantic relationship between the two, and it was sweet that they used formalities when speaking to each other.

And for once, I actually was not surprised at a particular plot point. When Pepper asked Tony if he was going to keep the original heart mechanism and he said no, I knew she was going to end up keeping it and that it would play a pivotal part later in the film. Do I win a prize for not being blindsided by that development?

However, I did not catch on that Jeff Bridges would end up being the bad guy. He got a little cartoony in the end when he was in what looked to me like a Super Battle Droid outfit, but that's kind of to be expected at that point. He was great leading all up to that. I had figured out that he would be the one to step out of the car when there was the meeting with Raza, but I had not expected that he was the one who had ordered the hit on Tony in the first place. I did think it was funny in the end titles that there's a credit for a photo shot of Jeff Bridges for "Tucker". They must have used one of the photos done for that movie to create one of the magazine covers we saw about the history of Stark Industries.

And speaking of the end titles - how cool was it that they got Samuel Jackson to do 2 lines of dialogue as Nick Fury? (I have no idea who Nick Fury is, btw. I know the name of that character because I looked it up.) It was funny because when Tony walked into the apartment and Fury started talking, and I realized it was Jackson, my first thought was, oh, oh, you've been trying to hide from him, and he's found you now, and he's going to punish you for all the unauthorized jumping around you've been doing. Ummm, oops, wrong movie! ;) I take it this means they're planning a sequel?

Oh, and the guy who played the doctor who saved Tony's life? He was awesome. It was so sad when he died.

I loved all the humor that was in the film, especially when Tony was doing the first tests of levitating. "If you douse me one more time when I'm not actually on fire, I'm going to donate you to a school." OK, I don't know the exact line, but I was laughing so hard at that, made worse when he *was* doused again after accidentally crashing through his roof and onto one of his spiffy cars. It was also funny when he was arguing with it while he was doing welding or something. "No, just don't move. Oh, am I in your way?" Too funny.

I did have one question though - I get that they were in a cave, and the doctor could only do what he could to keep Tony alive by keeping the shrapnel from entering his heart. But once Tony got rescued and was back in the States, wasn't there a way for the doctors to get the shrapnel out so that he didn't have to keep wearing that device? Yeah, I know, that would have destroyed a plot point that was needed for later, but it didn't make sense to me that he just lived with it.

And after Tony was rescued and was back in the States and was in the car, refusing to go to the hospital, it was funny that he wanted a cheeseburger, but of all the great cheeseburgers he could have had, they just went to Burger King? Why did he pick that? (The husband's answer was, "Because Burger King paid them.") I was wondering if there was a promotion where Burger King was giving out Iron Man toys with kids' meals, but when we drove past one today, the husband said he didn't see any signs on the windows saying such.

Oh, and I wasn't thrilled with Tony actually announcing he was Iron Man at the end. Seemed like an odd ending to me. Well, ok, ending before the later ending.

So, yeah, a few minor quibbles, but overall, loved the movie!