New WALL-E Poster
Second Teaser Trailer for Pixar Flick to Debut October 1st
Check out the new poster for Pixar's WALL-E, and a 2nd teaser trailer is coming on October 1st. WALL-E opens June 27, 2008.
From an artistic perspective, Pixar is firing on all cylinders these days. This last summer's Ratatouille was widely hailed as an animated classic on par with Walt Disney's finest work, and there's a pretty fair buzz building around Pixar's next movie, the robot comedy/drama WALL-E.
Set aside the fact that Andrew Stanton, who also wrote and directed Finding Nemo, is writing and directing the film. In February, some of WALL-E's plot details came to light and everyone said "Whoa!" in the very best possible way.
I'm not going to tell you WALL-E's plot in this space (click the link if you want all the SPOILERiffic details), but rest assured this is one of the gutsiest scripts ever put to an animated film.
Then Pixar put out some subtle promotions for the flick, like the phony (and very funny) website for BuyNLarge, the bumbling corporation that built the titular robot.
Fast forward to the present day, and feast your eyes on the latest WALL-E poster. Upcoming Pixar scored this image and it's a doozy.
The keyword here is simplicity: our adorable little robot hero staring up at the stars from atop a mountain of trash. And there's the tagline from the first trailer: "After 700 years of doing what he was built for, he'll discover what he was meant for."
I've always dug Pixar's promo for their movies and this one is no exception. It's a great image: simple and poignant. And the blurb that it's "from the creators of Finding Nemo" is subtly tacked on the bottom. Yeah, it sucks that Pixar had to drop that in, but it has been 4 years since that movie came out, and some people need the reminder.
But wait, there's more. On October 1st, Pixar will unleash the 2nd teaser trailer (check the first one over here) for WALL-E. Click this link at 6 pm Central Time to see the new spot.
Why so Much WALL-E so Soon?
So why all the media blitz six months before WALL-E hits theatres? It's simple: Pixar is running the promo for this one themselves.
Here's how it works: the boys and girls at Pixar were vocally unhappy with how Disney promoted Ratatouille. Despite earning some of the most glowing notices ever tacked to a Pixar film, Ratatouille struggled to make $200 million at the box office, and stands as possibly the weakest Pixar theatrical release since 1998's A Bug's Life.
Jim Hill heard from an unnamed Disney source who claimed that Ratatouillle "was a very difficult picture to sell during an incredibly competitive summer. ... (Pixar is) now being complete bastards about the WALL-E trailer, insisting that only they know the proper way to promote their next picture. ... But that's okay. Let them call the shots on WALL-E's marketing campaign. Next year, they'll be the ones who'll be taking the fall when that Andrew Stanton film doesn't measure up to expectations."
Did Disney Drop the Ratatouille Ball?
Granted, a movie about a rat who wants to be a chef was a tough sell in a summer season that had films like Transformers, Shrek the Third, Spider-Man 3, The Simpsons Movie and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It's not surprising that the Mouse House's marketing department threw up their hands and said, "How the **** do we promote this flick?"
But it has to be restated that Ratatouille had reviews to die for (veteran Disney animator Vic Taboush's line "The best animated film since Pinocchio" was pure gold) and I never saw Disney take advantage of those notices. Some follow-up posters and TV spots highlighting those glowing quotes would have let people know that Ratatouille was a must-see movie, and I never saw the Mouse House work that angle.
So far, Pixar seem to be promoting WALL-E well. I liked the first trailer, the BuyNLarge website, and this current poster. Hopefully Pixar can keep the anticipation for WALL-E up, and not have it peak too early a la Snakes on a Plane.
Still, the question remains: in their search for artistic excellence, has Pixar lost their box office touch? Find out when WALL-E opens June 27, 2008.
