In terms of advance promo, the winner so far of the Animated Wars of the Summer of 2008 is Disney/Pixar's WALL-E. Stung by what they saw as Disney Marketing's half-assed job promoting last year's Ratatouille, the gang from Emeryville are making sure that everyone knows about the story of the lovable robot, written and directed by Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo).
Yahoo clips: "A Hero's Journey" and "The Man and the Machine"
The good folks at Yahoo scored a couple of promo clips for the flick, highlighting the little robot and Stanton. Both of them cover fairly familiar territory in similar ways, but both are worth checking out.
The first clip, "A Hero's Journey," explores the titular character, emphasizing the humanity in the little robot. While Stanton talks about WALL-E, the viewer sees the title character battling with a fire extinguisher and interacting with his pet cockroach (all scenes we've seen before, but still priceless). Through it all, you realize that WALL-E is truly the little robot that refuses to give up.
"There's something about (his) persistence that's really appealing," says Stanton, "and you end up rooting for him."
The second clip, "The Man and the Machine" is more about Stanton and his relationship to WALL-E, both the title character and the movie.
"WALL-E has had a long time to gestate, almost 15 years," Stanton observes, "When I was trying to rewrite (2003's Finding Nemo), I would procrastinate by writing WALL-E."
"Andrew's vision for this film is a huge one," says producer Jim Morris, "it's a big, sweeping science-fiction fantasy."
With that vision in mind, Stanton had no problems assembling animators who were excited about making this flick.
"The sci-fi geeks just came out of the woodwork for this film," says Stanton.
Stanton freely admits that there is a lot of WALL-E in him, and that he's just as much a "nerdy romantic" as the character he created. Character supervisor Bill Wise concurs.
"(Stanton) is every bit as big a geek as the rest of us, and sometimes even more so," he says.
Disney Promo Clip
The Disney website also has a promo clip for the flick up, featuring a slightly disturbing peroxide-blond presenter named Michael from Disney's Movie Surfers chatting with Stanton. The writer/director discusses the little robot's journey throughout the flick.
"WALL-E and EVE are two robots that are from different ends of the spectrum of technology," Stanton says. "WALL-E is shy, timid, curious, and EVE is dedicated, strong, very smart, but has an interest in being free that she doesn't even understand herself. They kind of bring out the best of each other . . . so he's willing to follow her into outer space and they end up being fugitives together."
You can check out the clip by clicking here.
WALL-E rolls into theatres on June 27th.
Fun Fact: Andrew Stanton says there's something he ought to tell you. He . . . is left-handed.
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