WALL-E Concept Art, Nemo Delayed
Two Andrew Stanton Films for Disney/Pixar
Check out some concept art for Pixar's next flick, WALL-E. Also, the Finding Nemo Blu-Ray DVD release date has been delayed.
It's no secret that WALL-E is far and away the most anticipated animated film of the 2008 summer season. Pixar Animation (now a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company) has had a stunning run of movies since 1995, which have done well both with the critics and at the box office. And WALL-E director Andrew Stanton also helmed 2003's Finding Nemo, the studio's biggest hit.
/Film scored a look at some WALL-E concept paintings that appeared in the Pixar - 20 Years of Animation art exhibit currently showing in Helsinki, Finland.
The first picture looks like a background on Earth, where our hero is single-handedly cleaning up the planet. The other images appear to be for the Axiom space cruiser, where humanity has holed up, waiting for WALL-E to finish making Planet Earth livable again. The first image of the Axiom cruiser has a vaguely Death Star-esque vibe (the close-up when Vader's shuttle is arriving at the beginning of Return of the Jedi).
The fourth and fifth images appear to show a blobby human sitting in his hoverchair, working on his home computer. /Film's Peter Sciretta makes much of the red cables that appear in the artwork, even comparing them to the red cabling that appears on the robots in the trailer. It's entirely possible that Pixar entertained the idea of all the robots on the Axiom controlled by a forest of red wires, but ultimately rejected the notion as being too unwieldy.
WALL-E rolls into theatres June 27th.
Finding Nemo Blu-Ray Delayed, Mystery Movie Re-Released?
Upcoming Pixar, via Blu Ray.com via The Digital Bits, announced that Disney has once again delayed the Blu-Ray release of Stanton's previous flick, Finding Nemo. The film was originally slated for a Spring 2008 release, was first moved to the Fall, but has now been pushed to the Spring of 2009.
However, Disney will debut another Pixar title on Blu-Ray sometime around the end of this year, to coincide with the Blu-Ray release of WALL-E. Disney hasn't revealed which film this will be, but an examination of Pixar's schedule reveals some clues.
Cars has already been released on Blu-Ray, and Ratatouille is already on the schedule. It's doubtful that Disney will bring either of the two Toy Story movies out on Blu-Ray anytime soon, since the Mouse House is planning a theatrical re-release of those flicks, in 3-D just before Toy Story 3 comes to theatres in 2010. So that narrows it down to either The Incredibles or A Bug's Life.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of A Bug's Life, which would make it a natural for a Blu-Ray reissue. Whether the John Lasseter/Andrew Stanton film is important enough (or profitable enough) to warrant a special anniversary edition on Blu-Ray remains to be seen. According to IMDb, A Bug's Life made $162.7 million in domestic box office during its theatrical run. That becomes slightly more impressive when you realize that the flick cost Pixar $45 million to make.
On the other hand, Brad Bird's The Incredibles is due for a Blu-Ray release. That film cost a fair bit more to make ($92 million) but did a bit better at the box office ($261 million domestically). Also, The Incredibles is one of Pixar's most beloved films, below Finding Nemo and Ratatouille on IMDb's Top Animated Titles list.
Fun Fact: Pixar accused DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg of ripping them off when his studio released Antz around the same time asPixar brought out A Bug's Life. Katzenberg had been a former Disney executive in charge of animation until 1995, and so he would've known what Pixar was planning for their next movie after Toy Story.
