(Source: www.apple.com)
Man, I am so giddy right now you have no idea! On the eve of Ratatouille's theatrical release, Walt Disney Studios and Pixar have put out the first teaser trailer for their 2008 flick, called WALL-E.
No need to tell you this teaser rocks: there's not much about the story (if you aren't averse to SPOILERS, go click here for more info), but we get to see some images of WALL-E slaving away at his endless job before looking up longingly at the stars. We've seen sinister robots, we've seen comedic robots, we've seen depressed robots, we've even seen sex robots but I doubt there's ever been a robot as cuddly as this little guy.
No two Pixar teasers have been alike and this one is no exception. Pixar is obviously trading on its past glories (and with films like Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc., who can blame them?) to get viewers salivating for the story of the last robot on earth, but they're also telling us that they're not bound by their previous triumphs.
Safe to say that, if my previous speculations on WALL-E's plot is correct, director Andrew Stanton and Pixar have got to have the biggest cojones in Hollywood right now. It takes a lot of guts to go with a movie with such a strange concept, and it's only because Stanton and Pixar have had such an incredible run of good box office that they're allowed to indulge their muse like this.
In fact I'm starting to think that John Lasseter and company have, through Pixar's storytellers, started to show the Walt Disney Company how to rediscover its soul. I would go even farther and say, if Lasseter is allowed to pursue his vision at the Mouse House, that we will see a true "animation renaissance" every bit as interesting as Disney's 40's and 50's heyday. I hope that they're allowed to keep pushing the art of animated storytelling and still make good box office from it.
On the sillier side of WALL-E, a goof in one of Apple's RSS feeds had everyone thinking that the cast of the upcoming live-action comedy Mr. Bean's Holiday was also the cast of this next Pixar film. Not sure how many people ended up feverishly speculating on what roles Rowan Atkinson, Willem Defoe or Emma de Caunes would play in Pixar's next flick but at least a couple of movie websites got sucked in before the truth came out.
However, here is what we do know about WALL-E's cast: Fred Willard is playing the role of the president of the Buynlarge Corporation, the company that built the titular character. That's right, not voices the role but PLAYS the role onscreen. I'm sure I don't need to say that this is a first for Pixar.
Also, the voice and possibly the image of a (much) younger Barbara Streisand will appear in WALL-E, since the title robot is obsessed with his VHS copy of Hello Dolly! I don't know if Streisand will make another appearance (or voice a character) in the flick but if the Mouse House can't get her in for an appearance, I don't know who can. On the other hand, Pixar has never been about getting star power to sell their flicks, so I don't want them to start now.
You can check out the WALL-E teaser up on Apple's site or, if it's not working for you, take a gander over here.
WALL-E is scheduled for a June 27, 2008 release date.
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