WALL-E coming to Blu-ray
On November 18, Disney and Buena Vista Home Entertainment will release Wall-E on Blu-ray Disc, day-and-date with DVD.
Wall-E will be configured similarly to Disney’s Prince Caspian in two and three-disc packages. The third disc will include Disney File, aka a standard definition digital copy of the film. Unlike Prince Caspian, we expect the two-disc edition to include a slipcover.
Pixar films have always been given a royal treatment on home video and Wall-E is not about to break the trend. Like Cars and Ratatouille before it, Wall-E includes a number of Blu-ray exclusives including popular Cine-Explore. The remaining supplemental features are detailed below with Blu-ray exclusives noted.
Digital Copy (Blu-ray 3-Disc exclusive)
Burn-E: All-new animated short
Burn-E with Boards - picture-in-picture (Blu-ray exclusive)
Cine-Explor with director Andrew Stanton (Blu-ray exclusive)
Axoim Arcade: retro suite of videogames with a twist (Blu-ray exclusive)
Geek Track (Blu-ray exclusive)
BD-Live Network (Blu-ray exclusive)
Preston Animated Short
Deleted Scenes
Sneak Peek: Wall-E’s Tour of the Universe
Animated Sound Design - Building Worlds from the Sound Up
Audio Commentary with Director Andrew Stanton
The Pixar Story by Leslie Iwerks
Additional Deleted Scenes
Wall-E’s Treasures and Trinkets
BnL Shorts - Amusing peek into the inner workings of the Buy n Large Corporation
Lots of Bots Storybook
Making of Featurette
We don’t have technical specs to share yet but you can safely assume a minimum of 1080p video and 5.1 uncompressed audio.
The two-disc edition of Wall-E on Blu-ray will carry an SRP of $35.99 while the three-disc set will clock in at $40.99. We’ll pass along spec and additional artwork updates as received.
‘Wall-E’ Gives Glimpse of Product Placement’s Future
From ADage:
In Disney Pixar’s new movie, “Wall-E,” the female heroine is a shiny all-white robot with no seams or overt buttons showing. Remind you of anything? Actually, it brings to mind most of the Apple product line.
But unlike many movies showing actors gulping from branded soda cans and making calls on cellphones with long logo shots, Apple’s “Wall-E” appearance isn’t what most would deem product placement. And it might well be the model of the future.
‘Almost indoctrinating’
Apple products only physically appear in “Wall-E” a few times — an iPod that re-projects a favorite movie, the sound of the Mac startup tone signaling that Wall-E, the titular robotic romantic lead, has fully recharged via solar panels, and one-button mice scurrying around a garbage dump. However, there is a less obvious, but still noticeable Apple influence that runs throughout the film.
“My first thought when I watched the movie with my kids and I heard that Mac boot tone and the whole audience laughed … was that it’s so subtle, it’s almost indoctrinating,” said Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey. “That 600 years from now there’s nothing of value on the Earth, but there’s the Mac boot tone.” Abram Sauer, a freelance writer who pens the annual product-placement awards for brandchannel.com, said the whole film could serve as a model for the future.
“People talk about how products and brands will sponsor movies … that’s what’s going to happen. But Apple has already done that here without being directly involved. This is what we would use as a great example of how to sponsor a movie,” he said. “I would call it product homage. And that is way more valuable than product placement. It doesn’t just reinforce a single Apple product, it reinforces Apple’s entire design approach from MacBook to iPod to iPhone.”
‘Wall-E’ says ‘Hello, Dolly’
From Variety:
Jerry Herman is singing “Hello, Wall-E.”
Two songs from the Rialto composer’s “Hello, Dolly!” — “Put on Your Sunday Clothes” and “It Only Takes a Moment” — play major roles in the hit Pixar film’s story about a little robot left on a devastated Earth 700 years in the future with only a pair of show tunes to keep him going.
The success of the film is also spurring talk of a major Broadway revival of the 1964 musical.
Herman says there’s been interest in a new “Dolly!” for the past several years, with the Nederlander Org producing, but now the release of “Wall-E” has unexpectedly amplified the buzz. “The movie will only make it more vital, more of an event, and I think a lot of kids would come and see where those songs came from,” says the composer.
Herman, 77, says he was unaware of the importance of the songs to the film until he saw “Wall-E” on opening weekend. But in the movie’s first moments, when he heard Michael Crawford singing “Put on Your Sunday Clothes,” he was stunned and moved.
In the film, the robot plays an old videocassette of “Hello, Dolly!” and is transfixed by that upbeat song, as well as the romantic ballad “It Only Takes a Moment,” sung by Crawford and Marianne McAndrew.
‘Hancock’ a hero at the boxoffice
“Hancock” parked itself atop the domestic boxoffice for the Fourth of July weekend as Sony’s Will Smith-starring superhero film registered an impressive $66 million in estimated Friday-Sunday grosses and $107.3 million since bowing Tuesday night. “Hancock” is Smith’s fifth movie to open at No. 1 over the Fourth of July. The others were “Men in Black” and its sequel, “Independence Day” and “Wild Wild West.” “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl,” the penultimate release from soon-to-shut Picturehouse, expanded to 1,843 theaters during the weekend after two frames in limited release but fetched a disappointing $3.6 million. That put the Abigail Breslin-toplined family film in eighth place on the session and yielded a $6.1 million cume. Disney/Pixar’s feature animation “WALL-E” finished in second place during its sophomore session, with a skimpy 47% drop from first-weekend grosses producing a $33.4 million frame and a 10-day cume of $128.1 million. - from THR
‘Voice’ of WALL-E: Robot sounds toddler-inspired
From Yahoo:
Ben Burtt, the two-time Oscar-winning sound engineer who designed the voices of R2-D2, ET and now the main character in “WALL-E,” says his out-of-this-world audio often comes from the most mundane, Earth-bound activities — like a trip to the grocery store.
When he needed the sound of shopping carts banging together for a scene in Pixar’s robot love story, Burtt took his 10-year-old daughter to a Safeway, where they put their recorder in a cart and pretended to shop (banging into things in the parking lot for good measure).
But when it comes to making robots emotionally resonant, Burtt bases his ideas on the voice of humans. Very small humans.
“The bulk of the vocals, the expressive vocals, are really sounds that are more like a toddler makes … kind of the universal language of intonation,” Burtt said in an interview aired on AP Radio. “‘Oh,’ ‘Hm?,’ ‘Huh!,’ you know? This sort of thing.”
‘Wall-E,’ ‘Wanted’ wow box office
From Variety:
Pixar and Disney’s endearing “Wall-E” and Universal’s Angelina Jolie-James McAvoy actioner “Wanted” made for another boffo weekend at the summer box office as overall revenues for the year moved ahead of 2007 for the first time in months.
The critically acclaimed “Wall-E,” directed by Andrew Stanton, easily won the weekend, grossing an estimated $62.5 million from 3,992 runs. The R-rated “Wanted” rocketed past expectations, grossing an estimated $51.1 million from 3,175.
Each made the record books.
“Wall-E” was anything but robotic, scoring the second best June opening of all time, after “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” ($94.7 million). Opening is the third highest among the nine Pixar films after “The Incredibles” ($70.5 million) and “Finding Nemo” ($70.2 million). And at $23.1 million, toon scored the biggest opening-day gross of any Pixar title, reflecting the fact that kids were out of school and free to hit theaters on Friday.
“Wanted” scored the best opening ever for an R-rated film released in June and the sixth best of all time for any R-rated pic. Film, also starring Morgan Freeman, placed No. 2 for the weekend and played well across ethnic groups. U said it’s already eyeing a sequel.
Filmgoers Wild For ‘Wall-E’ And ‘Wanted’
Sources tell me that very early North American box office numbers show that Disney / Pixar’s Wall-E took in $23M Friday from 3,992 theaters for what should be high $60sM opening weekend including the Saturday matinee bump. This means Wall-E is big, but maybe not the biggest Pixar (which was The Incredibles at $70.5M). Disney is looking for a Best Picture Oscar nomination for the pic, possible with 100% great reviews from top critics and even rival studios bigwigs gushing about the pic: “It’s just adorable and smart and interesting. It has more character development and emotion than any movie I’ve seen this year.” In the No. 2 place, Universal’s Angelina Jolie/James McAvoy starrer Wanted debuted to $18.5M Friday from 3,175 venues for what should be a bigger than expected $50+M weekend. (The studio only expected $35+M.) “In terms of comps, that would be an extraordinary result for an R-rated summer action movie,” a source tells me. - from Nikki
Wall*E’s Andrew Stanton talks about his next project, John Carter of Mars!
Capone: Are you planning to make this JOHN CARTER OF MARS your next film?
AS: That’s the movie I’m doing!
Capone: That’s what I thought, but that film has changed hands so much…
AS: I know, and I’m hoping I’m not on that list. We want to make these shirts that say, “Break the curse.” I have been a fan of those books since I was 10, and I’ve watched vicariously from the sidelines as it has gone from studio to studio since I was in college in the ’80s. And just as fan, wanting to see it be made, and praying to God it would be done right. I thought it was truly going to get done by Jon Favreau, and the minute it fell apart, I couldn’t believe it. And the timing was just right with my schedule, and I said, “I don’t know, this is crazy but I’m going to see if we can get it.” And here we are. Believe me, if it doesn’t fall apart for other reasons, I’m going to do it right, because I have been a huge fan of those books.
Capone: When does that really get going for you?
AS: Mark Andrews and I are writing it together; he was the head of story on RATATOUILLE and THE INCREDIBLES. I like to say I’m a little big country, he’s a little bit rock and roll. We make a great combo together, and we’re just spending this year writing. We’ve learned from the Pixar methodology: don’t get distracted about how and all these things everybody else wants to ask; just make a great story and everything else wants to fall into place. So all the other specifics we aren’t even going to decide upon until next year, once we have a script that we think is worth making.
Capone: Does that include whether the film is animated or live action?
AS: That’s what we don’t want to decide until next year. And believe me, we’re not going say, “Oh, it’s a Pixar film, so it’s got to be G-rated.” We’re going to do what’s right for the movie and then we’ll find the right way to distribute it.
- from AICN
WALL-E is a real character
As robots go, the star of Pixar’s “WALL-E” isn’t much to look at. With his mechanical arms, tank treads for feet and oversize camera lens/eyes, the mobile trash compactor is definitely old-school and low-tech.
Which is just the way Andrew Stanton likes him. “I put robots into two camps,” says the Pixar veteran and writer-director of “WALL-E,” opening Friday.
“There’s the Tin Man category, where they’re basically a metal human, and the R2-D2s who are designed for a particular function and you read character into them - which I think is a way more fulfilling experience.”
He might look like a metal box, but WALL-E is definitely a character. With a vocabulary limited to a handful of words and whistles (courtesy of “Star Wars” sound designer Ben Burtt), the plucky robot needed another way to put his feelings out there.
Even though his adventures take place hundreds of years from now on an abandoned Earth, WALL-E has more in common with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton than with the ominous androids usually seen in sci-fi flicks.
“We looked at everything those guys did,” says Stanton, who won an Oscar for writing and directing “Finding Nemo.”
“We watched a Chaplin film and one of Keaton’s at lunch every day for almost a year until we saw their entire body of work. We walked away thinking there’s almost no emotion you can’t convey visually. It gave us the courage to take a risk to get it across: If those guys did it, we could too.
“Chaplin wore his heart on his sleeve. But in terms of humor, of how much you can convey with very little, we definitely pulled from Keaton’s playbook,” adds Stanton. “He was the Great Stone Face - his expression never changed very much, and neither does WALL-E’s.”
- from NYDailynews
WALL-E Featurette shows how Andrew Stanton and Co. brought in DP Roger Deakins (No Country for Old Men, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Shawshank Redemption) to give them advice on how some of the sequences might actually be lit and shot if it there were an actual camera there: