Wall-E

buzzsmith · Post by **buzzsmith** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:26 am

Just a little observation.

Saw "Wall-E" Monday, and enjoyed it...not my favorite Pixar movie, but I give it 3 out of 4 stars.

Anyway, whenever Wall-E had to reboot (twice I think), the accompanying reboot sound was the Mac's familiar Ab chime.

I wonder if this counts as "product placement" and if Apple had to pay for this!?

Like I said, just an OT observation to share.

Buzzy

chunkdz · Post by **chunkdz** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:33 am

You can instantly spot all the mac users in the audience at WALL-E. My whole family chuckled when we recognized the sound, while the families on either side just looked at us weird.

chadd · Post by **chadd** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 10:02 am

Don't forget that Steve Jobs has an office at Pixar. He was chairman, CEO, and 50.6% owner of Pixar until Disney bought the studio in 2006. That deal made him Disney's largest shareholder and a member of its board of directors.

Apple's Jonathan Ive, principal designer of the iMac, iPod and iPhone, helped design Eve:

blue · Post by **blue** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 10:51 am

Yes, and I think Wall-E had an iPod among his collection of, uh, refuse. Free product placement, baby!

I'm amused to think my reaction to this would be completely different if Gates sat on the board at Pixar rather than Jobs.

Resonant Alien · Post by **Resonant Alien** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:05 am

Yeah, I was one of those guys getting weird looks when laughing at the Apple reboot sound.

This one is actually my least favorite Pixar movie to date. It was enjoyable, but I just didn't feel it stacked up to the previous movies, but maybe it's just me.

Resonant Alien · Post by **Resonant Alien** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:06 am

blue wrote:I'm amused to think my reaction to this would be completely different if Gates sat on the board at Pixar rather than Jobs.

It wouldn't have been much of a movie-the bots would have just been crashing constantly

blue · Post by **blue** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:13 am

Resonant Alien wrote:
blue wrote:I'm amused to think my reaction to this would be completely different if Gates sat on the board at Pixar rather than Jobs.
It wouldn't have been much of a movie-the bots would have just been crashing constantly

Good point. The movie would have started with a blue screen of death and would have cost several hundred bucks.

KarlSutton · Post by **KarlSutton** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:55 pm

just saw this yesterday - not my favorite pixar either. It actually bummed me out, maybe I thought it was a little too close to our potential reality.

The sound design though was awesome!

BradLyons · Post by **BradLyons** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:04 pm

I'm looking forward to seeing it with my 12-year old step-son, he is too.... We were going to go last weekend, but he didn't clean his room when I told him to do it and was on the computer three nights in a row longer than he was supposed to be...so I grounded him. Well, the grounding's over so we're going to see it this weekend.

Resonant Alien · Post by **Resonant Alien** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:09 pm

If you haven't already, check out Kung Fu Panda. That was a great movie, IMO!

Looking forward to Space Chimps too.

BradLyons · Post by **BradLyons** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:14 pm

OH yeah, Space CHimps looks hillarious!

SixStringGeek · Post by **SixStringGeek** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 3:09 pm

KarlSutton wrote:just saw this yesterday - not my favorite pixar either. It actually bummed me out, maybe I thought it was a little too close to our potential reality.

I really liked it. Really beautifully done.

I put Finding Nemo as my least favorite. The story pacing just falls to the floor when they get swallowed by the whale. The could have cut the entire whale segment and gotten a much nicer flowing film.

KarlSutton · Post by **KarlSutton** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 7:45 pm

SixStringGeek wrote:
KarlSutton wrote:just saw this yesterday - not my favorite pixar either. It actually bummed me out, maybe I thought it was a little too close to our potential reality.
I really liked it. Really beautifully done.

I put Finding Nemo as my least favorite. The story pacing just falls to the floor when they get swallowed by the whale. The could have cut the entire whale segment and gotten a much nicer flowing film.

+1 about that whale segment (yawn)

It was really well done, but not nearly as clever as some of the other stories they've had. Ratatouille just amazes me.

Now the short that opened it was hilarious! A modern day bugs bunny

KarlSutton · Post by **KarlSutton** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 7:46 pm

SixStringGeek wrote:
KarlSutton wrote:just saw this yesterday - not my favorite pixar either. It actually bummed me out, maybe I thought it was a little too close to our potential reality.
I really liked it. Really beautifully done.

I put Finding Nemo as my least favorite. The story pacing just falls to the floor when they get swallowed by the whale. The could have cut the entire whale segment and gotten a much nicer flowing film.

+1 about that whale segment (yawn)

WALL-E was really well done, but not nearly as clever as some of the other stories they've had. Ratatouille just amazes me.

Now the short that opened WALL-E was hilarious! A modern day bugs bunny

mhschmieder · Post by **mhschmieder** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 2:13 am

I had never seen any Pixar movies until quite recently, when my company screened Blu-Ray editions of both "Ratatouille" and "Cars" in its corporate "showcase" theatre, with several Pixar employees in the audience. Both movies had such wonderful music, that I probably enjoyed the movies much more this way than I would have at a regular theatre with standard loudspeakers. I'm guessing we'll be screening "Wall-E" pretty soon, so I may as well wait. I feel quite privileged to be working just down the street from Pixar, and to see so much of those people. Across all age groups, they are an impressive lot.

I hated computer animation in the 1980's as it mostly seemed about technology vs. stories/etc., so it's kind of funny that even after Pixar became a client of my employer, I still sort of resisted giving non-traditional animation a chance. But I was absolutely floored by the strong storytelling and characters in both films, as well as how organic the animation itself looked. And who would have thought you could take cars as main characters and keep it interesting? Not to mention "Cars" is really three radically different but intertwining stories -- a rare sophistication these past two decades.

In "Cars" especially, I noticed a lot of "inside jokes" going by really fast in the visuals, and am sure I missed many of them. Now that I know that Apple products are making it into their films in "devious" ways, maybe I should be looking for other references as well. I tend to prefer to just enjoy the film though -- otherwise I feel like I'm at SIGGRAPH.

I think I was the only one who recognised the intro scene in "Cars" as being I-40 in Eastern Oklahoma. They really captured the endless fingers of that humongous lake/reservoir quite effectively. I've been there a few times and it's a sight I will never forget, it makes such an impression. Someone involved in the film must have had a similar experience, for it to wind up in the film. It's this sort of detail that impresses me regarding the high degree of individualism and creativity that is encouraged at Pixar.

The title to "Wall-E" is a cute concept in itself, and reminds me of Jack Kirby's "after the disaster" comic book series in the 1970's, called "Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth". His name was based on having emerged from the "Command D" fallout shelter. It's an old trick, to humanise something essentially devoid of humanity, but it works. Except Pixar chose NOT to turn it into "Wally", leaving it to the story to humanise the robot?