Posts Tagged ‘WALL-E’
Old post lost and found – Wall-E not for me…
Posted by Administrator | Filed under Animation, Feature Film, Personal
Here’s the lost post, let me know your thoughts (see also Oscar nominations announced..):
OK so I may not make the greatest of friends when I say what I am about to say… but here it goes anyway – I didn’t think that Pixar’s Wall-E was that great.. certainly to level of acclaim it is getting. Sure the scenes and the character animation was flawless, but a few things didn’t work for me, such as; why did we have ‘real human’ characters at the start (and the President) and then when we went to the spaceship, did we have CG characters? I thought the overall story was weak, sure the love interested between EVE and Wall-E was cuter-than-cute, but the lifeless-ness of the human characters in the over-eating consumer world (and the end resolve) was a lame thread. Also the characterisation of those human characters in CG was too generic – would we all look the same if we were fat?
I think if you compare Wall-E to some of Pixar’s greats like Ratatouille or Toy Story, I didn’t think it was even as good as Cars (which is well documented as having a troubled production), sorry but it really doesn’t fit for me. The thing is, I haven’t read a bad review yet but I have spoken to some people about it and whilst I have been met with initial – ‘Oh its so amazing’ when I challenge my points.. I am equally met with ‘yeah your right it was a bit strange..’. I don’t think this is the downturn of Pixar by any stretch, but it will interesting to see how it copes with the pressure of continuing to turn out fine films (especially as they have Disney to look after now).
Oscar nominations announced..
Posted by Administrator | Filed under Animation, News
News from the Animation World Network website:
Nominations for the 81st Academy Awards were announced today (Thursday, January 22) by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis and Oscar winner Forest Whitaker.
BOLT, KUNG FU PANDA and WALL-E are the nominees for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
WALL-E also got nods for Original score, Original song (“Down to Earth”), Sound editing, Sound mixing and Original Screenplay. WALTZ WITH BASHIR got a Best Foreign Language nod. WALTZ WITH BASHIR is the first animated feature nominated for a foreign language Oscar, although 12 prior films have been submitted for consideration.
LA MAISON EN PETITS CUBES, LAVATORY LOVESTORY, OKTAPODI, PRESTO and THIS WAY UP received Best Animated Short nominations.
Wall-E is a sure to win Best Animated Feature, although my own opinion is it shouldn’t, for reasons published in a previous post (which has mysteriously gone missing!). I have to admit that I am surprised that The Tale of Despereaux didn’t get a look in – maybe it wasn’t eligible?
There’s a great line up of shorts in there too and again I am surprise that the recent Wallace and Gromit’s ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’ didn’t make it in there (again maybe it wasn’t eligible?) – as its usually an Oscar favourite. Not that I think it should, it was mediocre piece using the same formula we have seen over and over (‘handbag’). This way Up by Smith & Foulkes (of the Nexus crowd) seems to be running as favourite in this category anyway. Its already notched up a fair amount of awards already on the circuit (including Sundance).
It’ll be interesting to see who walks away with them, with hopefully a few surprises.
