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Disney-Pixar Unveils The First Official “UP” Trailer (VIDEO)

Aviv — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:24:56 +0000

During the 43rd Super Bowl, Disney-Pixar showed the first official public trailer for their upcoming animated film UP.

Coming fresh off the heels of Golden Globe winning animated film Wall•E, Disney-Pixar unveiled the trailer for a new movie called UP. The movie is set to be release May 29th, 2009 and will be shown in Disney-Pixar 3D.

The official UP website is here.

Hollywood’s Crippling Dependency on Steve Jobs

Dave — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:08:52 +0000

Given the instrumental role that the Apple CEO Steve Jobs has played in shaping the digital entertainment industry, his six month departure from Apple may pose both significant advantages and disadvantages for Hollywood.

Reuters regards him as being a powerful advocate of change in the overall distribution of media, in the face of losing ground to free online content. Jobs has been able to leverage the immense success of the iTunes store to keep a tight lid on the price of digital music, TV, and movies.

Some believe that with Jobs temporarily out of the picture, studio negotiations with Apple may become easier. An unnamed studio executive had expressed his feelings about this situation saying, “There may be some more room for advantageous deal-making between Apple and studios. Steve’s a control freak and tough negotiator, and Apple will lose a lot of bench strength, which may work to studios’ favor.”

While this type of optimism may hold elements of truth, others tend to believe differently. Many feel that Apple has a top notch team to take over negotiations and can still use the wild popularity of iTunes as a major bargaining chip, even with Jobs sidelined. USC business professor, Julia Plotts, remains under the impression that, “Hollywood’s always been Steve Jobs’ pet interest…He branched out into Hollywood and provided studios with a new mechanism to make money in the era of digital content delivery.” Adding, “I’m not sure what does to Apple’s foresight and ability in terms of negotiating with content providers and navigating Hollywood.”

While certainly no one can take away the cunning business practices that Steve Jobs has been known for, it is precisely these practices that have set up Apple to remain strong even when he is not around. By making iTunes what it is today, Jobs has successfully secured Apple’s vested interest in the digital entertainment industry for years to come. And lest we forget about Disney and Pixar.

“Wall-E” Wins a Golden Globe for Best Animated Film

Aviv — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 05:01:38 +0000

Disney Pixar’s animated film Wall-E took home a golden globe Sunday evening for best animated film. Director Andrew Stanton was on hand to accept the award.

Stanton thanked Pixar Animations which produced the film, and Walt Disney, which distributed the film. Specifically, he said the entire message and communication between humans and obscure robots “couldn’t have been made anywhere else.”

Perhaps helping Pixar steal the award away from competing heavyweight film Kung Fu Panda, by Dreamworks, is their impeccable track record which is pretty mind-blowing: Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Toy Story, Ratatouille, Cars, Monsters Inc., A Bug’s Life and most recently WALL•E. Also, they are set to release “Up” next summer.”

The debate between what was the better film, Kung Fu Panda or Wall E has been heated. Kung Fu Panda cost nearly $130 million to make and in its fourth week in the box office made roughly $180 million, quickly turning a profit. Total however for Kung Fu Panda (worldwide with DVD sales), was roughly $750 million. Wall-E had a production budget of $180 million and brought home over $600 million worldwide with DVD sales included.

Either way, Pixar’s Wall-E took home the award, and we suspect the underlying message of “going green” and “balancing the digital life with nature” theme resonated a little thicker than the core message of “morale, pride and triumph” in Dreamworks’ Kung Fu Panda.

Pixar Unveils Another Photo From Upcoming Movie “Up”

Aviv — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:13:55 +0000

Pixar has released a new photo from their upcoming animated film “Up.” Their isn’t that much information circulating about the movie as Pixar builds up buzz, however we do have a trailer and now this new image.

Pixar’s track record is pretty mind-blowing: Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Toy Story, Ratatouille, Cars, Monsters Inc., A Bug’s Life and most recently WALL•E. They are set to release “Up” next summer.

The hero of the film is a 78-year-old man named Carl Fredricksen, who walks around hunched over with a tripod cane. When he was a kid he met a girl named Ellie, who grew up in small midwestern town. The two fell in love and eventually got married. Her dream was always to explore the world and visit paradise falls, but as usually happens, life got in the way. They were never able to make good on their promise, and Ellie eventually passed away. Now Carl is a widower living alone in his small home. Developers are threatening to move him into an old folks home.

[via Empire Online]

Pixar Releases First Full Trailer For New Movie ‘Up’

Aviv — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:44:37 +0000

Pixar has released the first full length trailer for their new animated movie called “Up.” In typical Pixar fashion, the trailer showcases marvelous techniques and composition throughout, and leaves my imagination wanting more.

Back in late July, Pixar released a teaser for “Up,” which played at Comic Con 08. Then we truly had no idea what the movie would be about, and the plot line was rather up for grabs.

The hero of the film is a 78-year-old man named Carl Fredricksen, who walks around hunched over with a tripod cane. When he was a kid he met a girl named Ellie, who grew up in small midwestern town. The two fell in love and eventually got married. Her dream was always to explore the world and visit paradise falls, but as usually happens, life got in the way. They were never able to make good on their promise, and Ellie eventually passed away. Now Carl is a widower living alone in his small home. Developers are threatening to move him into an old folks home.

As Gizmodo points out, Pixar’s track record is mind-blowing (Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Toy Story, Ratatouille, Cars, Monsters Inc., A Bug’s Life and most recently WALL•E). With this new trailer, it’s hard to get too excited about the possible action in the film, but the underlying message is sure to resonate, just like Pixar’s other successes. Pixar is planning on releasing “Up” next summer.

Steve Jobs Doesn’t Call all the Shots; Well When it Comes to Disney

Dave — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:52:53 +0000

One of Disney CEO, Bob Iger’s strongest moves since taking office was the acquisition of Pixar, bringing the animation studio in-house.

The biggest perk of the deal may not just have come through keeping the award winning firm under one roof, but rather keeping a close connection with former Ceo Steve Jobs. As the largest shareholder of Pixar, as well as holding a seat on the Disney board, one would assume that he would have quite a sway over what is being said and done.

This may, however not be the case. While the connection is often displayed positively, for example, Disney’s ABC being the first network to sell TV shows on iTunes, there has been worrisome opposition in the past. There were beliefs that Jobs would somehow be able to overtake Iger and annex Disney into the Apple kingdom. Well, we certainly have not seen anything that closely resembles that type of behavior (yet? kidding). While Disney was on board to sell movies via iTunes, they were hesitant to allow rentals.

The following is taken from a transcript of Disney’s earnings call today, and shows that these questions are still being asked.

Are your interests aligned with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, your single largest shareholder? Does he influence how you distribute content digitally?

Iger: Decisions how to distribute content and what to charge for it are made entirely by the management of Disney. Steve is not involved. Decisions of how we distribute content digitally are made by us. I happen to believe that in a world where more and more people are migrating online that the Disney company would be served well be having a strong presence in that environment. Since we decided to put movies in the iTunes platform we have sold 5 million movies. We believe it’s incremental business.

Our ability to monetize will become more evident. You are seeing an expansion of the marketplace and an increase in consumption. We’ve seen that at ABC where access of to TV programs has never been greater and the amount of consumption has never been greater. I think we’ve been driving incremental revenue.

We have no conflict of interest at all. Our decisions are all made for the shareholders of Disney.

via AlleyInsider.

Pixar’s New Movie Teaser; Plot Line Up for Grabs

Aviv — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:35:19 +0000

Pixar Animation Studios is responsible for mind-blowing animated films such as Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Toy Story, Ratatouille, Cars, Monsters Inc., A Bug’s Life and most recently WALL•E. Pixar has recently shown their new movie teaser at Comic Con 08. We’ve been having a blast concocting lavish stories in our head about what the movie could possible be about. But, if you truly know what the plot line is, please drop a line in the comments.

The hero of the film is a 78-year-old man named Carl Fredricksen, who walks around hunched over with a tripod cane. When he was a kid he met a girl named Ellie, who grew up in small midwestern town. The two fell in love and eventually got married. Her dream was always to explore the world and visit paradise falls, but as usually happens, life got in the way. They were never able to make good on their promise, and Ellie eventually passed away. Now Carl is a widower living alone in his small home. Developers are threatening to move him into an old folks home.

visit Pixar
via Gizmodo

WALL•E video game coming to a Mac near you.

Dave — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:10:10 +0000

Imagine life after all humanity has left you behind to clean up their mess. Well you won’t have to wait long as Disney/Pixar have announced that they will be releasing a WALL•E video game that will be available on the Mac platform in the months following the release of the feature film on June 27th. Written and directed by Andrew Stanton, who has been praised for his direction of Finding Nemo, even notes that Apple and Pixar co-founder Steve Jobs thought EVE (one of the characters) looked “really cool.”

In the game, you will be able to follow Wall*E along with EVE, a sleek search robot, along numerous escapades. Race, fly and shoot as you take futuristic robots WALL•E and EVE through a fast-paced adventure. From the desolate waste-lands of Earth to the Axiom space cruiser, throw cubes and blast robots and obstacles while you relive some of the movie’s most thrilling moments and explore worlds filled with non-stop action and adventure, along with head-to-head multiplayer challenges. Dodge dangerous enemies, carry out intense missions and navigate your way through a futuristic galaxy!

If you are as hooked on Pixar films as I am, you can understand the feeling of not wanting the experience to end. Being able to extend the adventure through gameplay is definitely something that I am looking forward to.

Find out more about the game here.