BOLT of electicity!

As part of my family's Thanksgiving day we went to the movie theater to see "Bolt", Disney Animation Studio's latest film. Please understand that this was not created by Pixar's studios, however, John Lasseter was executive producer. I was excited to see this movie because I knew John Lasseter was giving his guidance and since him and Ed Catmull have been overseeing things in Disney's Featured Animation Department I've been eager to see them spread their motivation for creating perfection. That was a long sentence. Anyway, I was not disappointed as you may read in other reviews. They pulled off a great opening sequence to catch our attention and carried that feeling through the whole film. Anyone might agree that Disney animated films have not been the same since the nineties. I think, however, a new day is dawning for them. As we anticipate the return of their fairytale storytelling next year with "Rapunzel", Disney will be back in their saddle.

Wall-E-topia

Wall-E came out on DVD this past Tuesday (11/18). I bought it Friday night. I bought the 3-disc version. The 3rd disc was a digital copy that I put on my iPod. It's Sunday evening now and I have watched Wall-E two times this weekend including all the extra content included on the DVDs. What an amazing movie and what amazing people who brought it together. The headlines have said it is Pixar's masterpiece. Now, a masterpiece to me is something that happens once for an artist usually before they die and it turns out to be that artist's best work. Pixar is no where near dieing and I'm confident the best is yet to come from this company full of creative giants.

The thing that worries me is that too many people will or have not seen this movie for what it really is. Too many people watch movies like Kung Fu Panda (which I absolutely love and own) and then try to compare that level of entertainment to that of Wall-E. Wall-E is so far deeper in it's entertainment value and value in general that many people are not prepared for it's emotional effects. We have to remember that Pixar was the first to create a full-length feature entirely in computer animation. Pixar's founding fathers pioneered much of the technology used by many films today. It only makes sense to say that because they had practically invented this medium of computer animated feature films, then we have to understand that they are leading it's direction as well. Pixar is leading a revolution in story telling and entertainment.

New "Up" Trailer