By now, you should know that Disney’s Pixar Animation releases nothing but the most innovative, creative and fun animated films. So with today’s release of Wall•E on DVD, you should expect nothing other than another brilliant movie and, I’m happy to report, a box set chock full of features that are just as cool.
The film itself is a little unconventional (even for Pixar) and features a robot named Wall•E that embarks on an adventure full of comedy and romance. Wall-E’s only mission is to clean up Earth after the human population has evacuated it due to their wasteful nature. His world is turned upside down when he stumbles upon a sleek, curvy female robot named Eve. When this new catch is suddenly taken away from him, Wall-E begins an amazing journey to get her back.
Conceptually, the movie was a big risk for Pixar: Wall-E and Eve are capable of only a few words and the movie as a whole has very conventional dialogue. But the risk paid off and the animation company has further cemented their storied history as the bar-setters in animated movies. And I dare to say that Wall-E should be considered for the entertainment industry’s top prize, an Oscar for Best Picture.
Visually, the movie is stunning and, again, shows how far Pixar is ahead of other animation shops.
The DVD is being released in a few different flavors, including Single-Disc, 3-Disc and Blu-ray - so choose the one that best suits your viewing habits. My review copy was the 3-Disc and has the following features:
Disc 1:
· Presto “Animated Short” – I always look forward to the animated shorts that precede Pixar films and rightfully so: Presto had me in stitches.
· Animation Sound Design: Building Worlds from The Sound Up – Sound Designer Ben Burtt introduces the art of sound design using examples from WALL•E and historic footage of the early Disney sound designers. This is a great watch - don’t skip it.
· Audio Commentary by WALL•E director Andrew Stanton. - Pretty standard stuff here, but it’s worth a once-over.
· Deleted Scenes, Easter Eggs and More…
Disc 2:
· Robots – Find out everything about the film’s robot heroes, including hilarious web vignettes, the names and functions of all of WALL•E’s malfunctioning misfit robot friends and an interactive storybook packed with kid-friendly challenges.
· Behind the Scenes – Six exclusive featurettes give fans an insider’s view of the making of WALL•E, including the film’s visual design, character development and musical score, plus the story behind the special effects challenges and a look at building the robot characters that populate the film.
· Buy n Large Shorts – The whole Buy N Large thing kinda creeped me out while watching the movie and I didn’t really love the 5 shorts provided on this disc. Watch at your own risk.
· The Pixar Story, A Documentary by Leslie Iwerks – It’s pretty crazy to think that Toy Story came out almost 13 years ago. This documentary provides a great look at the history of the storied company from Emeryville, CA. Not only do you get an introspective look back, but you also get to see some footage that has never graced a theater or DVD.
Disc 3:
“DisneyFile” Digital Copy - This has become one of the best new features in recent DVD releases - the film comes with a copy of the movie that you can readily copy to your computer using iTunes. It makes things much easier to sync the movie of my choice and take it with me on the go.
Between The Dark Knight and Wall-E, it’s hard for me to pick a favorite movie of 2008. But as far as family films go, Wall-E is one of the best and is a great pick up for your DVD library.
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