But, as it went on, the trailer convinced me that the movie might actually be worth seeing. It’s the first trailer out of Disney-only that I have really wanted to see. Pixar films are a category all their own. Anyway, have a trailer:

The night was unfortunately laden with small disasters. The first was that the second the “first look” came on, it was painfully loud. We were hoping the assault on our eardrums would cease when the previews came up, but we had no luck there. It was only after Johnathan sought someone out and informed them of our dilemma that they even realized there was one. They did bring the volume down to a level that wasn’t painful, even if it was still over-loud for a movie theater.

Later on, during the middle of the film, the reel got off so that we were seeing the bottom part of the frame at the top and the top was in the middle. It was incredibly annoying and it probably took almost five minutes for someone to fix it. If it had kept up much longer, I’d have probably pitched a fit and demanded my money back - which would have been the first time I’ve ever done that at a movie theater. It was fixed before the climax of the movie, at least, and we were able to enjoy the rest of the movie in peace.

After being slapped in the face again by the trailer for Beverly Hills Chihuahua and having to see Brendan Frasier try to act again (as well as a couple of previews for some movies that look entertaining), we got to see the Pixar short! It was about a magician and a rabbit, and past that, aside from the hat that was remniscent of the Sorcerer Mickey hat, I can’t bring myself to divulge any further information about it. Pixar still has that spark and talent that I think you should see it for yourself rather than read my inadequate description of it.

Movie review continues beyond here. There will be spoilers.

Then, wonder of wonders! The movie actually started! Hurrah! When it first started, I was shocked to hear Michael Crawford’s voice beam out from 1969 singing “Put on Your Sunday Clothes.” It was pretty much the opening song to the movie, and became a theme throughout as one of Wall-E’s interests.

From the very beginning, Wall-E, whose extent of speaking is limited to things like “Waaaaall-e” and “ta-da,” has a very distinct and interesting personality. He is almost human, despite his robot sensibilities. The things that we inherently understand, he has spent time inquiring about and exploring before coming to his own conclusions as to their purpose and function. The idea of such an inquisitive robot is endearing and sweet and I found that it immediately made me like Wall-E as a character.

Despite the fact that there is very little speaking in the movie (as it focuses on robots who can say a very limited number of things in language that we lowly humans can understand), the story is quite clearly articulated. This, I think, is a sign of Pixar’s continuing genius. We were able to go to a movie late at night and watch something that wasn’t explicitly described to us (as most movie plots are), and retain a high level of comprehension throughout the entire film.

As the movie progresses, the social commentary becomes very strong. Not only in the obvious ways (the litter, pollution and destruction that Wall-E is set to clean up), but also in more subtle ways. The lives that people live on the Axiom, which is the ship that the people from Earth leave to when the planet becomes too dirty and polluted to support life any longer, are those of blind consumers, believing what they’re told and so plugged into the minutae of their lives that they miss some of the bigger and more beautiful aspects of their current lifestyle. The people have become so stuck in this rut that they have gotten quite fat and in fact lost bone matter. They ride around on hovering chairs with robots filling their every demand almost instantly. They believe everything they are told by the Big Box Mart-esque BNL advertisements which echo very closely the same kind of advertisements that we are currently bombarded with daily.

BNL, or “Buy n Large,” is really the Big Corporation of D0000M that got them into the mess in the first place, but because of their blindness and lack of other knowledge (the people have been on the Axiom for so long that they don’t even remember Earth - they have never even been there before), they know nothing else than to believe exactly what their digitally projected screens tell them.

The commentary goes on from there with both the subtle and the obvious. I think it’s a wonderful statement for Pixar to make because if things don’t start changing, this is where we’re headed. On the other hand, it isn’t a giant advertisement for recycling and responsible consumerism: it’s also a damn good movie. I’m pleased and absolutely impressed to say that Pixar has done it again. They have made a vibrant and interesting film that is sure to find its place along side the eight other Pixar successes in some kind of hall of fame.

I can’t state enough how much I enjoyed this film. I recommend it to anyone who has loved any of Pixar’s eight other wonderful films, or heck, is even just mildly interested in robots. Wall-E is a wonderful film and frankly, I can’t wait to see it again.

And now, I leave you with Wall-E and a vacuum:

The award for best original score (music and/or lyrics) written for the theater went to Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote (and stars in) this year’s favorite, In the Heights.

Best lighting design went to Donald Holder for South Pacific.

Aside from a spotlight and exposure that the show will gain from having had a performance on the telecast (not that the show needed more - if nothing else, Disney is expert at advertising!), Mermaid gets absolutely nothing from the awards this year, even the pre-Tony recognitions. Then again, they did Part of Your World as their chosen piece - again. I’m pretty sure everyone who wanted to see that song has already seen it. (Sierra Boggess still looks like she has a tail growing out of her butt.)

It’s still a fan favorite and continues to do well at the box office week after week, so I doubt the folks at Disney are breaking their hearts too badly over the lack of recognition.

The first one, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, looked exactly as I imagined it would be, so I was really excited to see the next one made into a movie. Keeping in mind, of course, that I haven’t read the books in a few years, so my thoughts on this next installment of Narnia is based on the movie itself, not the translation of the movie from text to screen.

(And in case you were wondering, yes, there will be spoilers.)

The beginning of this film was really, really thrilling. It was one of those types that starts with action and pretty much doesn’t stop on the way through. We weren’t bombarded by exposition, but on the other hand, we weren’t relieved from tension for most of the movie.

Visually, this movie is as stunning as its predecessor, if not more stunning due to advancements in technology. The characters all looked older, of course, from the previous one, and I’d say more than a year older (given the first one was released in 2005, most definitely more than a year), but movies are all about the willing suspension of disbelief which means that I’ll accept that even though they’re three years older, in the movie the difference is only one year. All of the kids are improved for their increase in age, and little Georgie Henley is going to be quite an adorable girl when she finishes maturing.

In terms of plot, I would have really liked to have had a bit of a break from the tension that just seemed to get to me from the first second of the movie. I’m very sensitive to things like that, so I seemed to spend the whole movie shivering and short of breath.

What I do know of the plot changes from friends who remember that of the book better than I do is that it was changed a bit probably for dramatic purposes. I don’t mind that much because I truly did enjoy the movie and thought it was a very entertaining endeavor. However, for those who will be looking for more than entertainment, particularly those who will be looking for something following closely to the book, this will be a disappointment. Disney did not make an epic and story-wise fantastic movie, but they did make an entertaining movie, and that was immensely enjoyable for me (and for Johnathan, who willingly joined me in my girlish excitement for this new movie).

In terms of gripes, I have but a few. One was that there was contrived romance that simply did not belong in this volume of Narnia. Susan is getting to the age where boys are more interesting, but it seemed out of place and the longing looks that she exchanged with Caspian (as well as the over-dramatic kiss at the end) were unnecessary for both plot enhancement and entertainment purposes. I could easily have done without that.

The other major complaint was how much religious symbolism smacked us in the face throughout the whole movie. I know that’s more or less for the reason that it was prevalent in the novel, though I honestly don’t think it was quite as obvious in the book as it came through in the movie. I don’t mind religious allegory, but I would much rather not be smacked in the face by it every five minutes.

Given that the romance and religion injected into the movie are my biggest complaints, I would say that this is, overall, a good movie. From me… four stars.

4 out of 5 stars

Disney warned us we were going to have a lot of horny women coming on to us. They were also worried about girls. I heard Disneyland had an Esmeralda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. She was very flirtatious, and they finally pulled her because men found her too sexually arousing and were acting out.

You never knew when the casting department was going to come into the park and watch you—they came out of nowhere—or something might end up on YouTube. If a character does something a parent believes is wrong, that’s the video that ends up on YouTube. I was on YouTube after I sat in a lady’s stroller. It’s something I often did, and parents would laugh and take pictures. But management came to me and said, “It looks like you’re sitting down on the job, and we can’t have that.”

I wouldn’t say it was surprising, since Disney has always had very, very strict regulations on ‘keeping the magic alive’, which pretty much told (and trains) cast members never to break the illusion that the characters are real. Also, Disney seems to be policing Youtube, so WATCH OUT FOR THOSE LADIES WITH CAMERA PHONES.

Among other things, the nameless Prince now gets a name (”Dastan”), Farah is now “Tamina”, Jerry Bruckheimer talks about how he’s always discovering new stars (such as NICOLE KIDMAN and KEIRA KNIGHTLEY, DON’T YOU FORGET IT!) and everyone in Persia is white.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to this movie, though. I still think Gyllanhaal’s not the best choice as the Prince, I don’t understand why they decided to change Farah’s name (what, to make it more exotic-sounding?) and… I probably shouldn’t go there with racial representation. Nevertheless, the movie looks really promising, and with Bruckheimer at the helm, I’d suspect it’ll be something like Pirates of the Caribbean, except with less water and more sand.

A small promotional website is where the trail starts. The site is called Buy n Large. It appears to be a company within the canon atmosphere of the Wall-E universe which sells both space condos and robots. These robots are cute little things with names like Sall-E, Wend-E and Gar-E. This site was clearly created for promotion of the movie and is packed with cute little tidbits of non-information dealing with this fictional company. It looks very much like any well-designed corporate website might and I think the Pixar team did a good job in the creation of this as advertising. I’m a sucker for things like this, unnecessary though they may be.

The biggest piece of promotional gobbledegook (and, frankly, the best) is the totally real and functional Wall-E robot. Disney called it the Ultimate Wall-E Robot when it was debuted at Maker Faire 2008 in early May. The Wall-E robot can sense your presence and the presence of surrounding objects which enables him not to run into things, he has sound sensors on multiple sides which can allow him to go toward the voice which speaks to him (or the crash which accidentally happens too near to him, but one can’t be too picky), and he’s a generally functional (toy) version of the robot that we will see in the movie next month. (You can bet I’ll be going on opening day if I can swing it.) I think the best way to display this really awesome robot is through video taken at Maker Faire 2008. Here - don’t hurt yourself with excitement:

I don’t know what Disney was thinking when they put their time and money into this, but I sincerely hope that they think it was worth it. I have a feeling that not many others will.

There isn’t much more that can be said about what is most certainly put into the way of the American movie-goer to make money rather than to entertain. I only hope that this movie precedes John Lasseter, because if he approved this horrifying piece of junk then I fear that Disney may not end up so well off as we had hoped.

“I was getting ready to leave my home in upper Weschester for rehearsal. We’re doing a workshop for Leap of Faith, which is coming in next season, and Tom Schumacher gave me a call from London, saying, ‘Well, you’re nominated!’ I was like, ‘What? Oh, OK. That beats a stick in the eye.’ [Laughs] No, it really brightened my day, and it’s wonderful to get the acknowledgement of my peers. I wasn’t even looking, to be honest. I’ve been prepared for quite a while for the idea of The Little Mermaid not to get any nominations. And to me, The Little Mermaid has already won. It’s an enormous hit at the box office. Audiences love it. Everything I wanted to achieve with it, we’ve achieved, and I’m really thrilled with the show. It’s wonderful to get the acknowledgement of my peers. I’m being inducted into the songwriter Hall of Fame next month, too. So June’ll be a very nice month for me!”

[Source: Broadway.com]

Coming in at only two nominations, The Little Mermaid does not apparently live up in the eyes of over 750 theater professionals. The Little Mermaid was recognized for Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for Theater, which I assumes to mean only the new songs that have been added to the score and Best Lighting Design of a Musical.

Despite her eligibility, Sierra Boggess received no notice of her portrayal of the strong-willed, red-headed teen mermaid.

Does anyone else find it shocking that there were no nominations for things like costume design (wow, heelies!) or acting? Very shocking indeed.

I wonder if Disney yet regrets the decision to close a still profitable show to open one which has come to very little acknowledgment from theater peers.