Great interview with WALL•E writer - director Andrew Stanton.

Stanton: They tell you that as a storyteller, it’s vital to just stick with and be honest with your values system. The last thing I want to do is go to a movie and feel like I’m being preached to or being told how to be, and I think it’s more honest—and you’re going to have more effect—to be truthful with the values of your characters, working off of your own values. That was the case with WALL•E. The greatest commandment is to love one another, and to me, that’s the ultimate purpose of living. So that was the perfect goal for the loneliest robot on earth, to learn the greatest commandment, to learn to love.

I cannot wait to see this movie!

Apple and Eve
Revealed: The heroine of Pixar’s new release, Wall-E, was born from an iPod.

“…don’t be surprised to see Eve bots working the counters this summer at an Apple Store near you.”

I cannot wait to go see this movie!!!

“Toy Story” films headed back to theaters in 3-D

The Walt Disney Studios plans to debut digital 3-D versions of Disney-Pixar’s “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2.”

“Toy Story” is slated to open October 2, 2009, followed by “Toy Story 2″ on February 12, 2010. Both films would be released in advance of Disney-Pixar’s “Toy Story 3,” which is being produced as a 3-D motion picture and is slated to open June 18, 2010. Veteran Pixar filmmaker Lee Unkrich (co-director of “Toy Story 2″) is directing the third installment.

As exciting as it was to read that in converting “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2″, the technical team is retrieving all of the original digital elements and rebuilding them in 3-D, I have to say, I’m kinda with Kottke on this one… 3-D has never done anything special for me. Of course, that won’t stop me from taking the entire family to see the third installment when it opens!

I’m a sucker for all the “making of” stuff from Pixar, check these out…

Ratatouille Podcast #7: Cooking Up CG Food

Check out more podcast videos here.

Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner has confirmed to Jessica Reif Cohen of Merrill Lynch that the studio has several sequels in the works to films that Pixar has created for the company. The analyst cautions that such sequels could have an ‘adverse impact’ on Pixar. ‘The unproven writing and graphics quality of Disney’s work with computer-guided-image animation may have an unintentional ‘contagion’ impact since consumers may subconsciously associate these films as Pixar product,’ Reif Cohen said in a report Thursday. ‘In addition, too many releases may fatigue CGI’s scarcity value, which has created consumer intrigue for this ‘event’ animation format.’ Her comments mirror those made by Pixar (and Apple) CEO Steve Jobs. ‘We feel sick about Disney doing sequels because if you look at the quality of their sequels… it’s been pretty embarrassing,’ Jobs said during Pixar’s fourth-quarter earnings call in February.

This sucks. Hopefully enough people will read about how stupid Disney is and boycott and of the lame sequels they put out. Unfortunately… I have kids and will probably be shelling out movie ticket money for Monsters Inc. 2, or Another Finding Nemo as soon as they appear, but I won’t like it, I swear.

Wired 12.06: Welcome to Planet Pixar

Why would I not be working here… *sigh*

The first theatrical trailer for for “The Incredibles,” Pixar’s next major animated film, has been posted online. The trailer, which Pixar and Apple CEO Steve Jobs said would probably be played before ‘Shrek 2′ this summer, can be viewed in small (240×104), medium (320×136), large (480×208), and ‘Incredisize’ (full screen). Interestingly, the ‘Incredisize’ version is only viewable on the iTunes Music Store with iTunes 4.5. The film is scheduled to hit theaters on November 5, 2004.

Could this be another huge hit? We’ll see… I thought “NEMO” was gonna suck after watching the trailer. LOL

“Is this on??…”

*tap tap*

“I mean, I can break through walls… I just can’t… get … this… on”

‘Finding Nemo’ DVD/video sales set new record - Nov. 5, 2003

Animated underwater fish movie ‘Finding Nemo’ took a huge bite out of the home video market with a record 8 million DVD and video sales in its first day at retailers, raising the possibility of shortages, an official with Walt Disney Co. said Wednesday.

“Some of our customers have told us they sold three times what they projected on day one,” he said. “We’re aggressively making as many [copies] as possible, but it is likely that some of our major accounts may go out of stock,” he said.

According to Macworld UK, Pixar has finally moved its Mac and Linux infrastructure of over 1,000 machines to Mac OS X. Automation options in OS X reduced the complications and setup time to just 15 minutes per computer. Pixar chose to wait till key applications required by the company could run on OS X before migrating, and OS 9 will no longer be supported within the company. Pixar’s RenderMan Pro Server, software used to create award-winning films such as Finding Nemo, was recently ported to Mac OS X.