This one's a little heartwarming, folks, especially if you're predisposed (as I am) to admiring pretty much everything about the Pixar company.

Last fall, a young woman named Courtney saw the WALL-E teaser -- the one where Andrew Stanton talks about the meeting in 1994 where the story was first conceived -- and was reduced to a puddle of tears by its adorableness. Seems she has a soft spot for robots, and in particular for lonely, child-like, wide-eyed robots. So she videoed herself watching the trailer on her computer, knowing it would have the same effect on her again, and then she posted the video on her blog and on YouTube. (We've got it here after the jump.)

The video made its way around the Internets, as these things do, and Courtney began to get e-mails from people within the Pixar family who had seen it and appreciated her enthusiasm. Then one of the film's producers sent her a Pixar jacket as a Christmas gift, along with a note thanking her for the video.

And then they invited her to the film's wrap party in San Francisco.

The media is playing two pointless games of "gotcha" with Pixar's wonderful Wall-E at the moment. Eric Kohn addressed the first -- conservative critics griping about the film's "left-wing" message -- over here. The other, best articulated in this post by CHUD's Devin Faraci and this mind-boggling missive from the New York Post's Kyle Smith, but also showing up in Todd McCarthy's Variety review, is that Wall-E's supposed anti-consumerist bent is "hypocrisy" on account of it's released by Disney. I think that's a stupid and dishonest argument, and here's why.

In its latter half, Wall-E presents a vision of the future in which humanity is fat, lazy, basically immobile but for their hoverchairs, and in thrall to a mega-corporation called Buy 'N Large that tells everyone what to do, what to think, and what to buy. The rest of the film is dedicated to Wall-E, EVE, and the spaceship Axiom's human population defying the corporation and returning back to Earth to recolonize. This is disingenuous, the thinking goes, because the Disney empire bears more than a few similarities to Buy 'N Large and, in fact, cynically counts on unthinking, overweight masses, to see its movies, buy its merchandise, and ride the rides at Disney World.

What you'll notice from the folks making this argument is a coy ambiguity about who exactly is being hypocritical here. If the claim is that Disney is being hypocritical by releasing Wall-E, then that may well be right -- but it's also not surprising, newsworthy, or even worth mentioning. Is anyone really shocked that a large, profit-seeking corporation is being opportunistic and ideologically inconsistent? Where is all the outrage about Disney flicks that push the individuality and non-conformism message, when the Walt Disney Company is dependent on a herd mentality among its consumers?

A couple of people have been griping about Wall-E director Andrew Stanton's refusal to admit that his cute little movie about a robot in love actually contains some pretty upfront green politics, but there's a far more polarizing reference in the film than its harmless pro-environment agenda. It's no major plot spoiler to reveal that, about an hour or so into the story, Fred Willard appears in a recorded message as the mysterious president of Earth's corporate government and orders the ship's captain (Jeff Garlin) to "stay the course." Wait, we've heard this one before: It was the go-to statement used by the Bush administration for about three years or so when describing its modus operandi in Iraq (the term was abandoned when staying the course started to sound like a bad idea). In Wall-E, the context is quite different -- it's an order to not do something, rather than take action -- but hard to ignore nonetheless.

Certain critics with (surprise!) conservative slants have taken issue with this. At Dirty Harry's Place, John Nolte expresses his disappointment in the first paragraph of his review: "Have we lost the wonderful studio who brought us The Incredibles and Ratatouille to Bush Derangement Syndrome?" he asks. New York Post critic Kyle Smith picked up the rant and decided to write his own, even though he hadn't seen the film yet: "This kind of crack, lame as it is, also breaks the spell of the movie by hurling you out of the theater and back into reality."

" ... and some Hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
He meets some fragments huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place."

-- Horace Smith, Ozymandias

WALL-E, from Pixar studios, shows us a ruined city, centuries from now, where a single (and singular) robot toils to cube trash and, it seems, will never lack for work. WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter (Earth-Class)), a two-treaded solitary worker robot, spends his days cubing trash and his nights shut in safe from the cataclysmic garbage-gales that sweep the planet, inside a repair truck he's filled with things that have fascinated him; garden gnomes, butane lighters, a copy of Hello, Dolly! And in WALL-E's nearly-silent opening minutes, we get a sense of the world he lives in. Everything is ruined; there are no signs of life but for cockroaches; the only voices you hear come when the motion-activated Buy 'n' Large holo-billboards go off. WALL-E strips his broken-down brethren for parts and recharges by the sun's rays and stacks trash-cubes to imitate the skyscrapers decaying all around him, garbage as a pale reflection of glory.

It is a long way from an official green light, but here is a confirmation of sorts -- Andrew Stanton is writing John Carter of Mars. According to The Pixar Blog, Stanton confirmed it as his next project. However, no further details were forthcoming so we still don't know if it is live action, animation, or some computerized combination. However, he did mention in the same press conference that he has "caught the bug" for live-action filmmaking.

Nor do we know if Stanton intends on adapting the first book, Princess of Mars, or if it will be some combination of many. As rumors have pegged John Carter as the franchise to eventually replace Narnia, I will venture a guess to say he's working on Princess. Plus it has a sexy title.

Now, I seem to be the only geek online who has not read Edgar Rice Burroughs' sci-fi extravaganza, so forgive my uneducated opinion -- but, from what I know of the series (thanks, Wikipedia), I genuinely hope it is live action. The world needs a glorious sci-fi opera, in all its pulpy glory, and it would be an interesting foray for Pixar. Plus, an animated John Carter just strikes me as a foray into the Uncanny Valley.

As Pixar and Stanton can do no wrong by me, I'm officially intrigued. I hope fans of the books chime in as to whether it ought to be live action or CG. And if your pick is live action, I'd love to know who you want to see as the dark-haired, gray-eyed immortal. I want to know who to picture when I (eventually) read the books.

Every time I watch a Wall·E trailer, I weep. I don't know what it is. He's just so cute, and innocent, so very E.T. that my heart just breaks when I hear his "WallEEEE" voice.

And now there is a new one out. For the first few minutes, I thought the newswire was mistaken, but this is the Wall·E Trailer to end all trailers. The last one (which Empire now says is the international version) ended with him meeting EVE and taking that first leap into outer space.

Now, you'll see what lies beyond. And there's robots galore! Watch it here, in glorious Quicktime. I cannot wait. I know I said The Dark Knight will be the movie of the summer -- and I'm pretty psyched for it. But Wall·E is like every 80's movie I ever loved wrapped into one -- and expanded. I think it's going to be my favorite film of 2008.

Wall·E is released June 27, 2008. I predict I'll have the toy sitting on my desk by the 28th.

Disney/Pixar has sent us a new image from this summer's WALL-E (click on the photo for a larger version), due out in theaters on June 27. WALL-E is the latest film from those wizards over at Pixar, and it follows a lonely robot in the year 2700 who spends his days doing what he was made for (cleaning up trash, etc). However, he will soon discover what he was meant for. Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) directs the flick, which, honestly, looks like the cutest friggin' thing ever. Each and every time I see a photo or a trailer for WALL-E, I have an urge to reach out and hug the thing. I can't believe we're only two months away from summer already -- is it just me, or is time flying?

Thoughts on WALL-E? Do you think it will be better than Ratatouille?

If you saw the first Wall-E teaser trailer, you won't be missing anything by not watching the new trailer. At least, you won't miss anything that will be in the actual movie. However, the new teaser features a fresh sequence involving Wall-E's interaction with the Pixar logo. It's cute, it's funny and it makes you want to give hugs to a lamp and a robot, which is pretty silly but nonetheless the undeniable case. I've always had a thing for retooled logos involving the movie it accompanies (for example Ralph Wiggum singing along to the 20th Century Fox fanfare before The Simpsons Movie), and I've always had a thing for that little Pixar lamp ever since I saw that first animated short, and so obviously I absolutely love this clip. The rest of the trailer, well, that's kinda boring, but only because we've pretty much already seen it before.

Sure, the title character of Wall-E looks like a cross between E.T. and Johnny 5, but who cares? I don't know about you, but I love E.T., and Johnny 5 is also pretty cool when Ally Sheedy isn't around. So, what's the problem? Personally, I'm really looking forward to this next Pixar movie, especially after reading that director Andrew Stanton considers it to be like "R2-D2: The Movie," because it doesn't really feature any dialogue. Basically it's going to be a beautiful, computer-animated silent film. Despite my intense hatred for Cars, I have faith that Pixar will keep on producing brilliant family entertainment, and when Wall-E opens next summer, you can bet I'll be seeing it. Am I really the only who can't wait? It sure feels that way.

Its still Saturday and I'm still in the spacious and oddly cold Hall H. I have to say that in all my years coming to the Con I have never had the experience of being cold. Walking from the hotel to the Con, waiting in line at the bathroom, to wondering the exhibit hall, I've usually been hot, sometimes sweaty, but never cold. New one on me and a trend I don't mind continuing. I don't like being hot.

Anyway, this time around I'm in Hall H or the Disney / Pixar presentation where they are going to talk about two of their biggest upcoming projects. No, its not another Pirate's film. Instead, the folks from the Mouse house are here to showcase The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and a Pixar film called Wall E.

Regarding Narnia, Kevin already let you know one of the big announcements from today. But in case you didn't see it or don't feel like clicking, I'll tell you again. Disney and Walden Media announced they intend to make all seven books of the Chronicles as films and release one each May for your viewing pleasure. So, if you're a fan of the books and films that's gotta be pretty great news. That announcement, although pretty exciting, didn't come at the beginning of the presentation, so let's back up and start there.

First up was some of the creative team from the film, including effects supervisor Richard Taylor from WETA Workshop and creature effects creator Howard Berger. They were also joined, via satellite from Prague, by director Andrew Adamson, who proclaimed "Welcome back to Narnia" and Prince Caspian himself, actor Ben Barnes. Then, it was on to a clip showing a pre-viz animatic from the movie.

With Ratatouille set to hit theaters on June 29, the latest issue of Time Magazine provides some info on the next three Pixar films for you fanatics who aren't in the mood to wait to see what the animation studio has in store for us down the line. Dark Horizons managed to get a hold of the vague plot descriptions, but the most interesting part came in the announcement of a brand new Pixar flick for 2009; one we hadn't heard anything about until now. First up for Pixar will be Wall * E (to be released on June 27, 2008) and, according to DH, it's being described "as a space-set remake of a 1931 Charlie Chaplin film about a blind girl wooed by a tramp she mistakenly believes is a rich man." However, this film will be set in the year 2700 and, instead of humans, the main characters will be a robot named Wall * E and a female robot named Eve. Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) will write and direct, with Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt voicing the main roles electronically.

On June 12, 2009, Pixar will shovel out a film called Up. I'm not quite sure I follow the plot description, but here's what DH gives us: "A 'coming-of-old-age' story which follows an elderly man who befriends a clueless young Wilderness Ranger and gets into lots of globe-hopping, ass-kicking adventures with villains and beasts whilst still eating dinner in the early afternoon." Make of that what you will; I'll be curious to see how well this one does with an elderly man in the main role. Following Up, Toy Story 3 will hit theaters at some point during the summer of 2010. Lee Unkrich (co-director of Toy Story 2 and Finding Nemo) is currently writing the story, so there's no word on what type of adventure Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz (Tim Allen) will find themselves on this time, but I have to imagine folks will anticipate this one the most. Here's hoping the geniuses at Pixar take a real close look at the failures of some of this summer's threequels so that Toy Story 3 doesn't disappoint. Fingers crossed.