Now that Andrew Stanton's WALL-E is in theatres, the gang in Emeryville is looking ahead to the future.
WALL-E for Best Picture?
For the second year in a row, a Pixar movie is getting stellar reviews. Last year, it was Ratatouille, which nailed a stunning 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and ended up the most highly rated movie released that year. In comparison, 2007's Best Picture winner, No Country for Old Men, received a 95% rating.
Now that WALL-E has received similar critical cheese (97% at last tally), the question now becomes: why doesn't the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognize Pixar's achievements and give one of their films a Best Picture nomination, or even (gasp) the Oscar?
It's simple. Most industry professionals feel AMPAS would sooner hand a Best Director statue to Uwe Boll rather than see an animated film take the top award on Oscar night. After all, AMPAS started contemplating a separate category after Disney's Beauty and the Beast received a Best Picture nomination back in 1992.
The unofficial rules for Best Picture are clear: no comedies, nothing outrageous (the Best Original Screenplay winner is AMPAS' way of saying "This would be Best Picture . . . if we owned a pair") and no animation. And so, for the second year in a row, the Academy will have its head shoved so far up its collective posterior that it won't recognize the best film produced this year might be animated.
Michael Giacchino scores Up
According to Upcoming Film Scores, Michael Giacchino is scoring Pixar's next flick, 2009's Up, starring Ed Asner and John Ratzenberger (natch). Giacchino also composed the music for 2004's The Incredibles and 2007's Ratatouille. Pete Docter (Monsters Inc.) and scribe Bob Peterson are co-directing the flick, which has been touted as a modern-day Don Quixote.
Up makes its debut on May 29, 2009.
Paul Newman in Cars 2?
Surprisingly, Pixar has decided to franchise what many felt was one of its weakest films: Cars.
Cars 2, which bows in 2012, takes Lightning McQueen, Mater, Doc Hudson and the Radiator Springs gang on a European road trip. The rest of the details have so far been shrouded in mystery, and even that synopsis may change without notice.
The big question is whether or not acting legend Paul Newman will reprise his role as Doc Hudson. The 83-year-old actor officially retired in 2006, and recent reports claimed he was battling lung cancer.
“Well, you know, (Newman's) character is coming back,” Lasseter told MTV News. “He’s a good friend of mine, and so we’re just waiting to see.”
Lasseter also had some stern words for those who thought that Cars 2 was greenlit because of the massive merchandising profits the original flick enjoyed.
“If you look at Toy Story 2, which is one of the stories I’m most proud of in all the pantheon of Pixar films, it’s the same thing with Cars 2. We’ve come up with a great, great story line,” Lasseter says. “It’s a film I directed and created, and I’m so proud of these characters. The impact of these characters have made in families all over the world is really great. That’s why I make these films, to truly entertain an audience. So to revisit these characters, Mater and Lighting McQueen, and all the folks at Radiator Springs, I’m real excited to do that.”
Unfortunately for Lasseter, the analogy doesn't quite hold true. Toy Story was a genuinely groundbreaking flick, and the fact that the studio managed to make a sequel that was superior to the original went a long way in putting Pixar on top of the CGI heap.
On the other hand, Cars was a B-level effort from a studio that usually cranks out A-level material; it had a "complete the contract" vibe that carried over into its hackneyed "young hotshot learns important life lessons" theme.
While still a decent movie, Cars is widely considered the weakest flick Pixar produced to date. While Lasseter and Pixar have the potential to pull out a smokin' sequel, the Emeryville gang is going to really need to step up its game if it wants to wash the bad taste of the original from moviegoers' mouths.
What do you think of a Cars 2? Yay or nay? Let us know below.
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
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