Venice Film Festival 2009 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement awarded to John Lasseter and Disney-Pixar Directors

Yesterday was a day of glory for Pixar as the 66th Venice Film Festival 2009 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was awarded to John Lasseter and Disney-Pixar directors.

Exceptionally in the history of the Venice Film Festival, the award celebrates not only a single filmmaker, but also the contribution of all the directors of Pixar visionary studio.



The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement - assigned by the Board of Directors of the Venice Biennale following the proposal from the Festival Director, Marco Müller - was presented to John Lasseter at a special ceremony in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema at Venice Lido in the presence of Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich.

But everything began with a grand entrance with red carpet and inflatable "Pixar" archs and lot of balloons. On the pictures you will notice Georges Lucas who was there to present the award to John Lasseter and Pixar Film directors.

Why Georges Lucas you ask? Well, it's time to remember that it's him who, a long time ago, created the animation studio which was bought by Steve Jobs and became the incredible Pixar Studio that we know. It is Georges who will present in a few minutes the award to John Lasseter and Pixar directors.















Here are videos shoot on the red carpet. First John Lasseter...




Then Andrew stanton...




Here is Georges Lucas...




Then it was time for some pictures at the photo call...







John also signed some autographs to Pixar fans who were there for this memorable event.



Some of them came with their own painting of Pixar characters.



During the ceremony Georges Lucas did a speech before presenting to John Lasseter and Pixar directors Lee Unkrich, Andrew Stanton,Brad Bird and Pete Docter the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement award. in his speech, Georges said "I think Walt would be very proud that these are the guys carrying on the family business".







John Lasseter declared in his acceptance speech: "Our goal has always been simple: to entertain our audience around the world. That’s something the studio has surely achieved so it’s no surprise that the talented team was chosen to receive this "tremendous honor."







After the Golden Lion award ceremony, it was time for a great screening of a few minutes of Toy Story 3 in 3D! Toy Story and Toy Story 2 also have their world premiere in 3D at the Venice Film Festival. Lucky Venitians!







Thanks to leave a comment or discuss this article on D&M english forum on Mice Chat

All pictures: copyright Getty Images

Video: copyright BiennaleChannel

A quite Icy Wall-E

WALL-E did pretty well in Japan - currently the box office is $44 M - and they love so much Pixar's robot that they even did a ice sculpture of it, as you will see on these pictures shot by Rika Toriumi near a hotel swimming pool at Okinawa.




And, talking about robot, the japanese - as usual - have released what is probablly the smaller remote-controlled robot in the world, as you will see on the video below!



Pictures: copyright Rika Toriumi

WALL-E won Best Animated Film Academy Award !

Yes! WALL-E won tonight the Best Animated Film of the Year Academy Award and the Oscar goes to Andrew Stanton and all Pixar animators, and, of course, WALL-E!



Disney and more send its best congratulations to Andrew Stanton and all Pixar animators who worked on this gorgeous animated movie. I personally loved it, so of course i am very happy that WALL-E won the academy-award!

Mmmmh, i think WALL-E is a little bit surprised by his new friend...



Here is Andrew Stanton receiving the Award last night.



Here is a video of Andrew Stanton backstage sending his best thanks.



And here is another video of Andrew Stanton backstage - as well as the winner of the short animated academy award - with Jack Black and Jennifer Aniston after he received the Oscar.



To celebrate this Award you can open a bottle of champagne or stay with WALL-E and have some fun with the WALL-E Pinball on the official website. Just like a real Pinball, with animated effects when the ball hit Eve or the Rocket !

AND for those of you who didn't succeed to watch the Oscar last night and Hugh Jackman fantastic ceremony opening, here is the video!



Pictures: copyright Disney-Pixar

Wall-E windows now on the Disney Store at Champs-Elysées, Paris

Those of you who don't live in France may not know it, but the Disney Store on the Champs-Elysées avenue in Paris , known as the "most beautiful avenue in the world" - which is a bit exagerated - is one of the best seller Disney Store in the world.

And, as the movie is released July 30 in France, they've changed their windows yesterday with a new Wall-E theming. Inside the window of the corner a real-size animated Wall-E - not a Audio-animatronic, don't dream - and all the other windows are themed on the film, including a real size Eve. Inside, the store, of course, plenty of Wall-E merchandise. Here are the pictures, sorry for the inevitable reflections in the glass.









All photos: copyright Disney and more

Wall-E meet the IPhone 3G - Exclusive Video

Yesterday July 11 was the day of the awaited release of the Iphone 3G. To salute this event, here is a short home made video showing you what happen when you connect your Iphone - or an IPod or any MP3 player - to the "IDance Wall-E" toy on sale in any Disney Store or at DisneyShopping.com.

All you have to do is to connect your Iphone or Ipod to Wall-E with the cable provided inside the IDance Wall-E box. Then, choose a song, play it and you will hear the music through the Wall-E inbuilt speaker. And if you push on a button on Wall-E's back, he will begin to dance, too! Have a look to the video below!

Pre-order your "Ultimate Wall-E" robot on Disney Shopping now !

It is now possible to pre-order on Disneyshopping.com the awaited 18" high "Ultimate Wall-E" robot. However, the price on Disney Shopping is $250 instead than $189 as it was announced previously by the manufacturer.



Features include:

* With the original voice from the hit movie, WALL•E can chat with you. He can also dance, play music from your MP3 player (cable included), follow you around, or explore on his own. His programmable infrared remote control lets you create more than 1000 action sequence combinations!
* His eyes light up and blink with the expressions you loved in the film
* Designed with advanced technology, Ultimate WALL•E has audio, motion and obstacle sensors
* WALL•E will turn his head towards a sound and respond thanks to 4 audio sensors that give him 360-degree sound detection.
* 4 motion sensors, 3 in the front and 1 in the back, allow WALL•E to detect motion and trigger his curiosity
* Obstacle sensors enable WALL•E to detect obstacles in his path to avoid collisions
* WALL•E's arms move up and down, hands grip and rotate 360 degrees and his body tilts forward and backward plus he has real working treads
* Play modes include Follow-U mode, Explore mode, Dance mode, MP3 Music mode and Program mode plus he has an interactive Talk Back feature
* Innovative remote control allows WALL•E to be played with using Touch Pad control, dual joy sticks or any of the 16 function buttons for voice, lights, sound effects, music, expressions, special programs and more!

Include in the box:

* Ultimate WALL•E
* Infrared remote control
* MP3 Backpack and connection cable
* 7.2V rechargeable battery pack and charger
* Instruction guide

Size: 18'' H x 15 1/2'' W x 13'' D

Finally, i remember you that Disney Shopping takes only pre-order - the item is supposed to be ship not before mid-october!

New WALL-E vignette "Cups"

Don't miss below this new and may be last short Wall-E video "Cups", one of the best from the vignette series.

New Wall-E " Cities " trailer and " Lots of Bots " featurette !

We are at 10 days of the U.S release of Wall-E, and Pixar is offering us a new trailer called " Cities ". You can watch it below, and the editing of this one is full of action !




Now for the part two: in this new Wall-E featurette " Lots of Bots " director Andrew stanton is this time talking about the wall-E robots, and as usual, it worth the look.




Photo and videos: copyright Disney-Pixar

Wall-E " Pixar goes to space age " New Featurette

And one more Wall-E featurette, one! On this one, you'll see how Andrew Stanton and his Pixar team succeed to create the space age future of Wall-E !



And one more for the road - very short, but fun - with this "Wall-E meets a camera" vignette.



videos: copyright Disney-Pixar

Wall-E " A Space Journey In Sound " New Featurette

When you're doing a movie about robots in the future, you surely need a good sound designer. And for Wall-E, Andrew Stanton choose the best one: Ben Burtt.

Who is Ben Burtt you ask? Well, first, Ben is four times academy award winner - four! - and his most memorable work includes creating the "voice" of robot R2-D2 in the Star Wars films, as well as various sound effects like the lightsaber, the heavy breathing sound of Darth Vader (by recording his own breathing in an old Dacor scuba regulator), and the speederbike chase sounds from Return of the Jedi...

So, you see, Ben is really the right man at the right place for all the Wall-E sounds, and Ben will explain you more in this very interesting featurette below!




Video: copyright Disney-Pixar

What are you doing the next 700 years ?

The Wall-E poster above is the french version of the movie poster, and the "hook" phrase - if this is the right english word - is: "Tu fais quoi les 700 prochaines annees" that we can translate by: "What are you doing the next 700 years ?".

The movie will be released in France at the end of July, so the french will have to wait one more month!

You can find the image in high-res HERE

Photo: copyright Disney-Pixar

A full 3.20 minutes scene from Wall-E .... and more !

It's a special Wall-E today with two new videos, and one of them is a 3.20 minutes long clip from the movie! No need to say that watching a long sequence like this one can be full of spoilers...however, i took the risk to watch it, and what i can say is that it definitely spoil the sequence, of course - because you saw it, but it don't spoil at all the whole movie.

Let' begin first with an appetizer with this other new short clip - not from the movie so no spoilers here- Wall-E meeting a fire hydrant.




And now, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, here is the real thing, a full sequence of 3.20 minutes of Wall-E ! Watch it at your own risk!




Not enough? There is more about Wall-E on Disney Movie Surfers HERE and specially this other one HERE whith a talk with director Andrew Stanton and lot of images from the movie never seen before. And, warning, spoilers ahead, too!

Videos: copyright Disney-Pixar

Wall-E : "Meet the characters" new Video !

A new video was released by Disney introducing the Wall-E main characters. As usual, it is supposed to be the Buy N' Large company - the fictitious company manufacturing the robots in the "future" - that introduce them.

Here is the video below, and it's great!



Photo and youtube video: copyright Disney

Less than 23 days to wait before...

,,,The highly-awaited release of Wall-E in the USA. And to keep you waiting, here is two new high-res pictures released by the WDC. Double-click on the one above to see how it looks gorgeous.

So, ready to pack your bag and get in the line - just like Wall-E below?



More new images to discover on the /Film.com web site HERE

By the way, let's not forget the short animated "Presto" with a new image released on Anne Thompson's Variety blog.



I have a very very good feeling about this short, i think these five minutes are going to be reeeeally funny!

And so let's end with the new Presto poster designed like the old magician posters of early last century



All photos: copyright Pixar