6 years ago today on June 27, 2008, Pixar released their 9th feature film,
WALL•E. A totally original film,
WALL•E was a huge hit. It made over $223M domestically, making it the 5th highest grossing film of 2008 and the highest grossing animated film of the year, ahead of
Kung Fu Panda,
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!.
WALL•E is Pixar's 10th (out of 14) highest grossing film. It was also a critical success, garnering a 96%
Rotten Tomatoes rating.
WALL•E was released with the short film
Presto. Doug Sweetland made his directorial debut with the short film and to me is one of Pixar's most funny shorts.
WALL•E is one of those rare science-fiction films that is more than just amazing visuals. It has wonderful music (composed by
Thomas Newman),
characters we care about and an engaging story. From the 40 minute dialog-free opening to memorable scenes such as WALL•E looking over a
hibernating EVE, the
Define Dancing scene, and the emotional
ending, it is easy to forget these characters are
robots, and ranks as one of Pixar's finest films.
Some of you may not know that the origins of
WALL•E began back in 1994, during a meeting at the Hidden City Cafe in Pt. Richmond, CA.
WALL•E was the last film produced from the ideas that came out of that meeting, the others including
A Bug's Life,
Monsters, Inc. and
Finding Nemo. Andrew Stanton talks about this meeting in the
teaser trailer for
WALL•E. Many Pixar fans, myself included, have made a trip to the Hidden City Cafe and had one of their great breakfast items like the Hidden City Scramble, or visited with owner Shellie Bourgault. Sadly the cafe closed in 2012 - I
wrote about the closing which I discovered when I tried bringing my wife there while celebrating our 25th anniversary in the San Francisco area! Needless to say, my wife does not have the same, fond memories of the cafe as I do, especially when she discovered the
reasons for the closing.
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