Disneypunk

Some concept art has been released for a supposed steampunk-style Mickey Mouse Wii game in development, tentatively titled "Epic Mickey". It's pretty wild:

Eat your kingdom heart out, Kingdom Hearts.

[via Joystiq]

Filling The Void

Well, it looks like Pushing Daisies is officially dead. And no amount of magic touching will bring it back. Once again one of television's best and brightest gems is being tossed into the trash heap of history.

I've compiled a list of possible replacements for the coveted post-Lost time slot. May they fare better...

1. Hospital Town
Two young surgeons, John and Jane, fight for dominance in the E.R. One of them is cute, the other one sexy - but they're all professional. When they're not having sex at every opportunity, that is.

2. Police People
Tempers flare at an inner city police precinct when it's discovered that recent recruit, Stanley, is bi-curious. The rugged, and often sexy, chief of police will have to battle his inner bigot after Stanley saves his life from Somali pirates.

3. Law Firm
Holy shit! Court rooms!

4. Reality Contest
Watch ten assholes you would never associate with in public humiliate themselves again and again for the chance to appear in next week's episode. Snakes!

5. Validation
Our charming host tells the viewing audience how smart and kind they are, for forty-five minutes.

6. Loster
No one gives a shit what's on after Lost anyway, right? So why not more Lost? In each episode of Loster you get to see the events of the preceding episode of Lost...through the perspective of Jacob, the surly cabin spirit. Hint: he doesn't know what the hell is happening either.

Wall-E

Congratulations, Pixar, on your ninth consecutive successful movie! Walt Disney Studios never even had that kind of run in its golden age.

Wall-E is a fantastic movie. The best they've done since The Incredibles. The story is incredibly simple: a robot left behind on Earth to clean up our mess, spends his free time collecting odd trinkets of humanity and watching Hello Dolly on his video iPod. One day a brand new sleek & sexy robot (EVE) shows up, Wall-E is smitten and adventure ensues.

The first half of Wall-E is a brilliant silent movie. There is a tremendous amount of story and characterization conveyed without any dialogue. Wall-E is endearing from the very first moment you see him, and only becomes more so as the film progresses.

It's almost a disappointment when the story takes Wall-E into space. If the movie had solely been about Wall-E's isolation, and then his reaction to a new friend, that would have been enough for me. Those scenes were so well done.

But the movie actually does develop a plot about EVE's mission to discover plant life on Earth, and what happens when the remains of humanity (Pixar's vision of our future is not pretty) decide to return to a home they left over 700 years before.

The animation is amazing as usual. There are some breathtaking settings, from Earth's towers of compressed trash cubes (Wall-E's legacy) to the reaches of outer space. The character animation is arguably better in this movie than any they've done yet, but it would have to be since all of the main characters can only interact through body language. The soundtrack is one of Thomas Newman's best scores, and as a bonus, contains a brand new song by Peter Gabriel (glee!).

Also worth mentioning is the new Pixar short animation shown before the movie. Presto is part Pixar, part Looney Tunes. It's about a magician trying to perform, and being upstaged by his rabbit who just wants a carrot. The rabbit thwarts the magician with the use of two magic hats. They act as portals to each other, which leads to a series of very original and hilarious gags. It's my favorite Pixar short since Geri's Game, which played in front of A Bug's Life.