BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE!
STUDIO: Warner Home Video
MSRP: $36.99
RATED: Not rated
RUNNING TIME: 917 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Green Arrow: Legend of the Emerald Archer
• Smallville: Big Fans
• Smallville Legends: The Oliver Queen Chronicles
• The Making of Smallville Legends: The Oliver Queen Chronicles
• Smallville Legends: Justice & Doom

The Pitch

Tom Welling, Kristin Kreuk, Michael Rosenbaum, Allison Mack, Erica Durance, Annette O’Toole, John Glover.

The George Romero-directed episode was definitely a change of pace for the show…

The Nutshell

…as was the one directed by Wes Craven…

The Lowdown

For most of the past few seasons of Smallville, I’ve seen how it can turn off the majority of fanboys, who refuse to accept the retconning of the Superman mythos, especially when it’s done by a super-angsty teen soap drama on one of the lesser watched networks. I’ve done a couple of reviews on this show already (here and here) and laid it all out there as to why I enjoy watching it, despite its many perceived failings, which include love triangles that drag on and on, the one-note kryptonite freak-of-the-week villain premise, and Tom Welling’s perceived lack of depth as the Teen of Steel which, after the steaming pile of ass that was The Fog, I can understand. Regardless of those many points, still I tune into this show week after week simply because I’ll generally watch anything Superman-related. Yet upon slogging through Season 6 of Smallville, I’m not so quick to jump to the defense of the show anymore. I still begrudgingly like it, and I’ll still watch every episode of this upcoming season, which I bet to be the last, but after 22 episodes last season of Clark-Lana-Lex, I’ve been smacked over the head with the realization that this show has got to end…and I’ve got to get counseling for sitting through it all.

There were three overall story arcs going on in Season 6: The Clark-Lana-Lex love triangle reaching an all-time level of schmaltz, Clark having to chase down phantoms – disembodied alien criminals that he set free when he escaped from the Phantom Zone – and the emergence of a Clearasil-set Justice League in the form of Green Arrow and previous superheroes introduced in earlier seasons: Aquaman, Cyborg, and The Flash. Leave us first touch upon the latter two story elements before diving headfirst into the empty pool that is the super love triangle, shall we? When we left our hero at the end of Season 5, Lex had been possessed by the phantom of Zod, everyone’s favorite Kryptonian supervillain. Zod banished Clark to the Phantom Zone and had set earth in chaos via and alien virus which disrupted the planet’s computer infrastructure in preparation for Zod’s rule over the planet. Oh and by the way, Lana willingly went to Lex after Clark broke her heart for the 357,000th time.

That Dominos Pizza delivery guy was about to learn the hard way that Green Arrow took that "30 minutes or less" very seriously…

Later “Zoners” that Clark has to track down include some plant creature bitch in “Wither,” Baern, a radiation-wielding alien who embodies rapper Bow Wow of all people and can project beams of radiation that can kill even a fully-powered Kryptonian, which he proves by icing Raya, who had also escaped to help Clark. Then there was Titan (WWE’s Kane), a super-strong alien who likes to moonlight with some ultimate fighting in “Combat”; and Aldar (WWE’s Batista) who feeds on the bones of his victims in “Static”. In “Labyrinth”, Clark finds himself in another reality where he is a mental patient who only thinks he’s a super powered alien hero, thanks to another phantom who entered his mind. Only the appearance of Martian Manhunter allows Clark to defeat this Zoner. As a quick aside, this alternate reality mental institute storyline has been done in too many shows such as Buffy and Stargate: Atlantis, so it’s only natural that Smallville would eventually scam on it. The final phantom is revealed in the season finale, “Phantom”, and when it takes a piece of DNA from Clark, it turns into Bizarro.

"Now that you’ve got the kneeling before Zod part down, you will service Zod…and yes that is prison lingo…"

One by-product of all of the Zoner incursions on polite society is that it fuels Lex’s ultimate project called 33.1, in which he seeks to use super-powered people, be they meteor freaks or Zoners, to create a super powered army. His prototype is a former soldier (Battlestar Galactica’s Tahmoh Penikett) killed in Afghanistan that Clark has to defeat in the episode “Prototype.” When Oliver Queen (Justin Hartley) shows up, and the mysterious Green Arrow also arrives, Clark discovers they’re the same guy and they become clandestine allies against Lex. Project 33.1 is also what directly leads to the formation of Green Arrow’s Justice League. In the meantime, Arrow is filling Lois’ quiver with his arrow on the side.

Finally, the last major story element is the ever-evolving love triangle. Basically it goes like this: Lana leaves Clark because Clark can’t tell her his secret; Lana ends up with Lex and falls in love with him, even though she still loves Clark; this eventually leads to marriage, which Clark tries to stop; Lana learns Clark’s secret on her own, and is going to leave Lex until Lionel Luthor forces her to marry him or he’ll kill Clark; so Lana does the deed and gets pregnant with Lex’s baby…or does she; Lana finds out most of Lex’s dark secrets and plans to leave him; meanwhile Clark and Lex repeatedly clash over Lana; and when things come to a head in the season finale, Lana is killed in a car explosion…or is she? And that’s the short version. This thing just became a morass this season and you’d need at least a dozen showers to wash it all off of you. And meanwhile, Chloe is discovered to be a meteor freak as well, although she’s never displayed any abilities until late this season. Her power is finally revealed in the finale and Chloe may be dead…or is she? Lot of stuff happening in that final episode, admittedly.

The show continues to look good in widescreen and it’s always got nice looking special effects. There are several special features scattered throughout the discs including deleted scenes for various episodes. There are also several featurettes including Green Arrow: Legend of the Emerald Archer, which chronicles the supergero through his many incarnations and how he came to be included in Smallville. Smallville: Big Fans deals with all the scary people who stand in line for hours, or craft their lives around the show. Pretty much like Trekkies only without the cachet. Smallville Legends: The Oliver Queen Chronicles is a fairly embarrassing computer animation telling of Green Arrow’s origins, and The Making of Smallville Legends: The Oliver Queen Chronicles is pretty much self explanatory. Finally, Smallville Legends: Justice & Doom is an animated comic book tying into the storyline for Season 6. And it goes at a pace that you need to take speed reading classes to follow it.

"Hey uh, Clark, that fireball’s getting a little close."
"Forget about it and keep walking in slow-mo, this is the money shot…"

BUY FROM AMAZON: CLICK HERE!
STUDIO: New Line
MSRP: $19.99
RATED: NR
RUNNING TIME: 88 Minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Audio Commentary w/Director Peter O’Fallon & writers David Goyer & Geoff Johns
• “Turning Blade” Documentary

“Blade sinks his teeth into the small silver screen and it bites.”

The Humans

Blade: Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones, Euro trash Vampires: Jill Wagner, Neil Jackson, David Palffy, Randy Quaid: Drunken Exposition, Annoying Asian Sidekick: Nelson Lee

The night Hendrix went went over the top.

The Nutshell

Blade sets up shop in yet another abandoned warehouse in Detroit to take on the House of Chthon, the oddly named exclusive vampire club that specialize in doing nonsensical villainous acts like selling vampire ash like crack cocaine, picking up hookers to feed to monstrous half-breeds who dangle from ceilings like bats, bagging up freshly turned vampires in plastic wrap and hooking them up to IV’s for seemingly no reason, and finally, gentrification. Yes, that’s right. Turns out the vampires are concerned with some of the old decrepit buildings in Detroit and plan on investing in them to bring back the glory of the good ole’ days, when Henry Ford (who would probably eventually be revealed as one of the original vampires later in the series, or some such BS) was rolling out model T’s faster than it takes to suck the blood out of a boring, repetitive franchise like this one. This was the pilot episode for the Blade TV show on Spike and I guess some of these odd questions would be cleared up if I watched the show. Why they’re packing this as a new movie rather then putting all 12 episodes together is a dubious move to say the least.

"They usually give me a full bottle for crap movies like this, but I guess these few drops will have to do."

The Lowdown

Whenever I give one of my friends crap for not liking a good movie, he counters with, “You own Blade on DVD.” Yes, I do own Blade on DVD. I enjoy that first movie very much. It’s a ton of fun and an excellent example of a comic adapted into film correctly. I knew this the moment Wesley Snipes first killed a vampire, turned to the camera, made a tough guy face and thrust his black-leather clad fist up high, winking at the audience and letting us know what we were in for. I know a lot of people prefer the gruesome sequel, but despite some nice atmosphere courteously of Guillermo Del Toro, I couldn’t get into it. Maybe it was the CGI/WWE vampire wrestling fights.

Naturally, by the third movie (the one with Jessica Biel and her vampire-killing i-pod) I had enough. The series had become repetitive and boring. The subtext in the original Blade movie is one that questions social class and American excess. The bloody rave, the Euro trash vampires with their board meetings and techno music, and Blade, the black guy they all aim to be like but secretly hate. There’s some interesting stuff going on along with the bloodletting, but someone needs to find a big freakin’ tampon, because David Goyer is bleeding this series of any sense of originality and fun.

From half of the writers of the Royal Tenenbaums. This fall, Owen Willson IS: Custer IN: My Knees Are Wounded But I’m Not Dead.

But hey, maybe a TV format would give the show new life. What would it be like following Blade week to week? Would it feature different villains, or the same kind of Euro trash vampires who quest for world domination despite the fact that they seemingly already have it? Will Blade develop a sense of humor? Will anything happen that I wouldn’t expect? I was hesitant, but held out hope that the show might approach the familiar subject matter in a new light.

What’s new? Well, besides a horrible acting turn from Sticky Fingaz (still love the video for Slam though, Sticky…’let the boys be boys!’), Blade’s still fighting crime from the same kinds of hell holes as before and is still instructing some technophile to do all his work for him. Without the outsider charisma of Snipes pulling the weight of this film, Blade is just a downright unlikable character. This time, he even comes off as a bit of a dick to the villains, teasing them about letting them go before ripping their throats out. Come on Blade! I know you’re a badass, but damn!

We also have an Iraq war vet (I think, the flashback was a little fuzzy) coming home to avenge the murder of her brother by the vampires (they shoot him in the head. Are these guys’ vampires or the NYPD?). Krista Starr (no relation to Ringo, I hope) teams up with Blade to solve the mystery but quickly gets her ass munched and turns into a vampire too. But don’t worry, Blade gives her some of his liquid Drano in a syringe and then she’s a good crime-fighting vampire now. Lots of people mention the house of Chthon but I’m still wondering how many times they had to ask how to pronounce it during shooting. And even though the “movie” is subtitled “House of Chthon,” I’ll be damned if I know what the hell it is or means! Randy Quaid shows up to give the Kris Kristofferson exposition. Hookers get ripped into like a bag of Doritos at a frat party. People get kicked or punched and fly to the other side of the room with wire-fu (the fight scenes here are like vampire ballet). CGI blood gets spilled. The director shoots inside an apartment because a train goes by the window and he likes the way it looks. This is what you get from Blade: House of Chthon. It sucks.

Humpty was good in the sack, but was a little too into PDA’s for Troy’s tastes, and crotch grabbing him in the middle of the playground just went too far.

The Package

The cover screams UNRATED and HEY, WE’RE SHOWING YOU STUFF THAT WAS TOO GRAPHIC FOR SPIKE TV! AND THAT’S THE NETWORK THAT SHOWS UFC AND STAR TREK RERUNS, SO YOU KNOW YOU’RE IN FOR SOME SERIOUS SHIT! But in reality, all we get is a tit shot and some more CG blood. Yawn. The extras are awfully self-congratulatory (“look at how well we converted this to television!”) and the director and writers (including the borderline intolerable Goyer) come off as rather bland and simple (listen to O’Fallon brim with excitement whenever he talks about how an actor adlibbed a sub par line!)

2.3 out of 10

HOW ‘SMALLVILLE’ GOT ITS BRANIAC BACK

James ‘Spike’ Marsters, who recently celebrated his forty-fifth birthday, will return to the set of the CW’s Smallville, reports E’s Kristin. Marsters is set to reprise his role as Dr. Milton Fine/Braniac on the superhero drama that used to be the shame of comic geeks everywhere…that is, until Heroes started up. It’s not yet revealed by the CW in what context Braniac will return, but when he does…I’m betting he has an agenda! Marsters will also appear in a recurring role as a detective on Without a Trace this season. Aw, look — he’s playing his age. Isn’t that sweet? Smallville began its seventh and rumored to be final season last Thursday at 8 on the CW.

(This title brought to you by every other columnist who thought of it first.) George Michael, late of Wham!, will guest star in several episodes of the latest show from Greg Berlani, Eli Stone. That’s the one about the lawyer played by Jonny Lee Miller who begins to have visions and comes to realize that he may in fact be a prophet — you know, like in Angels in America, only…not. According to Magic Michael Ausilleo of TV Guide, Michael will play himself in one of Stone’s visions — singing "Faith." Michael will also attempt to act in a future episode of Stone, where he will play Stone’s guardianang…I’m sorry, guys. I totally forgot. I left the Obvious-Mobile running outside and I’ve got to go get it.

I must confess that The Mist is one of the Stephen King stories I’ve read at least three times but remember only scattered bits of. I must also admit that I plan not to revisit it until after I see Frank Darabont’s vision of it.

BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE
STUDIO: Lionsgate
MSRP: $19.98
RATED: R
RUNNING TIME: 95 Minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Making of ‘Cujo’

The Pitch

Demon Dog Defiles Damsel in Distress! Damaged Datsun Daubed with Doggy Drool!

The Humans

Dee Wallace, Danny Pintauro, Daniel Hugh Kelly, Christopher Stone, Ed Lauter, Billy Jayne

Claude seduced his women by serenading them with the smooth, cool sounds of John Sousa.

The Nutshell

On the surface, the Trentons seem like an ideal family: Little Taddie is cute and precocious, papa Vic is a successful Advertising Exec, and mother Donna recently starred in E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. But all is not well in the Trenton household! Donna’s having an affair, Vic might lose his business, and little Tad thinks that his closet is a den of evil. Their fears and insecurities cause a rift in the family, which ends up separating Vic from Donna and Tad as they travel to the Maine countryside for auto repairs at a backwoods auto shop. Unfortunately for Tad and Donna, the mechanic isn’t around to help them when they arrive. Even more unfortunately for Tad and Donna, the mechanic’s hulking, rabid, demonically possessed Saint Bernard named Cujo is around to help them when they arrive. What follows is a horrific days-long siege, forcing mother and child to face a real, physical manifestation of fear. As it turns out, facing a rabid hellbeast is way scarier than the thought of losing your job.

George took flak from his golfing buddies for perming both his head hair and his chest hair, but he didn’t care. That’s just how George rolls.

The Lowdown

Earlier this year, the CHUBB insurance group commissioned a formal ranking of the major Stephen King film adaptations, the results of which are displayed in Figure 1:

Fig 1:  I like graphs.

As you can see, early adaptations were much more quality-consistent. In the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s, a King adaptation typically meant at least an above average film, and it usually meant a great horror film, but as we move further along into the mid to late ‘90’s, we see both high peaks (Shawshank) and devastating valleys (Sleepwalkers), and the less said about The Tommyknockers, the better.

Thankfully, CHUBB’s assessment of Cujo is right on the money. It’s a solid, well-made example of why early King adaptations were consistently entertaining. It begins as a slow-burning family drama- we witness the fracturing of the Trentons, and how consumed they are by their fears and insecurities; Vic becomes consumed with his concerns over financial ruin, Donna becomes consumed by an extramarital affair, and Tad is consumed by his childhood fears. These mostly irrational fears are nicely contrasted with the real fear of getting actually consumed by a monster, and they set the stage nicely for the standoff between man and beast. Since it’s nearly an hour before Donna and Tad get besieged by Cujo, it’s a good thing that this half of the film works, since character setup is crucial for creating tension and making us care about Donna and her family. Dee Wallace does great work as the guilty wife, and Danny Pintauro is incredibly believable as the Trenton child. It seems like good child actors are always a rare find, so Pintauro’s success goes a long way to show either how hard they must have worked to cast that character, or how much better the kiddie-acting-pool was in the early ’80’s. The late Christopher Stone plays the villain of the first act, and is both charming and menacing as Donna’s jilted lover. It’s always great to see the grim, stone-faced Ed Lauter, who plays the drunken, wife-suppressing, ill-fated owner of Cujo. Although he’s one of Cujo’s first snacks, his presence adds a palpably dirty texture to the first act. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Moe the Saint Bernard, whose great work throughout Cujo makes Beethoven look like a pile of dung.  He’s the real star of the film, and although there were nine other dogs playing the Cujo role, I’ve singled out Moe as my favorite.

The character-building first act leads nicely into the second, where we find Donna and Tad trapped in their car and facing down an enormous, ravenous dog. At this point, the film shifts from family drama to intimate, claustrophobic nightmare-siege. Prior to the siege, Cujo’s first two kills are nearly comical- Cujo attacks his owner and his owner’s drinking buddy, but Cujo is still so damn cute that it’s almost hard to take the danger seriously. Sure, he’s got some whipped egg white on his jowls and some yellow goo dripping from his eyes, but he’s such an adorable dog that it’s difficult to generate any fear since we know he’s probably wagging his tail and lapping his “victims’” faces between takes. There’s a big transition between these kills and his siege of the Trenton car, though. By the time he encounters the Trentons, he’s covered in blood, his eyes are red and infected, and his fur is crusted with dirt and slime. The editors, makeup artists, and trainers did a spectacular job of bringing the evil out of a sweet, mild-mannered Saint Bernard, and it really shows during this last act. They used a man-in-suit for some of Cujo’s more violent scenes, but it’s not too easy to spot. Not enough can be said for the way the trainers and dogs were able to convince me of Cujo’s insane desperation to end lives.

Unfortunately, there are a few things that don’t work well. While the last act is a wonderful payoff, some subplots could have easily been trimmed. We spend a good deal of time dealing with Vic’s work troubles, which prove ancillary to the film. It’s important that we know how much he’s worried about being able to support his family, but we spend far too much time hearing him talk to his family and his coworkers about a disastrous ad campaign that threatens to end his career. We really get into the minutiae of Vic’s job issues, which could have easily been omitted since they don’t really factor into the Donna/Tad/Cujo relationship. It doesn’t help that Vic has a full-on 1981 man-perm, but what can you do. Also, like I mentioned earlier, Cujo is almost too cute to be menacing, especially before the car siege. While the dog does amazing work, there are moments where you just want to leap into the scene, hose the poor critter down, and give him a hug.

The other thing that bugged me wasn’t so much an ‘issue’ as it was an observation of child behavior. When Cujo terrorizes the Trentons, Danny Pintauro’s Tad shrieks so realistically that I couldn’t figure out which would be more irritating: getting mauled by Cujo, or being stuck in a car with a screaming child. Maybe it just means that I’m not ready to be a Dad yet, because if I were Donna, I’d want to punt this little screambag out the window and run the other way. Childsqueal turns my blood to ice.

In all, the 25^th anniversary Cujo is worth a buy for any King fan. Cujo gets a great, Jaws-y tuba theme, and the rest of the score is dated but effective. The cast is uniformly solid, and the dog is phenomenal. The film makes me want to own a Saint Bernard, even if it means being trapped in a car for the weekend.

Almost weekly, T.J. would get ‘lost’ in Willie Nelson’s backyard.  Some suspected that it was intentional.

The Package

The transfer’s great, but the DD monaural audio track requires some tweaking. I wish they’d put more effort into the audio. We get a very decent ‘Making Of’ documentary, the most interesting part being the “Dog Days” section where we learn the various ways trainers and filmmakers brought the dog to life onscreen. The cover art is reminiscent of the book’s first edition, and features a drooling set of canine choppers. Gross! I love it.

8 out of 10

I was computer-less for three days last week. For the first time in a long time. Being unable to write was very strange, and somewhat freeing. I was forced to realize how Cronenberg-bound I am to technology. But I was never without the internet. Cause I have it on my phone. Sometimes I marvel at the world we live in but as Chris Onstead said recently about how quickly we as a culture are absorbing new technologies that “you could print “PAST THE POINT OF REFLECTION’ on millions of terrycloth headbands, air-drop them over high school graduations, baseball games, Olive Gardens, and traffic jams, and have yourself a tidy little situation.”

More Sunday. I hope.

Remember Rogue? You know, the Croc movie that rushed Primeval into theaters last spring? The Rogue that’s been floating around waiting for a US release date as it’s punted from slot to slot, the latest being from October to indefinitely?

Since most films suffering from this kind of turmoil smell like turds from miles away, does Rogue fall into the same category? I dunno- but director Greg McLean doesn’t think so– so go ahead and reference his film to previous animals gone wild movies, but if you EVEN compare his upcoming croc film to anything like, say…. Anacondas, he’ll go straight Aussie on your ass: "Most movies end up being poor versions of "Jaws" to some degree, whether it’s stalking the creature or the animal has gone wild. "Anacondas" – I really hate that film…a lot. And when people say, Oh, "Rogue" is like "Anacondas" except with a crocodile, I want to fuckin’ kill ’em. I kinda enjoy them all, the really bad ones and the really good ones, but what you hope is that they don’t relate your film to "Anacondas." Or that other croc movie Primeval. Cuz Rogue is horror and Primeval ain’t.*

Whether anyone sees it any time soon, or whether it’s terrible, right now it mattereth not because I love the poster (you know, minus the awful "terrortory" pun). Sure, it’s got a ton of inspiration from Jaws and Piranha and, well, Jaws— but it’s creepy and thrilling and beautiful and sets a mood right off the bat. Human in water at night? Check. Flashlight futilely trying to pierce the darkness? Check. Crocodile rising from the gloom about to ruin baby-making paraphernalia? Check.

View it all bigger-like here and then feel free to invent your own drinking game as to when it might actually see theaters.

*Interview here.

EA announced this week that their Redwood studios (The Godfather, The Lord of the Rings Collection) has been developing an original 3rd person sci-fi/horror game. The game will be called Dead Space, and will ship in late 2008 for the XBox 360, PS3, and PC.

Set in the cold blackness of deep space, the atmosphere is soaked with a feeling of tension, dread and sheer terror. In Dead Space, players step into the role of engineer Isaac Clarke – an ordinary man on a seemingly routine mission to fix the communications systems aboard a deep space mining ship. It is not long before Isaac awakes to a living nightmare when he learns that the ship’s crew has been ravaged by a vicious alien infestation. He must fight through the dead silence and darkness of deep space to stay alive.

Well, it’s probably not the most original plot ever, but we’ll see what they do with it. And, as Executive Producer Glen Schofield comments:“This team has worked on some tremendous properties but we have always wanted to work on something that was darker and creepier. We are all such huge fans of the horror and sci-fi genres; we wanted to create the most terrifying game we could, and keep the player on the edge of his seat the entire time.”

Can’t blame them for that! They’ve worked on a lot of movie properties and managed to make pretty damn decent games out of them, so let’s hope they can transfer that magic to an original game. Based on the few screenshots and the creepy site, they’re well on their way. A few shots were leaked this week to Games Radar, one of which is the shot on top…check their page out for the rest.

Also make sure to check out www.deadspacegame.com, There’s not much up at the site just yet, but check it out for some creepy imagery, join their mailing list and read the forums. While you’re there make sure to click on the body on the first screen! Creepy.

I knew that queer-ass Sweep the Leg, Johnny video was going to have some sort of effect on the world at large, like a YouTube-spawned version of Grant Morrison’s theories of pop magick. Sure enough, there’s word that a remake of The Karate Kid is in the works, and since they’ve already done the story with a weenie kid and a butchy girl, they’re taking the franchise to a new frontier: negroes.

The new Karate Kid may also be skewing younger than the last two iterations, since it might star none other than Jaden Smith, the son of Will Smith, who IGN has learned may be producing this remake. Jaden’s clocking in at 9 these days, and how adorable do you think he’s going to look in that little karate outfit? So adorable! He has a face even Xenu could love.

It’s been a few months since Ratatouille arrived and drifted lazily downstream, managing expectations while plucking dollar bills off what’s left of the money trees lining the River Pixar. Funny thing is, $203 million domestic ain’t bad by anyone’s standards, but it’s being stacked against the likes of Pixar’s 1999-2004 successes including the $339 million domestic take of Finding Nemo. Sorry.

Apparently Pixar’s sorry too, as rumor has it they blame Disney’s hack marketers for landing Ratatouille in last place on the Pixar cash-maker pile. In the mean time Disney rolls its eyes and waits to see if Pixar’s upcoming Wall-E (June, 2008) does any better under Pixar’s not-hack marketing guidance. Ah, corporate mergers. Phenomenal.

Territorial spats aside, the Wall-E marketing push is warming up, with a wistful poster that feels a lot like Short Circuit and text that feels even more like emotional manipulation, which always works for Disney/Pixar in-film, but strikes me as trying a little too hard to cross the Uncanny Valley in this poster. Still, the image is a great one and speaks for itself, but you decide.

In the mean time, Wall-E‘s new trailer arrives Monday (October 1), invariably showing off how Pixar continues to refine and innovate their animation style. Hopefully. Ratatouille’s detail and artistry left me gobsmacked and I’m kind of hoping for the same here, because robots and outer space are always cooler than carrots, soup and rats.

On Tuesday, you can view the trailer here at 7pm Eastern. All you folks with accents across the Atlantic, you’ll be looking at October 2 at 12:00 am GMT.