Big Screen – Walt Disney Pictures / Pixar Animation Panel Live Blog

Time for the Disney Panel. Let’s see what Mickey has in store for us!

Lunch is over and the Indigo2 for the Disney panel which has already shown us Muppets and Marvel. We’re hoping for the footage from Brave, and perhaps some John Carter…

Real Steel and The Odd Life of Timothy Green are featuring heavily.

Let’s see…

Real Steel is up first – we spoke to Shaun Levy yesterday and Dave saw the film. Review and Interview are coming up on the site.

There’s some new footage coming up and Shaun Levy is now on stage. Hello Shaun.

SL: The goal was to make a badass robot boxing movie – but in 2011 you need to make more. Make a spectacle but it’s more of a sports movie than a robot movie.

Chariots of Fire and Rocky are mentioned as influences.

There’s a new clip coming up – I’ve not seen the film so I’ll be letting you know what it’s like seeing it for the first time…

It’s an underground fight scene…

Oh, there’s another clip after it. The hunt for new robot parts.

We’ll get a sense of the father/son stuff as well…

Looking like Transformers meets the WWE. It’s loud…

Hugh Jackman and his recently reunited son are flanked their robot Noisy Boy.
now they’re going to hit each other….

Raging Bot gets going and the FX look very solid. The father son relationship is clearly a huge part of the film and things aren’t looking good for Jackman’s shiny Transformer.

The crowd enjoyed the fight scene and fears that relating to a robot fighter isn’t a problem as most of the time the camera was on Jackman and his on screen son.

Now there’s a new scene which is all about the human element. This is the near future and the design is pretty impressive, though the ‘saving the relationship through robots’ element was just given a very literal representation.

This looks to be a true Disney film. Dysfunctional families and smart kids and gruff Dads – sweeping music as they come to realise their feelings and responsibilities. Each teaching the other about the world. I doubt there’ll be many surprises but the fight looks well shot and fun. And Loud. It’s very loud.

The crowd, incidentally, loved that footage.

This is pretty cool – Shaun Levy is back on stage and he’s asking a question to the crowd for the chance to win a pair of tickets to the premiere here.

Richard Matheson who wrote the story also wrote a Twilight Zone episode around it – who starred in it…

No-one knows.

Oh wait… Lee Marvin. But the person googled it.

SL is now talking about the film.

We;ve seen robots, but this is about HJ and his redemption as a father. He’s been on his own for a long time, and HJ is a likeable guy – but he has an unlikable edge here. He never alienates the audience.

SL: The idea from Matheson was originally about a society that wants to spare humans – so robot box. But here the idea is that people aren’t interested in boxing so Robot boxing is all about giving the people who want more, something beyond.

SL: We built the robots – 4 of them we built for real. It’s a real animatronic robot.

Ok – that’s it for Real Steel. Let’s see what Disney have got in store next…

John Carter time…

Andrew Stanton is about to say hi. New footage coming up!

Andrew Stanton is onscreen introducing the footage – the fist clip is JC arriving on Mars – realising his power.

Then JC will meet the Tharks. We’ve seen a little of it before.

Then there’s a trial scene with JC and a thank he has befriended.

Here goes…

Hidden structure – finds a window – see dozens of hatching eggs. In the distance ride the Tharks – in escaping them he jumps high into the air. The attack is called off when it biomes clear JC is something very alien on this world. The thark looks a little like a betusked Alan Ruck. The CG looks as polished as you’d expect. The creature design is not derivative.

The second clip looks very similar to the Attack of the Clones gladiator scene with a wooly Rancor type with a pig face facing off against JC and I’m guessing the Thark who helped him in the previous clip…

The teaser is now playing.

When I saw the teaser I thought nothing of it, now seeing the clips out of context it looks a little less Stargate of Persia and more of its own design. The CG and character work is impressive. A lot will be asked of Taylor Kitsch in this one.

The world of John Carter is not a million miles away from what we’ve seen before. Looks more promising than the teaser.

Oooo – War Horse footage. This is another world exclusive.

Steven Spielberg says Hi to Empire and then we’re into a War horse featurette.

SS: It’s an emotional story and a historical story. The glimpses of wat footage are typically sweeping. Guns and horses being dragged through the trenches. Stunning. So much movement and power on screen. The family torn apart with the war and the journey beyond that is what SS promoted.

The shots we saw showed off the contrast inherent in the story – the small farm house and the bond between the boy and his horse, then the riding across the horizon silhouetted against the setting sun and then to war. If anyone can wrench the heart of emotion it’s Spielberg and a non-human character in a family situation. Though this is far more than Saving Private E.T.

We’re hoping that the War Horse footage is up online pretty soon. When it does we’ll have it on the site.

Trailer montage time now… beginning with MUPPETS!

All things we’ve seen – The Muppets, The Help. The Avengers.

And continuing the theme – The Lion King. In 3D – the trouble is that the glasses aren’t working and I doubt many people would have seen it.

Now – Brave is up. It’s a shame that the first look of TLK 3D and this look at Brave isn’t easy to see given the 3D glasses situation.

But Disney’s line up is looking pretty impressive with a promising new look at John Carter.

That’s the last of the Studios panel. Muppets at 3 and then a Potter Tour panel.