What To Watch This Summer: Wall-E

My inner nerd is thrilled at the prospect of Pixar’s upcoming movie “Wall-E.”
Rich Greenfield, an analyst with Pali Capital who is typically very
stingy with praise is waxing eloquent about the movie after watching
the preview. In a note to his clients this morning, he writes:

…Investors have been wary of Wall-E’s box
office potential given Pixar’s risky bet on an offbeat main
character, who rarely speaks during the film. Nonetheless, the film
substantially exceeded our expectations and was well-received by the
audience.

We believe Pixar hit the mark, delivering a very rich story in
Wall-E. We see the film appealing to younger children who will be drawn
to the quirky but extremely loveable characters (especially Wall-E).

The love story between the two main characters and the presence of a
solid female character (Wall-E’s love interest, Eve) should also
appeal to girls of all ages. Finally, we believe the film will resonate
well with older audiences who will find much to like in Wall-E’s
character and antics, the love story and the film’s other
messages (e.g. the environment).

Our only concern: There is somewhat less action and the pacing is somewhat more measured.

Looks like this could be Steve Jobs’ other big summer
blockbuster hit. Sure he doesn’t run Pixar anymore, but he owns a
big portion of Disney. Greenfield expects the movie to make $550 to
$600 million (or more) at the box office worldwide, and says it
“should be a solid contributor to Disney’s DVD sales in FY
Q1 2009.”

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