Informed Art - Comic-Con Revealed

The new costume design for Prince Caspian unraveled for the fans.

Saturday at the Con was the fullest day of the event. Disney panel came at the midday point and was one of the best of the show, especially for new information. The panel begun with The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Weta’s Richard Taylor moderated the panel, which included producer Mark Johnson, costume designer Isis Mussenden, creature supervisor Howard Berger and visual effects supervisor Dean Wright. Director Andrew Adamson addressed the audience via satellite from Prague with Prince Caspian, himself, Ben Barnes. Adamson shared with the audience the first footage ever shown to anyone outside the production. The production is a larger scale than the original, featuring more battles and more variation in the creatures. Adamson also shared previz footage of one of the battle sequence that features griffins carrying the children into battle at a castle. Berger treated the audience with an animatronic creature head and Mussenden showed off an example of the new costumers for the film’s new warriors.

Disney then present the most news filled panel of the entire event. Director Andrew Stanton shared the plot for the first time. The set up is that in the future Earth is consumed with trash, forcing all humans to eventually leave the planet. One Wall*E robot is left behind and continues to do his work until one day he decides to explore instead. Eventually, he ends up in space finding one of the space cruisers with the descendants of the surviving humans, who have evolved into huge immovable masses, because robots now do everything for them. As for the robots they don’t speak any real language outside of sound effects. Sound designer Ben Burtt came on stage and shared with the audience a live demo of the new sounds being developed for the various characters. In addition to Wall*E, there is the elite probe droid (and love interested), Eve, whose sleek white design is best described as an iRobot. M*O is another square robot, which stands for molecule obliterator, who cleans the new spaceliner where the humans live. Auto is an autopilot, who looks like a robotic ship’s wheel that gives out electronic sounds based on ships. Other treats for the fans were a montage of concept art and an extended scene from the movie. Wall*E comes off as a combination of the personalities of R2-D2 and E.T. with the look of Number 5 from Short Circuit. The realistic look of the film with its unusual lead character make this a truly original venture for Pixar, who continue to push the boundaries of animation.

From Rick’s view