Robot dialogue coach?!?! How do I get that job?

In case anyone who's never been here before doesn't know it, I - like many people in the world - am simply a sucker for Pixar movies, so be warned you're gonna hear a whole lot about "Wall-E" here this week until and possibly after I get to see it, probably Saturday morning.

Sunday's Arts & Leisure section of the New York Times had a very interesting interview with "Wall-E" director Andrew Stanton, which you can still read here. Why in the world it didn't make the cover I'll never know, but people who make a lot more money than I do make those decisions.

Here are some of the highlights:

* Although I've seen a figure of $120 million listed, the Times article pegs the cost of "Wall-E" at $180 million, which must include marketing and various costs. No matter how you add it up, though, that's a lot of cheese for a relatively silent movie about robot love.

* Stanton, ever the film geek at heart, says he drew on films from science fiction’s golden age - “1968 to ’81” he said. The second half or so of "Wall-E" promised to be an epicly fun space journey, and I just can't wait to see it.

* And, in my favorite nugget of all, Stanton answers the question: What do you do when you need robot dialogue for a flick with very little of the human variety? Well, you get the guy who did the dialogue for R2D2 in "Star Wars" (and less excitingly, E.T. too), Ben Burtt. Stanton said he wrote a conventional script — “Hi, I’m Wall-E” — and Mr. Burtt essentially translated the dialogue into robot, something he calls “audio puppeteering.” How in the world can I get that job?

The headline of the article itself sums up the big storyline for "Wall-E": "Pixar Gambles on a Robot in Love." Following up "the rat movie" (my favorite movie of all of 2007, of course, "Ratatouille") with this endearing oddity may be a bit of a "gamble," but here's hoping the Disney-owned Pixar continues to take chances.

One thing I found surprising in the NYT article was that "the rat movie" actually made substantially more worldwide than "Cars," definitely not one of my favorite Pixar flicks. Here are the Box Office Mojo numbers:

“Finding Nemo”: $340 million domestic, $865 total.
"The Incredibles": $261 million domestic, $631 total.
"Cars": $244 million domestic, $462 million total.
"Ratatouille": $206 million domestic, $621 million total.

None of those numbers, of course, would show a studio that's really hurting in anyway, and I suspect that by the time you add in worldwide numbers for "Wall-E" it will be back around "Nemo" territory. Judging from the response of all the tots who laughed throughout the "Wall-E" trailer that preceded "Kung Fu Panda," the kids are certainly ready to embrace the little robot, and I am too. Peace out.