Wall-E

[jjwr]

Has anyone seen this yet? I'm really curious to hear some opinions on it as its something I'm debating seeing very soon.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Not yet but I hope to soon. It looks cute :D

[Jaime Tomahawk]

Why are you debating?????

1) It's Pixar. They have never made even a good movie - they have all been uniformly excellent

2) The critics love it

3) There's hardly been a bad word said about it by audiences

4) That damn robot is soooooooo cute!

Go

[Yog]

Yeah, what is there to debate? This looks as good, if not better than Iron Man. Heck, it has even been speculated it might be candidate for BP nomination. Now, I don't think that will happen, but it speaks volumes of an animated movie. I think this is probably the best Pixar movie so far, and it could be candidate for best ever in the genre.

[Crusader]

I thought the academy created the best Animation Picture Award because they were afraid that one day Pixar might end up dominating the BP award. I still think that the Incredibles should have been at least nominated for BP...

[Rutabaga]

I thought it was one of Pixar's best movies ever, and it is without a doubt a lock for the Best Animated Picture Oscar next year. Who would have thought that one of the most romantic couples at the movies this summer would be a couple of computer-generated robots :hug? And it's also surprisingly deep and emotional for a supposed kids' movie...adults will get a lot of out it for sure.

One side note...after seeing it, I figured that some of the same conservative commentators who accused Happy Feet of pushing global warming information on children would be all over WALL-E for some of the same reasons. Last night online I read that that has definitely happened, that some of the same commentators are attacking it for showing the consequences of Big Business gone wild and people trashing the planet. Some people just have to grow up and relax, for crying out loud :shakefist.

[jjwr]

The only debate is to see it in theatres or wait. Its about a hour drive to a decent theatre so between gas, ticket prices, etc its a $50+ night so I like to make sure :)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Without doubt it's worth it.

Take along your significant other and make a nice night out of it. It's a wonderful date movie :)

[Rutabaga]

It's absolutely worth it. You won't regret it at all.

[Jaime Tomahawk]

The only debate is to see it in theatres or wait. Its about a hour drive to a decent theatre so between gas, ticket prices, etc its a $50+ night so I like to make sure :)

Stop posting and GO.

I'm floored by how wonderful it is. And for the love of God, dont see it alone. Otherwise it's going to completely and utterly break your heart.

Best Pixar have ever done, which means it just has to be one of the best animated movies, full stop.

[Salem Ave]

And for the love of God, dont see it alone. Otherwise it's going to completely and utterly break your heart.

Oh great :(

[CMJ]

I thought the academy created the best Animation Picture Award because they were afraid that one day Pixar might end up dominating the BP award. I still think that the Incredibles should have been at least nominated for BP...

More likely they knew there were quality films that would never be recognized by the full Academy membership.

Despite interest in the fact that it's a silent film for much of its length, I'll probably just rent Wall-E. I've never been a huge Pixar fan. Can't say I dislike any of their films, but I've only really liked about 3 of them.

Yeah, I'm perfect for the Academy.

:p

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I dunno duder. If you've got a nice big setup at home I suppose that's cool, but the visuals in this flick beg to be seen on the big screen.

Not to mention Thomas Newman's score is absolutely gorgeous. After the movie, I went straight to walmart and bought the soundtrack ^_^;

[Jaime Tomahawk]

I thought the academy created the best Animation Picture Award because they were afraid that one day Pixar might end up dominating the BP award. I still think that the Incredibles should have been at least nominated for BP...

More likely they knew there were quality films that would never be recognized by the full Academy membership.

Despite interest in the fact that it's a silent film for much of its length, I'll probably just rent Wall-E. I've never been a huge Pixar fan. Can't say I dislike any of their films, but I've only really liked about 3 of them.

Yeah, I'm perfect for the Academy.

:p

Dude, you really are making an near criminal mistake. Find a big theatre with DLP and dont even think about waiting for rental

[Rutabaga]

The only debate is to see it in theatres or wait. Its about a hour drive to a decent theatre so between gas, ticket prices, etc its a $50+ night so I like to make sure :)

And for the love of God, dont see it alone. Otherwise it's going to completely and utterly break your heart.

I saw it alone, and it did break my heart. That's part of the reason why I liked it so much :hug.

And I agree, it begs to be seen on the big screen.

[CMJ]

Dude, you really are making an near criminal mistake. Find a big theatre with DLP and dont even think about waiting for rental


Don't forget our views on Pixar's track record are quite different.

[Jaime Tomahawk]

Dude, you really are making an near criminal mistake. Find a big theatre with DLP and dont even think about waiting for rental


Don't forget our views on Pixar's track record are quite different.


If you like Chapman's City Lights..... this is every bit as good. The end scene is exactly as remarkable in both. It is also simply put the best love story you will see this year.... maybe for years. Which given it's between two robots is extraordinary.

As a few good critics have said, there is little doubt film students will be studying this film in years to come.

You are making a mistake if you wait for rental.

[Locksmith]

I keep hearing this one is "right up there" with Finding Nemo, and I HATED Finding Nemo. Sorry, folks, I have to go see Hellboy II, Get Smart and a few others before I see Wall-E.

I am failing to find interest in this movie. I don't care what you say, Mark, it looks about as interesting as a ham sandwhich on white bread to me. While Pixar is often good, they have made a few films I just didn't care for. Though how the hell Happy Feet won out over Cars is WAY beyond me...

[Batdude]

Hellboy 2 looks terrible though

[Locksmith]

But it has Hellboy, and is directed by Guillermo Del Toro. I must see it.

And I think it looks fun.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I saw it and loved it, right now I rank it my favorite movie of the year. I loved the romance between Eve and Wall-E.

[Jaime Tomahawk]

I keep hearing this one is "right up there" with Finding Nemo, and I HATED Finding Nemo. Sorry, folks, I have to go see Hellboy II, Get Smart and a few others before I see Wall-E.

I am failing to find interest in this movie. I don't care what you say, Mark, it looks about as interesting as a ham sandwhich on white bread to me. .


Then that's your loss.

[Jedieb]

I took my 3 monsters to see it this afternoon. They loved it and I was floored by it. It's one of the better love stories I've seen in awhile. I wish we would have stayed for the credits though, I've heard they're pretty neat and have an upbeat view of the human race once they return to Earth.

[CMJ]

Easily the best thing Pixar has ever done. I'm stunned how great this was.

[Cat X]

Easily the best thing Pixar has ever done. I'm stunned how great this was.

Do I get "I told you so?" rights? :)

[CMJ]

Do I get "I told you so?" rights? :)

:lol

Honestly this is really only the 3rd Pixar film I've really, really enjoyed. Toy Story and The Incredibles were great achievements, but I've been pretty lukewarm to their other stuff. The much beloved Finding Nemo(made by the same director as Wall-E oddly enough) was especially "meh" for me.

But this...this was almost art.

I could go on and on, but I'm too lazy to really type out my true feelings about this one right now. It'd go on a few pages.

Maybe later.

I've really only loved maybe 3 other animated films this much ever. The two Fantasia's and The Hunchback of Notre Dame(by far their best, most mature in the 90's revival period, and sadly - criminally underappreciated).

Near masterpiece?

[Cat X]

See it again and allow the subtle details to wash over you. There's a ton of little things that make it even better second time around.

[CMJ]

For me, the brilliance of the movie is not so much in the satire or political message—which I consider daring for a "kids' movie". Both of which are great(what a searing indictment of consumerism). Nor is it in the love story per se—which I found to be utterly heartbreaking. But rather in how the story works the audience's emotions and the intellectual implications of the very premise of two robots in love.

I mean that you really have to marvel at how Stanton and co. get the audience to care and feel for a pair of fictional artificial intelligences with non-humanoid, faceless bodies. The robots have a more or less limited sounds and behaviors, all of which are artificial, which intelligent viewers should be able to realize, and yet we somehow buy that these robots "love" each other and "feel" emotion (even though the behavioral indicators of emotion could just be pre-programmed responses to stimuli—such as EVE being "tickled" when the cockroach crawls all over her).

Why they come to love each other is also important and fascinating, and it says something about what love is. If WALL-E and EVE were humans, the former would be a quirky garbageman, and the latter would be a sexy assassin or super-soldier or something uber cool, and we'd probably never buy them as a couple. They would be incredibly mismatched. Yet, because they are robots, and because of the circumstances under which they are presented to us and developed as characters, we find their relationship totally comprehensible and plausible.

What's more, this is one of those rare stories in which sexual attraction is completely absent from the romantic relationship. Sure, WALL-E is impressed with EVE's elegance and style, but these robots have no concept of sex, especially not with each other. Their "love" comes out of a deep attachment to and appreciation of each other, recognition that they are "soul mates" who relieve each other's loneliness and grant each other "humanity" or "soul" by their acts of kindness. And because sex is never an issue, we never think about the physical aspect of their mutual attraction. Again, if these were humans(or even animals), we'd be thinking about it all the time.

To me, that's what Stanton is saying that love really is, beyond any emotional bundles underpinned by our biological urges for procreation and social contact. This message is shown by the recurring image of hand-holding and how much the robots come to desire it: Thus, according to Stanton, love is when you want to reach out and touch someone, and someone reaches back and reciprocates that want. It is the need for a connection and the granting of the connection.

What's also great, in a much broader sense, is how Stanton manipulates and trusts the audience to read romance into WALL-E and EVE's relationship. All the visual and narrative cues, plus how cleverly gender is encoded into these essentially sexless characters, encourage us to recognize a romance, rather than merely a close friendship.

It's very beautiful...and very deep. Almost philisophical....borderline art.

Wonderful.

[Rutabaga]

Superb analysis, CMJ, and I'm glad you took the chance and saw it, and I'm very glad that you loved it as well. As I said in one of my earlier posts, this truly is a very deep and emotionally affecting movie for something that's supposedly geared toward children. I'm not ashamed to tell you that I started crying in the theater when the rebuilt and repaired WALL-E didn't recognize EVE and went back to being an ordinary drone, I kept telling myself that there was no way a Disney movie could end like that. So when his memories finally came back to the surface...ah, pure bliss :hug.

Again, if there is anyone here who hasn't seen it yet, run run run and give yourself a treat. It really does deserve to be seen on the big screen.

[CMJ]

That sequence very much echoes Charlie Chaplan's City Lights(props to Marcus for pointing that out), which even to this day has one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful endings in film history. I challenge anyone not to be moved to tears when the girl recognizes "the little tramp" at the end. I remember watching it in film school and all the guys in class trying to wipe away their tears as the lights came up, so we wouldn't look like wusses. :lol

[Cat X]

Superb analysis, CMJ, and I'm glad you took the chance and saw it, and I'm very glad that you loved it as well. As I said in one of my earlier posts, this truly is a very deep and emotionally affecting movie for something that's supposedly geared toward children. I'm not ashamed to tell you that I started crying in the theater when the rebuilt and repaired WALL-E didn't recognize EVE and went back to being an ordinary drone, I kept telling myself that there was no way a Disney movie could end like that. So when his memories finally came back to the surface...ah, pure bliss :hug.

Again, if there is anyone here who hasn't seen it yet, run run run and give yourself a treat. It really does deserve to be seen on the big screen.

If they had ended the movie at that point, there would be suicides in the theater. While you do admire ending that don't cater for Hollywood style endings, That would have been just outright mean. That would have devestated audiences and been truly unfair. Wall-E just simply deserved to get EVE and you wanted Wall-E to have the chance to hold chance. Anything else.... Oh I dont want to think about that!

But in the end I think the happy ending wasnt just right, it worked brilliantly. It was the right thing to do and the way it was executed was perfect. It's very much in the nature of City Lights in that it ends on a similar note in a similar manner. Hell, I'm as cynical as they come and I was in tears. However the sheer incredible part of the final scene is that this is not two humans. This was two ROBOTS they did this with. This whole movie was a set up to this moment and it delivered an emotional king hit in how perfectly it was done.

That's why I love this movie so much. It built and built and built, then in one moment, gave a huge payoff that hit you emotionally.

Did anyone notice the final shot of Wall-E, Eve and the robots at Wall-E's container looked rather like a wedding?

Everyone MUST see this movie more than once too because there's some subtle detail that you notice second time around that makes it all worth it again. And even if you know what to expect, the emotional roller coaster STILL works.

[CMJ]

Oh, and as an aside - Stanton must have a special, special fondness for Hello Dolly. I wonder if it has some significance in his marriage or something. I mean I know it's famous and all, but I woulda thought of about a dozen musicals to reference instead.

[Jedi Master Carr]

great analysis CMJ. I agree with you about the romance. About Hello Dolly, I thought I read somewhere that one of the songs fit the movie perfectly for some reason and he decided to use the clips in the movie. I still bet the movie must be important to him in some way like you said. I also liked how the political message is very subtle in the film. Reminding us what could happen if we aren't careful but it does giving an uplifting message that we can make a difference. It isn't a Welleian view of the world which is pessimistic and no hope but there is hope.

[Droo]

Great film but absolutely overhyped in my opinion. It's not that good. Personally, I enjoyed Finding Nemo more. There. I had to get that off my chest since there's been far too much hyperbole flying around about this film. I didn't get my hopes up too high and wasn't disappointed as a result, I was thoroughly entertained from start to finish and this was another one of those special Pixar features which was a joy to behold. I can't very well ask for more than that but come on: this film was no more the Second Coming than Iron Man; they were both great but in fairness, Iron Man eats Wall-E's dust simply because it turns into Transformers in the third act.

That aside, every scene with WALL-E and EVE charmed the socks off me. The whole human element while mildly interesting and entertaining, was a little lost on me. I see where the morals of this film are and its heart is in the right place but without a doubt the real humanity in the film comes from the robots and their relationship, and as has already been said here, this is an impressive feat on behalf of the writers and animators. All in all, WALL-E deserves glowing reviews but there's glowing and then there's gushing, and while that's rich coming from me, I just didn't think it was all that.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Well, as an artist and an animation student, I'm proud of my gushing :)

[CMJ]

That's fine Droog. I'd probably rate Finding Nemo in the bottom third of Pixar's efforts, and since it's one of their most beloved tales I can relate to a Pixar gushing being a real WTF.

[Hartus Kenobi]

Very very cool movie. Would be an awesome date movie.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Awwwwww :love It was adorable.

[Darth McBain]

I saw it a few days ago and thought it was very good, though perhaps a little over-hyped, though.

Let's see, the good:

I loved the satire in Buy and Large, as well as what has become of humans. Its sad, but true - are we that far from that today?!?!?

I loved the love story between Eve and Wall-E. I thought it was very well done. And the ending, where Wall-E didn't remember - superb. I was hoping for an ending where he just didn't remember, but as it was a kids movie, they had to have him remember at the end.

The animation was absolutely top-notch. I was very impressed with that.


What didn't work all that well for me:

The whole plotline in which probes were sent back to Earth to inspect the climate for habitability didn't work for me as it was very implausible. If humans were interested in going back to Earth, then one would assume they had learned from the mistakes of the past and would go about it in a more efficient and consciencous way. Instead, they travelled who-knows-how-many zillions of miles, wasting tons of resources and spewing more and more pollution, just to drop a probe off, and then make another trip to pick it up. Then they transport a plant who-knows-how-many zillions of miles back into space - which would almost undoubtedly kill it. One could argue that there's satire in that as well - that humans haven't changed and are still intent on screwing up the world, but to me, it seemed more like an implausible plothole.


All in all, a very good movie, great for kids and adults alike, though I think it was a little heavy-handed in getting its message across, and I think it was overhyped.