PLOT: The year is 2700. WALL•E, a robot, spends every day doing what he was made for. But soon, he will discover that he was made to do more.
THE GOOD: Animation. WALL•E is a gorgeous film. Definitely the best animation work that Pixar has done yet. The polluted Earth was incredibly detailed (did you see Micky?), space never looked more beautiful, and on board the Axiom brought back memories of the factory in Monsters, Inc. The scenes with no dialogue were extensive and many and I am pleased to say that they were very fun to watch. To me, it's like watching old Micky Mouse cartoons before the cute little guy found that voice of his. I was able to watch WALL•E move and interact with everything and know exactly what he was thinking or saying.
Main character development. WALL•E and EVE are very interesting characters. Watching WALL•E go through his daily routine of work was very entertaining. Watching EVE's personality go from your typical robot to a more open and free being was a joy.
Story. The story is engaging and incredibly entertaining. I loved watching WALL•E's journey from his everyday job to trying to save the human race. Fantastically creative and thoughtful.
Romance. I didn't think that I would buy the whole robots falling in love thing, but the way Andrew Stanton presented it was just captivating. Deep down, that's all the movie is really about.
THE BAD: Secondary character development. I'm mainly talking about the humans and the malfunctioning robots here. I think the movie quickly turned from being about WALL•E to being about the humans. They had a really good thing going for them before boarding the Axiom. And at first I liked the use of live-action material, but thought it was used a little too much. The commercial for the Axiom was cool, but all of the Hello, Dolly stuff and the stuff with Fred Willard was too far. They ended up going back to that stuff way too many times, and instead of the pay-off being a sweet reminder, it just felt like getting hit over the head again and again.
Antagonist. Who is the protagonist? That's easy, it's WALL•E. Who is the antagonist? Well... hmmm... that's a little harder. *breaks through the smoke and fog* Oh... big corporations. It's not that I want one corporation to take over the world, or that I think one company can run the entire nation properly. I just don't like how that was the antagonist. I think it was pretty weak.
THE END: I built up my expectations so high and am so pleased that WALL•E exceeded them. The message behind the film is outweighed by the romantic story. Todd McCarthy of Variety said that the message was presented with a lightness of touch that granted the viewer the ability to accept or ignore the message. I agree. They could have really overdone it with the environmentalism and consumerism and I'm glad that the film had an optimistic ending. Besides, isn't it a bit silly for a Disney film to be anti-consumerist? I don't think WALL•E is my favorite Pixar film, but it's definitely in the top three (possible future list?). Go watch... nay, go experience this film today!
DISCUSS: What did you think of WALL•E? What did you get out of its message? How would you rank this next to other Pixar films, or other CGI movies? Did you catch any of the Easter eggs?
I swent to see it with Cate on Sunday. It was aaiiight. To be honest, from all the reviews I read ("A masterpiece!", "The best sci-fi movie since 2001!", "Marvellous!"), I expected it to be fantastic! I thought the animation was flawless and the use of robot noises very clever...but apart from that, it was just okay. It certainly wasn't among the best Pixar movies (Incredibles, both Toy Stories, Bug's Life, Nemo were all better, IMO. At least it was better than Cars [how could it NOT be], though). I actually talked Cate into seeing this instead of Kung Fu Panda (which she really wanted to see) because the reviews were so unbelievable. I wish I hadn't now...
ReplyDeleteI'm leaning towards A Bug's Life still being my favorite Pixar movie, but I'm having trouble with placing WALL-E in second or third.
ReplyDeleteYou're not alone though. My wife absolutely hated WALL-E. She thought it was really boring and not very interesting. I'm trying to convince her to write her own review and post it on my blog, but she doesn't think she writes well.
I loved it, including the subtle yet poignant message about the dangers of consumerism. It tackles a potentially touchy subject in a meaningful way that isn't overly preachy. It was just really good story-telling.
ReplyDeleteLike I said on my blog, it made me feel like a kid again. I definitely was caught up in the story. I might actually put it as my favorite Pixar film (and that's saying a lot, because I love Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles). I might have to see it again to make that final call. But as I write this, WALL-E is #6 on IMDB's Top 250. That's pretty impressive.
Dude, I totally would like to write my own review! I thought you were going to wait for me.
ReplyDeleteStart writing it up. I will post it as my latest post.
ReplyDelete