WALL•E

[Zuwxiv]

Pixar evidently is a gold factory. It seems that everything they have touched has not only been a huge commercial success, but also have been consistently high-quality films, both in animation quality as well as the movie itself. Sure, some aren't as good as others - but for every Cars, there's a Finding Nemo. Don't like Monsters, Inc? Watch The Incredibles. Ratatouille should have received a nod for Best Picture, in my opinion... Instead Pixar seems to just own the Best Animated Feature category at the Academy Awards, which arguably means that it's productions (despite being some of the best-received and highest grossing films of the year) might not get proper attention for best picture. After all, Ratatouille was the best reviewed movie of 2007 and the 7th best reviewed movie of all time.

But there's increasing competition for animated films; Dreamworks seems to be the primary competitor, with Blue Sky Studios also throwing in Ice Age. With the release of WALL•E, Pixar evidently just wants to show up these competitors.

So Pixar goes oldschool. Not only do they throw their trademark level of detail into everything, but they start removing everything but the kitchen sink. Dialogue? Who uses that as a crutch in a movie? Of the only 8 credited voices in the film, one of them is a text-to-speech program for Macs and the title character's voice was manufactured.

Yeah, that's right: Pixar only used 6 human voices for their film, and kept the first half almost entirely silent.

What else do those horrible competitors use in animation? Oh yeah, faces. What sort of amateur actually uses facial animation just to get over the computerized medium? So gone are noses, mouths, cheeks, dimples, smiles. WALL•E gets eyes.

And by the end of the movie you are emotionally attached to WALL•E, so they did it. No other company in the world could have done this. Pixar is the best, bar none, and nobody is even close.

So Pixar bragging aside, how is the actual movie?

The first half is physical comedy that would fit in to the era of silent films. WALL•E is the last working robot on an Earth abandoned to trash; all humans have long ago left, having reduced the planet to uninhabitability. Not that all is lost; they've left a fleet of robots to clean it up, taking only a scheduled 5 years.

Unfortunately they've all broken, save for one, and have only added to the trash-metropolis. Humans evidently haven't bothered to return to try to fix anything in over 700 years.

So you have one trash-compactor of a robot, and a cockroach. A good 15 minutes of this, and it's hilarious. Then another robot arrives, and instantly there is a 50% increase in the number of characters.

Without ruining the story, WALL•E is lonely and falls in love with the new robot, EVE. The actual plot doesn't start to take shape until around 20-25 minutes in, and it's arguably fairly weak. The events are connected, but there's no strong unifying happening that drives a thesis of the movie.

Some people won't like this, but really, most people will enjoy it. In a movie with so many environmental overtones, it serves to save the film from preachy-ness, and instead focus it on a confused, lonely, lovestruck robot named WALL•E. In many ways this is good; the story is first and foremost a love story about the last robot. The producer has stated that it is not intended to really be a political message, but if you want to have the last robot on earth you kind of have to reason the humans off it first.

Of course, there is something at least a little bit ironic within: A movie that shows the dangers of over-commercialism, branded by Disney, with a character designed by Jonathan Ive, head of Apple Design, and where they gave midnight viewers plastic WALL•E watches as a promo.

And beyond that, it depicts humans have become so lazy, they don't actually walk or interact with each other face-to-face. Remember you'll be in a movie theater, sitting in a chair for two hours, not talking to people next to you.

Some may find the setting to be a little stingingly-sarcastic. The first part of the movie is brilliant, and when the humans enter it it loses some of its charm. But the movie is brilliant, funny, entertaining, and endearing.

Others have loved it as well: It is currently (according to Metacritic) the 15th best reviewed movie of all time, 2nd best this year, and the 3rd best movie this year isn't even in the top 100. WALL•E is also the highest user-reviewed of those, and on the user-generated site IMDb it is number 20 (With Iron Man taking 2008's second place at 162).

It is easy for me to say: This is one of the best movies of the year this far (if not the best) and people overwhelmingly agree. There will be zero contest for animated picture and (while I doubt it will happen due to WALL•E's unconventional nature) it probably will deserve a nod for best picture nominee.


Bottom line: Don't let its G rating fool you: This movie is great for everyone. It's worth seeing in the theaters and worth your time and money. Pixar has done it again, and you won't see a movie this unique all year long. Don't miss this movie!

[The Big Red 1]

Agree 100%