*** Official WALL-E Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Chris Will]

I absolutley agree. I didn't mind it at all while on Earth with Wall-E. That part of the movie looked more realistic anyway so it was easier for the footage to blend in with the scene. Once they got to the more colorful, "cartoony" look of the spaceship it just didn't work and really look weird because they stood out so much more IMO. Part of it for me may be that I'm not a huge Fred Willard fan so he was just distracting to me by himself.

I seem to be kinda negative about Wall-E but, I really did enjoy the film. I was very good and entertaining. I just don't see what all these people talking about it being the best Disney movie ever see in it that I missed. I shouldn't have read those aintitcool.com reviews talking it up so much before seeing the movie because, I end up going in expect the most brilliant piece of film from Disney I have ever seen and that didn't happen.

 

[Edwin-S]

When it comes to The Incredibles did we watch the same movie? I didn't feel that it was "preachy", let alone inconsistent in being preachy. Care to share some examples? I also didn't feel that Wall-E was really "preachy" either. In fact, I thought the film was pretty consistent in its depiction of the way the human race operates. The garbage dump scene on the ship actually reinforces the old adage which states, "the more things change, the more they remain the same".

The Axiom represents a massive achievement of human ingenuity, but underneath the shine it is the same old story: except, the human species ends up sharing its garbage with the universe instead of just one planet. The theme of humans as garbage producing "pigs" is quite powerful which is why I think the ending of the film ends up being so trite and, IMO, phony.

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[Southpaw]

I agree Edwin. The montage of the captains sold it for me as it plainly showed the human race went from "Fred Willard lookalikes" to the more cartoony look of the current passengers and captain.
I thought it was brilliant. My immediate reaction is that it shoots to the top of my Pixar list. I thought it was funny, moving and visually exhilarating.
Pixar never ceases to amaze me. They continue to set the bar higher and higher with each release and in my opinion, they have exceeded that bar each and every time.
Can't wait for the BD release!!!

 

[TravisR]

Anyone else catch the Pizza Planet truck (from Toy Story) sitting amongst the debris?

 

[todd s]

A friend and I thought the similarities of the Axiom and a cruise ship was funnier when you consider how much food people eat on cruises.

 

[Film Syncs]

I thought the same thing.

Overall, I really like it, particularly the first section on Earth.

I'll have to think more about it, but I thought it was quite good.

Just one thing, aren't there people of color in the future? Maybe I just missed them, but it just seemed like a bunch of tubby white folks.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

I wept. Partially because this film embodies the wonderful sense of "heart" that is imbued in the best that Pixar has produced, but also because this film is art, plain and simple.

20 years from now, Wall-E will take its rightful place as a brilliant dystopic satire of the future alongside 1984 and Brazil. Some have compared this to Logan's Run, but it actually satirizes that vision of the future and presents a more realistic vision.

People becoming obese and losing all sense of physical and emotional contact? That's happening already. The same with all food being ingested in liquid form.

The scathing indictment of our consumer culture is particularly damning, because it doesn't restrict itself to environmental concerns. It goes to the heart of our disposable society and our willingness to submit to corporate dominance. Anyone who didn't equate BnL with Wal*Mart and other monopolists needs to remove his head from his rectum.

My only quibble is this: we never see what happened to the animals and if those who orchestrated the evacuation took any steps to ensure the restoration of the various animal species.

There are weaknesses, but it is still the best film of the year so far, followed by Iron Man.

 

[todd s]

I did see people of various colors.


On another topic. Does anyone know if Pixar/Disney has a place to download a couple of Wall-E sounds as wav files? I am looking for Wall-E saying "Whoa".

 

[DaveF]

The theme is tedious when sold by a company that survives only by people buying overpriced, unnecessary luxuries; and presented in a product that requires people to spend excess money and sit passively watching a screen for two hours. The corporate hypocrisy is stupefying.

But I don't mean to be too hard on the movie. I enjoyed it start to stop. But it's the unusual Pixar film where I have to say, "it's just a movie. just turn off my brain and enjoy the fun."

 

[Claire Panke]

You quite astonish me.

I can't agree with you about Buddy in the Incredibles. Buddy was exceptionally intelligent and astonishingly ingenious, but he used his gifts for pettyness and revenge. He never matures emotionally and remains trapped in an adolescent funk. Buddy was disappointed by his hero as a youngster (and that only a mild-brush-off) but that is no justification for his subsequesnt actions - no amount of exceptional ability excuses wrong doing - unless you think murder, mayhem and kidnapping (of children no less) are in any way OK.

Back to WALL*E...

If you're turning off your brain while watching WALL*E you're missing half the fun and nearly all the subtext.

That themes of corporate malfeasance and runaway consumerism are prominent in a film made and distributed by Disney is *ironic*, not tedious, a fact hardly lost on WALL*E's creators. Just think about our hero's name.

Art and truth may emerge from a corporately financed film, even one from the Disney Company. Methinks thou dost protest too much. If you have so much trouble forking over money to Disney and the idea of sitting passively in a movie theater revolts you so much, why did you go see ANY commercial movies in theatrical release at all?

Every major movie in your local multiplex was made by a large studio/corporation and they ALL want your kids to buy tie-ins. And anything else made by them including elctronics, bookds, internet access and everything else they make or distribute. But without big studios to fork over big bucks, we won't have big commercial movies, including those made by Pixar, who have at least made a brilliant and entertaining cautionary tale.

Seeing good movies in a a theatrical setting is a luxury I enjoy and am prepared to pay for, within limits. If I'm going to pay for first class moviemaking, I'm delighted to see my hard earned $$ go to Pixar, even if they have to go through Disney first.

I sincerely think your irony meter is in dire need of adjustment.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Dave, I didn't see that message at all. The message I saw, over and over, was the importance of being connected and being engaged. That's all. You have to read into actions pretty hard to see a message about not buying stuff.

I believe that your critique, shared by a writer at CHUD, is absurd on it's face. The greatest failing is that it equates the Disney studio with the talent. As if Disney has a giant machine and spun this story just to sell stuff. But Disney didn't. The storytellers at Pixar did, and they used the resources provided by the corporation to tell their story. Artist and patron. Don't confuse the two. If Stanton were the CEO of Disney, then your criticism would find richer soil. But he's not.

And interestingly enough, while Disney as the evil corporation is fun...they really aren't. They are pretty progressive for a huge company.

 

[Richard Kim]

I saw WALL-E over the weekend, and I loved it. It's the best picture of 08 so far. I do have one problem with it:

If Earth is uninhabitable, why not settle on another planet? Since humans in the film are capable of traveling through hyperspace and seemingly beyond the galaxy, they should also be capable of finding another life sustaining planet, instead of just becoming morbidly obese on a space station. Hell, they could even try settling on Mars, maybe terraforming it.

 

[Al.Anderson]

The government has become a corporation with the the name Buy-n-Large and you didn't see a message there?

I know I'm skipping a lot of the conversation, but while I don't think it was the primary message, I think it was definitely lurking in there.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I saw the subtext, but there isn't a message pertaining to it. It's not directed as a good or a bad thing in the context of the film.

I could argue the message of The Matrix was that we should stop advancing AI based on that film's set-up and world using the same metric as basic visual information = a message.

 

[BrettB]

I don't know what you guys are going on about. It's just a love story.

I give it a 9.5/10. I loved it. And I've got some movie cash to see it again coming from Best Buy with the purchase of the soundtrack.

The first half or so on Earth is as good as it gets afaic. I almost wish they could have constructed the story so that the entire film is WALL-E & Eve on Earth. That might be going too far.

The distance between myself and the global warming gloom & doomers is nearly incaluable and I have no problems with any message(s) in the film. One message I got from the film is that humanity is capable greatness and can accomplish anything when we put our minds to it. Why did they not go colonize another planet? Because it says more to come home and adapt and fix Earth.

Another thing is that while some sci-fi paints either humanity or tech. as the baddie I think this film loves both.

 

[Al.Anderson]

I agree with you, I think the story is mostly a love story. The sci-fi and environment aspects are secondary.

 

[todd s]

I forget off hand. But, was the Axiom the only ship with people that left Earth?

 

[Edwin-S]

Referencing from a post made in the review thread.


No one expects people to. Least of all the filmmakers.

 

[Chris Will]

I swear that in the commercial for BnL in in the beginning of the film should more then ship taking off with the Axiom being the biggest and most luxurious. Because of that commercial I was wandering what happened to the other ships.

I agree with Brett, this is just a love story and everything else is just there to get our characters where they need to be (the director has been quote as saying as much). I don't think there is any other message in the movie except the love story. Everyone trying to make it about the environment or large corp. are just digging and reading too much into the subtleties of the locations our characters travel through, IMO.

The movie never states that buying things or large corp. are bad and it never states that we should stop throwing things away or we will destroy the planet. In fact, if anything, it states the opposite because the humans came back home and rebuilt there lives on Earth so, the planet obviously wasn't destroyed by all the trash.

I going to have to go with what the director says, which is that there was no intended environmental message. It was just used as a back drop to isolate Wall-E and give him a reason to go on his adventure. Yes, there subtle hints and things the movie pokes fun at but, I don't think the movie sets out to preach a message about corporations or the environment.

Those that keep saying that those messages are so obvious, well they just aren't and it appears that you missed the real message of the movie... finding love. Everything else is just the backdrop and catalyst that our charters play through. At least that is what I took away from the movie.

I think it was very subtle and people are just forcing it to the front. IMO, most seem to miss the real message of the movie. Here I am, one who was worried about the film becoming preachy before it's release, and I'm one of few who think it wasn't preachy at all.

 

[DaveF]

It's not irony. It's not unexpected for a large company to present a "message" movie to try and make some bucks. Pixar is not biting the hand that feeds them. They're presenting a message that they clearly don't mean. Pixar isn't a "green" or "low impact" company. They make money by selling stuff to people. It's stuff I want to buy; I've no issue with that. They clearly don't really want people to stop passively watching videos and buying merchandise -- it's their entire business! That disconnect is tiresome to me; there's no irony.

Worse, the anti-consumerism message was not delivered particularly well.

Contrast that with the rich storyline of loss of friendship, of purpose, and of grasping one's mortality in Toy Story 2. "When She Loved Me" is a message and it's profound. Even the simple "laughter is greater than fear" of Monsters, Inc. was clever and effective. Pixar can do "messages", but Wall-E was clumsy for them.

I'll say again that I like Wall-E. It was cute movie and I love the contemplative style of the first act. But I really have to not think about it too carefully or it starts to crumble like the trash buildings Wall-E built.