Blu-ray Review HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: WALL-E (1 Viewer)

[Phil Carter]

If you haven't seen "Atlantis: The Lost Empire", I highly recommend it. Brought to us by the same creative team that brought us "Beauty and the Beast", it's really quite excellent and went sadly overlooked at the box office. There was a very nice two-disc special edition released a few years back which I think is out of print now, but you may be able to find it online.

Sadly, that was the last traditionally-animated Disney film I've enjoyed in recent years...the quality had dropped quite a bit. I'm excited to see that Lasseter's reactivated the traditional animation department at Disney and they'll be bringing us some more hand-drawn stuff in the future.

cheers,
Phil

 

[Mike Frezon]

Well, I watched the first 45 minutes of Wall-E last night (it's all I had time for) and REALLY enjoyed every blessed minute of it.

My recollection, though, was that it was when action shifted to onboard the Axiom that things took a dive for me. I will report back. But I was laughing out loud and enjoying so many of the moments as Wall-E and Eve began their adventure.

It IS interesting that there are no audio options on the disc. I went to make sure the "right one" was going to be selected or "defaulted to" but there were no options to be had.

I really marvel at the emotions the animating team were able to illustrate as Wall-E stood alone in his little bunker and watched the love scene from Hello Dolly. Those few moments of his expressions, head tilts and holding his own hand continue to amaze me.

It is those kinds of moments that had me desperate to want to see this flick again.


Saw Atlantis in the theater, Phil, with my then-eleven-year-old son. It seemed to be the perfect adventure vehicle for this Disney dad and his young boy...and even my son was bored by it. I was surprised at his reaction. I felt real disappointment at his disappointment. I dunno, but at the time I remember thinking it was awful. Yet I still hoped that at least he would have gotten something out of it. But he gave it an 11-year old thumbs down.

I raised my children on the first wave of Disney animated classics and they luckily came of age during the recent wave of classics (from The Little Mermaid through Tarzan). Outside of the BD of Meet the Robinsons (which was a blind buy for me since the book "A Day with Wilbur Robinson" was a family favorite), the last Disney animated classic in my collection is The Emperor's New Groove. And neither that nor Dinosaurs is something I take off the shelf that much.

 

[BrettB]

Has anyone tried the video adjustment/test patterns? My setup is calibrated with the old sd Avia disc and was way off according to the patterns on the disc.

 

[cafink]

I also rather dug Atlantis. It had some issues, and it certainly wasn't as good as the likes of Aladdin or The Lion King, but I thought it was great fun. I actually revisited it a couple of months ago after not having seen it since the DVD was first released (I have that two-disc special edition Phil mentioned).

My main problem with the film is its pacing. I think it's probably 20 or 30 minutes too short, and could use a good bit of breathing room. Other than that, I couldn't find much to dislike. It had some great visual design and exciting action set-pieces. I understand why some would dislike it, but I enjoyed it and am glad to have it in my collection. It should make a great Blu-ray disc.

 

[David Coleman]

Ok I can go the 5 on the video but I got to severely disagree on the audio.

First issue is I always bitstream and i've heard films in 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 in dtsma. I keep reading this 6.1 track but mine is only showing 5.1.

I'm sorry, I felt the rocket takeoffs and windstorms were disappointing. Clarity was nice and there was a fair amount of discrete information but less than I was expecting.

Have to say after experiencing the sound behind KUNG FU PANDA, this one comes up short!

 

[Todd smith]

Damn! This is what I was afraid of! I watched KFP today and the AQ was incredible. I am watching Wall*E tom and I thought after today movie that Wall*E has a VERY tough act to follow. :frowning:

 

[TonyD]

is there a hidden feature called geek-a-rama on disc 1 about al the geeky gadgets people who worked on the film?
it doesnt appear to e listed on the features, list.
about 4 min.

does the movie start right in the middle of a word in the opening song?

also is this a 7.1 or a 6.1 track

front display on denon says 7.1 - ps3 display says 6.1.

 

[TravisR]

^It's an easter egg. If I remember correctly, you just push up on your remote from 'Play movie' and then press enter.

 

[Ensign Eddie]

It shouldn't.

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

Just throwing in my two cents here:

I'm not so sure I agree with this premise. IMO, the music (particularly the Giacchino scores on "The Incredibles" and "Ratatouille") has been very well done, if a little sappy for the "Toy Story" films. The animation is something dependent on the medium, and some of the early rotoscoping does not look good to me. But I disagree most with the stories being better and more "emotionally engaging".

Most of the Disney films, both older and newer, were of a highly derivative nature (i.e., came from existing stories) and left little or nothing to the imagination. Anyone not obviously pretty, cuddly, or of certain species—or, most egregiously in 1960+ releases, certain races—had pretty much no chance of being a protagonist. This is especially notable in the "big name" releases like "Cinderella", "Bambi", "Snow White", etc. For instance, in the old Disney films, a shy plain girl like Violet Parr (from "The Incredibles") wouldn't have been given any significant characterization, she'd be an ugly stepsister. Just counting Pixar films, we've had empathetic characters from toys (including mangled ones), bugs and spiders, an entire society of monsters, sharks, turtles, cars, rats (in a kitchen, no less!), and robots with 3-word vocabularies and their pet cockroaches. Most of these characters had back-stories and motivations made up pretty much from scratch. And that doesn't even get into Disney's unconventional animations (the Halloween-Town characters from "The Nightmare Before Christmas” are a prime example) or CGI efforts from other companies like “the “Shrek” films. Some of the more “daring” Disney films actually managed to at least try to step outside the norm, like “The Sword in the Stone”, and they got better about not stereotyping characters with newer films where the good guys could be Beasts and humpbacks and warthogs.

To not even bother to break out of pre-existing molds is to me a poor example of storytelling and engaging with an audience. Perhaps it’s because I’m of a different generation (although even my parents feel Pixar films are superior to the older Disney ones), but I tend to respect ideas and stories that come from someplace outside centuries-old European/American tales more.

 

[Brian L]

LMAO. After we screened the film, I was messing around in the menus and found the Geek stuff mentioned. But I had NFI how we got there, and was not able to get it to play again.

I would agree with the previous column that the audio (low bass in particular) was somewhat of a let down.

There were a few scenes that really rocked the house (the Axiom's return to earth was the winner for us), but overall, WALL-E was no "Iron Man".

Disclaimer: My Panny 10a does not do DTS HD MA, so I had to live with the DTS core via the 5.1 analogs.

Brian

 

[Mike Frezon]

My impressions exactly...although I still have the second half of the film to watch so I haven't seen the Axiom's return to Earth.

I am also using the analog outs on a Panasonic BD-10 and while the audio in the first half of the film was as clear and perfect as could be, I was actually struck by how little I was getting from my subwoofer as Wall-E and Eve were blasting off from Earth to the Axiom.

In fact, I did something I never do and actually went and checked my sub to make sure it was working! I even adjusted it's level--something else I never do.

I have a modest little system (the sub is a Sony SA-WM40)...but you tend to know when you expect a certain level of bass...

And it just wasn't there. I'll be interested now to hear how things sound when the Axiom returns to Earth.

 

[Brian L]

Next time we screen it, I will probably switch to the optical connection, which, while still DTS Core, will be an interesting comparison.

Brian

 

[Jay Pennington]

Where did they hide The Pixar Story? Can't find it. I have the two-disc BR. Don't tell me it's on the third disc of the digital copy set...

 

[Mike Frezon]

I was planning on doing the very same thing, Brian...except for me it will be a coaxial connection. Hopefully I'll have time to get to it tonight.

I have been absolutely wowed by most BD audio over the analog connections. It will be a looooong time before I upgrade to a receiver with an HDMI connection.

 

[RickER]

It would be funny to tell you that it was on the 3rd disc. But im not mean like that Jay. Its on disc 2, human section, scroll to the bottom. I watched it last night, fun doc.

 

[BrettB]

Depends on how you have things set. It was doing it on my set up when I had all the audio options ON on the PS3. Turn OFF *ALL* the 7.1 PCM options and you'll be golden.

Depending on how you have the PS3 set you can get (or at least have the PS3 indicate) 6.1, 5.1, DTS 1.5 mbps core...

I'm not smart enough to figure it out but a lot of people are saying maybe some flags aren't right.

Another Easter Egg on disc 1 is an early WALL•E title thingy (with 1 'L' I think).... hightlight setup and press left arrow then enter.

The best Easter Egg is on disc 2. It's an early test with WALL•E working. Highlight Humans. Hit left arrow until a camera icon appears. Hit enter.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I'll also through in my 2 cents. Without taking anything away from the old classics, because I love them too, the new Pixar films are new classics already. The animation is top notch and and the stories are very emotionally engaging and clever. After watching several Pixar extras and now half of the Pixar Story, it it clear that at Pixar, the story is king.

That's not to say I don't enjoy the old stuff. My eyes haven't quite popped back into their sockets after watching Sleeping Beauty on BR. The richness of the scene design is just absolutely amazing.

I am looking forward to owning many of the classics of BR, but that includes the new and the old.

 

[Brian L]

I have not watched "The Pixar Story" yet, but there is a pretty solid Pixar documentary on the "Pixar Shorts" collection. I found that totally facscinating, in particulr the early years.

Can anyone that has seen them both comment on the differences? I may be a while before I have time to screen it.

Brian

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Finally watched this yesterday, and I tend to agree w/ Ron's comments although I did also find the sound to lack the oomph like some others mentioned. Was this one encoded w/ the dial norm flag (like w/ Iron Man)? If so, maybe that would explain the diff in comments about the sound.

_Man_