Review: WALL-E
WALL-E isn’t just another animated family film, or even just another Pixar movie for that matter. Andrew Stanton has created a masterpiece on the same level as recent classics like There Will Be Blood, The Departed, Pan’s Labyrinth and Children of Men. It is a universal film with timeless appeal. I wouldn’t be surprised if this film gets a nomination for Best Picture. And I’m not talking about the Best Animated Feature category, I’m talking Best Picture. The fact that I’m not the first person to suggest this possibility must tell you something.
When the film was first announced, a lot of people were skeptical that a modern day (virtually) silent film could play in contemporary times. The exclusion of dialogue has forced Pixar to tell the most visual story yet. There are moments like in Alfanso Curon’s Children of Men, where this film requires the audience to make a connection between a series of visual cues. The result is a more rewarding and involving cinematic experience. I see a lot of the press screenings for family films in auditoriums packed with little children. WALL-E was no different. I’m still not sure where I stand on children at the movies. I can assure you, it usually results in a horrible moviegoing experience. But not once during WALL-E did any of the kids say a word. Not once did they get bored.
WALL-E might be the cutest robot to ever grace the silver screen, but beyond that he is a fully functional droid. He’s a robot, but he’s alive. It’s amazing how much emotion the Pixar animators are able to display with a slight tilt of his binocular like eyes. There is a moment late in the film where they play against form, and you really see all the work that must have went into animating this little guy.
A environmentally destroyed and abandoned Earth is the setting for this film. The humans consumers who have escaped Earth, now live as technologically-pampered blob creatures on a super space starliner. Are there messages? Yes, but they are storytelling devices and nothing more. Why did the humans leave earth? This is why. And WALL-E’s newfound love for Eve mirrors humanity’s loss of intimacy in a technologically connected and networked world. A live-action Fred Willard is integrated into the computer generated world using projected taped images on a holoscreen. He is a reminder of what the human race use to look like.
If I have any complaint about WALL-E it would be the needed and expected change of focus between WALL-E’s story and the story of the humans late into the film. You identify with WALL-E so much that when he is off screen it becomes harder to identify with the stupid remains of humanity (not to say you don’t…). But this is a problem of any traveling angel type story.
Thomas Newman’s score captures the magic and creepiness of the best science fiction films. The juxtaposition of Hello Dolly’s Put On Your Sunday Clothes and the introduction of a post apocalyptic Earth in the opening of the film is so very perfect. There is subtle and not so subtle homages to the classic science fiction films of yesteryear. WALL-E is the anti Shrek, devoid of modern pop culture references. WALL-E enjoys watching the musical Hello Dolly, and at one point is seen playing Pong on an old monitor. And I’m sure if this had been a Dreamworks Animated film, the video game would have been a modern XBox 360 game. This is the difference between the two animation studios. In fifty years, WALL-E will still play flawlessly to new audiences, all the comedic and story beats in tact.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
BURN-E Details Revealed?
reader DC claims to have more information on the upcoming WALL-E short film titled Burn-E which will be included on the DVD release. In the feature film there is a sequence where Eve and WALL-E fly around the Axiom Starliner, and enter through a door locking a poor welder bot on the outside of the ship. The bot bangs his fists against the door after he realizes that he has been locked out.
Apparently the welder bot is actually named BURN-E, complete with a logo very similar to the one mocked up by UpcomingPixar (seen above). This explains what Stanton meant when he told us that the short film would be “very connected to WALL-E.” So if I were to guess, I would say the short film will follow BURN-E on his journey to break back into the Axiom.
New WALL-E Trailer with Live Action Humans?
Disney has released a strange new trailer for Pixar’s WALL-E. “Meet The Bots” introduces us to the many bots we’ll meet in Andrew Stanton’s film. The strange part is that it begins as a promotional video from the Buy N Large Corporation. For a few seconds we get to see what live-action humans look like on the luxury starliner (before they became giant couch potato blobs, or course). It looks very Happy Feet-ish.
Stanton confirmed last year at WonderCon that “There is a live action element involved” but wouldn’t reveal more, only insisting that “We’re not doing anything like Happy Feet.” Fred Willard later revealed that he appears on a television monitor as the live-action spokesman of Buy N Large. So it’s clear that the human characters that left earth use to look like live action humans (as opposed to the animated Captain played by Jeff Garlin). And we have since seen that WALL-E watches a live-action version of the musical Hello Dolly in his trailer full of human collectibles. So I’m very curious to see if this is actually part of the film itself.
Thanks to Reader Dustin R for sending over the tip.
New Wall-E Concept Art
Ramuardo found these interesting concept background paintings for WALL-E at the Pixar - 20 Years of Animation exhibit in Finland. The first of the new paintings feature a new look at the Axiom luxury starliner where humanity (or what is left of it) has made their new home after Earth became unlivable.
The second features some cool imagery we have yet to see in the released trailers or clips presented at WonderCon. Who or what is that creature on the left? If he a human working for the BuyNLarge Corporation or a robot that controls the droids aboard the Axiom? And what are these strange red cables which hang?
You will notice that the same type of red cabling are attached to the robots aboard Axiom (including EVE) in the last trailer (Screen caps below). Maybe the cables somehow control the robots?
WALL-E hits theaters on June 27th 2008.