‘Wall-E’ is Thoughtful but Overrated
-----With Pixar’s virtually flawless track record, the question was not ‘if’ people would see it, but ‘when.’ While I’m not a huge fan of their last few efforts, I still enjoy Pixar’s crisp animation and original ideas. However, with many people raving over ‘Wall-E,’ the question was whether it lived up to the hype, or was simply guilty by association…with Pixar, that is.
-----‘Wall-E’ is the story of a robot stranded on a dystopian Earth in the distant future. Wall-E is designed to pick up all of the trash that has been storing up on Earth due to human waste. Meanwhile the aforementioned humans are sitting it out on a giant space ship reminiscent of a cruise ship in deep space. All alone as he goes about his daily routines, Wall-E begins to experience a human trait, that of loneliness. That’s when a spaceship lands right where he’s busy cleaning up trash. Out comes the futuristic and clean Eve, a robot scanning Earth for any signs of life. Wall-E quickly befriends the distant Eve, and is even beginning to widen his range of emotions when he takes Eve to his home in the back of a large garbage truck. When the unknowing Wall-E shows Eve a plant, she immediately seizes it and goes into a hibernation-like state, leaving Wall-E alone again. Of course, that’s when Eve’s ship comes back to get her.
-----Ben Burtt is the sound behind Wall-E, providing expressive and robotic tones to a character with no legitimate dialogue, save sounding out names. Without Burtt’s skill, you have one boring silent picture. In true Pixar fashion, the always recognizable John Ratzenberger (A Bug’s Life, Toy Story, Cars, etc.) plays typical human John. Other notable voices include a funny turn from Jeff Garlin as Captain of the human ship, and Sigourney Weaver as the ship’s computer. Her role is particularly clever due to the appearance, tone, and personality of her character being a clear homage to the classic sci-fi film, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’
-----The film starts out at a rather slow pace. While many youngsters may be entertained by Wall-E’s physical humor, I found it tiresome. Much of it is seen in the commercials thrust at the general public for the better part of a year, so it felt dutiful to me. The first half hour seemed a faithful rehash of the trailers, with only about five minutes of it intriguing and informative. It is however, no doubt, bold to go so long without dialogue, and may even be considered another form of homage to ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’
-----However, despite my distaste for the first act of the movie, the second two, especially the third act are a very clever and entertaining satire of the human race. At times haunting at others sweet, ‘Wall-E’ picks up speed and doesn’t slow down as soon as the hilarious obese masses called humans come on screen. The creepiness comes only from the fact that our society may very well be in such a scenario in a couple hundred years.
One of ‘Wall-E’s best elements is its subtle transformation form real life to animation. For example, in the background of the Captain’s control room, you can see portraits of the captains in order of their command, the humans having been in space for around 700 years now. The first portrait is a real picture of a thin man, and slowly the portraits get more animated and obese as they progress to the present. Both artsy and effective, it’s the little things that make ‘Wall-E’ an intriguing satire.
-----As for technicalities, the animation is as crisp and fresh as we’ve all come to expect from Pixar. In fact, if you pay attention during trips to the theater you’ll hear many people refer to any animated film as a Pixar movie, whether it’s ‘Kung Fu Panda’ or ‘Final Fantasy,’ the name Pixar has become unanimous with the animating technology they created. On a somewhat side note, you’ll notice during the film that the President in video files referring to the humans exodus from Earth is oddly reminiscent of Ronald Reagan. It seems obvious they were going for this, but I have yet to figure the reasoning behind this creative decision. Perhaps they were just going for a familiar face to add to the eeriness of this harsh, but potential reality.
-----The music is very affective and one of the better scores of the year. Not only is there an interesting score, but some excellent contemporary and old school choices to go with it. Not to mention a very appropriate original song for the credits. The credits too, find themselves to be an original concept, as you see an epilogue to the story played out in cave art first, followed by various other styles showing the progression of mankind like those of Van Gogh, until it ends in a computer style similar to the early ‘Super Mario’ games. I don’t mean to spoil anything, but I don’t want you to miss the subtleties of the film that were such a saving grace for me.
-----Looking back on the movie, I was ultimately just disappointed with the first half that seemed to say, “look at us, we’re Pixar, we can push anything on the audience.” And indeed, it was even brought to my attention that Pixar’s ultimate strategy is to simply personify everything. Think back to their past movies. So far they’ve personified toys, bugs, cars, rats, monsters, fish, superheroes, and now, of course, robots. This is, however, a cheapening of their craft as they have weaved intricate stories around their characters.
-----Ultimately, I think ‘Wall-E’ is definitely worth seeing once, and maybe even twice. However, I don’t think any more than that is necessary and it’s this lack of re-watch-ability that sort of hinders my view of it. Of course, there can be great movies that are one-time sees, but I think that this is the case with ‘Wall-E’ only because once you’ve seen it, there’s not much to go back for. Regardless, it’s still a good film and will be enjoyed by all ages upon the first viewing or so.
