Pixar's Latest Masterpiece... Wall-E

[blank_check_999]

I just saw Wall-E the other day and I was blown away. The story was just great and the animation has never been better. I felt like they had created a world with a long history and detailed 'mythology'. It's one of my favourite movies and definitely Pixar's best. What do you think? I think it will be a shoo-in for best animated feature and I hope Ben Burtt wins the Oscar for best sound design/ sound editing. I will be seeing it again soon. If you are skeptical, trust me you need to check it out!

 

[G-Lexington]

SPOILER ALERT - SPOILERS CONTAINED WITHIN

I really liked it. It was an odd juxtaposition. In general, the basic actions were fun and light-hearted, but it's all set against the backdrop of two really depressing settings - Wall-E's position on Earth as the last functioning robot, and how the people have "evolved" on Axiom. The amazing thing is how the two blended without feeling jarring.

That said, there were a few bits I thought could've been tweaked better. For one, would the Axiom really have that much (metallic) trash just getting compacted and tossed out into space? They're a self-sustaining community - certainly they'd be recycling most of it. And the whole "you found life" thing seemed a bit confusing. So they set up this intricate series of probes to periodically check if Earth was "back to normal", along with a complex set of things should life be found again. But then Fred Willard activates order 1138 (or whatever) that says, in essence, "Never mind" because...why? The scientists have determined that it'll never happen? OK, fine, but then why leave everything in place? Why not set it up so if life is found, nothing happens? The only way this makes sense is if order 1138 was issued when Willard was drunk, and thus it's a half-assed attempt to override the programming. This MIGHT be the case, but it's not entirely clear.

I don't mean to detract from what actually is an excellent movie. But it's sort of my way to try to find everything wrong with the movie I just watched, and that's about all I came up with.

Lex

 

[gaz1978]

Pixar seem incapable of making a bad movie, or even an average movie.

 

[willsboy84]

haven't seen it. i'm kinda pissed at blatant rip-off of Number 5 though!!! speaking of...i hear "Short Circuit" being remade. um...yay?

 

[G-Lexington]

Wall-E DOES look a bit too much like Johnny 5, and the fact the he "develops a personality" sort of furthers the comparison. But that's where the similarities end.

Does the world need Short Circuit 3? Or Short Circuit 1.1, even?

Lex

 

[Apollo]

SPOILER ALERT - SPOILERS CONTAINED WITHIN

I really liked it. It was an odd juxtaposition. In general, the basic actions were fun and light-hearted, but it's all set against the backdrop of two really depressing settings - Wall-E's position on Earth as the last functioning robot, and how the people have "evolved" on Axiom. The amazing thing is how the two blended without feeling jarring.

That said, there were a few bits I thought could've been tweaked better. For one, would the Axiom really have that much (metallic) trash just getting compacted and tossed out into space? They're a self-sustaining community - certainly they'd be recycling most of it. And the whole "you found life" thing seemed a bit confusing. So they set up this intricate series of probes to periodically check if Earth was "back to normal", along with a complex set of things should life be found again. But then Fred Willard activates order 1138 (or whatever) that says, in essence, "Never mind" because...why? The scientists have determined that it'll never happen? OK, fine, but then why leave everything in place? Why not set it up so if life is found, nothing happens? The only way this makes sense is if order 1138 was issued when Willard was drunk, and thus it's a half-assed attempt to override the programming. This MIGHT be the case, but it's not entirely clear.

I don't mean to detract from what actually is an excellent movie. But it's sort of my way to try to find everything wrong with the movie I just watched, and that's about all I came up with.

Lex

I think the throwing stuff out into space is sort of showing that they haven't learned their lesson. Kinda goes back to how all the people are fat shut in essentially who havent really seen the Axium.

As for the A113 thing. I think what happened was they were on the Axium and later found out that it wasn't possible to sustain life on Earth. So instead of telling the people, and the captains and possibly causing mass panic and whatever else, they lied about it and gave everyone a false sense of security.

I think this is shown when the Captain was like "Welcome to day 1 thousand whatever of our FIVE year cruise.

 

[G-Lexington]

>>>I think the throwing stuff out into space is sort of showing that they haven't learned their lesson. Kinda goes back to how all the people are fat shut in essentially who havent really seen the Axium.

Oh, I understand that. But they're in space. Each time they jettison that stuff, the ship loses it forever, Surely after 700 years, they'd start saying "Gee, we're running really low on iron." Again, not a major bitch - just something I noticed.

>>>As for the A113 thing. I think what happened was they were on the Axium and later found out that it wasn't possible to sustain life on Earth. So instead of telling the people, and the captains and possibly causing mass panic and whatever else, they lied about it and gave everyone a false sense of security.

Oh, I got THAT. But then why leave the programming in place to analyze the plant life when it's found, Why have the system ready to rechart a course back to Earth once it's analyzed? If they're gonna activate A113, why not turn that stuff off while you're at it? Why not just have the computer/robots not do anything when they find plant life?

Lex

 

[Apollo]

>>>I think the throwing stuff out into space is sort of showing that they haven't learned their lesson. Kinda goes back to how all the people are fat shut in essentially who havent really seen the Axium.

Oh, I understand that. But they're in space. Each time they jettison that stuff, the ship loses it forever, Surely after 700 years, they'd start saying "Gee, we're running really low on iron." Again, not a major bitch - just something I noticed.

>>>As for the A113 thing. I think what happened was they were on the Axium and later found out that it wasn't possible to sustain life on Earth. So instead of telling the people, and the captains and possibly causing mass panic and whatever else, they lied about it and gave everyone a false sense of security.

Oh, I got THAT. But then why leave the programming in place to analyze the plant life when it's found, Why have the system ready to rechart a course back to Earth once it's analyzed? If they're gonna activate A113, why not turn that stuff off while you're at it? Why not just have the computer/robots not do anything when they find plant life?

Lex

hmmm, maybe they just didnt want to bother the captains. i dont think they wanted to worry the captains who thought this wasnt going to be for life?

also, i am thinking they thought "juuust in case" but then that doesnt explain why keep A113 on. In the end, it was left like that in the movie, because it set up the last part of the movie. actually, it was pretty much the entire plot after the climax.

 

[spiderhead]

I absolutely HATED THIS MOVIE. It was terrible. All of the humor in it was reduced to simple slapstick. The robot love story was really stupid to me. I also really hate how all animation these days makes all of these grotesque pop culture references I.E. when wall-e boots up he sounds like a Mac computer. He also has an Ipod blah blah blah.

Walt Disney's stuff really took us out of our world and into some real imagination.

I miss the original Walt Disney stuff.

 

[Apollo]

I absolutely HATED THIS MOVIE. It was terrible. All of the humor in it was reduced to simple slapstick. The robot love story was really stupid to me. I also really hate how all animation these days makes all of these grotesque pop culture references I.E. when wall-e boots up he sounds like a Mac computer. He also has an Ipod blah blah blah.

Walt Disney's stuff really took us out of our world and into some real imagination.

I miss the original Walt Disney stuff.

your probably gonna be one of ten people in the world who hate this movie. i dont care, but your by far in the minority,

 

[G-Lexington]

Well, yeah, it was the plot. That's why I felt it was problematic. I think a little more work at the script level could've come up with a somewhat better explanation for it all.

I didn't find the humor either overly broad or overly pop-culturesque. Yeah, Wall-E had an iPod. He also had a VHS of Hello Dolly. The captain looked up "hoedown", not "Britney Spears". The mega-corp was Buy'n'Large, not WallSmart. There was plenty of opportunities for cheap easy laughs, which they wisely skipped.

And yeah, much of the humor was visual/physical, but that's what happens when there's not much dialogue.

Lex

 

[spiderhead]

Well, yeah, it was the plot. That's why I felt it was problematic. I think a little more work at the script level could've come up with a somewhat better explanation for it all.

I didn't find the humor either overly broad or overly pop-culturesque. Yeah, Wall-E had an iPod. He also had a VHS of Hello Dolly. The captain looked up "hoedown", not "Britney Spears". The mega-corp was Buy'n'Large, not WallSmart. There was plenty of opportunities for cheap easy laughs, which they wisely skipped.

And yeah, much of the humor was visual/physical, but that's what happens when there's not much dialogue.

Lex

Yeah but even the Buy N' Large was a pop culture reference despite the fact that the name was somewhat different than stores we have. Why did you connect it to Wall Mart? Because that was what it was in reference to.

I don't care what anyone says this movie was terrible. My boyfriend didn't like it either. The only thing that made it tolerable for each of us was that we were at a 21+ screening and had a ton of alcohol.

 

[Apollo]

Yeah but even the Buy N' Large was a pop culture reference despite the fact that the name was somewhat different than stores we have. Why did you connect it to Wall Mart? Because that was what it was in reference to.

I don't care what anyone says this movie was terrible. My boyfriend didn't like it either. The only thing that made it tolerable for each of us was that we were at a 21+ screening and had a ton of alcohol.

Well seeing how you really mean it. You can proudly label yourselves "agaisnt 99% of public opinion" or rebels, punks, "AGAISNT SOCIETY" take your pick.

 

[G-Lexington]

>>>. Why did you connect it to Wall Mart? Because that was what it was in reference to.

Actually, we joked afterwards that it was actually a dig at Disney.

But now you know how to survive movies henceforth - copious amounts of alcohol. Or, better yet, leave the mass entertainment to the sheeple.

Lex

 

[blank_check_999]

I just saw Wall-E for a second time, tonight, and I must say that it still captivated me just as much and it is definitely one of my top favourite movies. I don't think the movie is meant to be overly reallistic, just a fable of sorts. The filmmakers obviously wanted to show that although the humans ('we') had destroyed our home planet through mass consumption, we didn't learn our lessons and continued to consume in space (not only in material possessions, but also to the point of engorging ourselves with food). Anyways, I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it to everyone!

 

[JesseNYC]

Cars & Ratatouille < Wall-E < Finding Nemo

 

[Apollo]

I didn't care for the movie. It was one of those with endless hype that it just didn't live up to, although you'll be hard pressed to find many people who'll admit it.
As far as it becoming a classic, I highly doubt it. It's just the usual critically acclaimed animated flick of the year by Pixar, which has taken over Disney's position as animation giant, but without as much magic or wonder.
But by next year there'll be yet another Pixar film which receives the same kind of glowing attention and Wall-E will be a distant memory just as the overrated Ratatouille from last year.
The only Pixar movie that seemed to really linger in people's minds for long was Finding Nemo, and I've always suspected that was because it was one of the few Pixar movies that didn't try so hard to be so, well, adult. It was clever but it was also imaginative and fun enough for kids to fall in love with.

Pixar is Disney, so it doesn't really matter/

 

[senorserio]

Gosh, I'm ALWAYS in the minority on these movies....I LOVED Walle! I thought it was one of the best Pixar movies to come along in awhile and that's saying a lot considering I think Pixar pretty much hits a home run each and every time out of the gate. It was so cute and sweet and I thought quite interesting that it held my attention with virtually no dialogue for the first hour.

 

[WanderingGoogol]

Wall-E was pretty good, but I love Finding Nemo, so it had a lot to live up to. In that regard, I was mildly disappointed, but it was still a great movie. I preferred the first snippet of the movie: Wall-E (and Eve) before they left for the Axiom. I think I would have liked the movie more if they had come up with a plot concerning just the two robots alone, sans dialogue. Hah, not sure that could have been interesting for a feature-length film, mind you, but if anybody could do it, I bet Pixar could've.