Pixar's WALL• E

[Moonman]

It's most apparent during the first section of the movie taking place on Earth. I watched it thinking, "This is what I Am Legend should have been."

[jimsz]

I watched this film over the weekend - wow!

Amazing animation, great character development. They told more of story that made you understand the character(s) in the first 20 minutes than anything from Dreamworks or any other studio has ever told in their entire films.

The use if the "Mac" chime was a nice little touch, the iPod was simply funny.

Just a quality film in every regard.

[Radio_jalopiE]

I saw this over the weekend with some friends and we were all holding back sobs at the end. we agreed that even if the themes would go over some kids' heads, they'd be able to come back to the movie at any point in their lives and still love it or find something new in it. kind of rare in a lot of movies these days which all seem more or less disposable.

loved the sci-fi novel cover style of the ships, great sound effects. it seemed like they did a lot of visual research of machines, instead of just plunging into what would look coolest, the robots had great movement and a realistic/functional look despite their 700-years-in-the-future design. not to mention the great classic disney von braun/blackhole look of outerspace.

[AgentHelix]

The part that really got me was when:



SPOILERS









Eve was replaying the video taken while she was "sleeping" of everything that Wall-E had done before the retrieval ship came back for her, and you see her slowly realize just how much he cares about her.











END SPOILERS

I had to really fight it back there.

[Timbone]

Saw it twice this weekend, and was grinning from ear to ear both times equally. It's just so damned beautiful, and wonderfully told. Of all Pixar's films (and pretty much all animated films I can currently think of), Wall-E really makes you think and pay attention to what the characters are doing and what they might be thinking. This may be why some kids were having trouble with it when others saw it, but both times I saw it the kids were silent and attentive and only rarely did I hear a question being asked. If only all animated film audiences were this quiet!

I took the girlfriend the second time, and she was skeptical about it, not being a big animation person. Wall-E totally won her over. She was as captivated by it as I was, loved all he jokes and little touches and we talked about it for a while afterwards. I think that with showing her that film and Iron Giant not too long ago, that I have converted another unenlightened soul from the bland live-action film existence she knew.

[HellboyOne]

It also has the most ambitious narrative of any of their films - it tackles some pretty bleak themes and has a real earnest social message. Sophisticated is exactly the right word for it.

The wife and I talked about this for a while over dinner last night. Which is probably saying something since we never have much to say about animated films we see afterwards other than "that was cool" or "that was really pretty" or "that sucked".

Although I liked Cars, it represented absolutely no growth in terms of character and story development. Wall E is a giant leap forward for Pixar.

[talbot]

This movie would have been A LOT better had they not kept playing "Hello Dolly" every frickn' five minutes!

It was an o.k. movie, not Pixar's best. The last act really seemed forced. The Captain's sudden change of heart to go back to Earth seemed out of place. They should have made him one of the few athletic people aboard the ship who?s slowly sinking into that sedentary style of life. A bit of a throwback to the salty sea captains. Think of R. Lee Emery-style person who is slowly starting to get slow and lazy. Once the decision to go back has been made, it would have been more plausible to see him change.

Also, the use of live actors was too jarring. Really distracting. Why couldn?t that have been animated as well?

[acetate]

The first 2 Toy Story movies and The Incredibles are Pixar's best imho.
wall e is not bad certainly but I don't see doing cartwheels over it. Re-watch
the films I listed and compare them. I think they have better stories, better
characters, and had more emotional punch that this one. As my friend
remarked, it's pixar-light. Less filling.

[Bobby Pontillas]

This movie will stay with me for a long time.
Not only a giant leap forward for Pixar, but because of the kind of cultural impact Pixar has now, a giant leap forward for film in general.

[CameronStewart]

Also, the use of live actors was too jarring. Really distracting. Why couldn?t that have been animated as well?

I've heard this mentioned negatively several times, but I think there's a pretty solid reason for it - the film establishes early on that WALL-E is fascinated by "Hello, Dolly!" and it's his model for understanding human behaviour. Now, once they've shown the film clip, then they've pretty inescapably established the image of "real" humans (the alternatives would be to either re-create the film with animated characters, or to invent a fictional film for WALL-E to watch, neither I think would be as effective). So once they've established the "real" humans, there needs to be an explanation for the appearance of the animated humans, which they cleverly did by showing the historical portrait gallery of Captains of the Axiom - the first portrait was a photograph of a real human man, and as the camera panned across each portrait you saw a subtle evolution occurring until the final portrait, which was of the animated character. The video images of Fred Willard as the President/Buy-N-Large CEO are hundreds of years old, before the humans (d)evolved. It's all very cleverly done, and for good reason - it helps underline that this is OUR world, and our bleak future if we aren't respectful and responsible for our environment.

[Gorgonzola]

So once they've established the "real" humans, there needs to be an explanation for the appearance of the animated humans, which they cleverly did by showing the historical portrait gallery of Captains of the Axiom - the first portrait was a photograph of a real human man, and as the camera panned across each portrait you saw a subtle evolution occurring until the final portrait, which was of the animated character.

That was one of those quirks in the film that I immensely enjoyed - The initial promo video of folks on the Axiom enjoying themselves was a little odd to me at first, but once I saw those Captain portraits, I really dug it...would love to find a screen cap of just that so I could see exactly where in the line it stops becoming a distorted or photoshopped photo of a real person and it becomes an animated character.

-Drew

[OFFBEAT]

I loved the short before Wall-E.. that was one of the best things i've seen animated in a long time. It's everything I love about animation.
It revived the old Warner Bros. shorts. Very clever, Very funny.

I'm surprised it's not getting more mentioning and praise..

[CameronStewart]

Oh, that short was great. As you say, it evoked the best of the old Looney Tunes shorts, and wasn't afraid of being violent.

[HellboyOne]

The short had me smiling so big. This more than all the other Pixar shorts makes me want to see cartoons before any movie, period.

As for the use of actual humans vs. the cg fat people later, I totally got what they were going for. I just don't think it was successfully realized.

Still, it doesn't ruin the movie at all since the best parts were the Wall*E/Eva interactions.

[Timbone]

Oh, that short was great. As you say, it evoked the best of the old Looney Tunes shorts, and wasn't afraid of being violent.

Yeah, that violence took me by surprise a little - not because of the violence per se, but because they actually had the balls (no pun intended considering one of the gags) to go all the way and do the violent gags. Made me all warm and fuzzy nostalgic for my Looney Tunes...