by digitaldreammachine » Thu Jul 17, 2008 10:10 am
Have seen it twice now. You know I'm fond of those Pixar guys and gals!
Love the bots. Not satisfied with the humans - live or animated.
I think potentially eliminating the humans, especially the live action ones, would have left my focus on the bot love story and not pulled it out wondering why are there live action people in this film? It would have been fine to see a human at the end of the movie, like a reversal of the typical aliens sighting at the end of sci-fi films. I think they could have just reanimated the Hello Dolly live actors and it would have still conveyed the points across fine. I understand if it was an attempt at the classic Disney 2D/live action combination films, but it just didn't work for me. I'm also not saying Pixar should never do live action, I know Bird's next will probably be live action, but this one...hmmm...
Stanton and Docter and the rest of the team are brilliant and this film is mostly so, but I really thought the live-action took away from the film slightly. The overweight characters in the film weren't visually to my liking either, but I understand why they were there, especially as an interesting comment on our overconsumptive society in general.
Johnny 5 (no matter how you spin it)...er WALL?E was a character with a lot of life, and along with the rest of the bots, EVE especially, Ben Burtt's sound design work was nothing short of spectacular. He helped bring these characters to life as much as the story folks, animators, and modelers, etc.
This is easily one of the best animated films in a while, but concentrating on the love story between the robots would have been enough for me.
Oh, and Thomas Newman's score was fantastic! Really enjoyed the end credit sequence too!
Regardless, a fun film and a worthy addition to Pixar's creations.