Today I saw WALL-E ,Pixar's latest sure-to-break-records summer blockbuster. Let me say that generally I enjoy Pixar films(I've seen all but Cars) and that the boys I took thoroughly enjoyed it. The animation, or art really, reached the outstanding level that we expect from Pixar. All that being said, I need to bang on this movie a little. It wasn't bad, but it was no "The Incredibles" either. On many levels this a heavy, dark adult movie. Those who wish to analyze can pluck many a theme from the film. Take your pick: Strong female saves goofy male (certainly hits home for me), underdog succeeds, new technology versus old technology, love conquers all and my personal favorite, robots might just be the end of us.
To see any of these themes, though, you have to dodge the theme Disney is ramming down your throat-you, yes you, are ruining Planet Earth. Big business and overconsumption, to hear Disney tell it, will render Earth uninhabitable and spacebound humans will grow fat and lazy because robots fulfill our every need. I'm not the greenest guy around, but I do understand subtlety and don't need to be hit over the head with the save the environment message. The filmakers lay the guilt/blame on thicker than the layers of garbage WALL-E stacks all day every day. Yet, I'm sure that won't stop Disney from selling tons of plastic WALL-E action figures, toothbrushes, nite lites, and lunch boxes that will clog landfills for the forseeable future.
WALL-E, sort of the Cal Ripken of trash robots, goes to work everyday despite the fact that all other robots on abandoned Earth have long since rusted. The endearing underdog discovers a plant somehow still alive and the adventure really begins when he falls in love with and subsequently follows a space probe back to the ship harboring mankind. WALL-E hits all the right notes that are supposed to pluck your heartstrings and make you love a character, but for me the connection just wasn't there.
I'll wrap it up like this-The animation, especially of the bleak first 30 minutes, was great, there are some laughs, WALL-E himself is likable, but ultimately I think I found the Pixar pre-movie short film more entertaining than the feature. Too bad.
7 comments:
a neighborhood kid handed me the book and begged me to read it; when the fist [n?] words were "humans destroyed the earths habitat" or some equivalent B.S., I said to the kid, "do you really believe this crap?" she didn't get it.
rest assured, my kid will not be reading the book nor watching the 'special limited edition Disney DVD' (only 1.2 billion DVD's burned...) forget that -- I'll read her Fahrenheit 451 instead.
also, I heard the last 30 minutes are really dark -- no big happy ending... care to give away any spoilers?
Without giving away any big spoilers I will say that there was a happy ending. Not a typical Disney giant dance number happy ending, but a happy ending nonetheless.
I don't get the appeal of the Pixar films. For the most part they, like most other Disney films, are the same movie over and over again, but with different animals/kitchen utensils than what was in the last film. I know that kids don't need a great amount of depth in the storyline to be entertained, but the way adults clamour over them I don't get it. These are the type of movies people seem to like just because somebody says so.
I saw it last night... I liked it.
I think I will try to catch this one over the weekend. Actually, not THIS weekend, but soon.
And, umm ... how exactly have you never seen Cars? Given your background, you should be ashamed.
*shaking head*
There is a delicious sort of irony in Disney's agenda for this movie, don't you think? Who better represents conspicuous consumerism than our favorite mouse?
Of course, my dad would never let us watch any of the crap cartoons on WTBS (Captain Planet et al.) because the bad guys always wore business suits of military uniforms.
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