Movie Notes: Wall-E

June 30th, 2008

Movie Notes: Wall-E

= 4 stars

Starring Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Fred Willard
Directed by Andrew Stanton

Synopsis

About 700 years in the future, mankind has fled Earth and left it a polluted wasteland of concrete and garbage. Wall-E, the last trash-collecting robot, wanders the planet alone, until he encounters Eve, a modern probe droid with a specific purpose.

The Good

The film’s first half is literally perfect, nearly devoid of dialogue as we get to know Wall-E, his life on Earth, and attempts to communicate with Eve. It’s a masterpiece of pantomime animation that recalls the earliest Pixar short Luxo Jr., and the romantic comedy is better than many live action ones starring real humans one might call actors.
Tons of sci-fi movie references: Wall-E resembles Short Circuit and ET, robotic voices like the Star Wars droids (thanks Ben Burtt), a crowded hallway like THX-1138, and the second in command has a Hal-like eye from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Cute nods to Apple (Steve Jobs is head of Pixar) - Wall-E uses an iPod, Eve’s white plastic exterior resembles an iMac, and Wall-E blurts the Mac start up chime when drained of solar power.
A worthwhile environmental message and bleak vision of a technology-assisted / corporate-owned humanity - a comment on today’s society by showing a potential future. Pixar deserves credit for moving beyond slapstick comedy and tackling more serious subjects.

The Bad

The robots are such strong characters, that once the relatively lackluster humans are introduced, the film drags. Our future, marshmallow-body-and-brain selves are so devoid of personality, and their leader is such a dud, that it was hard for me to relate to or care about them. Their physical and mental state fits with the movie’s message, but dramatically it bogs things down.
Definitely not as many laughs as other Pixar films, less than Ratatouille and Cars combined.

Conclusion

This is a tricky film for me to review, since I thoroughly enjoyed all the Pixar movies with exception of Cars. Unfortunately, the amazing track record just begs for comparison between films, and on that level, Wall-E suffers: Toy Story 2 made me cry, while The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, and Monsters Inc. had me laughing out loud. Even Ratatouille got my mouth watering. Wall-E’s second half didn’t move me - probably because I’ve already contemplated our current unsustainable lifestyle, lack of environmental concern, and our bleak future, and as far as bleak, dystopian sci-fi goes, there are many other, more cynical yet entertaining examples to choose from.

Wall-E is at the level of A Bug’s Life and better than Cars, but not a big, fawning, thumbs up as the The Incredibles. It’s worth seeing in the theater, but I politely refrain from calling it a masterpiece. The silent acting of the two robots was my revelation, but all else - not so much.

IMDB: Wall-E
Wikipedia: Wall-E
Rotten Tomatoes: Wall-E 97%