So who's seen it?

It's a truly rare experience to have high expectations for a film and have those expectations completely blown away.

Best Pixar film ever.

Best animated film ever.

Hell, one of the best FILMS ever.

Slight obsession you've got going on here?

Did you see it is #6 on IMDB?

(Should it really be ranked higher than Star Wars?)

Yes, it should be ranked higher than Star Wars. It's a better science fiction film.

But come on - even if you don't share my obsession with this film, you have to admit one thing: Pixar has finally made a film that can be compared favorably with any classic movie.

Oh I probably will love the film...I'm just waiting until the crowds die down a bit before I go watch it.


...but higher than Star Wars?

saw it on saturday! I am blown away. I can't even begin to describe all the reasons why this is a flat out amazing film. I think that it truly embodies what cinema is all about. Great story and characters, outstanding animation, and thought provoking subject mater delivered in a near-perfect package.

i think that where it shines the brightest are in its lack of dialogue, and therefore emphasis on visual storytelling, and the way it shows how so many aspects of our society and western culture translate to the "future". It pulls these off in a way which i have never experienced, and i can only call brilliant. Not to mention that it is family friendly.

quote:

Pixar has finally made a film that can be compared favorably with any classic movie.

i think toy story could fall into that category.

Pixar successfully made me identify more with a robot then with a fellow human being.

I loved this movie, and once its out on DVD there will be no hesitation in me buying it.

This movie was GREAT.

OK, I'll say it.

I think Wall-E becomes completely trivial and predictable when it starts unravelling it's morality lesson -- which is from the first second we meet the human beings. As a morality lesson, it's fine -- yes, obviously we all need to work together to save the planet, and human beings are complete fat-asses, and so on. But as a story, the film suffers. The story is so heavy-handed.

The images of the trash-covered city say a lot more than the narrative -- and they say enough and they say it eloquently. We don't need the narrative to spell out what the trash-covered city means.

Honestly, I preferred Kung Fu Panda. I didn't like the lesson there, either, because I have no idea what "just believe" even means. But at least it wasn't so heavy-handed and didn't intrude too much on the fun.

True, I agree.

But you have to remember that this was first and foremost a kids movie, and they did have to spell it out to get the message across to the kids (well, maybe for the stupider adults too).

But I have to say that it was mighty awkward walking out of the theatre and there were some *ahem* larger people in the audience.

I disagree that Wall-E is first and foremost a kids movie - it was marketed to children, but the film itself targets every age (that's always been a strength of Pixar, though they pulled if off best here). When I saw it, the theater was filled almost entirely with adults or teenagers.

And, Jerry, I think you missed the "moral" of the story. While the film is socially conscious (and - be honest - it's pretty darn spot on), the love story is never usurped in importance; holding hands is more important than saving the world. The "lesson" is humanity, and the brilliance of Wall-E is that the audience identifies the most basic tenent of humanity in the relationship of two animated robots. That's cinematic genius.

Forsaken -- yeah, I hear you. And it was hilarious looking at all of the garbage left in the theater afterward. I love people who go to see Wall-E but then don't feel any responsibility to pick up after themselves. People are awesome.

On that note, did anyone see the trailer for that chihuahua movie? I kept thinking, "Is this a joke? This has to be a joke." Nope. Not a joke.

Cinematical -- I really respect your judgement of the film, so please don't take the following personally. Not that you would, but you know how things go here. We're just talking about a movie.

Wall-E has to mitigate between the love story and the morality tale. You're right, there's still a love story, but in general I think the film suffers. And I think the film's priority is actually the moral lesson -- which is why the artwork over the credits is all about, you know, the earth/humanity message rather than the love story. And, if you're right, what kind of a lesson is "humanity"? Humanity what?

On another note, identifying human traits in things that aren't human is actually called anthropomorphism, and it's not always considered the healthiest thing in the world. I understand anthropomorphism is the main device of virtually all animated children's movies, including Kung-fu Panda, which I loved. Good or bad, I don't know if this can really be called brilliant.

Anyway, don't want to ruffle anyone's feathers. I'm eager to hear how people respond. PS -- loved the short about the magician and the bunny.

i personally didn't find that WALL-E was really a "morality tale" per se, and i kind of think that seeing it as a film about environmental issues, or whatever, is a bit superficial. I think it is really about culture, and the products of culture, and what the products of culture say about a society.

in the film, all the garbage that people have thrown away turns out to be of great significance to wall-e. it is where he learns about love, and the whole holding hands thing. It is something he learned from a group of people who screwed up so bad that they left and threw their culture away. On the ship, you have all these people who vaguely resemble humans who know nothing about who they are or where they came from because they have thrown it away. so in a way, wall-e is more human than they are. so what makes a human? while people have lost their human characteristics because of a reliance on technology, technology has gained human characteristics by because it has experienced "ancient" human culture, which has been disregarded. what is human? and are people throwing away their culture? what role does the earth play in making us human? thats just one level that i get out of what is going on in the film.. there is so much.

Yes, I understand the concept of anthropomorphism - we identify emotion from the shape of two lights in a floating white robot, assigning human characteristics to a wholly non-human characteristic - but to identify with the anthropomorphized object is different. Even from a purely storytelling standpoint, Wall-E managed to convey the only convincing love story I've ever seen on film with only a few words and movements that merely suggest human-ness. I suppose it took non-humans to convince me (the "love" in film has always left me stuck in my own disbelief, and was, previously, the greatest shortcoming I saw in cinema), but all the same, it did.

And I don't understand your claim that the film's priorty is the morality lesson; we evidently watched different films. I found the focus to be perfectly balanced, masterfully maintaining the love story's primacy while including social commentary. And the content of a film's credits doesn't alter the content of the film itself.

I'd also like to echo your sentiment of non-confrontation. This is certainly not a personal judgement. Discussions are simply more fun when a few feathers get ruffled.

Cinematical I completely agree with you...I just got home from seeing it and Wall-E is amazing.

I think it's simplicity is part of what makes it so great. I think a better way to look at the film is not as a kids movie, but more or less a film made to remind everyone what it's like to be a kid again, and to encourage (or teach) current kids.

However, you have all made very interesting points about the film. Like Cinematical said, it's always funner when a few feathers get ruffled. And isn't that part of what film-making is all about? Making us think about, whether the thoughts are good or bad.

But in my opinion, I think one of the best ways to view a film (especially the pixar films) is to watch them as if I'm still a kid. I don't have to love a film because it's cinematic genius, but because something about the film just made sense. Or simply because it made me laugh, and Wall-E certainly did both of those things for me.

Oh and Jerry -

quote:

Forsaken -- yeah, I hear you. And it was hilarious looking at all of the garbage left in the theater afterward. I love people who go to see Wall-E but then don't feel any responsibility to pick up after themselves. People are awesome.

On that note, did anyone see the trailer for that chihuahua movie? I kept thinking, "Is this a joke? This has to be a joke." Nope. Not a joke.

Agreed and that's exactly what my friend and I said.

Oh, and I also loved the "Presto" short...great intro

quote:

Originally posted by Jerry Prokosch:
On that note, did anyone see the trailer for that chihuahua movie? I kept thinking, "Is this a joke? This has to be a joke." Nope. Not a joke.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua will probably end up being my favorite movie of 2008. Depends on how Curious Case turns out...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: braininabox,

the worst thing will be when beverly hills chihuahua is actually a good movie.

quote:

Originally posted by braininabox:
Beverly Hills Chihuahua will probably end up being my favorite movie of 2008. Depends on how Curious Case turns out...

Haha. I think we're probably on the same wavelength here. Because, how could you not love a movie that's so good?

Great film. Really one of Pixar's best. But I have to point out the design similarity to the 1986 movie Short Circuit and the robot "Johnny 5"

"Nice software Stephanie"

And they are indeed making a remake of Short Circuit

Plus why did they use a real person for the President/CEO character, For me this was the only flaw it was a bit wrenching for the medium to change like that. Why would they do that?

quote:

Plus why did they use a real person for the President/CEO character, For me this was the only flaw it was a bit wrenching for the medium to change like that. Why would they do that?

That's the one thing that I didn't really like, the medium change. In other animated movies that switch from animated to live (like Happy Feet) it really threw me off. In Wall-E I was tweaked by it at first, but then it started making a little more sense.

I think the idea the film-makers were trying to get at was (and this is just my theory) the old world, and then the futuristic world. It's like the live action people resemble us (the present world) more and then the animated people represent what we could become.

Yeah, I think the live action was there to reinforce how un-human the future population became.

Worked for me.