Note from Matt: Hey everybody, this is the first review from our third contributor, the illustrious and talented Ben! This is our longest review yet, but sometimes a real read is great, especially when it’s about what looks to be an awesome movie. I’ll shoot you guys a music review tomorrow. Thanks all!
When I went to see Pixar’s newest contribution to modern, feature-length animation, my expectations were more than a little high. Ever since its inception, Pixar has continued to blow me away with their advances in just about every movie.
Toy Story recaptured much of Disney’s old glory, and created a series of moments that will always stick in my memory. Bug’s Life was less adult than its contemporary, Antz, but had much more heart. Toy Story 2 was in no way a step down from the original. Then came Monsters Inc., which, both visually and emotionally, opened up a new era. The hair on the monsters was lifelike, and demonstrated that CG animation could look real without focusing on characters that were, well, plastic. More importantly, Pixar reinforced its dedication to the heritage of animation. The sequence in which Sulley believes that Boo is being crushed by a garbage machine is a marvelous tribute to the classic shorts of Tex Avery and Chuck Jones, but doesn’t feel like Pixar is just rehashing old ideas.
Since then, Pixar has continued to do nothing but raise the bar on itself. In the end, this studio has been successful because they’ve hired and kept the best talent: Brad Bird – Ratatouille and The Incredibles, Andrew Stanton – Finding Nemo, and John Lasseter – Toy Story come to mind. More importantly, unlike Dreamworks, they understand that classic cartoons can entertain viewers of all ages, without resorting to peppering pop culture references and sexual innuendo sporadically into a kids’ movie. And perhaps most importantly of all, these filmmakers understand the heart and soul of moviemaking. These movies entertain, but you end up caring about the characters, and they’re people (or fish or creatures or action figures) that you’ll always remember. The Incredibles demonstrates that honoring superhero mythology can succeed with a wide audience if you do it in a fresh, innovative way. Ratatouille was an enormous step forward in animation, as particularly the first kitchen sequence illustrates how vividly the animators can create a universe and then portray it from the point of view of a mouse.
This summer, Pixar has brought us the latest and final creation resulting from that first creative meeting that brought us A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, and Monsters Inc. Needless to say, I had enormous expectations for this movie.
WALL-E begins on a desolate, futuristic Earth, abandoned by mankind due to over-pollution. Left alone to clean up the mess, WALL-E has developed a distinct curiosity in the items he finds in the trash, and, more importantly, feelings. He has a strong affinity for his cockroach companion and an obvious soft spot for Hello Dolly (this is one of those times where you have to suspend your disbelief and accept that some people might actually like that film). The first half hour of the film has very little interaction between characters; it merely features a lone robot interacting with his environment. It is done with a great deal of heart, and no less than some of the most effective physical comedy Pixar has ever given us (and that’s quite a complement, especially after the opening short film that accompanies WALL-E). However, it took a lot of balls for Pixar to start a potential blockbuster with 30 minutes of what many young children watching may see as drudgery to sit through (although they probably won’t use such elevated diction).
Soon, EVE arrives, and WALL-E has a companion, albeit one that resembles an iPod with a laser. Their interactions are very sweet, as WALL-E tries to establish a connection with another being, having not had anyone to talk (or in this case, beep and hum) to for centuries.
Just when you think this movie is going to result in a simple story about robots in love, Pixar decides to change things on its audiences. As I mentioned in the title of this article, Pixar had raised the bar so high that I don’t think it would have been possible to jump over it with this film. Thus, as innovative filmmakers would, they decide on a different strategy: Andrew Stanton straps this film (and its protagonist) to a rocket and shoots it into outer space, well above whatever bar critics were holding it to.
I don’t want to spoil the final 2/3 of this movie for any of you, so I will avoid major plot points. Basically, this movie has a great deal of commentary on the current direction of our society and our social interactions (some of you might recall my ranting about the evils of iPods during a few sequences). It also continues Pixar’s proud tradition of recognizing its cinematic roots, and appreciating the movies that came before it. Although I didn’t catch any overt R2-D2 references (even though the “voice” of WALL-E, Ben Burtt, was the sound designer for all Star Wars products in the last 30 years), the film spoofs 2001: A Space Odyssey and Titanic. Both of these jokes are done with love, and far from the sort of style you’d expect from something like Family Guy.
The movie truly is captivating. The plot moves along quite well, and despite throwing some very heavy revelations about our consumerism in our faces, it never lingers too long on darkness surrounding the plot, preferring instead to move the plot along. I like this element of WALL-E; I think it achieves a great deal as a science-fiction movie, but decides to ultimately be a family flick. The movie itself is surprisingly dark. I can’t recall a children’s movie with as dark a view of humanity in my lifetime. It (as far as I know) is also the first Pixar film to mix some live-action shots into the CG universe (which is handled quite well by the ever-dutiful Fred Willard), but these never end up distracting you.
The strictly limited doses of dialogue may throw some people away from this movie. I urge you not to be turned off by it. Not since Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton have filmmakers been truly able to speak the language of movies without dialogue, but this film pulls it off with little more than a few beeping noises.
I admit being afraid, when I first began seeing advertisements for Pixar’s latest creation, that this would be a cute, talking-robot comedy – something akin to Robots. I now realize the error of ever doubting Pixar (with the exception of Cars), but I still am reminded of Anton Ego’s wisdom at the end of Ratatouille: “In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new needs friends.”
This movie dares to achieve greatness without the use of significant dialogue (and aspiring filmmakers should take that lesson to heart). I hope that none of you are turned off by this decision, but instead appreciate it for what it is: a glorious addition to the already proud collection of Pixar movies. I’ll be slotting it in my list just below Ratatouille, right next to Monsters Inc, and just above Finding Nemo, Toy Story, and The Incredibles.
I hope to do some more blogsturbating on this site soon, when I am not preoccupied with my own, less culture-related blog.
I Ate My DVD Collection 
Nicole Catá said
Interesting look at Pixar’s appeal:
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=7882ebb7b2950d887052506b283cf2400290c1f9