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turrell 
"Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh "
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 Posted - 07/09/2008 : 07:12:26
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| Ok more talk about WALL-E - sorry for the unintentional derail. WALL-E was magical. discuss... |
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demonic 
"Cinemaniac"
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Posted - 07/12/2008 : 21:52:10
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Yes, it was pretty great I thought. I've always thought the best animated characterisations have come from objects and creatures that couldn't talk (for example my favourite character in "Aladdin" is the flying carpet... genius) and this film played squarely into my good books straight away for that reason. I was quite smitten with Wall-e from about the two minute mark. Because there's going to be a lot of robot loving going on in general on this topic I'd like to point out the main thing I didn't like.
and ... *SPOILERS* ahoy!
Thinking back on it now I can't shake the feeling I had when I left the cinema - I wasn't exhilarated or warmed like I was after say, Ratatouille or The Incredibles. Actually my prevaling emotion was more negative; it made me depressed. I had the sensation that no matter what man does on earth he'll always screw it up. In the film mankind has effectively turned the earth into an uninhabitable rubbish dump and for whatever good intentions there are of a new start will probably end up doing it all again considering how easily turned into cattle they were in space. Not to mention there's skyscrapers worth of rubbish that isn't going anywhere fast. After the clean up leave the planet to the robots I say; mankind doesn't really deserve it.
To add to that sensation I couldn't help notice walking out of the cinema onto a busy shopping high road the extraordinary number of fat people miserably waddling from shop to shop, seemingly not requiring the aid of zero gravity to accelerate the process, with litter all over the place and saw how prescient this film actually is for our times. I'd love to think otherwise but sadly Wall-E won't be able to stop that downward spiral no matter how well made the film was or how adored he is. WALL-E effectively gave me a reality check... I hate people.
Sorry for that downer. Can I just say in antidote I loved the sci-fi in jokes (HAL from 2001, Sigourney Weaver taking on the "Mother" role) and the invulnerable cockroach gag... brilliant. |
Edited by - demonic on 07/12/2008 21:53:12 |
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randall 
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 07/13/2008 : 01:33:18
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| Gosh, I thought the film ended on an up-note. The humans were back on earth with the reconstitution of the planet ahead of them, and they were eager to start the job! |
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Montgomery
"F**k!"
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Posted - 07/14/2008 : 18:33:24
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quote:
Originally posted by Randall
Gosh, I thought the film ended on an up-note. The humans were back on earth with the reconstitution of the planet ahead of them, and they were eager to start the job!
Sounds like demonic walked out before the final credits showed it all getting better again with the replanting of the earth, etc.
EM :) |
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demonic
"Cinemaniac"
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Posted - 07/14/2008 : 18:40:36
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| No, I watched the credits. Great credits, too. But it failed to shake my assertion that mankind will ultimately destroy everything no matter what the immediate improvements are. You may now can me pessimist. |
Edited by - demonic on 07/14/2008 18:41:38 |
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silly 
"That rabbit's DYNAMITE."
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Posted - 07/14/2008 : 22:00:11
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I had a thought the other night; I don't know what you call the technique, but what if Wall-E actually took place thousands of years ago, making Wall-E and Eve and the Tree of Life and all that our ancestors? Which is why they found cave art showing all that.
Okay, maybe I shouldn't fall asleep with The Fountain on, but it sorta made sense at the time.
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Whippersnapper. 
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 07/14/2008 : 22:41:27
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Falling asleep with "The Fountain" on definitely makes sense. Another truly horrible cinematic experience.
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 07/15/2008 : 07:17:41
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| Huh? Which one was horrible - The Fountain or WALL-E? |
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chazbo 
"Outta This Fuckin' Place"
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Posted - 07/15/2008 : 22:35:37
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I took my two young kids to see this yesterday, and the consensus is that it is a fine film, better than recent Pixar offerings.
The great thing about it is that the message is always right there in plain view, but it doesn't overwhelm the story in a negative way. As someone mentioned, the people are not disagreeable - they're just unfortunate victims of the aggressive marketing of big corporations, which are the real villains.
It leaves you thinking afterwards, which is always a good sign. While my kids got the eco-theme, though, they spent the rest of the day trying to mimic WALL-E saying his name.
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MisterBadIdea 
"PLZ GET MILK, KTHXBYE"
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Posted - 07/16/2008 : 03:25:32
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quote:
Originally posted by demonic
No, I watched the credits. Great credits, too. But it failed to shake my assertion that mankind will ultimately destroy everything no matter what the immediate improvements are. You may now can me pessimist.
The film ends with the BNL logo. I think it's fair to call it somewhat depressing. It's a film about how mankind is always collapsing, rebuilding, and collapsing again. |
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 07/18/2008 : 20:02:44
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I loved the bot from the moment I saw him in big-screen trailers and online trails and pop-up boxes and that 4-year who lives inside me was panting for the film to open.
Because apart from the little guy, look at the pedigree: co-writers Andrew Stanton and Pete Docter were behind Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc ... some damn fine Pixar pix. And the added trivia that Pete Docter's dad is a doctor - Doctor Docter. How cool is that!
But I digress.
The first bit I loved, loved, loved. It made me smile, smile loudly, laugh, and even a couple of times laugh loudly. It made me marvel at the technical quality, and go ooh and aah and everything. I wanted that bit to go on and on and on.
And then the story left the planet - in more ways than one. And that's where my delight, which I want you to imagine as a glorious ice sculpture, slowly started to melt. The story dragged in every safe cliche, punched you in the eye with its message, sacrificed running and gliding and flying and sliding for anything meaningful and true. And it lost me, dropped me down the tunnel.
The dialogue should have been way funnier, the characters far more differentiated and exaggerated and developed.
My inner 4-year-old was stamping her foot screaming No! No! Please rescue me. I do not want to go down this too-trodden path. But they didn't listen. And so the film, its dynamics all bumpy and ruptured, reached an inevitable stopping place.
The witty, pretty end credits helped band-aid the wound, but I'm still bleeding. Oh, Wall-E, if ever you're in my neighbourhood, please come by for a hug. I really need one!
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Edited by - BaftaBaby on 07/18/2008 23:35:47 |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 07/19/2008 : 00:16:41
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quote:
Originally posted by demonic
Thinking back on it now I can't shake the feeling I had when I left the cinema - I wasn't exhilarated or warmed like I was after say, Ratatouille or The Incredibles.
Just how I felt. While the scenario in Ratatouille is awesome, the story is actually pretty mediocre, but I still found myself very moist-eyed watching it. I actually felt similar watching the WALL�E trailer on one occasion recently, but perhaps it was just the mood I was in.
I still think that it's really a great film in most of the ways that have been outlined, such as what is achieved without dialogue. However, I'm not surprised that a lot of emotion can be conveyed with 'just' eyes. WALL�E is highly anthropomorphic in that regard, and human beings are highly programmed to see faces (which is why emoticons work). He is also just too like Number 5 for my liking. He's still a fantastically likeable character, though.
I don't mind the environmental message being rammed down kids' throats - so it should be. I agree with demonic, though, that it is rather wilfully optimistic. If they had just said "We cannot clean up all this until we are re-established, so we'll just start with one small island", I would have felt more satisfied. On the people, though, the portrayal of them was simply brilliant, I felt -- perhaps the best thing of the whole film. And that message is something that children can actually successfully act on individually if they choose too. I thought that the HAL-type stuff was maybe a bit confusing for young children, though, especially as it was quite a lengthy section.
Like RockGolf or someone, I was notably impressed by the C.G.I. (not usual these days) and consciously thought about how people a few years ago would not have been able to imagine it was anything other than filmed in the parts where it is just WALL�E on Earth.
Great credits too. |
Edited by - Demisemicenturian on 07/19/2008 00:18:13 |
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Montgomery
"F**k!"
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Posted - 07/19/2008 : 03:41:51
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quote:
Originally posted by chazbo
While my kids got the eco-theme, though, they spent the rest of the day trying to mimic WALL-E saying his name.
EM :)
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Edited by - Montgomery on 07/19/2008 03:44:32 |
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Chris C 
"Four words, never backwards."
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Posted - 07/19/2008 : 16:15:30
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Went to see the movie with 11yo daughter this morning, and we came away very impressed with the whole movie.
I'm with Salopian and agree with many of Demonic's sentiments. I don't have anything to add.
quote:
Can I just say in antidote I loved the sci-fi in jokes (HAL from 2001, Sigourney Weaver taking on the "Mother" role) and the invulnerable cockroach gag... brilliant.
Did anyone else spot the "Silent Running" moment?
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demonic
"Cinemaniac"
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Posted - 07/19/2008 : 17:48:36
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| Can't say I did... I love that movie too. Was it one of the rogue robots? |
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WALL-E
