Wall-E is Pixar's latest offering and it is the humble opinion of this reviewer, that it is the finest and most fully realized picture to date. Thank the cinema gods that Disney has kept their nasty little hands out of Pixar's creativity and instead, simply distributed their work. Otherwise, we would have lost THE best production company in the USA. One side-note... I feel the need to preface this review and submit that the characterizations, sound design, and Wall-E's voice was done by an acquaintance of mine. This however had no bearing on this review as I thought the last movie he did sucked.
That said, on with my spoiler free review.
Wall-E is many things and it is very hard to describe. It leads you down one path, almost sets you up to expect certain things, then takes unexpected turns. Wall-E is without a doubt the most beautiful of all the Pixar films, and the best looking movie to come out this year so far (live action or animated). There are vistas and shots that are simply gorgeous. I could easily grab any number of frames and hang it on a wall as art. One could even argue the landscape is a character in itself. The level of detail and color complexity is simply staggering. I had tears in my eye many times in this picture. Twice due to the story, and twice due to the sheer beauty of what was on screen. I BEG you to see it in a Digital projection theater. This thing will be murdered when the colors and detail are stripped for DVD.
Wall-E's story is somewhat of an odd bird. It is set in the distant future. 700 years have lapsed since mankind left the Earth so it can be tidied up by a bunch of robots. The problem was, the job wasn't done and all of them have been deactivated aside from one (Wall-E naturally). We join Wall-E as he follows his "Directive".. busying himself gathering trash, compacting it, and stacking it for a retrieval that will never come. After 700 years of doing this one can imagine the amount that he has accomplished.
As a matter of fact in these first few scenes we can see that not only has Wall-E done his job well, he seems to have stumbled upon a creative way of making the redundant artistic. Perhaps this was meant to show (without exposition) how that first spark of individuality creeped into Wall-E's programming. Or perhaps, it was sparked by some other event and this was the product. But however it happened, we gradually find out two things about Wall-E. First, that he has individuality and consciousness, and second, this evolution has made him realize how lonely he is. As we, the audience, act as voyeurs into little Wall-E's world we are given this sense of isolation only through the many shots and sounds of the film. We see that although the world is derelict, he has made it his home and we get access to Wall-Es ideals of the Utopian world as played out through the most prized possession in his bric-a-brac collection: a videocassette of "Hello Dolly", and throughout this first half of the picture we hear whispers of events hinting at the dystropian world we will see later. The first half of the movie is incredibly well done. I was about 20 minutes into it when i realized I had heard no major dialogue aside from background. The film just pulls you in and you never notice it until you finally DO hear a voice and its quite startling..
Wall-E on the surface is simply a great picture. What you don't know yet is that it is one of the best Science Fiction movies to come out since, well, I don't know when. It has a tremendous scale and there are moments of wonder which I still think about. "The call to adventure" is the moment in a story where the main character, steps from out of the world that is familiar and into the unknown. Luke Skywalker did it, Ulysses did it, and Dorothy did it. This is actually a great analogy when I think about it. The scene where Wall-E is whisked from his world into the complete unknown is very Wizard of oz. Even on to his arrival and who he meets there in the "clouds".
This story borrows a lot from other greats. It pays homage to ET, Short Circuit, 2001 (heavily), Star Wars, Silent Running, Buster Keaton films, etc. This is probably what keeps me from declaring this film an utter masterpiece actually. I'm not yet convinced one can reference other masterpieces and be considered a masterpiece in itself. The bottom line is that the story is so good, so universal, so touching, that it stands on its own quite well and this makes the references seem like a love note to these great pictures.
The trailers gave nothing away. I'm SO happy they seemed to only use scenes from the first half of the movie. There were so many surprises and delights to be found. No character was underdeveloped (thanks in large part to Ben Burtt). The movie had themes and had messages, but it was never ever preachy. Amongst the themes are these.. love, personal responsibility, and self sacrifice. Damn good stuff. That, and you just want to hug the damn little bot. His personality is the picture's absolute powerhouse.
I SO BADLY want to go further into this, but I cant. This is one that doesn't need to be spoiled, perhaps I'll write a spoiler filled review and really dig deep into it, but not in this article... I want to talk about the use of color ... the warm tones of the earth, and the cool tones where Wall-E ends up.... I want to talk about the wonders of what they find, I want to talk about how through it all Wall-E always takes time to "smell the flowers", I want to mention the simple statements the characters make.... that have deep meaning and metaphor when you revisit it in context... and how this movie has one of the best morals for our time. This is the movie our apathetic society needs to see.. right here and right now.
Now "get off your ass" and go see it.
My lil monsters are 9 and 11. They enjoyed it and "got it" at least as appropriate for their ages. Of course, they're among the brighter bulbs in the pack. 