I just saw Wall-E less than an hour ago. It was undoubtedly either the best or the second best Pixar film I have ever seen (if second, then second only to Toy Story). It was, however, not a suitable movie for children either in its subject material or its presentation. The topic was very serious (though not necessarily "adult") and the presentation involved so many allusions to pop culture (frequently to pop culture from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s) as well as so little dialogue that I not only imagine children would be bored with the film but I witnessed it with my own eyes and (mostly) ears. Restlessness, "Mommy what's going on?", and very, very forced, punctuated laughter at the few slapstick moments throughout the film. I fear that Wall-E will not be loved nearly so much as The Incredibles or even Cars by its target audience today; but I rest easy knowing that when they grow up they will return to Wall-E and be absolutely enthralled by it.
I will discuss spoiler-based sentiments in the first reply to this post. Readers who have not yet seen the film are discouraged from reading further.
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7 comments:
I loved the movie despite its scientific imperfections (see below) all the way up until the very end. There were several moments I caught myself grinning very widely or wrangling my hands in girlish delight at the romance between Wall-E and Eve. But the end of the movie sorely disappointed me -- for Pixar had given me false hope that they had the fortitude to write an appropriately tragic ending and instead opted for an incredibly cheesy, illogical copout. Suggesting that Wall-E's circuitboard was the storage of his persona, of his being was a very smart move on Pixar's part and it was with mixed trepidation and (drama reader's) delight that I watched Eve try to repair Wall-E only to discover that there are some parts you just can't fix. So imagine my dismay when Pixar tearfully played that scene out only to whammo say "Hey kids Eve kissing Wall-E made him all better again." Ugh. I know we as Americans tend to turn to Disney for our optimistic feel-good childhood teachings but this was inappropriate of Pixar in my opinion. Children need to be exposed to things like death and loss, but tactfully and delicately. The scene with lost Wall-E was such a scene, and Pixar scrapped it for the Happily Ever After. I have my suspicions (personally) that Pixar had wanted the tragic ending but some execs at Disney said N-fucking-O. Sigh.
Okay, 2nd point: the science. Normally I don't bitch about these things, and believe you me -- I was able to overlook them and enjoy the movie splendidly. These gripes are the same gripes Blaise and I sometimes take with Chobits -- they're the sort of silly scientific errors you are embarassed to see mucking up an other perfect piece:
- I'd like to know why Wall-E was the only robot left on Earth. Convenient, don't you think? Particularly when we saw that there was magical electricity powering the megaphones, the shopping center auto-open doors, etc?
- Why would Wall-E have a built-in tape recorder? Before you say "he added it to himself," UH UH UH UH! Then how come he can't improve himself in every other fashion and is only capable of exchanging old parts for identically-compatible new ones?
- I loved the gentle nod to microevolution, but how are we to expect that the captain and all the others could suddenly support that hulking weight on those fragile flipper-like feet? Don't get me wrong: loved the scene (laughed my ass off and cheered for him along with the kiddos), just disappointed with the science-out-the-window approach.
- I had some huge ones but they're escaping my mind right now (CURSES!) so I'll have to try again later if/when they come to me.
3rd, lol @ Wall-E's cannibalism! That really struck me early on in the film: the scene where he goes to the Wall-E graveyard and harvests organs for himself from the corpses. Jesus. o_o Couldn't they have shown him going to a run-down BnL factory that manufactured Wall-E parts or something? CANNIBALISM.
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On the positive side of things,
I loved Eve. ^-^ Adorable. One of the best Disney female love interests we've had in years. Her design was really smart, too, as a feminine smooth delicate pristine white next to Wall-E's rough grimy body. Not that Wall-E screamed "masculine" to my brain, but something about Eve definitely felt feminine. Hard to pinpoint ...
God I loved the plot of this film. Even if you took away the heavy message underlying it, it would have been great. And I loved the presentation. Even if the kiddies didn't.
The message was good, if "yuppie hippie liberal" to some.
The "plot twist" about humanity's fate was completely unexpected by me, and it was probably the most scientifically appropriate part of the whole film. Really liked it, even if it was a little disgusting to watch at times.
And I had other important praises, too, and they too are escaping me at the moment. Crap. :( I'll have to try again later.
I remembered several of my scientific complaints ...
- What was the source of humanity's energy on Earth providing Wall-E with the power he and the city needed? Are we to believe mankind figured out the proverbial "cold fusion"?
- The Axiom was humanity's last bastion of existence? We saw, what? 700 or so adult humans and 20 or so babies? If humanity's numbers had dwindled to that low a number, I'm sorry, but the species would have been fucked.
- I appreciate Pixar's joke that cockroaches can survive in even the harhest of environments, but the cockroach is the last critter you'd expect to see on a lifeless planet. You would much sooner expect to see some hardy bacteria or fungi or even plants before you'd expect to see a cockroach. Point being, for a cockroach to be on Wall-E's Earth, it means that cockroaches on our Earth never went extinct and kept on truckin'. To keep on truckin', they had to have food. Bio-organic food. NON-TWINKIES. Point being, when the captain claimed "no pods have ever detected life before [Eve's successful mission]", that was a huge plot hole. They would have had to have. Or else they were shitty pods.
- Come to think of it, where were these other pods, these E.V.E.s? Why, in 700 years, had Wall-E never seen one? And why should we believe that they would have lost energy or shut down before fulfilling the Directive? If Wall-E can stay on for 700 years, you damn well better believe an E.V.E. could. It was dumb to imply otherwise. The writers should have had Eve be the first E.V.E. sent to Earth, not the nth.
- Why would humanity dump all of that lovely recyclable scrap into outerspace? The trash compactor made sense but the jettisoning of scrap into space did not.
- Speaking of which, the Axiom was stationed in the middle of a purple nebula. i.e. not a planet or mineral-rich asteroid. i.e. where the fuck did they get all that metal from anyway?
- Why did humanity not take plants with them onto the Axiom? If they didn't, then I pose that there's no way they could have survived unless the energy drinks BnL made supplanted natural eating. And if that is the case (which is precisely what the movie implies, so let me finish! :p), then I don't see why humanity was so excited to see plants again. Why do they need them? Insofar as "life is sacred," then why the fuck didn't they save dogs and cats and koalas? The Axiom had nothing but humans and robots. "Life is sacred" my ass, those humans only cared about themselves. So the whole schizoid display of worship for the plant made little sense.
I'll cut it short here for now. Why?
"Bitch, bitch, bitch! :p All you do is bitch, Ryan. Did you really like it?"
I can hear it now. And I have to repeat, firmly, yes I did like it. Not even "like" -- I loved it. I'll be buying it on DVD as soon as it comes out. An excellent addition to anyone's library parent or otherwise.
I'm just a natural-born critic, that's all. -.-
I agree about the ending. I really wanted that tragic conclusion; for a second, I was totally surprised that Pixar might have the balls to transform an entire theater into a mass of crying children (myself included). Alas, they took the easy way out.
I have to disagree with your assessment that children won't like the movie. I can't tell you how many times I've heard little children screech, "Wall-e" both in and outside the theater. They love that character. I think there's more than enough sight gags and simple story beats to keep them entertained.
I defer to your thousands of children seen to my 10-12, but I promise you, Jay, there were three families with children in the 4-10 years old age range and one mother with her son of about 3-4, and none of them was particularly excited at any point in the movie. When the captain was fighting with Otto/Auto, I was the only one showing any signs of mirth and they were pretty quiet meek chuckles, no riproarious laughs. When the credits began to roll and they showed the epilogue (so to speak) via the mural art, I was the only person to stay behind. All the kids were ready to leave. None of them was excited. None of them was saying "Wall-E" this or "Wall-E" that. Dead silence. A "let's go home, Mom; that was a waste of 2 hours and 6 bucks" aura around them.
All I can say is, the kids in my theater were uniformly unimpressed. Stupid? Tough crowd? Already seen the movie a 1000 times and this was #1001? Who knows. But they were an unimpressive bunch. If they'd been the kids a random screening test had selected, I'm pretty sure Pixar would have been chewing their hats.
About the nebula: if humanity is advanced enough to have hyper drive that can cross light years of space in a matter of seconds, (the closest nebula is the Helix nebula at 700 light years away, so we know they must have traveled at least 700 light years) they're probably advanced enough to synthesize any material they need just from the raw matter in the nebula gas. I'm sure that is why they were parked there, because the nebula would supply an endless amount of raw material for food and product synthesis, especially if the star that made it had a high metallicity.
They couldn't even do basic hydroponics though. :\
1. I really want to watch this movie again. Now. I can't wait for this to come out on DVD. :( I would gladly watch it this second except it's 11:30 at night.
2. I'm really upset they copped out on the ending! >.<
3. I really love Wall-E and Eve.
4. Watching the trailer (just the goddamn trailer) made me cry when I heard his voice. :(
5. Y'know, though ... even having seen the movie, I am still really underwhelmed by the trailer. It's really, really shitty compared with the film. Like ... honestly, one of the worst trailers partnered with one of the best movies in years.
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