How exactly did it get to be December already!? But at least my computer is working again - yay! :)
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How exactly did it get to be December already!? But at least my computer is working again - yay! :)
Member since:01.08.2001
Reviews:112
Members who trust:175
Welcome to our not-so-very-distant future. Earth has finally been overrun with our rubbish, and mankind has taken to the stars - a cruise, say the advertisements, a pleasure holiday, while back on Earth robots will clean up the mess in time for our return.
Fast forward 700 years, and Earth's rubbish problem has yet to go away. Worse, the cleaning robots left behind have all succumbed to time - all bar one. Meet Wall-E: the last Waste Allocation Load Lifter (Earth-class) left on the planet.
The film's opening scenes show us Wall-E's life, of collecting rubbish from the giant mounds, compressing it, and building sky-scraper-sized towers out of it. The sheer scale of the problem, of the desolation of the one city we get to see, is quite gob-smacking. In fact, the opening 15 minutes had the entire audience glued in silence to the screen - despite a complete lack of dialogue! It is an extremely well-conceived sequence, in my opinion. On the one hand we have the start of the environmental message which is the film's one tiny downfall (I don't like being preached at - more on this later!) and the rather creepy sight of a desolated and utterly abandoned Earth; on the other is the balance of Wall-E's utterly adorable cuteness and the lovely humour as he explores some of the rubbish he finds.
For, 700 years of waste compression, and goodness knows how many of those completely alone, have apparently caused a bit of a bug in Wall-E's programming: that is, he's developed something
of a personality. You might remember that Pixar's origins were with an angle poise lamp (as per their logo), and I've always felt that was their great strength: giving personality to mechanical objects. This is completely proved here, to my mind, as Wall-E is probably the best film they've ever made!
So what makes it so? Ultimately it's the character of Wall-E its/himself. People, I believe, are must more disposed towards liking non-human characters with very human characteristics. Anthropomorphised animals being the stable of animation through the years, after all! Why? Because we can give them all the good traits, and none of the negatives. Such a sweet, naive character as Wall-E could never be a human role, as we'd be too aware of all the missing human features. As a robot, Wall-E can be utterly 'good' without alienating the audience - instead, we can empathise with the human characteristics utterly, while accepting him as something with unspoiled, childlike innocence - and none of the calculating, self-interested traits that creep in by the time a child is old enough to be aware of its world.
Okay, enough of the psychology already! What I'm trying to say is that it's easy to start to empathise with this poor, lonely robot. Wall-E befriends a cockroach (surely the cutest representation of a bug ever!), but is still pining for company. This is spurred by a recording he has found, of the film 'Hello Dolly' - and particularly the scenes of a couple holding hands. Plenty of 'awww!' moments! I don't know how deeply we're supposed to feel such things, but I admit that the sheer sense of crushing aloneness actually somewhat distressed me in the early parts of this movie - although none of the younger audience appeared too disturbed. I'm always interested when films can provoke such different responses from different viewers!
Thankfully - and necessarily - the pace goes through two big shifts. First is the arrival of EVE, an "Extraterrestial Vegetation Evaluator", sent to assess the Earth's current condition. Now, Eve turns out to be something of a Femme-Bot in Wall-E's eyes, and thus begins first a hugely humorous courting and then the little robot's biggest imaginable adventure: a trip into space!
The tone of the movie changes utterly at this point, and while totally necessary for the story, I was actually a bit disappointed when human beings make an appearance. Still, the action ramps up, as Wall-E suddenly finds himself surrounded not just by people but by a vast collection of obsessed, mad or just downright nasty other robots! The robots are definitely the key here, with the humans coming across rather poorly - as in, evolution on luxury cruise liners has not been kind! If there's a secondary moral in here it's about getting plenty of exercise and lifting your eyes from the computer and TV screens once in a while - very true! However, it's not too cloying, as the robots provide plenty of humour, and I thoroughly enjoyed chuckling away through the manic chase scenes right up to the end, as Wall-E attempts really just to hold Eve's hand and might just coincidentally end up saving the human race at the same time. It's a perfect piece of highly entertaining story telling.
Well, almost. Back to that environmental message. As I said, I thoroughly dislike being preached at, and it's hard to miss the great big green message here: one of these days, our obsession with consumerism is going to overflow the planet. However, I do agree that it's rather a good message, particularly when aimed at a young enough audience to perhaps take heed. I'd also say that it surprisingly manages NOT to feel rammed down your throat: it's such the backbone of the piece that it almost avoids the sudden moralising moment - almost, bar one sickeningly saccharine line from the ship's captain about three quarters of the way through. Still, for being the core of the story and not just a tagged on lesson I'm willing to forgive.
Overall, this movie is near-perfect entertainment, setting a striking atmosphere, and then upping the pace on the narrative through to the climax. The animation is brilliant, without overshadowing the story and the emotions it manages to evoke. And Wall-E is so utterly adorable, his adventures so captivating, that I couldn't not root for him the whole way through, and his story doesn't disappoint, in my opinion. ~ Boring Bits ~
Running time: 98 minutes
Rating: U (but suitable for grownups, too!)
Full 'cast' details can be found on imdb.co.uk
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Fantastic review, thanks. I never saw this when it came out at the movies, and I still haven't. I've heard really good things about it so I'm determined to watch it at some point, haha!
TheDuke 25.06.2009 14:53
I see the standard of commenting on Ciao is still as poor as it always has been.
A cracking review, Sarah. It's nice to see someone that can inject a bit of personality and feeeling into reviews rather than just list things. I watched this last year with my two nephews and they were spellbound for an hour and a half, despite the lack of dialogue in the first twenty minutes. It's definitely one of Pixar's best... let down only for the lack of originality, being "heavily influenced" by Dark Star.
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![WALL-E (2 Disc Special Edition) [DVD] [2008]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/81469403.jpg "WALL-E (2 Disc Special Edition) [DVD] [2008]")
May 5th, 2009
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