We went and saw “Wall-E” last night. As a huge Pixar fan (with the exception of “Cars”), I could be a little biased in my review but it was fan-friggin-tastic.
We ventured out to a 9:25pm showing hoping to avoid having a massive kid audience. When we got to the theater, Dan and I were wary as there were quite a lot of children under the age of 10 around. However, it turns out their parents failed in getting a sitter and dragged these kids to see “Wanted”. Erm…yeah, let’s save my “WTF are parents thinking these days?” rant for another time.
On to “Wall-E”. I’ll keep it spoiler free as it did just come out.
This latest member of the Pixar family is about a garbage-collecting robot named Wall-E. It is the last on an Earth consumed by mountains of trash, so much that the human population has taken to space while the Wall-E units were left behind to clean it up. Along comes a strange robot-probe named Eve, who looks very much like an Apple iProduct. Wall-E is smitten and ends up going on a space adventure when Eve is retrieved.
Once again, Pixar does an -amazing- job at anthropomorphism (10pts for using an SAT word!). What was really interesting about this particular film was the very little dialogue that occurred. The first 20mins were practically speech-free, so most of the character development was done through expressions and actions. You quickly and enjoyably learn that Wall-E is a kind-hearted, lonely robot with a child-like wonder solely by how it reacted to things as well as its body language.
The progressing interaction between Wall-E and Eve was also quite adorable to watch and is very much something adults can relate to from a “dating scene experience” point-of-view.
This movie provides a lot of laughs for both children and adults alike via the physical antics of the robots. As for the message of the movie, there is a very strong enviromentally-friendly feel to it but not so much that it beats you over the head with a green baseball bat like “Happy Feet” did. Wall-E serves as a cute conduit that charges the various robots and people it encounters (and through them, the audience as well) with a new directive to look beyond the familiar and discover the wonder that is before us.
As usual, Pixar provides a short animation before the movie. This time, it involves a magician and his disgruntled bunny. I believe this is my new favorite short from them as it was hilarious.
And yes, you see an 8-bit Twinkie during the credits.
Catty Critic
Catty Critic Goes to the Movies 