New on DVD Nov 16 2008 @ 01:30 pm
REVIEW: WALL•E
Directed By: Andrew Stanton
Written By: Andrew Stanton
Starring: the vocal talent of Ben Burtt and Elissa Knight
Running Time: 93 minutes
Rated G
This review was originally published June 27, 2008.
In 1983, a former monk named Godfrey Reggio made a film called Koyaanisqatsi. The title comes from a word in the Hopi language meaning “crazy life” or even better, “life out of balance.” Considered a classic in some circles, the film isn’t a traditional narrative but a tone poem about how modern man has become extremely distanced from the very thing that gives him life and breath. Some would interpret this as the transcendental idea of nature, others would say God. The film was a not-so-subtle call to replace our current state with another way of living; to focus on the simple and the natural instead of complicated consumerism and life-absorbing technological advances. I was reminded of Koyaanisqatsi more than once during WALL•E and did a double-take: was this really coming out of Disney studios — purveyor of all things luxurious and commercial?
Koyaanisqatsi's villain and Pixar's hero
The Earth of WALL•E is strikingly similar to our own … except it’s covered in trash. Lots of trash. That’s why we have WALL•E, a trash-compacting robot who spends his days picking up scattered articles, sticking them in his belly, and compacting them into square blocks to be stacked high as skyscrapers. Why? Because humans have left their dirty earth and gone to live in the Axiom space center where can be found “everything you need to be happy.” A world of entertainment and leisure awaits in the Axiom … everyone has been gone for 700 years leaving WALL•E all alone, living in his little bunker with a few treasures he’s found among the rubbish: a lightbulb, a spork, a VHS of Hello, Dolly, and most recently a living green plant. His routine trash pickup is interrupted one afternoon with the arrival of a huge spacecraft. With it comes EVE, another robot sent with a secret directive. The two strike up an unlikely friendship until part of EVE’s directive is realized and the two end up in space on their way to the Axiom.
Wall E in space.
Ahh, space. If Pixar’s realization of a futuristic earth is hearkening and horrifying, then their creation of what lies outside of earth is just the opposite. When WALL•E blasts into space and realizes the vastness beyond earth, we wonder and delight in the beauty with him even though the concept is something we’ve seen so many times before. Watching Pixar paint the universe with animation is like being reintroduced to the concept of outer space. These five minutes spent with WALL•E as he first enters outer space are no doubt the most magical moments of any film this year. The anticipation for what awaits inside the Axiom builds and builds until we finally find out the extent of what the human race has become: overweight, lazy blobs traveling around on floating chairs, being nourished with liquid food … just like babies.
And that’s about all I can say. Of course I’m leaving things out — you’ll have to see the film to experience director Andrew Stanton’s potent science fiction epic.
Pixar’s creation of outer space is gorgeous, but the other environments created for WALL•E are just as eye-popping. The post-human, trash-covered earth has a muted, hot color palette (think desert) so that when WALL•E finds a small green plant among the rubbish, it stands out more than anything else in sight. The Axiom community is just the opposite with an overabundance of bright colors used to emphasize the pseudo-busyness of the space “culture.” The robots are also rendered to perfection and voiced with some of the most unique and emotive electronic noises you’ve ever heard; it’s very difficult not to melt at the sound of WALL•E’s voice as he pines for EVE when she’s taken away from him.
Although WALL•E may be the most beautifully realized, poetically rich, and uniquely relevant of all Pixar’s films, there are a few minor hangups in the second half. So many chase scenes and hijinks take place inside the Axiom station that they sometimes become repetitive. Little comedic ideas and references are repeated again and again and instead of feeling Pixar’s usual dry and inspired irony, the scenes sometimes feel like a cut-n-paste job. There’s also an extended reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey (it involves music) that, no matter how appropriate it may seem, feels kind of cheap considering Pixar’s track record of being extremely creative without ripping off anyone else. It hurts to criticize such an entertainingly wonderful film and, heck, even trying to may be a moot point.
Buy N Large
There’s been a lot of controversy brewing over WALL•E. Some have said that its an environmentalist message movie that has nothing better to say than “Be Green.” Others think the single comedic reference to George W. Bush’s presidency (the head of mega corporation Buy n Large admonishing people to “stay the course”) makes it a piece of liberal propaganda. A few people are even mad about the futuristic human race being portrayed as overgrown, obese “babies.” To smack any of these labels on something as profound as WALL•E would be a grave miscalculation.
Nay, the film couldn’t be less about politics — it’s about culture death. Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky wrote at length on this subject and once said that “modern mass culture, aimed at the ‘consumer’, the civilization of prosthetics, is crippling people’s souls, setting up barriers between man and the crucial questions of his existence, his consciousness of himself as a spiritual being.” This statement is the core of WALL•E and to see the all too familiar futuristic earth of the first act juxtaposed against the extreme laziness of the Axiom community is quite alarming for a G-rated film.
But that’s the brilliance of what Pixar does: they consistently take mature themes and weave them into something capable of being appreciated by young and old. WALL•E is certainly no different, and with a gentle blow to the head it tells us that the human race may always exist, but we’ll never truly live and be satisfied until we put rampant consumerism behind us and take time to look up in wonder just like WALL•E.
And you thought it was just about a cute lil' robot.
on Jun 28 2008 @ 3:09 am 1. Nick Plowman said …
Yay….well, I have to wait until Tuesday to see it…
on Jun 28 2008 @ 8:45 am 2. Luke Harrington said …
Excellent review. I cannot wait for this one.
on Jun 28 2008 @ 2:03 pm 3. Mike Phelps said …
I concur 100% with Luke…
(Notice I used concur in lieu of agree…thought I’d step my game up a little bit…show off my vocab)
on Jun 28 2008 @ 2:54 pm 4. Evan Derrick said …
Very impressive, Mike. Who knew we had a William Shakespeare within our midst?
I, too, am looking forward to this. Love the comparisons to Koyaanisqatsi, Phillip. I still remember when I first saw that – blew me away.
on Jun 28 2008 @ 5:40 pm 5. Demi said …
Yes, I enjoyed your review, and have this to say:
It seems for me as if the hallmark of a good film is that it has a simple quality but is incredibly profound at the same time. Ex. About a Boy, Dan in Real Life, etc.
I was definitely caught off guard to observe this in Wall E.
And I really enjoyed it, even if I didn’t laugh out loud as much as I did in previous Disney/ Pixar films…
Again, great review!
on Jun 28 2008 @ 6:45 pm 6. Phillip Johnston said …
When it comes to beauty and simplicity in a tight little package, few deliver better than Pixar. Thanks for stopping by.
on Jun 30 2008 @ 6:24 am 7. G said …
Thank god for this “tight little package.” I liked Cars and I really liked Ratatouille, but I thought both of them were just a touch too long.
Then again, I could have watched Wall-E for another 6 or 7 hours.
on Jun 30 2008 @ 12:43 pm 8. Daniel said …
Nice work, Philip. WALL-E is a gem. Dreamy and fantastic.
on Jun 30 2008 @ 5:58 pm 9. Cinexcellence said …
Great review.
“overweight, lazy blobs traveling around on floating chairs, being nourished with liquid food … just like babies.”
Yeah, I really liked that particular parallel. It was great to have Ben Burtt doing what he does best again.
I’m just wondering if he manipulated the wilhelm scream for the film. I sure didn’t notice it.
on Jul 03 2008 @ 10:59 am 10. James said …
Aloha everybody,
First of all, I must compliment Philip on his outstanding review of what has become the “film to beat” this summer.
I just saw it on Tuesday with my sister and a few friends. I’m not ashamed to say it, but I came close to crying quite a few times. Which really isn’t all that hard, as I am a big softie…
But I digress. I think it important to lay out what I go through before I watch a movie. I try to set a level of reasonable expectations for the film, so I can view it on its own level. Since it’s a Pixar film, I already had two expectations in mind:
1) The animation will be top-notch. Pixar has had a superior track record so far, so there would be no reason to expect “glitches” of any sort.
2) A large part of Pixar’s appeal for me is in HOW they approach their film’s premise, even if that premise is a total cliche. They have a talent for telling an old, worn-out story in a manner quite unexpected. The most obvious example is “Monster’s Inc”, where we are given a unique perspective on the old “monster in the closet” story.
Having said that, Wall*E not only met both expectations, it exceeded them.
In my circle of friends, I am known as the “Keen Observer Of Detail.” (KOOD, for short. LOL) I seem to pick up on stuff that my other friends are not even conscious of during the film. For example, one thing about Wall*E that I noticed after we all left the theater was that the first half of the movie was, in essence, a silent film. I found that to be a nice homage to those classics of yesteryear.
Mahalo,
James
on Jul 03 2008 @ 8:45 pm 11. Cameron said …
Phillip, great review. However, I would like to point out a few of my main observations. For the few people left out there who haven’t completely drowned in the postmodern sea of “personal meaning is the only meaning”, I would like to suggest the real point of WALL-E, the point of the director. In a recent article in “World” magazine Stanton claims the film’s true message is that of relationships. For those of you who have seen this great film it isn’t that hard to catch. In fact the importance of relationships, whether romantic or in general, is even sung to the viewer via Hello, Dolly clips. We see this importance again in the Axiom when the worst imaginable thing happens to the overgrown babies on board, their tv’s stop working! They are forced to interact with each other, an idea literally out of this world. Imagine the horror! So there it is the real meaning of the movie straight from the horse’s mouth.
on Jul 03 2008 @ 9:13 pm 12. Cinexcellence said …
Excellent point, Cameron. I love that scene.
on Jul 03 2008 @ 9:22 pm 13. Phillip Johnston said …
Its funny you should bring up this point, Cameron, because today I’ve been thinking about how much I skirted this theme in my review. I read that interview with Stanton a few days ago and have actually become a bit unsatisfied with what I wrote here.
The things you bring up about the film are elements I noticed as well. The scene with the woman who loses her TV screen looking out at the stars was one of my favorites in the film yet I completely failed to mention it here. Oh well.
With that in mind, although the theme of extraordinary love transcending all barriers is extremely prominent in the film, I would suggest that the consumerism theme is just as prominent. Stanton may not have intended it as the main theme of his film but, by golly, its there as a byproduct and is communicated to the audience regardless of his intentions! Just look at the way the world Wall-E cleans up is so much like our own and how the Axiom is said to offer a world of entertainment with “everything you need to be happy.” Happiness lies in possessions, not worthwhile engagement with other people and the created world.
Maybe the best solution to mesh your points and mine would be to say truly meaningful relationships, the ones that make life worth living and worth living well, aren’t possible until we shift our focus away from things and onto what God (from my perspective, at least) so generously supplies us — whether it be a good friend or a beautiful starry sky.
on Jul 04 2008 @ 12:24 pm 14. Cameron said …
I totally agree Phillip. We can’t become consumed by our possesions but rather by our relationships with the world and one another. I think the film did an excellent job of uniting all of these themes.
on Jul 06 2008 @ 10:53 pm 15. Elizabeth said …
I enjoyed the movie very much so did my four year old but I don’t think that he saw the “green” message that was in it. Ha. After reading these posts I have opened my eyes to the other more important messages however. What I do have to say is that different people will take this movie in very different views. Whether it be political or not. A lot of the pixar and disney movies have those only adults will understand political messages.
However I think my favorite part in WALL-E was the little robot that was so worried about the “contamination” he didn’t notice what was going on around him. It’s kind of like all of us anal, workaholic, not in tune with the small important things people. Enjoy today, plan for tomorrow and smile at someone every once in awhile….you may get one back.
on Jul 07 2008 @ 9:31 pm 16. Luke Harrington said …
…wow.
I just got back from this one, and I am so blown away. This movie was fantastic. I’m so glad there are still people making movies like this one. I don’t have much to add. Just…wow.
The short that played before it was awesome, as well. It was like the best of Looney Tunes.
on Jul 09 2008 @ 11:01 am 17. Courtney McLaughlin said …
Earth to Pixar: Think before you market
I took my sister (age 7), brother (age 6) and son (age 3) to see Wall-E this weekend and was floored by the imagery of garbage skyscrapers and by the blatant environmental message, which wouldn’t have made it to the mainstream movie theaters a few years ago. It had the socially-conscious feel of an independent movie.
The movie was so powerful that I became incredibly self-aware of my own actions within the first few minutes and before long I felt guilty to be drinking a bottle of water, eating popcorn from a large paper bag, and snacking on a box of Snowcaps. Multiply that by the hundreds of thousands of theater-goers and think about all of that trash produced by the movie industry.
I do marketing for a book publishing company, Quadrille, that is publishing a green home decoration book, Urban Eco Chic by Oliver Heath. We went to great lengths to get the book printed on FSC certified paper, both to underscore the credibility of the book and because it’s the right thing to do. Most of my marketing will be done online, saving paper and shipping.
I think a better Wall-E promotion, rather than cheap plastic toys, would be to sell environmentally-friendly water bottles and snack packaging at the theaters. These would have prompted discussions between parents and their children far more than toys.
on Jul 09 2008 @ 1:25 pm 18. Luke Harrington said …
Hey Courtney, thanks for stopping by MZ.
I totally agree with your complaints against Disney and Pixar here, but I don’t think you acknowledge the question of audience.
In the case of Urban Eco Chic, you’re arguably going after a demographic that’s already concerned about protecting the environment — and would be decidedly put off by the hypocrisy they’d see in a lot of print advertisement and licensed merchandise.
WALL-E, on the other hand, is designed as a warning about the dangers of not living “green” (or at least, that’s one valid interpretation). If this is the case, then its target demographic is a different one: those who need to be warned — i.e., those who aren’t going to be put off by a lot of paper waste and plastic junk. It’s particularly true, I think, that in order to capture the minds of kids (especially kids that are accustomed to being consumers), you have to offer them some sort of merchandise (otherwise their experience will end at the theater, and their short attention span will quickly be seized by their Kung Fu Panda trinkets).
Obviously, I’m not trying to defend Disney-Pixar, but I do think there are reasons for what you see here. They’re just marketing reasons.
on Jul 09 2008 @ 1:40 pm 19. Phillip Johnston said …
Its also obvious that Pixar has a very different mindset than the Disney machine when it comes to a lot of things. Pixar doesn’t churn our 5+ slipshod movies a year — they spend 3 years creating 1 good one. Disney handles all their marketing, though. I’d be willing to bet that Andrew Stanton is a tiny bit displeased with all the Wall-E trinkets you’re seeing at the store considering his movie is not particularly fond of consumerism.
I visited Walden Pond in Massachusetts this summer and there was a big ol’ Walden Book Store with all sorts of books, t-shirts, toys, and walking sticks. Considering what he stood for and what he wrote about, Henry David Thoreau certainly wouldn’t be happy about it.
This strikes me as the same type of thing.
on Jul 09 2008 @ 2:21 pm 20. Luke Harrington said …
You definitely have to “play ball” in order to get your message heard in this world.
Speaking of consumerism, though, has anyone seen this?:
http://www.buynlarge.com/
^ That’s some seriously biting satire…especially for a “kids’ movie.”
on Jul 09 2008 @ 2:48 pm 21. Phillip Johnston said …
It’s brilliant. I’m especially fond of the advert for Xanadou, a medication to take while shopping so that you’ll “effortlessly feel like you’ve just purchased that once in a lifetime item.”
on Jul 17 2008 @ 3:53 pm 22. Courtney McLaughlin said …
Thanks for the link to http://www.buynlarge.com, the link goes right to the Wall*e Website now…maybe there were complaints from Wal*Mart?
on Jul 17 2008 @ 5:06 pm 23. Luke Harrington said …
Dang it. That site was hilarious. It was a little on the “adult” side though…my guess is that it made by some Pixar employee without Disney’s blessing and they shut it down. Truly, this is a dark day for the internets.
on Jul 18 2008 @ 8:55 am 24. Courtney McLaughlin said …
Luke, I’m enjoy our debate, so let me to continue to defend my position about how Pixar could have sustainably marketed Wall*e I agree they needed to compete with those super cool Kung-Fu Panda toys (and I guess it’s OK if those are made in China), but they could have:
1. Made them in the USA
2. Packaged them with recycled paper
3. Used soy-based inks on the packaging
4. Donated a percentage of ticket sales to environmental charities
We operate in a society inundated with marketing messages, and I think these efforts would have garnered positive media coverage for the film/Pixar, as well as been more in line with the movie’s message.
The target audience question is a good one. Wall*e targeted adults (the decision markers) first and then children (a captive audience once inside the theater). I think the movie communicated the message clearly on these two levels, but once I left the theater, there was nothing else. I wanted someone standing outside the theater handing out “for more information” brochures or something like that. It would have been a great opportunity for Pixar to partner with canvassers from Greenpeace or other environmental groups, who could talk to people about the issues in Wall*e and ask for donations. Those are just some ideas….I seriously loved the movie so much and thought it was fantastic.
Good point about Walden Pond.
on Nov 16 2008 @ 2:16 pm 25. David said …
For some reason I did not comment on this film when I first saw it. I have since seen it twice more in different theater settings, and had the same reaction each time: This is the best film of the year. I did not think that this movie would be able to top the sublime Ratatouille, but somehow it did. You can certainly make arguments about the imperfect second half, but I really feel that this is one of those movies that is strengthened by its moments of overindulgence and imperfection (like “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “Casablanca” maybe). Achingly melancholy, but infinitely hopeful.
on Nov 17 2008 @ 9:23 am 26. Eric said …
Great points, Courtney. I noticed over the weekend that Target is offering a free tree sapling when you buy the DVD. It’s not quite to the levels you mentioned, but it’s probably better than offering some other plastic junk. Still, it’s a very interesting paradigm to explore!
on Nov 22 2008 @ 9:00 am 27. Sam Juliano said …
David, you may have just nailed it. WALL-E may well be the best film of the year.
Nice lead-in there Phillip. I have always loved the Reggio film, and even owned that expensive, super-rare laserdisc of it.
on Dec 04 2008 @ 8:07 am 28. Printguy said …
Courtney, I would like to point out one thing in case it gets overlooked here. The DVD packaging for the main release and the 3 disc special edition DVD is a “green” all paper package that, under ideal conditions with completely decompose within 6 months in a landfill.
Buena Vista is the first company to use this eco-friendly packaging on a major movie. I work for the company that printed the packaging and personally produce over 6 million of them.