My 3 year old saw it with me on Friday...he told me all weekend long he was Wall-E. He laughed out loud over and over again in the movie. My 8 year old liked it too.
My least favorite thing about this message board is how everyone posts so objectively about subjective tastes!!
Boxofficemojo.com NAILED the prediction for Wall-E. That guy is amazing with his predictions, although he was way off for Wanted, which also surprised me with 51M. For the record, I was way off. I thought this would be a huge smash, but I didn't even consider competition in the way of Kung Fu Panda. I do think that WALL-E will have a strong Summer, though.
To all those people saying this wasn't a great movie, I think you would be in the minority. It has a 96% on rotten tomato and 9.3 on imdb.
Absolutely AMAZING movie! Beautifully done! I would not say its better then Nemo or Incredibles, but there is just something about this movie.
But you made it sound like it was... If its not better than Nemo nor Incredibles then its a 3 star at best...
Agreed..It'll still make a crap load of money and my kids loved it, but IMHO, the movie was slow, story didn't have much depth and I personally didn't like the "social responsibility" theme...My rankings for what its worth, which is based on story, dialoge and characters: 1. Toy Story 2. The Incredibles 3. A Bugs Life 4. Nemo 5. Monsters, Inc 6. Cars 7. Toy Story 2 8. Ratatoille 9. Wall-E
Saw this movie Saturday morning with the family, including my 7-year-old son. Technically speaking, this movie should be considered a masterpiece of CGI film-making. With every new effort, Pixar pushes the envelope a little more. I say technically. Story-wise, Wall E is necessarily pretty thin. The most interesting parts of the movie are in the first half, where Wall E is alone on the entire world, save for his little cockroach friend. It was so well done, and yet still only managed to touch on the pathos and heartbreaking nature of such an existence. It would have been an immensely better movie had this act been larger and more fleshed-out. Even the bits after EVE arrives, and Wall E desperately seeks an end to his loneliness, were still great. More could have been made of this act as well. However, in too short an order, the scene changes into its cute Pixar-world of imaginative whimsy, very much reminiscent of the world of Monsters Inc. Even that could have been good, had the writers and producers had any courage. But it's hard to fault them too terribly, as they are inescapably creatures of their own environment, in this case the california looney-bin of unreality, where things are accepted as common fact and accepted truth, but everywhere else in the universe are viewed with, at the very least, some degree of skepticism. I am referring, of course, to the assumption that this 5-billion-year-old planet can be, and in fact already is, irreversibly ruined by American consumerism and mega-store mentality. (Yes I am sure Wal-Mart will be thrilled by having to put this movie on their shelves come Christmas time). Anyone with half a brain knows that this is a preposterous notion (and before any of you meat-heads jump in to argue, why don't you just hop on a plane and visit Shanghai and New Delhi first, and then come back and tell me with a straight face that America is the one responsible for 'polluting the planet'). Anyway, that is beef #1. The next bit is a little more problematic, and also endemic. There is no actual antagonist in this movie. The closest one could say would be the 'Otto' pilot robot, but even that was just a result of direct orders, and not particularly sinister. If the 'bad guy' gets his way, then everyone continues to live happily and peacefully? Ooo-k. Regardless, it is never a really good idea to have a drama without an antagonist. The last problem is the utopian attitudes which pervade the film's second half. Every one of the fat helpless American Consumers was very congenial and friendly, and completely un-opposed to following whatever dictates were given to them by their handlers. Stay in space forever and be eternally cared for by the 'mother ship'? Ok. Be dragged to a wasteland to happily apply your back and sweat for the greater good of the collective? Fine. Not one person objects to anything. Only in the socialist nutbag land of california is this movie made in this way, and handed to the world with a straight face. It may seem like I hated this movie. I didn't. I think it was absolutely charming and fun. But just like Happy Feet, I will watch it and enjoy it for its good parts, and completely disregard the brain-dead social commentary.
Nero That is a brilliant revie: But its just a kids movie, I do admit i don't like the attack on mega stores, and there was a slight jab on George Bush, I don't remember, the president used one of his phrases. I'm not a Bush fan but I didn't think that was neccessary. But anyway to your review, that would have added an extra hour, and again its a kids movie. But to your point about the people just accepting to go back, that was pretty ridiculous, maybe they could have added one dissenter an added a few minutes like "The Matrix" does with cyhper. edit: the president said "we must stay the course" that was a clear shot at bush
Man vs. his environment is one of the great conflicts.. In this case an environment, while peaceful, kept the people from truly living and enjoying life. The greatest enjoyment people had was when they were rebeling against their sedentary environment such as playing in the pool or fighting to return "home". It seemed to me that when given the choice to return home, the people rejected their environment's attempts to keep them there by fighting the autopilot and helping the plant getting placed in the chamber. I don't get your irreversibly ruined notion. The people returned home. the leader made a decision under the presumption the planet was ruined, but it came off to me that their clean up efforts were unsuccessful and they gave up. It didn't seem like the leader was making a popular decision to stay in space and had to use the machines to enforce his decision. Even though the movie was directed at the the harmfulness of waste, no where did it say that we were that the US is the only one that pollutes. Yes, there was a lot of hyperbole, but it doesn't change the message...Don't ruin what we have today for future generations. Plus...it is the greatest robot love story ever. Sorry Deckard.
Living up to Nemo and Incredibles would be difficult for any movie. This movie is not packed with laughs, adventure and action like the other two. Regardless, everybody should watch this movie. Its a masterpiece.
Not just a pollution argument to me. It was about losing your humanity to consumerism that I saw. Wall-E has a story by being this robot...but it's his character that proves the most human. Searching for community and love and things that are real instead of the next buying fix. I think that's a very real criticism of consumerism...it's certainly my criticism of it...and it was played out beautifully in this story line, in my view.
that value was very well communicated, not only how he yearned for companionship, but how he made good use of the junk, another aspect of consumerism how we always want to upgrade. not too mention the fact that the old robot proved to be the hero.
max, you being the resident thinking man's jesus freak, i'm not surprised you found traction in this movie. i haven't seen it yet but from what i've read you summed it up pretty well except the paradox that consumer culture begets---> art, ballet, music, literature and... this movie. what i'm curious about is if there is any analogue to religion in the film or is it a more specific rather than universal social critique?
I didn't see any analogue to religion. As the resident Jesus freak, when I see truth I see it first as God's. I'm not claiming you need to see it that way...but I try to kick off tired notions of sacred and the secular being divided, because if God really is who I think He is, then those truths are there whether you buy them at a Christian book store or Barnes & Noble....or Cinemark. But, no...I didn't see any allusion to God or anything like that at all. Did anyone else???
okay max, i'm gonna see this with my boys this week and i have high expectations. usually "masterpieces" touch on themes of universal truth. not sounding like this is the case here.
You could essentially create an entire movie dealing with Wall E's loneliness...but then you would have had an entirely different story. Plus let's keep in mind that the film does need to keep the kids interested, and I'm willing to bet children would start to get a little antsy if the whole movie went this direction. For the purposes of the story, I think the film spent just enough time setting up Wall E's character to the point where you could clearly see (later in the movie) that this inhuman piece of hardware was the most human thing in the universe. I think if they had spent more time on earth, the film probably would have dragged. His relationship with EVE though, I agree probably could have been fleshed out a little more. In fact, I could have sworn in the trailer him and EVE developed a friendship before she got recalled; in the film though she went into hybernation mode (perhaps a little too early) and they never really got the chance; or at least the friendship at that point was one-sided. This is another thing I don't get; to me the most dominant underlying theme in this movie is man's destruction of the environment; The lack of an environmentally global conscience led to man's escape and permanent residence in space, which led to humanity's reliance on machines and eventual slothfulness and apathy toward one another. There is a touch of consumerism there, but I saw it more as a byproduct of the apathetic lifestyle they had come to embrace. And such a lifestyle isn't so hard to believe, considering that they had been in space for 700 hundred years. The machines were programmed to make the peoples' "vacation" from earth as content and hassle-free as possible to the point where they wouldn't even miss the harsh realities of earth and the daily grind. Eventually in time, as one generation passed from existence so did any remaining memories of their home planet. They come to accept their lifestyle because that's all they know; which makes it all the more meaningful when they begin to use the very things that make them human again; their eyes to gaze upon the stars, their sense of touch to feel the warmth of another human being. And never did I think the film was pointing fingers at America; I think the film's message resonates throughout the world; it should anyways. Not all movies have an antagonist that is flesh and blood; or nuts and bolts. It could be a place, an ideal, belief, a feeling...it could even be your consciousness. In this case, the antagonist was man's apathy toward the environment and the effects it yielded.
