Hello everyone and here is the latest in my series of Pixar reviews! The last time we did this, I was discussing one of my personal favorites of theirs, Ratatouille, and now we will be looking into the next film of theirs that released in the summer of 2008 (a pretty great summer for big movies in general now that I think about it) and the sophomore feature from director, Andrew Stanton, who of course helmed the classic that is Finding Nemo. The idea of this film was actually thought up in 1900s during a lunch between him, John Lasseter, Pete Doctor, and Joe Ranft (also where other Pixar projects were thought up) where he came up with the premise of “What if mankind had to leave Earth and someone forgot to turn off the last robot left behind?”. Yet it took a while for this one to get off the ground (he started writing it again right while finishing up Nemo) because Stanton was trying to figure out how to handle it, and make it work. The results were very more than successful as Wall-E did indeed getting many plaudits from critics, and audiences alike and is among the studio’s more acclaimed works. Funny enough though while I did watch it quite a bit when I was younger, it wasn’t one I would re watch as much as some of the other Pixar movies so I was curious to see how well it would hold up on a recent re watch and I can say that it is one that I appreciate, and like better and better with each viewing. So let’s travel into the far reaches of outer space with the last fully functioning robot on Earth in a touching, and refreshingly hopeful adventure!
Set all the way into the 29th century, we see that Earth has become a huge wasteland filled to the brim with garbage due to neglect of the environment, and rampant consumerism which led to the human race to be evacuated by megacorporation, Buy-N-Large, in space liners into the final frontier until it is safe to go back. However out of all the trash compactor robots that were left to clean up only one remains fully functioning, WALL-E. He usually spends his days cleaning up, hanging with his cockroach friend, and collecting human objects he finds interesting. This all changes one day when a giant ship lands and out comes an unmanned probe sent to see if there is any human sustainable life present on Earth. Despite a bit of a rocky first meeting, WALL-E is taken a back by this new visitor, who is named EVE and starts to develop feelings for her and EVE herself comes to take a liking to his company. But when EVE finds a plant sample that WALL-E has in his collection she is taken back to her ship and WALL-E attempt to get her back and ends up riding on the ship back to one of the space liners, the Axium. When there we see how humans have now degenerated into lazy individuals whose needs are filled by robots, and they keep doing the same thing everyday, something that Captain B. McCrea is more than a little tired of at this point. So now with the plant gone missing it is up to WALL-E, and EVE to find it so they could help the human race get back to Earth before it is too late!
Now if there is one thing that people always complain about when it comes to this movie is that they vastly prefer the first act on Earth to the rest of the movie which takes place on the ship. While yes I do agree that the stuff on Earth, and WALL-E, and EVE is extremely well done I personally think that the rest of the movie is just as great and has plenty of value as well. I’ve mentioned many times before how the writers at Pixar do a fantastic job of making these worlds, and characters feel fleshed out, and lived in from the beginning and this is one of the stand out examples. Right from the get go we get a sense of what happened to Earth, why it is the way it is, and who WALL-E is and what he does and it’s all done mostly through visuals, and actions with the clever use of Buy-N-Large broadcasts, and videos to help fill in the gaps. Then as we see the relationship between WALL-E, and EVE blossom it too is entirely done with little to no dialogue as we understand exactly what is going on and how the two are feeling at any given moment and I really love how that was handled. Yet even when things go to space I still find myself invested in what’s going on, and it still is an exciting adventure with a lot of heart, a nice pace which isn’t too frenetic and is actually quite slow burn at times, and thoughtful messages. Speaking of which this movie has a ton to say about the future, and what could happen to society, and our planet if we don’t take care of it and it’s probably among the best executed environmental messages in a movie I’ve seen in a while given how relevant it still is today. It even manages to tackle the dangers of technology addiction with how the humans have become so lazy, and so addicted to their screens that don’t even socialize in person, and haven’t even realized certain things about the ship (lots of little details or throwaway lines in how they act like when Mary realizes that there’s a pool on the Axium that further adds to this) and I also find it funny that BNL is sort of like a fictional version of those big megacorporations that made itself bigger by buying the competition like Disney. A whole lot going on for sure but it all flows together nicely since the movie is written in such a way that makes it effective, and it still manages to be optimistic about the future and shows that the only way we can make things better is by taking action and take good care of our planet and in the age we’re living in now we definitely need movies like this to help show that there can be good done in the world if we’re willing to make a difference. It’s all said beautifully and it never felt like the movie was shoving it down our throats as it feels more content to show rather than tell which is one of it’s biggest strengths and the fact that it’s a really fun adventure with plenty of exciting, and funny moments just like any other Pixar production.
Among the many reasons why I love the genre of science fictions is that there is just so much that can be done visually and WALL-E is no exception. Just like how the animators of Finding Nemo were able to bring the ocean to life, the team here did a phenomenal job of crafting the final frontier, and this future world and just like with Nemo, Stanton does some really great things behind the camera as his use of wide’s at times really does capture the vastness of not just space but any given location as well (it even looks like he’s using a handheld in certain scenes which was a nice touch). I even love how he handles the more intimate scenes as he it really does feel like he wants us to really take in a moment and stays on it for as long as needed which I really appreciated. Some great examples of this are the bonding moments between WALL-E, and EVE in particular their beautiful dance in space around the Axium which is one of my favorites scenes in the film or even when WALL-E is traveling on the ship and he sees the wonders of space which is just absolutely gorgeous to look at with cinematography courtesy of Danielle Feinberg, and Jeremy Lasky. The backgrounds in general are just really well done as Earth is appropriately deserted, dirty as all heck and brimming with many little details, and the interior of the Axium looking slick, and futuristic with some colorful holograms thrown in some places and it’s a neat contrast that kind of reminded me of Toy Story and how Andy, and Sid’s rooms are both diametrically opposed from one another in terms of atmosphere though on a much bigger scale. This kind of contrast can also apply to the designs of WALL-E, and the other robots with the former naturally looking like an older model with lots of dirt on him, and the latter ones looking a lot more advanced, and clean with a nice shine to them yet they all manage to be memorable, and stand out from one another, plus are really well rendered while the humans have a more realistic look to them yet still have some exaggerated facial features to make them still look animated (though the use of live actors at points is very clever). What also impressed me were the movements of some of the robots and how mechanical they look, and they end up being very expressive (WALL-E himself is a stand out in that regard). Then there’s the music of the feature and in this case Stanton, and composer, Thomas Newman, reunite and this time he does deliver a really great score that like his work in Nemo really does capture the grandeur of the setting (this time being space), and has a nice futuristic vibe to it as well and the utilization of some songs from the musical, Hello Dolly!, proves to be very effective at certain points as is the song sung in the credits (which are visually creative, and satisfying), “Down to Earth”, sung by Peter Gabriel. In general though from a technical standpoint this film succeeds in virtually every way in that regard.
It’s always a great thing when movies are able to make robots have actual feelings, and emotions and WALL-E himself is one of the most iconic movie robots for just that reason and more. I really like how he’s so curious about human objects and is always wanting to learn more about them and how he’s always wondering if there is more to life than what he was programmed to do. That’s where EVE comes in and she is also great as she is may be a lot tougher, and hostile towards WALL-E at first but the two come to be very close to one another and have some really great, believable chemistry with one another despite the fact they both have a limited vocabulary, though Ben Burtt, and Elissa Knight were still able to inject the characters with a lot of personality and overall they made for a great couple. Another thing I like about WALL-E is that he always seems to inspire or affect those around him in a positive way like how he causes M-O, a cleaning robot, to act on his own (one of my favorite Pixar comic reliefs as obsessions with cleaning makes for some good laughs) or how he is able to get Axiom passengers, John (John Ratzenberger), and Mary (Kathy Najimy) to get out of their technology induced trance and they start to form a connection with one another which was a sweet little side plot. He even accidently starts something of a robot revolution and some of the funnier moments stem from the different malfunctions some of those robots have. As for Captain McCrea well I find him to be one of the more overlooked aspects of this movie which is a shame because I really like what was done with the character as he is a captain who instead of wanting to stay on course he wants to go back to Earth and realizes that even if Earth may not be what he imagined the only way to make it better is to go back and do that and even when we first meet him he is noticeably tired of doing the same routine over and over again on the ship (I mean his highlight of the days are the morning announcements). He made for a very strong, and often funny character and one that easily could’ve been handled in a more generic way (like if he was the villain who wanted to stay on course), and Jeff Garlin is very good as the voice. There is a villain however in the form of AUTO, the ship’s artificially intelligent auto pilot (who is amusingly voiced by the text to speech program for Apple Macintosh computers, MacInTalk) and he’s an interesting baddie in that all he’s doing is all about following his orders that were given by the BNL CEO (nice cameo from Fred Willard) long ago. I thought it was interesting to have a main bad guy just be someone who is following his orders for the good of humanity no matter what and he is appropriately the only robot to not have been affected by WALL-E’s kindness in any way (plus I also got a lot of Hal 9000 vibes from his design which is a nice touch). Even though the number of actual speaking roles is limited the movie is still able to knock out some fully developed characters, with the title robot becoming an instant icon!
WALL-E is one Pixar movie that I have started to gain a greater appreciation of over the years and for good reasons. It’s an incredibly well written piece of science fiction with a fantastic screenplay that is able to convey so many different messages seamlessly, lots of visual storytelling which tells us a lot about the world, and characters, breathtaking animation that makes us feel like we’re in the final frontier, and a number of highly compelling characters. As someone who is a huge fan of all things Sci fi, this really is one of my favorite modern films of the genre and I would love to see more animated films like this (it definitely would be cool if Pixar attempted another project like this that’s for sure), and it has aged very well with many of it’s themes still holding up even in today’s environment and it’s one that I do recommend watching if you haven’t because it really is a phenomenal feature. It’s really impressive how Pixar was able to turn this potentially risky project into a big hit (a common theme with their movies of that era) and here’s hoping for more thought provoking stuff like this from them in their future of original films! With that out of the way it’s time to look forward for the next Pixar review where we will be traveling to Paradise Falls by way of flying house!
Rating: A+
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