WALL-E Review
WALL-E
Written and Directed by: Andrew Stanton
Starring: Fred Willard, Jeff Garlin, John Ratzenberger, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight
I suppose it goes without saying at this point that Pixar is the studio that can do no wrong. Almost every year they release a new computer animated classic into the wild, and kids drag their parents to see it (or is it the other way around?) while critics rave about how it is pushing the medium forward and telling a deeper story than most kids movies could ever dream of. Either way, they make boat loads of cash.
For the most part, I understand what all the fuss is about, and I have enjoyed everything they’ve done to date. However, I don’t think Pixar are infallible either. Cars was a pretty mediocre piece of fluff, A Bug’s Life doesn’t hold up so well nowadays, and Ratatouille, in spite of its adult story and impressive cinematography, seemed to be missing something in my opinion (I know a lot of people disagree with me there). Now, this time around, Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) has delivered another ambitious animated tale about a waste disposal robot living alone on an abandoned, garbage-covered Earth in the not-too-distant future. Would the long stretches without dialogue prove to be brilliant or just boring? Is the eco-friendly theme thoughtful or downright preachy?
Without giving away too much of the story, I will say that there are human beings in the film (indeed, Fred Willard seems to play a nearly photo-realistic version of himself) and this is not a silent film by any stretch of the imagination. WALL-E seems to communicate in the same way that say, R2-D2 does, although he can sort of pronounce his name, and rattle off a few other vaguely human utterances. As the movie opens, WALL-E is alone with the exception of his pet cockroach, going about his daily routine of cleaning up trash. One day, another scout robot descends on the planet from outer space, and well… WALL-E falls in love. Sadly, the other robot has a higher calling, and eventually must return to its owner to relay vital information about the planet. WALL-E hitches a ride up into outer space, which is where his adventure truly begins.
I do admire the risks that Stanton takes with the film, and his willingness to try new things. The first half of the flick is a unique experience in and of itself, with a quiet atmosphere conveying a sense of loneliness and isolation. The lack of dialogue was never really an issue, although I can see a lot of kids being bored for the first little bit just because of the slower pace. If anything, I found it all very intriguing. The sound design is what really shines through in this film, and the filmmakers rely on a multitude of robot noises and organic sound effects (provided by Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt) to get across personalities and emotions. By the end of the movie, the overload of cute sound effects started to become more grating than adorable, but on the other hand, the kiddies were probably having a ball by that point.
Now, the main thing that a lot of people are praising WALL-E for is the deeper message that it manages to get across. While I can appreciate a cautionary tale about the Earth getting overrun with garbage and pollution, and a believable sci-fi future where humans become overly reliant on machines, I don’t know that it’s really anything all that groundbreaking. Maybe this message seems a bit less inspired just because there have so many other movies with environmental undertones lately. I honestly thought there was going to be a little more to WALL-E than there really was. There is an interesting twist near the end of the movie (seemingly inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey), but it turned out to be nothing more than a plot device. That’s when I realized that, in the end, the environmental stuff is all just a backdrop for a love story between two robots and a lot of zany chase scenes.
The visuals were impressive, as always. I can’t really say the entire look was photorealistic because the characters moved in very exaggerated, cartoony ways, but the environments were amazing, and some of the outer space scenery was gorgeous. Once again, fire always seems to be the measuring stick for the progress of computer animation, and in this movie there is an exquisitely rendered lighter flame that looks 100% real. So I give them full marks for that.
But it’s not really about that with Pixar movies anymore. They are trying to get the animated medium to be taken seriously, and it seems like it’s becoming a regular occurrence with each new Pixar release that people start saying it should be eligible to compete with live action films for Best Picture at the Oscars. In that regard, I don’t think WALL-E qualifies. If anything, Ratatouille was more deserving. But this movie is just not deep enough. It’s cute and entertaining, and tries some things that haven’t really been done before with a children’s animated movie, but let’s not kid ourselves here… a complex human drama, it ain’t. (Complex robot drama? Maybe.)
In some ways WALL-E is the most mature film Pixar has ever made, but in other ways, it is one of the most simplistic. When you hold a movie like this up to the endless stream of talking animal CG flicks that are being produced by every other studio, there’s no comparison. Pixar is light years ahead of the competition. But when you hold it up with some of the other Pixar movies, for me, it’s just not their most memorable work. I’m all for experimenting and trying new things, but sometimes I miss the spirit of the previous Pixar movies, where you just knew you were going to have some good laughs and cute characters without so much emphasis on trying to make “art”. Maybe I’m imagining some of those high-brow aspirations, but it definitely overshadowed some of the WALL-E experience.
In general, I found WALL-E to be an entertaining and intelligent film that is quite simply fun for the whole family. It’s definitely up to the standards that Pixar had previously set for themselves, and it features some endearing animated performances. I don’t really have any major complaints, but I guess I just expected a little bit more from it. I blame all those other critics who are praising this thing like it’s the Citizen Kane of CG! — Sean
SCORE: 
Recommended If You Like: Short Circuit, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Idiocracy
Comments (19)
@ “By the end of the movie, the overload of cute sound effects started to become more grating than adorable”
kind of a shallow criticism, no? Are we getting an episode tonight?
Posted by Rusty James on June 30th, 2008Re: Shallow criticism… I don’t know, I guess that’s one of the side effects of doing a movie about robots that can’t talk.
Re: Getting an episode… yep.
Posted by Sean on June 30th, 2008cool dude. I really liked the silent film aspects of the movie. It just becomes less interesting after the first third and never retains that zenith.
Posted by Rusty James on June 30th, 2008Agreed.
Posted by Sean on June 30th, 2008Sean,
Great review. I thought I was the only one that wasnt ready to line up and give WALL-E endless lubings worth of praise. Sure, it was a good movie. If this came from Dreamworks I would have been amazed. The sound an visuals were fantastic, the “silent” aspect of the film was not an issue, and WALL-E as a character was fantastic. The problem was that it took an hour to even get the paper thin plot we got and the conflict in the film was more annoying than anything.
Anyways, I hate being a dissenting voice, but no way does WALL-E deserve a 9.3 on imdb. And (here is were I may disagree with you) no way was this as good the masterful Ratatouille.
Posted by Chip Chief on June 30th, 2008Everything I’ve seen of the character Wall-E reminds me of the spiders in 8 Legged Freaks, I loved them in the theater, but after seeing the film a second time I was sick of it.
Posted by Henrik on June 30th, 2008“Recommended If You Like: 2001: A Space Odyssey”
The insanity has now reached another level.
Posted by Henrik on June 30th, 2008the first half of Wall-E is a perfect film. The second half is still a good film, but it has flaws - I think we get to know the humans a little too well, it starts becoming too much about them instead of about the robot. There’s plenty to like despite that though, however I don’t think its Pixar’s best film, contrary to popular opinion. I’d also give it a 3/4, more like a 3.25 if quarter rankings, or “chian rankings”, were still in play.
Posted by Goon on June 30th, 2008“Anyways, I hate being a dissenting voice, but no way does WALL-E deserve a 9.3 on imdb. ”
never ever bring up imdb scores of new movies. they are always inflated, no matter what movie it is. everything from Transformers to Superbad has scores like 8.5 - 9.2 when they come out. if the movie is well received, it has an initial bump, and theres always tonnes of people who vote before even seeing it.
Posted by Goon on June 30th, 2008“never ever bring up imdb scores of new movies. they are always inflated, no matter what movie it is”
I realize that the score will drop from its present inflated value, but I guess my point is that there must be a lot of people giving this movie 10s (having seen it or not) and it just is not a perfect film.
Posted by Chip Chief on June 30th, 20083 out of 4?!
…calm down, Rian…
Wall is an immediate 4 out of 4, 5 out of 5, or 10 out of 10 for me. It’s probably nudged The Incredibles out of the way to become my 2nd favorite Pixar movie after Toy Story. I was seriously on the verge of tears at the end. This could very well be my favorite film of the year so far.
Posted by Rian on June 30th, 2008Yes, in my rambling I called the movie “Wall” instead if “Wall-E”. Oops.
Posted by Rian on June 30th, 2008I genuinely loved this movie from beginning to end. I can see why people didn’t like all the human stuff in the movie. I liked the fact they had a non-animated Fred Willard and it would of made his role more meaningful if they didn’t have animated humans in the mix.
2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the best films I have ever seen and seeing all the homages to 2001 in Wall-E was pretty cool.
By the way, the Wall-E sound clip you guys played on the podcast was fucking classic.
Posted by Primal on June 30th, 2008Rian: You’re not alone, there are many, many other people out there who feel this is a perfect film. I just was just not one of them. Maybe I will gain more appreciation for it with repeat viewings. Lately I’ve been feeling the need to revisit Ratatouille, which I wasn’t overly smitten with after my initial viewing either.
Posted by Sean on June 30th, 2008the end of the movie was so emotionally powerful i was literally trying to restrain myself from bawling. did anyone else get worked up?
Posted by Drew on July 3rd, 2008Drew, I thought the end was hollow and cynical.
Posted by Rusty James on July 3rd, 2008Your entitled to your opinion rusty but i hate when people bash the movie because of the moral.
Posted by Drew on July 3rd, 2008I haven’t seen it yet but the review and comments kinda make me not wanna bother anymore.
Posted by Jenny on July 5th, 2008I’m with you Jenny. From the reaction this film is just as perfect and brilliant as all the other Pixar films that have been released.
Posted by Henrik on July 9th, 2008Leave a Reply