Sorry Travis, I had not seen that you already wrote a review… but since I wrote one too (and cut it short once I realized you beat me too it), here is mine:
Pixar’s latest animated feature film, Wall-E, tells the story of the last operational robot left on Earth traveling deep into space, in pursuit of another robot who had made a brief visit to Earth in search of extraterrestrial vegetation. Along the way, Wall-E inadvertently teaches humans what it is like to be social and independent again.
Pixar has created some of the best-animated films of all time. From the classic Toy Story to the previous release of Ratatouille, not one film has come weak (some argue Cars to be below the Pixar standard, but that is highly debatable). So it should come as no surprise that Wall-E is worthy of not only a best-animated film Oscar, but also a best film of the year nomination (a first for any animated film).
Every scene of the film contains such meticulous attention to detail that at certain times it becomes easy to forget that the film is computer generated. With help from cinematographer Roger Deakins (The Assassinations of Jessie James, No Country for Old Men), the film is able to truly achieve a greater sense of reality than any animated film before it has. And with so much visual support, it becomes equally apparent that Pixar has invested a lot in to the sound design by employing Ben Burtt (Star Wars, Indians Jones, Munich) to create not only the sound effects, but also the voice of Wall-E. The voice of Wall-E is also interesting for another reason though, and that is that Wall-E, being a robot, cannot talk past a few simple sounds. Which is presumably a giant risk for Pixar… but that is what they are known best for. Each character relies heavily on body language to communicate, and the way this is achieved is beyond many classic silent films from the past, truly remarkable. In the showing I attended I counted many children and heard even more crying before the film began, but heard hardly a peep throughout the entire film from a single one of them. After the credits rolled, smiles could be seen on everyone’s face, child or adult.
The Pixar creative team has always been known to not stop at just attention to the feature. With Wall-E we are given an amazing short film called Presto. Presto is the story of a magician and his rabbit, which is in my opinion, in the top 5 best Pixar shorts. I won’t give away more than that though. The credits are also a story in their own, they continue telling the story of Wall-E once the feature has ended in several magnificent ways. And, this has yet to be officially confirmed, but once the DVD/Blu-Ray is released, be on the lookout for a ‘Burn-E’ short film.
Wall-E is truly unlike any film I have previously seen. Each aspect of the film has a unique style, almost like a 1980’s science fiction film, only more modern and with a more romantic feel, but that would still not give the film an accurate description. I really suggest you catch Wall-E in theatres many times and then again on DVD, just be able to take in everything offered.
- Keith
I got a chance to go to one of the first screenings of Wall-E last night at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood thanks to the mother-of-a-friend’s-friend.