Wall-E Review

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.

If you have ever had even a light inkling of interest in seeing Wall-E, DO IT! The whole thing is very impressive and possibly even a little overwhelming. Visually it is one of the best movies I have ever seen, especially compared with most CGI movies. The folks over at Pixar have outdone themselves this time, in both style and story. It is about as far from the “everyday” animated film as you can possibly get.

If asked to assign a genre to Wall-E I don’t think I could bring myself to do it. It is equal parts science fiction, comedy, and romance woven together seamlessly with a little bit of satire. Wall-E himself, is a very endearing character with surprising depth, and personality. I found this to be pretty impressive, considering that Wall-E is basically a trash compacter with limited ability to communicate verbally. Most of the film is pantomime with very limited dialog.

If you’ve seen any of the trailers or commercials, you’ll know that Wall-E is a robot left to clean up the planet after humans abandon Earth. After seven hundred years or so of being alone, with only a roach for a friend, he’s developed quite a personality. His lonely existence is shattered one day by the arrival of EVE, a reconnaissance robot who steals Wall-E’s robot heart and begins an epic adventure, meeting all sorts of wild and entertaining characters along the way.

I think they took a big risk with the lack of dialog in the film, and I think it payed off big time. My hat is off to Andrew Stanton on this one. To create a story containing deep, lovable characters, predominantly without the use of words is truly a great feat. I was also very impressed by the choice of the soundtrack for the film.

Anyway, Wall-E is a great movie for everyone, kids and adults, and is a must see for any Pixar fan. SEE THIS MOVIE

-Travis

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Something About Wall-E

http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/walle/hd/

The new Pixar film, Wall-E, had it’s final trailer released today, you can watch it on the Apple website.
I had originally been hoping that there would be as minimal dialog by Wall-E as possible. Sort of like an older silent film, only with more robots. I now am under the impression that we are being set up for a surprisingly verbose robot with too much to say, in a situation where less is more. I would have loved to have seen the animators and directors work to tell the story through actions and subtle details, but if this were the case and I was the one who made the new trailer, I certainly would not have added in any voices. That is just not how something like that should be marketed, but what do I know?
The reason I say the vernacular of a robot beyond a name, bleeps, bloops and curious clinking sounds would be a bad thing is that this probably means either a big let down for audiences everywhere or it will be aimed more towards just families, while the critics leave bad reviews and no award shows even nominate it past best animation. I guess this could also mean that I am dead wrong and Pixar has something amazing in store for us beyond a talking robot film, in which case I will delete all of this out of shame.

I am, despite the worries of a possible major let down, still very excited to see this film. Wall-E may be the film I look forward to the most this year actually. If there is no dialog I will hope this to be the first year an animated feature is nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.
I will bring a review to this site for Wall-E before June 27th 2008, I assure you.

– Keith

Wall E Trailer!

I’m not sure how this was posted or found, but I’m sure it won’t be up for long. I can’t wait for this movie to come out. Brad Bird is an awesome director and a funny, smart guy and the story looks excellent.