WALL-E (Spoilers)

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2008-06-29 01:34pm

I didn't really understand the scene where the captain was looking at all the pictures of the previous captains, and sees the autopilot in the background. I think it was supposed to get the message across that the captain is in command since he or she is in the foreground, but that just didn't quite make sense.

What were your favorite parts in the movie? If you can just pick one or two...

Ryushikaze · Post by **Ryushikaze** » 2008-06-29 03:16pm

Hawkwings wrote:I didn't really understand the scene where the captain was looking at all the pictures of the previous captains, and sees the autopilot in the background. I think it was supposed to get the message across that the captain is in command since he or she is in the foreground, but that just didn't quite make sense.

The Autopilot was closer and closer to the camera each time. He was realizing that Otto was taking over quietly and he wasn't going to take it anymore.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2008-06-29 03:49pm

I took that Otto was always in the photo and was more prominent as that the Captain never ran the ship. The Captain realized that humans were never really in charge and were just being coddled and kept alive, and that it was a deplorable state.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2008-06-29 05:29pm

Gil Hamilton wrote:That's especially true in this movie, which didn't have a villain at all, it had an Asimov Robot. Frankly, the auto-pilot was right*. Returning to Earth should have resulted in their deaths. If it weren't for the fact they were in a movie and the Human Spirit Triumphs once they put their minds to it, the fact that they'd be completely unsuited to taking care of themselves in the trash covered post-apocalypse Earth and would have a slew of medical problems on returning to Earth's gravity should really have killed them.

Then again, I suppose they still could have lived on the ship and had an army of unbreakable robots, plus who knows what medical technology they had to keep them alive despite never having used their bodies their entire lives.

(*Asimov logic: Conflicting orders from humans; return to Earth or stay away from Earth. Check First Law. Recolonization will result in the possibilities that some or all people on board will come to harm, so stay away from Earth and restrain Captain)

Keep in mind that these humans have a vast supply of fully-intelligent robots, seriously advanced sci-fi tech, and a ship that's already capable of sustaining ALL of them. Oh, and artificial gravity. It's pretty obvious that they had the technology available to overcome most of the difficulties of living on the planet (assuming that they could figure out how to counter the physiological effects).

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2008-06-29 07:51pm

Hawkwings wrote:What were your favorite parts in the movie? If you can just pick one or two...

EVE being pissed at Wall-E for all the trouble he got her into ... and then later seeing the footage of when she'd been in lock-down mode and he took care of her.

The artistic rendering of the 'epilogue' as the first part of the credits roll, and then the 8-bit recap of the plot as the main Credit Scroll plays.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2008-06-29 08:29pm

Gil Hamilton wrote:Then again, I suppose they still could have lived on the ship and had an army of unbreakable robots, plus who knows what medical technology they had to keep them alive despite never having used their bodies their entire lives.

I figured the robots started rehabilitating the humans to the point where they could start helping out without being a risk to themselves and all joined in for happy planetary rehabilitation

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2008-06-29 09:35pm

phongn wrote:
Gil Hamilton wrote:Then again, I suppose they still could have lived on the ship and had an army of unbreakable robots, plus who knows what medical technology they had to keep them alive despite never having used their bodies their entire lives.
I figured the robots started rehabilitating the humans to the point where they could start helping out without being a risk to themselves and all joined in for happy planetary rehabilitation

If you stayed to watch the credits, you'd have seen many scenes of humans and robots rebuilding Earth together.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2008-06-29 10:13pm

LadyTevar wrote:If you stayed to watch the credits, you'd have seen many scenes of humans and robots rebuilding Earth together.

I did. I always stay to see Pixar's credits

FaxModem1 · Post by **FaxModem1** » 2008-06-30 05:13pm

Anybody else surprised at the use of actual actors in the film when showing old recordings?

I knew the WALL-E getting his personality back was a cheat, but I didn't care, I was just glad to see him back in the film.

So, the President of the Buy N Large, president of the Earth, or just of the Earth's biggest population?

Darmalus · Post by **Darmalus** » 2008-06-30 05:25pm

FaxModem1 wrote:So, the President of the Buy N Large, president of the Earth, or just of the Earth's biggest population?

I'm under the impression that those were the same things by the time they abandoned Earth.

Also, wasn't there a fleet of ships, and the Axiom was just the flagship? What became of the others? Did I miss that bit?

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2008-06-30 06:53pm

Darmalus wrote:
FaxModem1 wrote:So, the President of the Buy N Large, president of the Earth, or just of the Earth's biggest population?
I'm under the impression that those were the same things by the time they abandoned Earth.

Also, wasn't there a fleet of ships, and the Axiom was just the flagship? What became of the others? Did I miss that bit?

Now that is an interesting opening for a sequel or spin-off.
And yeah, the use of real actors threw me a bit, I never would have expected it.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2008-06-30 07:37pm

Darmalus wrote:Also, wasn't there a fleet of ships, and the Axiom was just the flagship? What became of the others? Did I miss that bit?

All their autopilot systems would still be subject to Order A113 and any information pertaining to letting them go back home probably would be deleted.

FaxModem1 wrote:So, the President of the Buy N Large, president of the Earth, or just of the Earth's biggest population?

BnL pretty much assimilated the world's governments.

Fire Fly · Post by **Fire Fly** » 2008-06-30 08:19pm

For anyone interested in the musical from WALL-E, its from "Hello, Dolly!" called Put on Your Sunday Clothes.

Havok · Post by **Havok** » 2008-07-01 01:39am

Man, could they make a cuter movie?

We just got back from it a while ago and we both thought it was great.

What impressed me most about this movie is the quality of the main character. IIRC no other Pixar movie has a stand alone character that is as engaging, watchable, and loveable as Wall-E by himself. All the other mains had someone to play off, but Wall-E just has his curiosity and his longing for love.

It's too bad Lucas sold Pixar. I would love to see what they could do with Star Wars.

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2008-07-01 02:56am

At the very beginning, when WALL-E is rolling past the BnL gas station, did anyone happen to catch what the gas prices were?

Dominus Atheos · Post by **Dominus Atheos** » 2008-07-01 03:04am

They were too out of focus to make out.

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2008-07-01 03:08am

Hmm... Suppose we'll have to wait for the director's commentary to find out, if ever.

SylasGaunt · Post by **SylasGaunt** » 2008-07-01 09:49pm

Saw it today and it was ridiculously adorable. I love the skyline Wall-E built and his messing around in the garbage.

Eve is also exceedingly free in using that energy cannon of hers isn't she?

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2008-07-01 10:05pm

Saw Wall-E at the local theater, first this reminds me how much I hate theaters, first a comment on that.
Yes it's a Kids movie, Kids are to be expected, however in the half full showing I was at there were around 20-30 18-30 year old folks there, mostly groups of three or four people only on or two couples. And then there were what looked like a class full of kids. I shit you not, two full rows packed full of 7-13 year olds all of who insisted on having a running commentary on the movie.

Did none of these kids ever get told, talking during a movie is the major societal no-no? Apparently not, as this was not the typical movie feedback of chearing or even MST3K'ing, no this was loud obvious and yes I know their kids but still, here's some comments I heard.

Look it's Walley
YAY it's Walley!
Is Wall-E OK?
OMG IT's EVE!(Yes one ten year old girl shouted O period M, period G It's Eve)
WHAT's He saying?
I'm serious these kids had a running commentary of the movie(A moronic commentary), they were all talking at some point so while no one kid talked through-out the whole movie I had to contend with watching the movie as these little kids shouted question to each other because it seemed none of them were siting next to people they wanted to talk to because their friends always seemed to be one row back and six seat over so they had to shout, cause you know, there's this loud movie thing going on.

As a result my movie viewing was shit, I knew I should have gone to the 11PM showing so only the stoners would be there. Or waiting on the DVD, or watched it "elsewhere"

I fucking hate theaters.

Anyway, on to the movie, Pixar did a good job with the usual glit and lots of visual chaos however I kept expecting the Autopilot to get serious at some point, where are the damn battledrioids? Eve's a Scout armed with a frigging Plasma Cannon(Whatever it is, it's powerful), when the Autopilot is trying to stop the Eve what does it do? Send robots armed only with tractor beams!

Come on, tha'ts the time for Pixar to show us a kick ass battle-robot, Phasers, Lasers, Grasers, maybe Minigun's firing DU, Autocannons, Depth charge launchers, Rocket Launchers, Melta-bombs, something! but no, we get nothing. We get tool-booth robots armed with aforementioned tractor beams.

Also brain-bug, the Axiom is a space ship in space, turning it on it's side should not make everything slide that way, unless the Autopilot did that and move the artificial gravity around... or something, it makes no bloody sense.

OAN:Did the Autopilot and the robots have a no-killing rule? I find it odd the Autopilot locked the Captain away rather than say dumping him into space.

JointStrikeFighter · Post by **JointStrikeFighter** » 2008-07-01 10:13pm

OAN:Did the Autopilot and the robots have a no-killing rule? I find it odd the Autopilot locked the Captain away rather than say dumping him into space.

Asimov's Three laws of Robotics?

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2008-07-01 10:29pm

In that kind of environment, who needs anything more lethal than a tractor beam? I mean come on, what's a human gonna do to the robot? Roll over onto it?

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2008-07-01 10:51pm

I think Eve had the plasma weapon because she was a Probe Droid and might wind up in dangerous territory. To protect herself and complete her directive, she would need protection.

Although I was amused that the cockroach survived a point-blank shot.

Then again it lives on 700yr old Twinkies.

Post by **Coyote** » 2008-07-02 12:21am

The dystopian pathos at the beginning was awesome, and a cool comment on consumer society... amazingly dark for a animated movie. And it is hard enough for a real actor to carry a movie by himself (Cast Away, I am Legend) but to do so without any voice, just expressions and sound effects? Even Will Smith and Tom Hanks had monologues with themselves or imaginary friends. I was impressed.

At the end, I thought EVE would reboot/reload Wall-E's memory from the recording she had while she was in lockdown.

But that is some serious tech there-- I'd compare it to Star Wars level tech, except that all the advancements were oriented towards human comfort and indulgence, and nothing else.

I also liked the touch about the old Earth humans being portrayed by actors, and the Captains' portraits becoming increasingly digitized and unreal during their progression in space. And bear in mind their medical technology: the portraits of the Captains showed only, what, six individuals? From the actual actor to the final Captain? After 700 years? Yeah, their med tech is sweeeet.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2008-07-02 02:30am

JointStrikeFighter wrote:
OAN:Did the Autopilot and the robots have a no-killing rule? I find it odd the Autopilot locked the Captain away rather than say dumping him into space.
Asimov's Three laws of Robotics?

Auto really struck me as an Asimovian robot in his actions. Especially in two telling ways: He had to reveal the probe's report and what it meant. And then he said 'Humanity will survive'. Zeroth Law right there.

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2008-07-02 02:42am

In an interview with the director, he said that he was surprised by the number of sci-fi geeks at Pixar. It wouldn't surprise me that many of them have read Asimov and put the three laws of robotics ideas into the story.