WALL-E (Spoilers)

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » 2008-07-05 11:26am

^ Interesting.

Of course, this means that Steve Jobs is the Final Cylon. Gods help us all.

Post by **Coyote** » 2008-07-05 12:06pm

No, he's just marketing it. The iOppressor-3000.

montypython · Post by **montypython** » 2008-07-05 07:56pm

Directive A113 is something a Vorlon would love, all that stagnation would ultimately lead to destruction. In spite of various quibbles with the film, I must say the robots showed more emotional depth and honesty than certain animes (which will be unnamed).

Havok · Post by **Havok** » 2008-07-05 08:29pm

A113

Huh, interesting, if you didn't already know it.

Gerald Tarrant · Post by **Gerald Tarrant** » 2008-07-08 12:30am

Loved it.

Political commentAfter watching it I figured there might be a few commenters on the right who'd complain about it. I think it's mostly a case of "The guilty take the truth to be hard." Also, there seems to be a persistent strain of thought on the right that embraces even the most wasteful acts of consumerism just because they're opposed by a commenter on the left.

Back on topic, I don't know what you call choreography in an animated feature, but whatever it is Pixar did it wonderfully. The flight sequence outside the Axiom was great. I can't remember the last time I've been that engrossed in something with that little talking.

JGregory32 · Post by **JGregory32** » 2008-07-09 12:13am

You can really see that the Pixar people put a lot of themselves (and wish fulfillment) into the picture.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2008-07-09 05:53am

So, I've finally seen this film. I've got to say, it was mercilessly cute. And yeah, I don't think the Captain was in terribly serious danger - nothing Auto did would have instantly killed him.

montypython wrote:Directive A113 is something a Vorlon would love, all that stagnation would ultimately lead to destruction.

Hey now. They're not that bad. Sure, they're murderous lunatics, but their order fetish isn't the same thing as stagnation. They're all about growth and development, as long as it's on their terms.

CaptainZoidberg · Post by **CaptainZoidberg** » 2008-07-11 02:27pm

I haven't seen it yet, but can I ask how it stacks up with the Dark Knight, at least for a Sci-Fi fan?

But from what I've heard/seen, it looks like it's going to be hopelessly pretentious and masochistic, since the message seems to be "When man tries to use technology and replace nature, we're doomed to lose our souls and become horrible monsters".

And with the whole thing about humans being lazy and robots being thoughtful, I can only imagine that there's a subtle populist message: "Educated, white collar people are shallow and stupid, and have no souls, but blue collar workers and farmers are the greatest people ever".

But that's just how I'm imagining it from the reviews and ads.

I personally hate the nihilistic "Man vs. God" conflict stories, whether that God is Yahweh or mother Earth.

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2008-07-11 02:34pm

CaptainZoidberg wrote:I haven't seen it yet, but can I ask how it stacks up with the Dark Knight, at least for a Sci-Fi fan?

But from what I've heard/seen, it looks like it's going to be hopelessly pretentious and masochistic, since the message seems to be "When man tries to use technology and replace nature, we're doomed to lose our souls and become horrible monsters".

And with the whole thing about humans being lazy and robots being thoughtful, I can only imagine that there's a subtle populist message: "Educated, white collar people are shallow and stupid, and have no souls, but blue collar workers and farmers are the greatest people ever".

But that's just how I'm imagining it from the reviews and ads.

I personally hate the nihilistic "Man vs. God" conflict stories, whether that God is Yahweh or mother Earth.

um... no. You've got it all wrong. There's no pretentiousness, preachyness, righteousness, etc in the movie at all. You're obviously reading into the whiny reviews too much.

As far as how it stacks up against The Dark Knight... are you kidding? These are completely different genres of movie. It's like comparing Singing In The Rain to Saving Private Ryan. Which one is "better"? I dunno, do you?

The thing is, this whole post-apocalyptic Earth DOOM and the fat lazy humans on a cruise ship, these are all just SETTING. They're not the point of the story. WALL-E is a love story.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2008-07-11 02:40pm

CaptainZoidberg wrote:I haven't seen it yet, but can I ask how it stacks up with the Dark Knight, at least for a Sci-Fi fan?

TDK isn't out for another week, so I don't know how anyone could compare it yet.

But from what I've heard/seen, it looks like it's going to be hopelessly pretentious and masochistic, since the message seems to be "When man tries to use technology and replace nature, we're doomed to lose our souls and become horrible monsters".

Absolutely not. There is a message of becoming over-reliant on technology and that it is a poor substitute for real human interaction, yes. There's a message about rampant consumerism, yes. But pretentious and masochistic? Uh, no.

And with the whole thing about humans being lazy and robots being thoughtful, I can only imagine that there's a subtle populist message: "Educated, white collar people are shallow and stupid, and have no souls, but blue collar workers and farmers are the greatest people ever".

Uh, no. The whole movie's romance puts lie to that.

But that's just how I'm imagining it from the reviews and ads.

Uh, what reviews? They have almost all been praising it highly!

I personally hate the nihilistic "Man vs. God" conflict stories, whether that God is Yahweh or mother Earth.

It's not that kind of story.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2008-07-11 02:58pm

Cutest scifi movie I can recall. Quite an entertaining movie.

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2008-07-12 01:48am

Awesome movie, it's definitely one of the 2-3 best Pixar movies ever in my mind (Along with The Toy Story movies and "The Incredibles").
It has far better visuals than almost any other (At least in the first half), a really cute romance and great design and awesome voices/sound.

Stylistically, it's the PG-8 grandchild of Portal and the Fallout games.
Same music as the Fallout games as well as everything about the wrecked Earth, and GECKO, er EVE for helping renew life on Earth while tuning out to 50's super-tech and music. The autopilot was GlaDOS's retarded cousin, likewise for the security bots. (Even if they could move, as opposed to Portal "bye bye" cyborg killadroids).

I'll probably want to buy this on dvd

. Bloody lovely.

Guardsman Bass · Post by **Guardsman Bass** » 2008-07-12 02:50am

CaptainZoidberg wrote:I haven't seen it yet, but can I ask how it stacks up with the Dark Knight, at least for a Sci-Fi fan?

It's actually quite a cute, cheerful film in many ways that left me feeling very upbeat, in spite of the rather unpleasant setting (a nearly lifeless earth with the remnants of humanity scattered across the stars).

But from what I've heard/seen, it looks like it's going to be hopelessly pretentious and masochistic, since the message seems to be "When man tries to use technology and replace nature, we're doomed to lose our souls and become horrible monsters".

That couldn't be farther from the opposite. It was just that the human beings had essentially allowed their humanity and even most human interaction to wither away in a situation in which they were essentially pampered for their entire lives. Once they got out of their little shells, so to speak, they actually were pretty decent people.

And with the whole thing about humans being lazy and robots being thoughtful, I can only imagine that there's a subtle populist message: "Educated, white collar people are shallow and stupid, and have no souls, but blue collar workers and farmers are the greatest people ever".

Not at all. I would almost say the humans were "distracted" more than just lazy; as has been mentioned, once they were brought out of their shells, they seemed to become much more decent people.

But that's just how I'm imagining it from the reviews and ads.

You must be reading some weird reviews.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2008-07-12 11:52am

Awesome movie, visually amazing, poignant, relevant criticism to our lives, sweet, funny, and inspiring. I would definitely go see it again. I loved how with the credits, as they moved forward in time from the return, the art style progresses as it did with humanity IRL. Initially it was stick figure, like cave paintings, then hieroglyphics, then greek pottery art, then tile collage, then paint, then fresco, then pencils, etc... capping at 8-bit digital.

Also, M-O is totally awesome. I love that litle guy.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2008-07-12 09:13pm

Saw it with Uts and DP this afternoon. Don't really have anything to add other than I thought it was a very beautiful film.

Guardsman Bass · Post by **Guardsman Bass** » 2008-07-13 12:12am

Something about the ending credits showing the rebirth essentially of human society on Earth along with that particular music was really touching, in my opinion.

Losonti Tokash · Post by **Losonti Tokash** » 2008-07-13 01:20am

Gerald Tarrant wrote:After watching it I figured there might be a few commenters on the right who'd complain about it. I think it's mostly a case of "The guilty take the truth to be hard." Also, there seems to be a persistent strain of thought on the right that embraces even the most wasteful acts of consumerism just because they're opposed by a commenter on the left.

Well of course. Jonah Goldberg criticized it for a litany of reasons, including "use of the color red."

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2008-07-13 01:31am

Most of the complaints I've seen are "WALL-E is too GRIMDARK!" and "WALL-E needs more GRIMDARK!"

yeah

Guardsman Bass · Post by **Guardsman Bass** » 2008-07-13 01:58am

Hawkwings wrote:Most of the complaints I've seen are "WALL-E is too GRIMDARK!" and "WALL-E needs more GRIMDARK!"

yeah

The setting is actually kind of dark, when you think about it. A lone robot who has been slowly working away by himself for 700 years on a nearly lifeless Earth meets and falls in love with the latest of a long line of probe robots that is most likely to fail in their mission (although she doesn't in this case), from a scenario where humanity is essentially lounging around waiting to die on-board "luxury" space-liners adrift across the universe. I don't think it's unnecessarily dark, though, and I agree with you.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2008-07-13 02:26am

A113 is a reference that shows up in pretty much every Pixar movie. The origin of this is that it's a classroom at CalArts (California Institute of the Arts), and many of the Pixar staff, including John Lassetter and Brad Bird, are CalArts graduates.

I just saw it today and loved it. The sheer amount of characterization they could pull from ROBOTS of all things!

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2008-07-13 10:35am

I was surprised by how cynical the first ten or so minutes of the film were. If you made it simply into a short and ended it with Wall-E just going back to his little home and not having the cockroach, it'd be a pretty sobering film.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2008-07-14 05:35pm

The Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern ran a column in the weekend edition arguing that Disney and Pixar should eschew the best animated feature category entirely and instead push WALL-E for a best picture nomination when the time comes around.

I think they should go for it.

Lord Relvenous · Post by **Lord Relvenous** » 2008-07-14 08:02pm

Depending on the quality of "The Dark Knight", yes they should. Usually, i'd say neither an animated picture nor a comic book movie would have a chance, but with the quality, the amazing visuals, emotive characters, message, and great pace of WALL-E and the sentimentalism over Heath Ledger's death, the gritty nature of the films, and the quality of Batman Begins, both have quite a shot. It all depends on whether or not TDK lives up to the hype, and of the quality that has been suggested.

TimothyC · Post by **TimothyC** » 2008-07-14 10:10pm

Let me preface this with the following: I don't like a lot of "hit" movies, and in general I prefer those that are not hits over those that are.

I just got back from seeing WALL-E, and I can say without hyperbole that it was if not the best, then the most moving movie I have seen in many, many years. I don't get emotional at movies very often, but I was crying during the first few minutes as the movie nailed just how empty and lonely WALL-E's Earth was.

As for the music - that was one of the things that put it over the top. Hello Dolly! holds a special place for me (for a variety of reasons), and the use of Put on Your Sunday Clothes and It only takes a moment were masterful. It was just so good.

The DVD is already on my purchase list.

Guardsman Bass · Post by **Guardsman Bass** » 2008-07-15 02:37am

It's on my purchase list, as well. The fact that I saw the movie twice over a week with different people (my cousin wanted to see it as well, so I saw it a second time) and still liked it a lot (in fact, if someone wanted to see it with me again at this time, I wouldn't say no) is a good sign. It's been a while since I found a movie that had good re-watch value.