WOW-E to WALL-E

After months of anxiously waiting, I have finally had the opportunity to see Disney/Pixar's newest film, WALL-E, and I feel obliged to express my deepest feelings of appreciation for this masterpiece.



Before I go into the specifics of the film, let me try to explain why it hit such a chord with me.

Since my childhood of watching many classic musicales and, later on, games such as Fallout, more recently, Bioshock and Grim Fandango, I have had a fascination with the culture of the 30s to 60s, in particular the music and projected Utopian lifestyle. It was a time of great prosperity where, in spite of the problems of the time, the future looked like a bright one. Great music in great films, such as On Moonlight Bay, Singin' in the Rain, and Hello, Dolly!, the latter of which had some film snippets and music in WALL-E, helped to give one a sense of prosperity that would never fail.

Additionally, such works as Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien/Aliens, the Ender Series, etc. have given me a firm love of the fantastical space science fiction genre, particularly the 70s and 80s style, which WALL-E has taken great technological advances to emulate visually.

Then, on top of that, various works, such as the aforementioned Fallout, Solar Flare, Resident Evil (more the first three games than anything else), etc. have sparked an interest in futuristic apocalyptic themes.

WALL-E seamlessly combines the three in an amalgamation of awesome, a compilation of kick-ass, a medley of the monumental.

Now, let's move on to the movie itself.



I went into the theater expecting WALL-E to be fantastic, as, along with game developers Valve and Blizzard, I consider Pixar to be an entertainment company that can "do no wrong." I've liked every movie they have thus far released (yes, including Cars), and I didn't expect WALL-E to be an exception. I vastly underestimated it.

For movies and games, I go with my best hopes being that I walk away feeling unsatisfied. Yes, unsatisfied--wanting more, not because the entertainment was lacking, but because I have become so lost in the world presented, I only wish I could lose myself deeper into it. WALL-E had me wishing I could see it again as soon as I'd stepped out of the theater. I must say, that's a first.

The characters simply wowed me. I anticipated, at best, to think that WALL-E was cute, but my empathy expanded beyond him, to encompass almost every character--even the villains, simply because the concept appealed to me so much. It's similar to how I love GLaDOS from Portal, even though she was the antagonist (in this case, I was fascinated by AUTO). In particular, I loved EVE. Her voice, her laugh, her expressions, her design. Genius.


The movie turned out to not only be a stupendously imaginative science fiction/post-apocalypse film with beautiful visuals (of course, this is Pixar we're talking about--this here ain't no Madagascar), but it also had some truly funny moments, warnings about avoiding excessive consumerism and environmental neglect (which usually annoys me, because it's usually forced down one's throat, but WALL-E lets one take the message, or leave it and just enjoy the movie as a work of fiction), and, what surprised me most, some very, very touching love scenes. I actually shed a tear. Twice. For robot love! Somehow, Pixar managed to make the emotions EVE and WALL-E felt more real to me than any actor has ever done, as I've never become choked up over any human actors' emotions before (with the exception of the triumphant end to Apollo 13 and the bittersweet end to Where the Red Fern Grows). I think it's actually because they are robots. In most movies, when two people get together, I can't help but imagine them fulfill their "love" by having sex after the picture is over. Obviously, that's impossible for two robots. The most they do, and can do, is hold hands and exchange an electric "kiss", and that's enough for them. It's love for the sake of love--there's nothing more innocent and pure than that.

Bottom line: from "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" over the opening space scenes to "Down to Earth" over the ending credits prologue, WALL-E is pure gold and an instant classic. The musical score is great, too. Within an hour and a half, WALL-E has firmly rooted itself at the top of my favorite movies list, even above my beloved Lord of the Rings.



Of course, the movie does have a few flaws that I noticed. All films do. Note that spoilers follow.

UPDATE: I added new observations.

SPOILERS BEGIN:

1. I don't mind at all how the live action film next to the 3D characters look, but some of those films with the CEO of Buy 'n Large looks a bit crappy, in my opinion; particularly when he explains that Earth is too toxic for any plants to survive. His hazard mask looks like something out of a cheap sci-fi flick. - It isn't as bad as I first thought, and any other oddness is probably intentional.

2. Although the Axiom has apparently been in space for seven hundred years, there are only six or seven captain portraits on the bridge. Is the human life span drastically increased, or what? - Yes, they all lived over 100 years, if you read the dates under the portraits.

3. I assume that the plants that end up growing on Earth are able to do so because they have been dormant seeds for so long and just now are finally able to grow. However, it looks like all of the plants are beans of some kind--they don't seem to have a very wide variety, particularly since, in the credits, a ton of flowers, trees, etc. are depicted in what is a sort of prologue. Additionally, it shows some fish, turtles, etc. Where did THEY come from? - Most likely there was some kind of zoo, garden, etc. on the Axiom, and they were just waiting for the planet to be ready for those things to be returned.

4. All the humans supposedly had an extreme loss of bone mass from being in outer space, lying in a hover-bed, for their entire lives, and yet the captain and others seemed to be able to stand alright on the ship, even if they had to waddle to move. Then, when they were on Earth, none of them hand a problem standing or waddling. Considering their extensive body mass and lack of bone, shouldn't their legs have simply broken under their own weight? - I guess the illustrations of the BnL CEO exaggerated the bone loss a bit.

5. WALL-E, after escaping certain destruction from an exploding pod, presents the plant he had saved to EVE, in outer space. Wouldn't that cause the plant to freeze, explode from the lack of pressure, or die in some other way? - I've heard that something won't die instantly in space, but would be able to survive at least ten seconds. I don't know if that's true, but I'm willing to accept it.



There are more little things, but those are the most glaringly apparent to me. The rest I can handle with suspension of belief. - There's actually very little else to complain about.

SPOILERS END

Now, I'm back to anxiously chewing my fingers to the bone, waiting for WALL-E to come to a local theater and come out on DVD. I'm actually more anxious to see it now that I've seen it once than when I'd never seen it before. That alone makes it a great movie.

P.S. If you're anxiously awaiting a chance to see it again, as I am, give the video game a try. It has a condensed (and somewhat inaccurate) version of the movie in its gameplay/cutscenes. Warning: the game sucks as much as the movie rocks. You can find a compiled version of the game's cutscenes into a sort of mini-movie here. Yes, using torrents for such a purpose as this (which is no greater copyright violation than anything on YouTube) is legal, so go ahead and enjoy.

P.S.S. WALL-E is NOT a rip-off of Johnny-5, so stop insisting that he is!

UPDATE: I was aware of a number of Apple-based easter eggs in the movie, including WALL-E emitting the Mac welcome sound after recharging, him watching movies on an iPod, AUTO being voiced by MacInTalk, but the extent of such easter eggs escaped me until I read this article. As beautiful as Apple products are, I still have a simmering dislike of them. Maybe my love of EVE will eventually alleviate that hate?

UPDATE 2: I think that WALL-E has aggravated my OCD--I can't seem to get the music, the story, and the emotions it stirs from my head. Is this love, or am I turning fanatical fan-boy? Too bad there isn't a WALL-E fan community to speak of. What is there to discuss?

In my spare time (while listening to WALL-E's fantastic sound track and wishing I was in a theater instead), I had been attempting to recreate various WALL-E characters as websites, though I think that I'll never actually get around to it. I did, however, get around to designing a Buy n Large website, of sorts. Looking at it makes me cringe a bit. I need to practice before trying anything professional, that's for sure. I did manage to do a fairly good job of recreating the BnL logo in Adobe Illustrator, though.

UPDATE 3: There is a fascinating article at CGSociety about Pixar's work on the various visual effects of WALL-E. I think that my feelings of the movie have been perfectly laid out in a quote from the article.

“I worked on many, many films, and I would say what is special about this film to me, is when you are watching this first act play out before your eyes, it’s easy to feel like you are watching cinema history. It feels like the ground is breaking.”

I've watched the movie twice, and it still feels "like the ground is breaking." I just can't wait for the DVD!

UPDATE 4: I've uploaded the afore-mentioned WALL-E mini-movie to Google Videos (YouTube's fat, pimply younger brother) and embedded it below. Note: contains LARGE spoilers.
EDIT: Okay, someone reported it for some stupid reason. It's not like there aren't such cutscenes all over YouTube, and FULL MOVIES all over Google Videos. WALL-E included (thanks to watch-movies.net--please go and pay for WALL-E before enjoying it at home; it's well worth it). Pricks.

UPDATE 5: Note that a WALL-E fansite of sorts does exist.

UPDATE 6: Squee from the Earthsong forums wrote a great review of WALL-E here.

FINAL UPDATE: One may be interested to read the Pixar Blog and note that, as of this update, WALL-E has passed the $100 million mark. I hope it keeps on going for a long, long time. It more than deserves it.

Additional links: Wall-E Trailers Blog, Production Notes (spoilers)