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Thursday, June 26, 2008
WALL-E: One of Pixar’s very best
How much did I love WALL-E? Let me list the ways.
I didn’t want it to end. Immediately after the credits rolled and the Pixar logo’s light clicked off, I wanted to run up to the projectionist and ask him to show the movie again.
Failing that, I immediately made plans to see the movie for at least a second time this weekend. Maybe even a third.
I called three friends to rave about the film only minutes after seeing it.
I also looked into buying the soundtrack with Thomas Newman’s absolutely gorgeous score.
Watching WALL-E, I forgot I was in a movie theater.
So why is the movie this wonderful? Aside from the visual splendor and the storytelling savvy I’ve come to expect from Pixar, it’s like no other animated movie I’ve ever seen. WALL-E has about 10 minutes of human dialogue, if that, so the movie relies almost completely on images to tell its story. The effect is spellbinding.
WALL-E stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth class, and he has lots of work to do. He lives on Earth, hundreds of years from now. Humans have abandoned the planet, leaving trash everywhere. We see that there had been a whole fleet of WALL-Es, but only one remains.
As dutiful as he is, WALL-E is not merely a machine. He’s a curious little romantic. He constantly plays with objects he finds in the wreckage, throwing away a diamond ring but keeping the box. His favorite pastime is watching a VHS tape of Hello, Dolly!, his only indicator of what people were like. WALL-E can’t speak English, but his forlorn eyes make it obvious he longs for company besides a cockroach.
Company arrives in the form of EVE (Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), a sleek little robot with a gleaming white surface and lights that blink from within. (She’s clearly a nod to Apple products.) While she rockets around looking for signs of organic life, the smitten WALL-E follows her everywhere, to her initial annoyance and eventual amusement. But when he finds what she is looking for, things don’t turn out at all as WALL-E expects.
The last act of the picture, which takes place mostly on the spaceship where humans have been living, is brasher in tone, but necessarily so. A few people have accused this part of WALL-E of being preachy, never mind that there’s not much dialogue. The movie obviously has a “green” message on its mind, but it’s delivered in such a creative, lighthearted way that it only adds to the movie’s immense appeal.
I could go on about the technical wizardry of WALL-E, describing its marvelously inventive look and how it mimics science fiction films of the 1970s. I could talk about how special effects guru Dennis Muren (Jurassic Park, Terminator 2) and top cinematographer Roger Deakins (most of the Coen brothers’ movies) helped craft the images, and how the wondrous creations by Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt (who also voices WALL-E) enveloped me. However, these things aren’t what I remember most about the movie.
What I remember most is how my heart sang during this movie. As ever with Pixar, the emotional resonance of the story makes the most dramatic impact. I never imagined that one of the most touching romances I’ve ever seen would be between two mechanical objects who don’t speak English, but here it is. Pixar can wring so much effectiveness from EVE’s LED eyes alone, it’s amazing. That the romance plays out almost wordlessly gives it a rare grace and beauty, worthy of Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece, City Lights.
Some people have wondered if children will be able to deal with a movie that has almost no dialogue. If the kids at my screening are any indication, the answer is, absolutely. When the kids weren’t laughing at WALL-E’s slapstick antics, they stared in silent wonder, asking nary a question and making nary a sound. Director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo), and his co-writers Pete Docter and Jim Reardon have made a miracle.
I imagine some will wonder if this film could possibly be as good as I make it out to be. If other people think it’s half as good as I do, they should still come away very happy. Do not wait for the DVD. Even if you don’t have kids, see it. If you have a baby at home, hire a sitter and see it. And then make sure the sitter sees it too.
WALL-E is one of Pixar’s very best movies, making it one of the best movies of all time - animated or otherwise.
GRADE: A+
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What’s opening Friday, June 27?
If WALL-E were the only film to open this weekend, that should more than suffice for most people. However, there are actually some other interesting attractions this weekend.
Wanted: This Angelina Jolie action flick has attracted surprisingly strong reviews. I just might check it out this weekend, after seeing WALL-E for the second or third time.
At the arthouses
The Neon in Dayton opens the well-reviewed Priceless, with Audrey Tautou of Amelie fame. Little Art opens Then She Found Me, directed by Helen Hunt.
The Ultra Cool Films series at Victoria Theatre begins its great lineup this weekend with The King and I, one of the better Rodgers and Hammerstein film adaptations, thanks in no small part to the performances by Deborah Kerr and Oscar winner Yul Brynner.
My WALL-E review posts at noon. Prepare yourselves for a gusher.
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