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zustiferWall-E (2008), Andrew Stanton. June 29, 7pm. View count: One.
I was weirdly annoyed with this movie. Firstly, it pulled its pessimistic human-nature punch, in several ways. Secondly, the protagonist(s) were made to share the spotlight with the humans such that it felt to me like their day-saving was pretty hollow.
I mean, obviously it was beautiful in appearance (except for the humans and their environment), and the lesson that characters don't need a mouth or skin to be expressive is one that Hollywood probably needs to learn. Also the relatively minimal dialog (also ruined by the humans).
But I must complain in detail.
One big troubling thing is that the movie begins as this small, focused, wordless platonic-animation character study, and then proceeds to become a freaking frantic ensemble chase/physical struggle. What? I mean, our protagonist is actually carried around through a too-large portion of the back end of the film - his volition and small, simple goals that used to be what we were focused on eclipsed by whatever chase scene crap was happening. If nothing else, it's a pacing no-no; it's going to lead to people saying things like 'the first part was boring, but the second half is a hoot!' which makes me deeply unhappy.
The point about ten minutes in where Wall-E finishes his first day in our view, when he first sees the storm-thing approaching and enters his bunker and goes to 'sleep', that would have been an excellent end point for a short. Part of me wanted to just leave, because all the important concepts had been gotten across, the mood was clear, and a day in the life is a perfectly valid story. Of course, chmmr and I also wanted the human ship to be completely devoid of life, with the robots wheeling around in maintenance of thousands of corpses, but hey.
The humans were a problem not only because of their attendant weird shift of focus (all of a sudden the robots are back in service of the humans, not pursuing their own lives, and new, unfortunate-looking characters are our new heroes! What the heck), but because of their halfassed conflict with sloth. What's that, Pixar? People should get off their asses and Do Things in order to be fulfilled? Why, thanks so much! Surely people conditioned to passivity, who have never known anything other than being waited on hand and foot secretly have the wherewithal to lead a mission successfully! I mean, why would they even understand the concept of conflict or leadership, let alone have intellectual curiosity (which sequence was cute but weirdly mocking)? It seems so privileged to not have to admit that when people are powerless they lose the ability to understand why being active is even good. It's such a simplistic turn from a movie that earlier had been spare, but very accessible.
I also hated the message that whatever happened with Wall-E and Eve, it was all to save the humans. The humans that are almost impossible to like, that are difficult to empathize with, and that are so much less expressive than the robots. Bastards. One can only hope that the robot uprising is biding its time.
Oh, I forgot to mention: the best part was when the cockroach went in the twinkie. &hearts
I was weirdly annoyed with this movie. Firstly, it pulled its pessimistic human-nature punch, in several ways. Secondly, the protagonist(s) were made to share the spotlight with the humans such that it felt to me like their day-saving was pretty hollow.
I mean, obviously it was beautiful in appearance (except for the humans and their environment), and the lesson that characters don't need a mouth or skin to be expressive is one that Hollywood probably needs to learn. Also the relatively minimal dialog (also ruined by the humans).
But I must complain in detail.
One big troubling thing is that the movie begins as this small, focused, wordless platonic-animation character study, and then proceeds to become a freaking frantic ensemble chase/physical struggle. What? I mean, our protagonist is actually carried around through a too-large portion of the back end of the film - his volition and small, simple goals that used to be what we were focused on eclipsed by whatever chase scene crap was happening. If nothing else, it's a pacing no-no; it's going to lead to people saying things like 'the first part was boring, but the second half is a hoot!' which makes me deeply unhappy.
The point about ten minutes in where Wall-E finishes his first day in our view, when he first sees the storm-thing approaching and enters his bunker and goes to 'sleep', that would have been an excellent end point for a short. Part of me wanted to just leave, because all the important concepts had been gotten across, the mood was clear, and a day in the life is a perfectly valid story. Of course, chmmr and I also wanted the human ship to be completely devoid of life, with the robots wheeling around in maintenance of thousands of corpses, but hey.
The humans were a problem not only because of their attendant weird shift of focus (all of a sudden the robots are back in service of the humans, not pursuing their own lives, and new, unfortunate-looking characters are our new heroes! What the heck), but because of their halfassed conflict with sloth. What's that, Pixar? People should get off their asses and Do Things in order to be fulfilled? Why, thanks so much! Surely people conditioned to passivity, who have never known anything other than being waited on hand and foot secretly have the wherewithal to lead a mission successfully! I mean, why would they even understand the concept of conflict or leadership, let alone have intellectual curiosity (which sequence was cute but weirdly mocking)? It seems so privileged to not have to admit that when people are powerless they lose the ability to understand why being active is even good. It's such a simplistic turn from a movie that earlier had been spare, but very accessible.
I also hated the message that whatever happened with Wall-E and Eve, it was all to save the humans. The humans that are almost impossible to like, that are difficult to empathize with, and that are so much less expressive than the robots. Bastards. One can only hope that the robot uprising is biding its time.
Oh, I forgot to mention: the best part was when the cockroach went in the twinkie. &hearts
