Triumph of Animation

It took me forever to see this movie.

I don't know why it took me so long to see Wall-E. Some things came up at the wrong time. I was going to see it in the theatre in the summer. Never did. I was going to see it in the second-run theater in Appleton. But I couldn't make it that evening even though I was slam middle of the city. Couldn't get around to it. I've tried renting it out through a couple of failed copies from Hollywood Video. It was just sheer bad luck. I had to return the movie twice before getting a good copy.

But I finally got to see the film in its entirey. I'm glad I did.

We have come to admire the lovable guy from Wall-E.

He represents something in all of us. A little lonely, always looking for some company. In a way we are searching for that small human touch. And he falls in love deeply, like a good little robot.
But there's no stopping him once he falls in love. He is a dreamer. Determined, faithful, loyal. Those are qualities that should be noticed. Because they teach us something about the value of life. That all life must be precious no matter what.

Wall-E is one of the finest entries from the duo partnership of Walt Disney and Pixar, creating a clever outing that takes the best elements of science fiction and comedy. And gives it a light hearted touch along the way. Written and directed by Andrew Stanton.

But it takes some real genuis for someone to make a movie that doesn't have dialogue for the first fifteen to twenty minutes of the film. The exaggerated silence, which engulfs the entire world, gives a deafening sound. One can get used to the voices and car sounds that drone on in everday lives, the usual noise that has become background substance for us. What if all of that is gone? What would happen if something wiped away all the sounds in the world and leaves it a dead hunk of nothing?

That's what we're doing to it now.

We're killing a planet, slowly, surely, like reckless children wrecking their toys.

It's a nice message Wall-E sends out to us and re-awakens our senses. In a way, the film is playing with our senses... first with our hearing. The winds lift from the dusty grounds, the cemetery moments that reminds us of our carelessness.

Some of my favorite parts is with Wall-E carrying on with his work, like a good soldier, just taking the garbage and condensing them into sturdy little boxes that pile up. And he picks through the garbage to find more "fun" items, takes them home. He puts in a tape to play "Hello Dolly." You can hear the sweetness of dancing and lively music drumming in the background. It is the only thing that keeps Wall-E in good company. His only connection to the old world.

One must not be so alone. So Wall-E continues to do his work despite everything else has gone to an idle calm. The silence, the lack of words, do have a greater impact for us. Suddenly, as an audience, we find out how lonely it really is without the commotion, the craziness. Dare I say that humanity can be missed?

There is no one. They have all left the world and their responsibilities behind.

I know there are some people who have said, "I don't get it." That they complain about the film not explaining anything to the audience. How did the robot get there, blah, blah, blah. Look, the film assumes that you are an intelligent viewer. It doesn't insult you by explaining all the details of the film to you. It leaves for you to figure out what is going on in the first twenty minutes. You can certainly put two and two together. If you can't think it through, then it's your problem.

I'm getting a little tired of that. I don't much care of how some movies are created, in light of millions of dollars, to cater to dimwitted audiences that make up a greater portion of the movie viewing. It's like some movies set a story in Paris, showing you a visual tip such as "Paris, France," and yet there's the Eiffel Tower standing right there in the background! The same with Big Ben in the background if the story is set in London. Yet they show the billing "London" across the screen. What a bunch of... it really insults me when they do stupid stuff like that. And it annoys me further that people need some explanations given to them. They're smart enough. They can do it. I give people enough credit for figuring things out.

But I digress.

This story revolves a love between two robots Wall-E and Eve, a future love that involves much understanding through differences. And they go through the entire story trying to save a tiny plant that Wall-E finds under a fridge. He keeps it in a old shoe for safety. But the other robots of the future does not want to go back to earth after the plant's discovery by keeping humanity ignorant of such facts. The biggest and baddest computer on the Axiom ship is a nice refernce to the HAL computer from 2001. Perhaps the computers are distantly related?

You don't see any humans in the story until about fourty minutes into the film. And there is one disturbing thing about them. They are all getting pretty fat. Lack of exercise, too many foods, not enough walking in those narrow corridors. They rely too much on machines.

There is a lot of nice details pertaining to the story... if you see the pictures on the wall of all the Captains who were in charge of the large ship, you'll see they get slowy fatter as time goes by. It's a nice little detail.

It's great to see the Captain, voiced by Jeff Gellar, who redeems himself, and the human race, by turning the tables on the super evil computer and becomes fixed with the notion of going back to earth. Their real home. And he isn't going to be stopped by some crazy computer. He is determined, loyal, and tries to do best for all his people. He is a human version of Wall-E.

The film offers beautiful animation for the children. And the story is smart enough to enrapture the adults as well. But the most important element of the story is the inner reconnecting to things that mean the most... that life, even on a wasted planet, is the key to everything. The story revolves around this idea. And the eventual return to earth.

It's a nice movie that questions the corporations of today and what they are capable of. And the silly decisions that such companies can make in the wake of serious issues.

But they could not stop one small, yet unbeatable, hero, in a form of Wall-E. That is something for every one of us to be proud. And perhaps we should strive to achieve a little bit of that goodness the hero shows.