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Capone Lubes Up WALL-E!!
Hey everyone. Caponein Chicago here.
My, oh, my. If this were a perfect world, you would be able to walk into the new Pixar/Disney animated splendor without ever having seen a frame of footage. I remember how thrilled I was to see something like five extended scenes from WALL-E at Butt Numb-a-Thon last December, but now that I've seen the entire finished film, I wish I'd never seen those clips. The more oblivious you are to what WALL-E is about, what it has to say about humanity, the earth and technology, the better. I was watching the "Ebert & Roeper" TV show last weekend, and I was stunned and disappointed that they were giving away key plot points about this little trash-compactor robot's adventure in space. It's not like the film has unexpected twists, but part of the job of discovering the film is witnessing what has become of humans after 700-800 years of not having to do a thing for themselves and having their bodies adjust to zero gravity. I don't care if Disney did supply the clips to go along with the discussion; these are elements that should be kept as secret as possible.
What's safe to say is the little Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth Class (WALL-E) is the last of his kind on an Earth that has been overrun with garbage. We see the corpses of other run-down robots like WALL-E all over the place, but our hero has been smart enough to fix any broken part of himself with parts of other robots. He's existed for hundreds of years making stacks of cubed garbage that rival in height and magnitude of the skyscrapers in the city where he lives. WALL-E is also a collector. Anything he finds curious, he throws into his chest plate and deposits in his makeshift "home." The first half-hour or so of the film is done without any conventional dialog, which doesn't mean that the film isn't communicating with us constantly. One of the many things on which WALL-E has become fixated is a worn-out VHS tape of Hello Dolly, in particular the image of two lovers holding hands. Without realizing it, WALL-E discovers there is something crucial missing in his life.
When a spacecraft lands on earth depositing a shiny, sleeker robot named EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), WALL-E's dormant emotions are set loose and suddenly all that lovey-dovey stuff he's seen in movies and heard in the film's songs means something to him. This robot courtship is one of the most romantic and humorous things you will ever see. It will warm your heart like few films in Disney's or anybody else's film libraries have done before. Director Andrew (FINDING NEMO) Stanton has done a mind-blowingly astonishing job making every nuance of WALL-E and EVE convey feeling even when they are incapable of changing their facial expressions.
When EVE stumbles upon something on Earth that could make a significant difference to human existence, she is whisked away back to space with WALL-E hot on her trail. To him there is no difference between Earth and space; all that matters is the connection he's formed with his lady friend. I don't want to discuss what WALL-E finds in space beyond a big-ass spaceship, but again credit to the filmmakers for pushing science fiction in a direction I've never seen it go before, especially not in a film that many young children will want to see. Even as a non-child, I was a little stunned at the direction the film takes. It's nothing disturbing (well, maybe a little) or gross or scary (well, maybe a little), but it is unexpected. I did like expanding the robots' world and watching WALL-E interact with strangers.
I could probably spend a couple of paragraphs citing other science fiction books and films that are similar to what WALL-E is going for in terms of tone and atmosphere. But to do so implies that Stanton & Co. have borrowed from other sources to make this film. That simply isn't the case. WALL-E is its own sentient being with its own set of wonders to discover and influence future sci-fi works, so to haul out references to Silent Running or 2001 is simply unfair. What might make a little more sense is comparing WALL-E to the best Chaplin and Keaton films. I suspect MODERN TIMES will be name dropped by people discussing this film, and that's perfectly understandable.
At its core, WALL-E is about the salvation of the human race (nothing heavy or anything, right?) and how this little, insignificant 'bot plays his part in doing just that. I haven't really discussed the animation, but it's the most realistic and beautiful Pixar has ever created. I'll have to see the film a couple more times to confirm my feelings on this, but I'm pretty certain this is my favorite Pixar film to date. The look of the film embodies every concept and design that I loved seeing in sci-fi films growing up. We do eventually get voices from human characters and some other sources. I particularly liked Sigourney Weaver's take on the ship's computer—part seductress (or maybe that's just her) and part cold machine. Jeff Garlin, Pixar mainstay John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy and a bizarre appearance by Fred Willard all add to the fun of WALL-E. I walked out of the theater after seeing this film in a kind of stunned silence.
Why could I not remember any other film I'd seen all summer? All year so far? Could this be the best film I see all year? With half the year gone at this point, this is my favorite movie so far. Prepare yourself for something deceptively simple, thought provoking and devastatingly marvelous. I've run out of great things to say about WALL-E; just go see it.
Capone
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And that's saying something.
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The vidsuals are stunning. Especially the closeup near the end with Eve and Wall-e. I'm ranking it with Iron Giant at the moment, which is damn high praise for me.
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Damn You MCMLXXVI
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I've already seen it twice! WALL-E is his own creation, but if I we're trying to describe him it would be Johnny 5 mixed with ET.
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a guy in line next to me with his family asked for four tickets to WALL-E and one for the happening, man is he gonna be disappointed.
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I did not find WALL-e to be overtly political. It is merely a cautionary tale and cultural satire which gives no specific causes or solutions for the situation it represents (if it had given these then it would definitely be political). It doesn't say "big corporations are evil", but it DOES say that "IRRESPONSIBLE corporations are evil". Ultimately, the movie features a corporation that doesn't realize that [insert cheesy quote] "with great power comes great responsibility". One reason that Pixar is such a good studio is that they get a lot of creative autonomy and freedom from large corporations like Disney. Perhaps they are sending a message to Disney in this movie. That message is not 'become a green freak', but be responsible (a message which no one should consider controversial). WALL-e ends up to be my favorite film of the year (which puts it in the running for best film of the decade). It is a truly touching and human love story the like of which haven't been seen since the great Charlie Chaplin's masterpiece, City Lights (the movie that WALL-e should be compared to, not Modern Times though that ones good too)
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I never expected to get such fine social satire from what is considered a children's film. But then again, all great sci-fi is just that.
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but i thought it was great beyond that...
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Jun 28, 2008 8:51:35 PM CDT
Complaining about spoiler reviews... in your spoiler review?
by changkhan
No offense, but isn't it a little hypocritical to complain about Ebert & Roper's review giving away plot points... and then go on to do the exact same thing? Without a spoiler warning in the review or even on the link on the front page?
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Saw it today with my 4-year old - his first movie in an actual movie theater. Definitely will be a memorable one. Recommend it to all ages!
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the humans bodies never had to get used to zero gravity... they're in a spaceship. I didn't see anyone floating around... did you?Plus... WALL*E doesn't throw his "collectibles" into his chest plate... he clearly throws it into his little red and white Playmate-style cooler.Also, I read that someone else said the copy of "Hello Dolly" WALL*E had was a BetaMax tape, but I was pretty sure it was VHS.
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She also voiced the Planet Express ship in a F uturama episode. Although one wonder why they cast her at all in Wall*E if her voice was going to be electronically processes to such a degree that she was completely unrecognizable.
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Au contrare. There were black blobbie people in the on the space ship. What is Spike talkn' bout?
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But not as enjoyable as the Incredibles IMO.
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its art. I thought Pixar lost their touch after seeing Cars, but i was wrong. they truly are a great studio
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Stop the insanity! You want love? Love other humans! Quit making/ buying robot sex dolls! How many precious kilowatts of energy did it take to produce this film?! How about the amount of petroleum it will take to create the vast number of products and merchandise for this movie (DVDs, BLURAYs, CDs, cases, WALL-E coolers, cups, straws, etc).WOW, great headline: "Capone LUBES up WALL-E!!" Are you f%&*@#%*&! kiddin' me?
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I am Tommy Corn incarnate!!
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Really... you thought Sigourney Weaver's voice was unrecognizable?The second I heard it, I turned to my wife and said, "Hey, that's Sigourney Weaver." I think it sounded just like here.Although, I was very excited to hear Jeff Garlin's voice as the Captain. Perfect fit!
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Saying it was better than Rat.
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I was stunned by what I saw tonight. I took my niece and the place was packed. Full of kids. And I tell you, it was the first movie I've ever been to where, at crucial points in the story, you could hear a pin drop. The adults AND kids were spellbound.
It really is one of Pixar's finest creations. It doesn't clobber you like The Incredibles, or tickle the funny bone like Toy Story or Monsters Inc. It doesn't even look as slickly rendered as Cars.
But what it does do is weave a quiet, gentle love story among the stars. And by the time the final scenes roll, you're captured. Truly and completely. -
...so who CARES if the "Johnny 5" design was "ripped off"? If I want gratuitous, 80's product placement, I'll watch Short Circuit. If I want MAGIC, I'll watch Wall*E.
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...since, well, since... Ratatouille. Seriously, if more movies were this good, I might want to live to see 40.
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If I didn't know Weaver was doing the coputer voice beforehand, I would have NEVER guesses it was her. Then again, even in her Futurama guest appearance, she did such a good job coming up with a unique voice, I didn't recognize her there either.
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I'm thirty. The last kids movie I saw in the theatres was Shrek. It was getting similar fawning reviews. And I must say I didn't like shrek or the experience of seeing a movie with a bunch of kids in the theatre. If I do see this in the theatre it will be at like a nine oclock show on a weekday when I'm the only one there. As for the whole, "this is just great storytelling" I don't know. It sounds like simple story telling. Wall E falls in love and something big is at stake, (as the review says, the human race), but other than that and in any other review I've read or seen there doesn't appear to be much more to it. I'm on the fence with the simple story is a good story theory. Either critics don't want to think too much or they do. They want to be challenged or they don't. But honestly, its a kids movie, and I know it will play for adults but I'd rather spend my 20 dollars on a night out on a mature movie. And beeping robots (they even got the guy who voiced R2D2, I guess that's orginal), the resemblance to both Johnny Five and ET, and also earth becomes a toxic waste dump and oh look every human is fat and lazy. C'mon, is that really all that original. "It's holding a mirror up to ourselves and what we're becoming". Blah Blah Blah.
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Dude, stop being jaded and see this. I'm not saying your points are wrong, I agree with some of them. Just go see it. It's worth it.
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cuz once you lose that childlike wonder, you might as well be dead...hate kids much?
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Wall-E is hands down the best film Pixar has made to date and this is coming from someone who worships Brad Bird.
Also -PRESTO the short before Wall-E is DYNAMITE! -
He claims to be thirty but he sounds like a crotchety old geezer. It also sounds like he prefers to lump a movie he hasn't even seen yet into the "Thanks, but I'll pass" file based solely on a brief synopsis or a few superficial points. I kinda feel sorry for the guy - must be horrible to live with such a closed mind. "WALL*E" doesn't sound interesting "on paper" to him so he will pass on it? Think of all the great films that sound flat on paper but are truly great films == "The Sweet Hereafter", "Away From Her", "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly", etc. They all sound dull on paper but are wonderful movies. You can have a flat-sounding premise and make a great film out of it (like the three I just mentioned), or you can take a cool premise and make a real stink-bomb turd of a movie out of it (any Michael Bay or Roland Emmerich film). Don't pre-judge a film by it's premise.
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Sorry --- that should have ended with "its premise", not "it's premise". Typo. The possessive form of "it" has no apostrophe.
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saw the nuked fridge from Indiana in Wall-E? Come on, who didn't see that fridge in Wall-E and think, nuked the fridge.
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I thought of Nuke the Fridge when I saw that. It's true.
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I saw it Friday afternoon and I was the only one in the theater who laughed at the spork joke. Are the audiences in my little 'burb losing their grasp on subtle humor?
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end? past the NES graphics of Wall-E and saw the big BnL logo come on? It was kind of ominous and sort of implying Disney is BnL.
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People laughed at it when I saw it too. Bob Loblaw Law Blog, good glad I wasn't the only one.
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..Annie Hall from it. But, that's just the romantic in me. Does anyone else not see Woody Allen for WallE?
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'nuff said, bitch
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Really dude. So what if they look similar. I'm going to say 7up can sue Coca Cola because of Sprite being a clear, non-caffeinated drink. You fucking trolling piece of shit.
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Because you're a no-talent brainless arsehole too (who apparently never noticed the robots in Star Wars or saw a pair of binoculars in his life)!! By your argument, Japan & Nazi Germany as well as Praying Mantises (Mantii?) everywhere should sue for Darth Vader's visage. Wow!
You're right though Tme2nsb, I shouldn't feed the troll. -
I can only imagine how it's going to be when the troll wakes up from under neath his bridge later on today, and thank goodness I'll be sleeping at that time.
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What with its clear implication that Capone has engaged in sodomy, most likely, nonconsensual, with a robot. I'm telling Vern.
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Jun 29, 2008 8:36:20 AM CDT
If your still carrying a sense of childlike wonder into movies a
by grendel745
I still have mine as I approach 40 and I pray every day that I don't lose it. I hope my kids never lose it either. Its why at the age of 38 my 12 year old (who's rapidly becoming a "teen") and I can still bond over classic Scooby Doo or Loony Tunes, despite any issues that may be going on.
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Because we need more of those.
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post-apocalyptic movies always have environmental disasters in them! who gives a flying fuck! just enjoy it as a movie set in a world where shit hit the fan!
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Look, I'm not some anti-environmental conservative stooge but it just seems to be a running theme in so many of these movies.
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Having seen WALL-E yesterday, it really has a very simple story, yet one that is masterfully told. You know how it is happens sometimes that you can eat a grilled cheese sandwich, and that grilled cheese sandwich turns out to be the best damned grilled cheese sandwich you ever tasted? That's what WALL-E is like. It's the best damned grilled cheese I've ever tasted. Very simple, yet masterfully done.
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If I recall, that was the dish that warmed the heart of Anton Ego: A "peasant" comfort food masterfully done.
Now if only we can get KurtLockwood or WhinyNegativeBitch to take a bite.
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Kurt, your childhood just got anally raped, bitch!
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and the best movie I have seen this year. Simple, epic, perfectly animated to within an inch of it's life! If somehow you don't fall for this film you can at least apreciate the best animators working at the very top of their game! Cute, Scary, riveting, heartwarming, tragic, perfect.
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"You WALL E apologists who attacked me instead of debating your points logically are weak minded bottom feeders who can't substantiate your arguments and guess what? You. just. got. pwnd. Bitches."
So funny to see socially inept morons claim the upper hand. You are the very image of the online no-life loser, dude. You call other people out for not "debating logically" and having no "substantial argument," and yet you rail against a movie that most people seem to agree is remarkably likeable... because the main character looks too much like the robot from Short Circuit. Are you fu-- wait, let me ask you in a way you might understand... ahem... Are. you. fucking. kidding. me?
Seriously, kid. My question is this: So what? I mean, if Stanton himself came out and said, "Yeah. You got me. I totally ripped off the look of Number Five," do you think THEN you could enjoy the movie? Is that really the only thing that's stuck in your craw about this flick? Or are you just so in need of being a whiny little bitch about everything in the world that you can't wrap your brain around something that is genuinely enjoyable and entertaining and even, dare I say it, NOT insulting to the average person's intelligence? So you get stuck on this whole "looks like Number Five" thing? Miss the big picture much? -
You certaintly outdid me on the food motif. As a person who in reality prefers a cheeseburer on the grill instead of a fine steak, I can't begrudge you for particular tastes.
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I don't think Lightstormer's assertion that you were 12 years old was fair. His guess is about 10 or 11 years higher than the actual age you seem to vent on AICN Talkbacks.
How about you actually watch the movie and then come back saying Wall-E is a Johnny 5 ripoff, which of course, was an ET ripoff. Disney and PIXAR lawyers don't infringe, everything was researched, and only trolls like you on the internet make up these claims. Please do the rest of the world a favor and go kill yourself; the ones with brains need the oxygen. -
I should have said that PIXAR does not infringe, because apparently you won't ever see the movie because you got your fist stuck up your ass.
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Sorry, I tuned out after he said "Stick your head up Pixar's ass", followed directly by " How's my ass taste?"!!! So, Kurt, you're saying you're Pixar - and you hate yourself?!
Although I usually read every single post, I stopped there. Too funny! Go back to the porn, Kurt.
Time, yes The Lying King is shameless, but have you seen Richard Williams' Thief and the Cobbler? It had been doing the rounds for decades before Aladdin. -
In case you were wondering half vader. If you got AIM, use my user name, you actually seem like a half decent person.
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(...see, I can come up with stupid porn names, too.)
Well, I responded to your dumbass post... I guess I can read. And when did I ever say that you WOULDN'T see the movie? Why spout irrelevant bullshit and call me illiterate? That your idea of a "reasoned argument?" Slamming me for shit I didn't say? Way to debate, counselor.
And by the way... I'm in reasonably good health, I get paid in a week what many people make in a month, simply for playing music videos in nightclubs and beach bars in San Diego for five hours a night - not what I'd call "work," but strangely enough, it is a career - and I have 3 kids that love me and a girlfriend far out of my league with amazing tits. What is there in your life that could possibly make me wish for it? -
Anyone else get that wierd vibe when EVE was on stand-by and Wall-E's dressin her up and rubbin on her an opening her panels n shit. Got the same feeling when Shia was making out on Bumblebee......WIERD
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I bet KURT wears short sleeve shirts under long sleeve shirts under short sleeve shirts.
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Wall-E is an interesting movie. There are many brave storytelling aspects to it such as not really having an traditional evil protagonist. The robots weren't bad, they were just doing what they were programmed to do by the administration that realized that they had screwed up. The robots did not 'consciously' sabotage the trip back to Earth.
I liked how the captain, bearing the weight of 700 years of gutless decision making, had the fortitude to make the right decision and go back to Earth because humanity couldn't run from their responsibilities forever.
But I'm amazed that no one has brought up the ending. I think Pixar really screwed up the end. Wall-E's memory should have been left erased. It would have been a bitter sweet, fitting ending. The climax was rightly the Captain returning the ship to Earth. Everything else was denouement. Perhaps a hint that Wall-E remembered some of his past and could, with time, return some of his memories; like a stroke victim, would have been a better ending.
The ending completely ruined an excellent film. Totally gutless. Welcome to Hollywood. -
That's too bad, really, because I found the fucking funniest thing ever: http://tinyurl.com/4kn2gr .
I swear, this might have been his trump card in our little spat, but if this really is him, it's WAY more hilarious than if he just borrowed the name!
PS: He never even answered any of my questions! Douche. -
...was way ahead of me. He recognized the name; I didn't. Points for the Semi-Darth.
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