WALL-E

[Once Upon A Dream]

Have fun .

[Macaluso]

I'm interested in how the animated news logo is gonna look

[Ben]

Well...now y'know, Mac!

[Christian]

Very minor spoilers:

There's a funny spork gag.

There's a weird Bobby McFerrin reference.

John Ratzenberger plays a character named . . . drum roll, please . . . John.

There's an unusual Finding Nemo reference.

All sorts of imagery in the credits, including homages to Van Gogh, animation that was probably hand-drawn, and homages to old videogames such as Dig Dug.

I thought it was equally as good as Kung Fu Panda, just in a different way.

[Ben]

The Hollywood Reporter has spoken!

Full WALL-E review, without any major spoilers or plot points we didn't already know, but I've hidden it anyway...

Bottom Line: It's now nine for nine for Pixar!

By Kirk Honeycutt
Jun 25, 2008

Opens Friday, June 27 (Walt Disney Pictures)

This is getting to sound like a broken record: Pixar Animation Studios has just topped itself. Again. In "Wall-E," following the sublime culinary slapstick of "Ratatouille," Pixar and director/writer Andrew Stanton -- officially the studio's ninth employee way back when -- have spun a whimsical sci-fi fantasy about robots 800 years into the future that has all the heart, soul, spirit and romance of the very best silent movies 60 years ago. Well, you don't expect robots to talk, do you? While the soundtrack is full of clanking noises, explosions, music and even dance numbers, there is little dialogue as such to get this story told. Because Stanton and his animation team punch across their terrific (and ecologically sound!) story by inventing a visual and aural language with which these robotic creatures can express a rainbow of emotions.

The film is so clever and sophisticated that you worry, slightly, that it may be too clever to connect with mainstream audiences. But like those worries last year that having a rat for a hero in "Ratatouille" might throw off audiences, "Wall-E" is so sweet and funny that the multitudes will undoubtedly surrender to its many charms.

A polluted and toxic Earth has been abandoned by mankind centuries ago, only somebody forgot to turn off the last robot. That would be Wall-E (an acronym that stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class), a mobile trash compactor who goes about his job decade after decade. He has even developed a storage system so he can self-replace his parts. His only companion is a cockroach. Well, you knew that creature would survive anything.

Mankind, grown fat and lazy after centuries of floating like lotus eaters in a Club Med spaceship above Earth, sends out a probe to search for signs of life on the abandoned planet. That would be Eve (Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator). Wall-E develops a mighty crush on Eve, although her fearsome temper -- she tends to blast anything that moves -- makes him shy. But their romance, an innocence in the unlikeliest of places, blossoms. Wall-E even shows her his little green plant.

His little WHAT? That's the very thing she's been looking for! That plant launches the couple on an epic journey to the Axiom spaceship, where with other "rogue robots" they overthrow a robotic controlled civilization and galvanize humans -- more robotic than the actual robots -- into something approaching Life.

The visual design of "Wall-E" is arguably Pixar's best. Stanton, who wrote the script with Jim Reardon from a story he concocted with Peter Docter, creates two fantastically imaginative, breathtakingly lit worlds -- a wretched, destroyed Earth city, not unlike Manhattan, and the spaceship where humans hover in floating couches, their bloated body fat encasing virtually useless bones, while an intricate series of robots perform all labor and a 3-D Internet is the only form of human communication.

The real stroke of brilliance, though, is the use of old movie footage, mixed in with the CG animation, to trigger Wall-E's romantic yearnings. After work, Wall-E endlessly watches a videotape from the 1969 movie "Hello, Dolly!" The musical imagery and two songs make him understand what love and passion mean. He even learns how to hold hands, something he is finally able to try out with Eve.

Sound designer Ben Burtt creates expressive sounds given off by the robots, and in particular Wall-E, that you would swear are voices speaking words. If there is such a thing as an aural sleight-of-hand, this is it.

There are lifts from "2001" -- acknowledged as such with a wink by the filmmakers -- as there are moments when the robots run riot that remind you of Pixar's own "Monsters, Inc." Yet "Wall-E" is just possibly the studio's most original work yet. Can they really top this?

Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios

Cast: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard, Macintalk, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy, Sigourney Weaver.
Director: Andrew Stanton.
Screenwriters: Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon.
Story: Andrew Stanton, Peter Docter.
Producer: Jim Morris.
Executive producer: John Lasseter.
Director of photography: Jeremy Lasky, Danielle Feinberg.
Production designer: Ralph Eggleston.
Visual concultants: Roger Deakins, Dennis Muren.
Music: Thomas Newman.
Editor: Stephen Schaffer.
Rated G, 97 minutes.

"Visual consultants: Roger Deakins, Dennis Muren" - this explains a <I>LOT</I>...very cool idea. Guess who's going to be the DOP on Stanton's John Carter movies...!?

"Can they really top this?" - nice.

[Macaluso]

Wow.

People saying this is Pixar's best aren't lying. It was amazing.

[Whippet Angel]

Grr.... I really wanna see it, but I can't until tomorrow........ I want it to be tomorrow........


...........

.........Is it tomorrow yet????

[eddievalient]

Wow.

People saying this is Pixar's best aren't lying. It was amazing.

I don't know, one of my professors (who is also a professional screenwriter with decades of experience) said that Ratatoullie (sp?) was "the best film about talent ever written" and I tend to agree. It'd be pretty hard to top it. Then again, up to now each Pixar film has been progressively better than the last so who knows? I'm probably going to see it on Tuesday, so I'll find out then.

[Macaluso]

Oh and also I'm tempted to say the short before the movie was also the best. It's hard to say for sure because For the Birds and One Man Band are very hard to top.

But what makes the short so good is how much it feels like an old loony tunes cartoon. It's very very funny, and they do not skimp out on the old school cartoon violence. It's very good.

edit: I was pretty disappointed that Ratatouille didn't have commentary. I'm going to be even MORE disapointed if the Wall-E dvd doesn't have commentary.

[Christian]

I don't understand why people are so concerned about pitting one film against another or one short against another. Just enjoy them all. That's my simple solution.

"Hmm, there's a small chance that Ratatouille might be slightly better than WALL*E so I'm not quite sure if I should bother seeing WALL*E."

[Macaluso]

I can rank them and still enjoy them. Which I do.

[James]

Amazing!

They make it seem so easy, but it has to be incredibly hard otherwise everyone could make them this good.

[Daniel]

I'll be seeing this over the weekend hopefully. Can't wait!

[K3vin]

I have to wait until the movie comes in France on July 30th. -_-

[ShyViolet]

Neat profile on Pixar:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jh ... wall-e.xml