Wall*e

I went and saw Wall*e today, prompted by rave reviews and the knowledge that Pixar can usually be counted on to put out an entertaining film. After seeing the film I think the outpouring of praise is a bit much (one critic went so far as to call it "perfect"), but its definitely a good watch and well worth a trip to the theatre.

First off, Wall*e is truly a visual treat. This is about the 12th time around the block for Pixar. You might think that this fact, combined with the incredibly high amounts of CGI present in films, television and video games these days, would make another CGI film unimpressive. Yet despite the saturation of computer animation in our culture, Wall*e still has a fresh look, in both the big shots and the minute details.

There's been a lot of talk about how Wall*e isn't really a kids movie, and that kids may be bored or confused by the storytelling. I think this was true for the first 30-40 minutes or so, but after that the film was a pretty standard Pixar style kids tale, with a simple plot jazzed up with high speed chase sequences, close calls and well done physical comedy. Getting to that part will surely strain the attention of the younger set, but I bet if I were a kid today I could have handled it. Most kids just aren't that bright, which is too bad because that opening half of the movie is a great piece of film making.

During the first half of the movie its just Wall*e, his bug friend, and later another robot named EVE. Words are minimal and so most of the story has to be inferred from actions and reactions of these characters. Wall*e is clearly channelling the spirit of Kenny Baker, who brought R2-D2 to life using only beeps and movements. Both of them can still act circles around Hayden Christensen.

Hollywood has presented us with many theories about the future of mankind. Many are bleak, involving apocalypses brought on by plague, war, aliens, zombies or some environmental disaster. A fair number present a distopic vision, where people become slaves or drones in a totalitarian type state. A few theories are positive, showing mankind getting its collective ass in gear and exploring the stars while making it with hot green alien coeds. And Demolition Man is stupid and lame. The theory of the future presented by Wall*e is very believable. If Vegas took bets on the future of Mankind (and I'm not sure that they don't) I would put some money down on a Wall*e style outcome for our race.

One thing that bugged me was that, while every other human in the movie is CGI, they show multiple videos staring a live action Fred Willard, who plays the apparently long dead CEO of the BuyNLarge Corporation. Several times they show a CGI human watching these live action videos. I understand why they would pick Willard, he's the perfect actor to play the part, but the inconsistency of the humans was a little creepy. Shouldn't they have animated him as well?

As always for a Pixar project, the movie was preceded by a funny short film, this one involving a Magician and a hungry rabbit. Don't show up too late or you'll miss it.

I just realized that this is my 4th movie review in just 12 posts. Yikes.