Wall-E

I love the trailer for this. And if Ratatouille is any indication, it'll be really good.

This looks awesome. I turn into a little kid every time I see a poster for it. "Look, John! It's wallllllllllllllleeeeeeeee!"

the robot is tremble

I love the way he pronounces his own name too at the end of the trailer; Wallllllll-e.

Do you know about the human beings in the movie? The ones who trashed earth and moved away? And who are all grossly obese and get around in hover-chairs or something?

I can't believe that Disney is actually relying on this being a huge blockbuster.

teh new trailer looks awesome!

I think this could well be phenomenal. I love the design.

Looking forward to this more than Batman. Apparently Apple design guy Jonathan Ive helped in the look: http://pixarblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/jonathan-ive-helped-design-eve.html

Yeah, EVE looks very much like an iThing.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/cortneyhead/johnny5isalive.jpg

Saw this thread after I posted i got high hopes for wall-e. to the pixar thread - I'm not alone, hooray!

Re: the lack of dialogue - the robots' "voices" are by sound designer Ben Burtt, who did R2D2. This is a Good Thing.

The trailer in HD looks soooooooo good.

This looks like an especially ambitious Pixar, they've gotten over having an "effect" (hair, water, etc.) now I think, but I don't know if that's a good thing or not, it should be good but I loved being wowed by their overenthusiastic lighting of the Incredibles.

actually, it's probably space, right?

Yes.

Good!

I cannot wait to see this!

Terrific trailer. I was sold from the moment Wall-E clasped his little tin hands together whilst watching the film, but when he later gets to dip a hand into Saturn's rings this made my "opening night" list, hopefully at the digital 500-seat screen in town for full sensory overload.

Am sure this has been addressed on many other threads, but can *any* other studio compare to Pixar for consistent quality?

so this isn't a movie about the playground footy game?

Wall-E looks like the BOB the KITTEN of Pixar fillums.

a cuddly trash-compacting robot who lives on an abandoned, heavily polluted Earth

vs.

a collection of 300 robot-themed consumer products

i.e., the right glove of The Mouse knows not what the left glove does

I am stoked for this.

I am always excited for new Pixar.

I am stoked for ANY pixar, xpost.
This + Hellboy II are the summer must sees.

space is dope imo and i will see this

This looks frustratingly irresistible. I may have to see it.

seeing it tomorrow. pretty stoked.

wall-e is the cutest savage in all the world imo

My Pixar-employee drummer </s-drop> called me up for a Sunday morning screening but I was aslumber and missed it. Looks lots more promising than Cars, which I really hated.

I never saw Cars or The Incredibles because they just didn't draw me in, but Ratatouille was pretty good and this looks great so far.

my wife asked my 4 year old daughter if she wanted to see wall-e. she spent a couple minutes jumping up and down, excitedly yelling "wall-e! wall-e!". then she calmed down a little and started explaining how wall-e used to have horns because he was a demon but he cut them off because he wanted to be more like a human.

turns out my daughter is very excited to see hellboy II.

I am hoping to take my 2 y.o. neph to this who has never seen t.v. before but I think his head might explode.

every time i see a still i think "short circuit bot- HATE"

Wall-E looks like the BOB the KITTEN of Pixar fillums.

Wall-E looks like the BOB the KITTEN of Pixar fillums.

Wall-E looks like the BOB the KITTEN of Pixar fillums.

Wall-E looks like the BOB the KITTEN of Pixar fillums.

Wall-E looks like the BOB the KITTEN of Pixar fillums.

i keep singing the title of this movie in my head to the tune of "jolene".

I'm beggin' of you, please don't take my RAM

have you guys seen the new trailer?

wall-e

ARGH

xpost

I want to see this v. badly. Village Voice has me excited. Any chance it's as good as ET?

genuine laff out louds during the trailers/teasers etc.
first cinema experience for my 5 year old definitely.

i liked this!

let me be more clear... i LOVED the first half but the second was not as satisfying. kind of amazing to have no dialogue for such a long stretch... longer even than "there will be blood"! take that, plainview...

at heart this is a surprisingly dark, even haunting--though not particularly subtle--movie. and sweet.

i liked it.

Is it really R2D2: A Love Story?

Am I going to cry like I do every time I watch Iron Giant

EL HOGARTHO

Am I going to cry like I do every time I watch Iron Giant

aww... ilu tbot

Totally stoked for this though aside from Pixar pedigree it's not Brad Bird.

slocki where is your write-up

the Washington Post review of this sucked btw
I'd temp ban that fucker if he worked for me

ive not been a fan of the digital animation for everyone but this looks kinda great

In the vignettes he's a teeny bit too much like a mechanical Mr Bean.

sadly otm; again, EVERYTHING pixar gets a lot of patience from me. I skipped Cars but that's the only one I didn't see in theaters.

NYT loved it.
http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/movies/27wall.html

i really liked it!!!

cute, funny, sweet... not too long. first 1/2 hr or so is the best i think... lots of good sci-fi refs

its gorgeous too. make sure you see it on the big screen! stoned!

oh man that review has some c+p material

slocki where is your write-up

-- El Tomboto, Friday, June 27, 2008 6:53 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

unfofrtunately screened too late for review :(

this is the movie that's going to make me crumble and buy some blu-ray bullshit isn't it

this is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than wanted btw

why the hell did you buy a ticket to wanted

i didnt i snuck in dummy

I am unashamedly going to buy a ticket for Wanted, assuming I ever get to leave work.

Of course I'm the guy who saw Ultraviolet in the theater and enjoyed it, so big shocker there.

this is gonna be juicy on blu-ray but at the same time all pixar stuff looks amazing on upscaled dvd too, really close to hi-def looking.

they know how to pack in those pixels. plus no film conversion necessary.

this is the movie that's going to make me crumble and buy some blu-ray bullshit isn't it

If you have not already bought one for Ratatouille you are BEHIND TEH CURVE. Shit looks AMAZING on blu-ray.

yeah but srsly, fuck a Ratatouille

RONG. Ratatouille >>>>>>>> most movies of last year.

yes, but it is also twee bullshit about a rat who cooks

You are talking like a crazy person. It is hilarious slapstick involving a rat who cooks.

The only Pixar movies I've actually wanted to see were:

The Incredibles

...and that's it. I thought Finding Nemo was cute and all, but I have no real interest in seeking these films out, which is why my full-on engagement with the "Wall-E" trailer shocked the fuck out of me.

Dan you have no soul.

ratatouille was pretty weak.

I have no real interest in seeking these films out, which is why my full-on engagement with the "Wall-E" trailer shocked the fuck out of me.

-- HI DERE, Friday, June 27, 2008 6:38 PM (43 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

yah mee too

wait seeing this stoned is an awesome idea!

I want to see this. 40 minutes without dialogue?!?!

weirded out by people who didnt like toy story

I still have never seen Toy Story!

OK, if you don't like "twee as fuck" Dan, you are NOT gonna like Wall-E.

ya this is the tweeest pixar movie yet

its about robots... IN LOVE

I am looking forward to this film, but that's kinda how I feel about most films staring robots. I hope he or other robots don'tt die like the robots in Silent Runnings. I don't wanna cry in public.

I was looking at the toys:
http://gizmodo.com/386884/wall+e-robot-toy-in-action

You could make your own by sticking a pair of toy binaculars on a square cardboard box.

If toy binoculars blinked and boxes had collision detection, yes.

Yours don't?

I've concluded that this is the best Pixar movie since, well, ever.

saw last night, not much to say other than it lives up to the hype.

it really does remove stains from the carpet like gangbusters

the last film that did that was Copland, strangely

These dudes at Pixar must love Fallout!

Beautiful movie. Surprising level of cinemaphilia. Surprising.... well, a lot of things surprised me in it. How do these guys keep topping themselves? And Roger Deakins' presence must've made a significant impact.

kinda loved it

more twee and more reliant on cliche than I was expecting (disney robots in love) but once the film's main conceit kicks in at the halfway point, it's far far more nightmarish than I could have ever hoped for

kids will think it's cute and funny and the adults will go home thoroughly creeped out, and the kids will grow up to remember this film

ben burtt deserves a million awards for the voices

what a career he's had already: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Burtt

man, fuck this new victorian bullshit. what the hell is this?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/parentalguide

Good date movie, especially if your date has already previously seen you crying over robots in trouble and thinks it's cute.

Also it has my now-favorite homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

It really is impressive how what Pixar has done allows us to take a lot of stuff in computer-animated movies kind of for granted now: the lighting, the camera use and placement, environmental effects (dust, water). It becomes harder and harder to distinguish what they're able to do inside the computer with what you can do outside of it.

No love for "Presto" (the opening short)?

i thought the short was awesome.

opening short was cute enough. most of the trailers really gave me the fear

this was looking to be the worst decade for science fiction film yet & then we get Children of Men & Wall-E within a year of each other

I loved Children of Men but for all it's 'realism' it is a wildly speculative work -- it comes up with a brand new nightmare that in some ways is the opposite of any of the things we obviously need to be worrying about at present. It spins a dystopia out of first world population decline & immigration fears, so it does reflect quite sharply on the real world, but... in the end, the idea is so fantastical that it stays a bit remote. Wall-E is speculative as well but it pulls off the trick of being a crystal clear children's story about a future that's already happening, the film really follows you directly out of the theatre and into the food lobby where they're selling you hot dogs. And the film's 'happy ending' brought to mind Fassbinder's line about Douglas Sirk's films and his talent for turning in a studio-ready happy ending that actually just underlines how difficult things are about to get for everyone involved

What I hate about so much 00's SF film is that they are simply recycling the dystopias first explored much more nightmarishly in the 70's films, not only are most of these new films retreads, they're competing with daily headlines & lack any imagination, they're not adding anything. but there are some iconic images in Wall-E that sum up things so nightmarishly it's up there with some of my favorites

really hard to discuss without add spoilers, but going to wait until more people have seen this, I'm glad I went in totally cold

This is when UK release dates start to hurt.

really need to see this again. my god the writhing maggot hordes

:)

I loved this. My first thoughts were "huh, anticonsumerist, anticapitalist, pro-environmentalist...the hordes on the right are going to shit bricks."

There's a really nice Peter Gabriel song in the soundtrack.

Also it has my now-favorite homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The way hype's going, I'm going to be pretty pissed off if this movie isn't eons better than 2001.

so awesome.
m.

Caution: seeing this movie may make you (and your kids if you have any) go around saying "WALL-E!" and "EVE-UH" for hours, pissing off everyone else you know (like your wife who might have had to stay home with the baby, for example).

i did that hahahahah

*SPOILER< AVERT THINE EYES OH NOOBS*

fave character: the little psycho robot!

*END SPOILERS< MOVE ALONG NOTHING TO SEE HERE*

man, i hope nobody who hasn't read the movie read that. they'd be devastated

Also it has my now-favorite homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The movie IS an homage to 2001. There's at least half a dozen direct references at my count. Pretty cool.

This movie is the Annie Hall of sentient robot dystopia movies.

Every time EVE said "Wall-EEEEEE" all scared like something happened to him it made me so sad!

Trayce is right, I haven't liked anything by Peter Gabriel in forever, but that closing credits song is really good.

Due to my wife saying absofuckinglutely not to a cutesy robot movie, I ended up seeing "Wanted" instead of this yesterday.

"Wanted" was fucking awesome.

"Wanted" had the germ of a great film inside it and if you've ever seen the two Night Watch movies you'd already know that the director was some sort of mentalist. It's a shame some of his more exuberant tendancies were on the leash. All he needs now is a great script and the GDP of a medium sized country to make the best action movie ever,

I envy you colonials greatly for having seen Wall-E. And I really envy Mr Perry for having the kind of significant other who'd even consider seeing a film like "Wanted"

want-e

Waiting for the sequel: "Wall-E 2: Wall-E Street"

don't get it

Your favorite jokes about Wall-E

Anticipating the straight-to-DVD release: "Wall-E 3: The Berlin Wall-E"

wanted was garbage with some good action scenes

Trayce is right, I haven't liked anything by Peter Gabriel in forever, but that closing credits song is really good.

Especially with the animation going on too.

Is it a new PG track? (or is it Shock The Wall-E, Shock The Wall-E To Life?)

Nevermind

http://www.amazon.com/Down-to-Earth/dp/B001B0A2LA

I only cried a little bit

1 eye?

Re: what Milton talks about upthread (excellent post thank you sir for keeping the standard high) - when I walked out the theater after Children of Men, I was full of thoughts and frustration and anger at people, because they're all bastards, clearly; walking home last night after Wall-E, I was a blank, I just loved the film, and if anything I thought it was rather candy-coated by the ending. I don't get the suspension of disbelief issue with CoM, to me that apocalyptic vision is just a vehicle to explore human responses and frailty and such. Wall-E is easy to grasp but disappoints once it's over and you realize the whole film is treating humanity's failure like it's all behind us. Fuck that, kind of.

although I liked that they embraced post-human existence to such a degree vis a vis solar powered machines and cockroaches having a greater impact on the earth than the tubbies fresh off the boat

ha tom what a shock, you thinking that the movie is too nice to human beings

not that i disagree with you--my only complaint is the "humans can do anything when they put their minds to it!" feeling of the ending, which is tempered more than a little with the clear indication that the humans are totally screwed

I didn't get that clear indication?

I mean they have an army of solar powered robots to work for them and a planet covered in piles of readily recyclable raw material plus the hills are already covered in weeds

they're only screwed in the sense that they won't have any booze for about nine months and sex between them in earth gravity is going to be well gross without it

i dunno, the line "someday we'll grow pizza plants" (or whatever it was) might have been played for lols but to me it was also hammering home the "this is going to be really difficult"

i kind of agree that the ending is sugar-coated but can you IMAGINE how bleak and traumatizing this would be otherwise?? remember it's a kid's movie!!

really i just mean to agree w. milton abt this: "And the film's 'happy ending' brought to mind Fassbinder's line about Douglas Sirk's films and his talent for turning in a studio-ready happy ending that actually just underlines how difficult things are about to get for everyone involved"

(is there a thread about "Wanted" lurking around? I couldn't find one)

no but start one and we can talk about whether or not angelina jolie is too skinny to be hot anymore

for all we know with nearly a millienia of evolution on a raped planet those weeds ARE Pizza Plants

It's got a pretty ridiculously sunny view of the essential GOODNESS of human nature since these people were generally HAPPY to get out and experience the real world. Considering the insular, self-absorbed tubby shut-ins we are now, I can't imagine in 700 years, inhabiting a new planet would have any response besides "It's hot out here. Where's my sodabot? Fuck this."

It was like Idiocracy without the racism.

if milton's repping this in the same breath as 70s dystopian films I guess I'll have to take my progeny life forms to see it this weekend

Aaaaaaaaah don't know, these Wall-E & Eve toys look kinda, dunno, what's the point?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj0OFsbiXTc

Is this true? Pixar hide characters from movies that aren't out yet in their movies? (Wall-E in Toy Story 2 and Cars, for instance)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CUgoPgQ5K8

what the fuck do you mean "is this true"

I mean did you watch the link or are you just reposting the technorati results for "wall-e" to this thread sight unseen

It's got a pretty ridiculously sunny view of the essential GOODNESS of human nature since these people were generally HAPPY to get out and experience the real world.

sure, the Disney version of Idiocracy would be one that posits that the second your telescreen is accidentally dislodged your eyes open with wonder to how amazing the real world around you is. this would be almost too Disney to take if the film wasn't making it clear how dead their world has become, but I saw the point being simply 'anything's better than television' which I can't argue with

after leaving the theatre I finally figured out that those repeated lines of phone dialogue on the ship were hints that everyone's 'best friends' onboard were all A.I. -- I'm seeing it again tonight with the east bay posse to make sure I didn't hear a stone cold Eliza reference

what the fuck do you mean "is this true"

-- El Tomboto, Monday, June 30, 2008 12:00 PM (Monday, June 30, 2008 12:00 PM) Bookmark Link

I mean did you watch the link or are you just reposting the technorati results for "wall-e" to this thread sight unseen

-- El Tomboto, Monday, June 30, 2008 12:00 PM (Monday, June 30, 2008 12:00 PM) Bookmark Link

I watched a link one time that explained to me how I could get Google Television by clicking on the envelope logo inside my Gmail account.

It wasn't true.

Kind of a bleak galaxy though if Earth is the only remotely inhabitable planet. All that spaceship tech and there's no other place to go to?

Also interesting to find a place for this in the field of robot-helping-civilization stories. WALL-E = R. Daneel Olivaw?

Also, do robots have an opinion on the mind-body problem?

I wouldn't know about technorati, I was just searching for wall-e clips on youtube and wondered if this easter egg thing was a hoax or not.

So this is better than Annie Hall, too? Wau!

t/s bender bending rodriguez vs wall-e + eve

This was awesome.

Caution: seeing this movie may make you (and your kids if you have any) go around saying "WALL-E!" and "EVE-UH" for hours,

OMG I thought I was the only person over 10 who was doing this.

My girlfriend was all "DEATH TO THE 1X ROBOT...BZZT...I LOVE THAT GLORIOUS 1X ROBOT" when EVE first appeared.

Wall-E got me re-reading Foundation last night (Wall-E's first half / second half = Robot series / Foundation series, maybe) and a tangential google led me to this incredible transcription of an off-the-cuff 1973 Asimov lecture

http://www.asimovonline.com/oldsite/future_of_humanity.html

Man, never before has a movie made me want to HOLD HANDS so bad.

This was the sweetest/bleakest/most exciting thing I'd seen in a long time.

I want them to make an actual MO robot to replace the charmless modern Roomba.

Saw this on my wedding night and we were so disgusting loveypants "oh my gosh robots wasn't that sad wasn't that sweet" by the end of the day that I think we made the sun puke a little bit.

aw

I can't believe, in Fred Willard's 'autopilot' video, that he said they had to "stay the course"! Lolz & balls! Srsly where is all the backlash like there was after that one animated penguin movie?

Or is Bush just so duly hated now that no one gives a fuck and parents don't want to be like "sorry kids you can't like Wall•E"?

bush has like a 25% approval rating right now and even people who approve of him think iraq was ... maybe not a bad idea, but handled very badly ...

It's got a pretty ridiculously sunny view of the essential GOODNESS of human nature ...

i don't really understand tom and whiney's point here. would it be better to teach kids the opposite?

I guess I just take that bleakness for granted. There's been much chatter in the press etc about how dark and bleak and post-apocalyptic this movie is and I got very little of that after watching it. It's like Silent Running played backwards.

Srsly where is all the backlash

Viola!:

But guns are only part of our summer entertainment: big-budget cartoons also demand our attention. So we are grateful to Dirty Harry's Place for its continuing coverage of the treasonous spectacle that is Pixar-Disney's Wall-E. "Have we lost Pixar?" Harry wondered earlier, when he learned that the film had a buffoonish President say "Stay the course." "Have we lost the wonderful studio who brought us The Incredibles and Ratatouille to Bush Derangement Syndrome?" The cartoon's incorrectness outraged him sufficiently that he revisited the topic last week ("All of us had felt the eco message. All of us had heard, 'Stay the course'"). He attacked James Wolcott for reminding readers that "stay the course" had been a TV laugh-line during the first Bush Administration. Harry found this "Orwellian... half-truthing history to try and make critics like myself look reactionary."

Other rightbloggers stepped forward to denounce the double-plus-ungood cartoon. "The plot was something only Al Gore could love," wrote Say Anything. "And your average soy latte-sipping, Obama-voting, Che-flat-waving liberal." "The main robot characters are good... and there are great comic moments," said Strata-Sphere. "But in the end the story is just too much a liberal elitist fantasy to enjoy." "It was like a 90-minute lecture on the dangers of over consumption, big corporations, and the destruction of the environment" said National Review's Planet Gore. "Much to Disney's chagrin, I will do my part to avoid future environmental armageddon by boycotting any and all WALL-E merchandise and I hope others join my crusade." (Alas, their message discipline was imperfect: elsewhere at National Review Frederica Mathewes-Green gushed over the cartoon: "surprisingly, delicately, effectively, poignant... succeeds in making an ecological statement without being annoying." Maybe she filed before the memo could reach her desk.)

Did the Voice forget that The Incredibles was essentially a conservative fantasy?

jesus christ

I just saw The Incredibles and it was very good!

: O (nsfw)

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/01/right-wing-hates-wall-e/

the war on fun continues...

You know if your kid has ever come home and said, “Dad, how come we use so much styrofoam,” oh, this is the movie for you.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

(Does Glenn Beck even have a kid?)

I hate the people who live in my country who can't figure out how to even watch a fucking cartoon anymore

This also goes for everyone who blogged about the incredibles being some aryan objectivist message piece btw

God forbid the right should watch a rerun of The Lorax, or has that been banned now?

I hate the people who live in my country who can't figure out how to even watch a fucking cartoon anymore

Shorter and more on point, ymmv.

I hate the people who live in my country

Better.

I love both the Incredibles and Wall-E, but... there definitely are some political tones in those films. Of course most of us can appreciate these movies anyway, despite those slightly annoying conservative elements in Incredibles (lulz lawsuits will end the world, the lousy untalented whiners of the world are taking away from the deserving, if only my mopey daughter would stop listening to that goth music!), I still dig it.

seriously the only reason people get all het up about the politics of these cartoons is that they're well-made enough that adult audiences can watch them and understand what's going on. Pokemon/Naruto/Spongebob could all be full of gnostic undertones and implicit bigotry and nobody old enough to give a shit would ever get a clue. Kind of like how children's books were full of "witchcraft" for decades but then all of a sudden JK Rowling started writing ones that so-called grown-ups would read who weren't normally interested in the genre.

if only my mopey daughter would stop listening to that goth music

also this is not the exclusive territory of social conservatives by any means

Oh for fuck's sake Tom you can be a thinking person and take note of this shit while still fully enjoying it.

I own the Incredibles! It has some right-wing undertones! These are not mutually exclusive truths!

BIG HOOS aka the Randlover

I'm not denying that such an interpretation is valid, just that in the grand scheme of things it's not as if these hollywood brainwashing attempts hold any more water than any other moral lesson you choose to derive from any given children's entertainment

as I said, I think people get excited about the undertones in pixar stuff because it's accessible to those over the age of 14, which a lot of children's entertainment quite frankly isn't

http://dirtyharrysplace.com/?p=2127

This may well be the fifth or sixth movie this year to depict our government as taken over by a corporation – as though that would be a bad thing.

yeah... the pixar M.O. is "make a good movie that's animated and kids can watch" ...

i just think that movies are movies... SF in general is usually pretty harsh in it's commentary about society. singling out wall-E as leftish trash is kind of insane. these people can't escape their dogma. that's sad. and i know lefties that are just as humorless. the french bomber at the beginning of the incredibles completely offended some friends of mine and they stopped the dvd.

WTF?!

maybe i could be accused of not being hard enough or true enough ... or faithful to my beliefs (which is hilarious cause i'm a church deacon... jokes on them!).... but seriously, life is TOO short to be such an asshole/mallet wielder over yr beliefs. i dunno, does that make me a mallet wielder vs. mallet weilders.

i'm gonna go beat myself up now...

Well hey, anyway, this was good! First 20 minutes or so were brilliant, breathtaking, etc., later it leaned more on kids movie formula but not so much so that I ever groaned. Opening sequence with the trash landscape was just amazing. I feel like these guys are better filmmakers than most people working with actual film right now.

I loved that they did shots like actual cameras, complete with lens flare and out of focus parts.

Though the Kubrick tribute would have been made more clear if it was all deep focus the whole time, but whatevs.

Saw this on my wedding night and we were so disgusting loveypants "oh my gosh robots wasn't that sad wasn't that sweet" by the end of the day that I think we made the sun puke a little bit.

-- Abbott, Tuesday, July 1, 2008 5:55 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

I can think of exactly one thing I would rather be doing on my wedding night.

congrats, btw!

oh i can think of something.

oops that's what you said.

"Wall-E is ecological propaganda" reminds me of the arguments a few months back about Juno being an anti-abortion tract in its ability to make people quickly draw political lines in the sand and start shouting about the political message above all else. Politics as religion at its worst.

yeah this was cute

It really is impressive how what Pixar has done allows us to take a lot of stuff in computer-animated movies kind of for granted now: the lighting, the camera use and placement, environmental effects (dust, water). It becomes harder and harder to distinguish what they're able to do inside the computer with what you can do outside of it.

-- Pancakes Hackman, Sunday, June 29, 2008 10:29 AM (4 days ago)

I loved that they did shots like actual cameras, complete with lens flare and out of focus parts.

Though the Kubrick tribute would have been made more clear if it was all deep focus the whole time, but whatevs.

-- Whiney G. Weingarten, Thursday, July 3, 2008 1:16 AM (7 hours ago)

Nobody reads my posts. ;_;

I will throw a bone to the conservative whiners here, because although I don't think there ought to be anything ideological/partisan about not wanting to, like, make the planet inhabitable for humans, there was a whiff of the stereotypical *east coast liberal elitism* here. People didn't just overconsume resources, they were fat and loud and had bad taste! And they lived on a cruise ship!

they didnt have bad taste and they werent really loud

They liked their food in slurpee form

I loved that they did shots like actual cameras, complete with lens flare and out of focus parts.

i'm actually so-so on this, one one hand it is a pretty great effect (and one that video games are doing all the time now, especially by blowing out parts of the frame)... on the other hand it would be cool to see them do something that wasn't trying to be a different, older medium and its own thing. is it like adding vinyl surface noise to your record?

sorry, just woke up, no coffee, probably could have phrased that better.

I'm interested in Stanton's steadfast claim that he backed into the earth abandonment/mega-corp stuff by starting with the "last robot on earth" story and taking it from there, as well as his thoroughly disingenuous claim that there's nothing specifically political about it. I was surprised by how guns-blazin' it was at times with Fred Willard and all that.

At the same time, it's a kid's movie, it's more fable-like than anything (if you so desire you could pick apart the plot for quite a while), and the 600 years of padding between the ship leaving earth and the time of the film sort of tempers any accusations of holier-than-thou commentary. People aren't bad, they've just slowly been trained out of being people.

Whatever though--to watch this movie first and foremost for anything other than the virtuosity of the filmmaking is to be kind of retarded. No one anywhere is using all the different dimensions of cinema to their full effect better than Pixar.

s1ocki: What you say makes a lot of sense. It's particularly noticeable in a lot of modern anime as well, using a fake handheld camera to simulate more realism, when it's really more of a somewhat cheating shortcut using tools from the video/documentary medium that people are aware of. I don't mind it so much, and for stuff like Firefly/Battlestar Galactica's space scenes it can be fun, but I won't mind when people eventually get tired of using this technique.

i mean it's a genius way to draw in a viewer used to physical cameras with glass elements and particular optics but something seems a bit dead-end about it to me.

i do like it on BSG though, the idea of doing SFX and not composing them to be like "LOOK AT ALL THE $$$" and more like how "real" stuff would be shot is awesome.

Hasn't it been the case for a while that 'improving' digital animation is a matter of degrading it, or limiting the amount of information per frame, to better mimic film?

"They can grow food, like corn and pizza!"

Trayce is right, I haven't liked anything by Peter Gabriel in forever, but that closing credits song is really good.

Yes! He may yet have a career as a composer of Randy Newman-esque movie themes.

last temptation of christ yo

Oh yeah -- that movie needed an "In Your Eyes"-style ballad blasting during Christ's final agony.

Just saw it, loved it. Been mentioned already but I think the film's relative lack of dialogue is not merely a key touch but completely essential. Can you imagine if the cockroach was given some 'wacky' voice? Post-Nathan Lane in Lion King that was almost a requirement and kinda still is. I don't think you'll see Disney adapting this as a stage musical anytime soon.

Fred Willard was brilliant even on autopilot Fred Willard mode. Fun to see some of the other credits too --Sigourney Weaver as the ship's computer voices!

The ending was crap, though: a shoehorned happy ending. Otherwise, I agree.

I admit part of me really hoped they'd go with the memory-wiped Wall-E. Love conquers all, I guess.

I saw this at 12:00 AM opening night and it was fantastic.

Just occurred to me -- no teaser trailer for the next Pixar with this one.

Echoing a couple of comments above -- "Presto" was a sweet little short, great Warner Bros homage.

I admit part of me really hoped they'd go with the memory-wiped Wall-E.

All of me wanted that.

That's not what the KID want though! That would make them sad!

* KIDS

Yeah! I'm a grown-ass man and i would have started bawling! Why do you guys want to make kids cry?

Go cry emo man oh wait.

More than anything I would have impressed by that move on a 'wow they actually did that level.'

Let some other movie studio do that. I like happy resolution in my Pixar.

Ghibli would have gone for it.

Laurie and I just saw this, it was wonderful. Has the same timeless/keeper quality that Star Wars did.

"Nothing?!?! But that's what I've done my whole life!"

i don't think a downer ending in this film would have been preferable at all. maybe it would have been "gutsy" or something? i dunno. it's more likely that in this particular film it would have been an unnecessarily ice-cold way to go out!

best pixar film imo.

don't worry guys, i'll create a version where it cuts off with EVE crying

Just saw it, loved it. Been mentioned already but I think the film's relative lack of dialogue is not merely a key touch but completely essential

Case in point: Wile E. Coyote & Roadrunner without dialog vs. the later ones where WEC talked

Too true...

Before the inevitable poll thread: favorite screwed-up robot pal from Diagnostics -- the boxer robot.

Ghibli would've done it, but then he would've found inner peace in crushing garbage and eve would've ascended to the eighth nirvana.

last temptation of christ yo

-- s1ocki, Friday, July 4, 2008 10:31 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

Oh yeah -- that movie needed an "In Your Eyes"-style ballad blasting during Christ's final agony.

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, July 4, 2008 10:37 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

peter gabriel did the score for last temptation!

xpost
And Enya would've done the end credits.

i don't think a downer ending in this film would have been preferable at all. maybe it would have been "gutsy" or something? i dunno. it's more likely that in this particular film it would have been an unnecessarily ice-cold way to go out!

-- omar little, Sunday, July 6, 2008 4:18 AM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

QFT. the movie is bleak enough as it is.

some of us like super depressing things

it wouldn't have made it a better movie.

Um, ignoring the fact that it is targeted at children, why is it a better film for having a hopeful ending?

A sad one would be more realistic. You screw things up, you pay.

my theater was giving away hundreds of mass-produced rubber watches for anyone who came to see the movie opening weekend, essentially contributing to the film's premise

OH NO. If you break something but really really love it, it will come back to life

i'm wearing the watch

this is a movie that cried out for realism w/r/t the love story between two robots trying to save fattey human civilization

honestly i though the memory wipe was a pretty cheap last-minute tension builder and i could have done without it entirely.

A sad one would be more realistic. You screw things up, you pay.

-- Tape Store, Sunday, July 6, 2008 6:28 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

actually, this isn't realistic, not by a longshot.

the story itself is not about realism but the messages are

...

don't jaslfjklsdfj alsjdf aomg i shoulnd't be posting now

i didn't finish that sentence btw i realize this and i am

A sad one would be more realistic. You screw things up, you pay.

-- Tape Store, Sunday, July 6, 2008 6:28 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

actually, this isn't realistic, not by a longshot.

-- s1ocki, Sunday, July 6, 2008 6:32 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

uh, my message was so vague that i kinda doubt we are on the same page

A sad one would be more realistic.

Yeah, because people flock to Pixar films for the bleak, depressing realism.

JESUS CHRIST I REAZLIE THIS I'M TALKING ABOUT MYSELF AND HOW I WANT THE MOVIE. THEY WEREN'T WRONG TO PUT ON A HAPPY ENDING. LITTLE KIDS AREN'T GOING TO PICK UP THE MESSAGES IN THE FIRST PLACE, JESUS YOU WALL-E FANBOYS

no, see, eve's 'kiss' transferred wall-e's memories back to him, like star trek III.

...lol

JESUS YOU WALL•E FANBOYS

Wallies?

score for the last temptation is fuckin dope

Frank Rich says things

score for the last temptation is fuckin dope

-- max, Sunday, July 6, 2008 1:35 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

^

inspired by this thread, i just watched a shitty camera-snuck-into-cinema stream of this - cute, eh.

peter gabriel did the score for last temptation!

-- s1ocki, Sunday, July 6, 2008 5:00 AM

I am well aware of it.

apart from the closing-credits music, the score for this was pretty wonderful. i am gonna go watch it again in about an hour.

I am well aware of it.

"DIRECTIVE."

Incidentally, I don't think there was a "memory wipe"; he was on auto until his systems kicked in...you know, like the eyes recalibrating?

Loved the guitar theme thing in the score when Wall-E first arrived on the Axiom and was chasing EVE. Also I love how Wall-E never actually pronounced EVE's name correctly.

gaffe!

LOL, NYT; sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/opinion/06rich.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Mr. McCain should be required to see “Wall-E” to learn just how far adrift he is from an America whose economic fears cannot be remedied by his flip-flop embrace of the Bush tax cuts (for the wealthy) and his sham gas-tax holiday (for everyone else). Mr. Obama should see it to be reminded of just how bold his vision of change had been before he settled into a front-runner’s complacency. Americans should see it to appreciate just how much things are out of joint on an Independence Day when a cartoon robot evokes America’s patriotic ideals with more conviction than either of the men who would be president.

Guys, I've kinda changed my mind about the last scene. It's sorta reminds me of those times when i'm working on a paper and the computer suddenly shuts off. At first, I want to cry (and sometimes do if it's a hugeass deal). Then I start to knock my head against the table for not hitting save. And finally I turn the computer back on, and OMG Auto-Recovery has found it! THE END

I'm going to see this tomorrow afternoon. Looking forward to it!

Just got back from seeing this.

I had about a 30 minute holiday from getting criticized by wannabe right wing bloggers about liking the movie. I hadn't read this thread, or any discussion of the "controversy" around the film or any of that. As I watched the movie (which I loved, btw) it did occur to me that anyone who still thinks global warming is a hoax would probably have issues with the plot. I thought, "James Inhofe fucking hates this movie, for sho". But I didn't realize how widespread the backlash was.

As soon as I get home, I say "I just saw Wall-E - AWESOME!". Response: "you WOULD like it. Isn't that the global warming movie?" This from the guy that I had a mini-debate about climate change with last week. Upon being asked "Have you seen Wall-E?", the response was "No".

BTW, why no talk about the obvious Flight of the Navigator homage, in addition to 2001?

what's awesome is as far as i remember there isn't a single peep about global warming in the entire movie and iirc the continents aren't flooded or anything.

yeah, that's what A LEFTWING ECOFASCIST PROPAGANDIST would say.

Loved the guitar theme thing in the score when Wall-E first arrived on the Axiom and was chasing EVE. Also I love how Wall-E never actually pronounced EVE's name correctly.

-- nickalicious, Sunday, 6 July 2008 19:34 (Yesterday) Link

YES! What was that?

er, I guess it was just part of the Thomas Newman score

this was a great great movie

just popped in to say that anyone complaining about the happy ending is a fucking retard

er thanks for the spoiler.

^^^^^xp

yes, secretly we hoped that the fat people would plant South Beach Diet seeds so that they could get fit and repopulate the world again.

this was amazing :D

none of my "should i watch robocop y/n" bros mentioned auto was ed-209 i kept waiting for him to tell the captain he had TWENTY SECONDS TO COMPLY

ha! too distracted by obvious visual 2001 allusion

basically i love robots & movies about robots

like everybody else said already i could've watched like 3 hours of just wall-e cataloguing trash - i missed a couple jokes cuz i was lolling at the spork

lmao WHERE DOES SPORK GO???

I liked me the spork joke. And the twinkie joke. Happy cockroach is happy.

A huge cockroach, escaping the rain, scuttled across my dining room floor. I smashed it with a sandal.

aw you just reminded me of the spork gag :-)

also jeff garlin was great in this

jeff garlin!

Didn't make that connection (Garlin) till just now.

You figure Pixar is just making films on dares now?
"Okay, so let's make a kid's film about the end of the world and focus on the touching love story between a cockroach infested trash robot and a recovery pod. And it has to make internet hardmen tear up."
"I got one: against all odds, a charismatic E. Coli virus has feelings for a plucky lymph gland, but as the Ethiopian child they're within dehydrates to death their love is put to the test. And I want a wacky abscess sidekick and a heartwarming ending."
DONE: DIS-N-TREE
Coming Summer'10

might see this again

this was pretty cool

I think I woulda liked it even better if they never went up to the spaceship and it was a near-silent-movie robot love story on ruined earth

the wordlessness is frequently absolutely hypnotic - a real marvel.

there appears to be a lot of killfile users posting to this thread

You figure Pixar is just making films on dares now?
"Okay, so let's make a kid's film about the end of the world and focus on the touching love story between a cockroach infested trash robot and a recovery pod. And it has to make internet hardmen tear up."
"I got one: against all odds, a charismatic E. Coli virus has feelings for a plucky lymph gland, but as the Ethiopian child they're within dehydrates to death their love is put to the test. And I want a wacky abscess sidekick and a heartwarming ending."
DONE: DIS-N-TREE
Coming Summer'10

-- forksclovetofu, Monday, July 7, 2008 1:04 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

are you making custos posts on dares now

just popped in to say that anyone complaining about the happy ending is a fucking retard

-- n/a, Monday, 7 July 2008 16:01 (1 hour ago) Link

Yes, because classic stories never end with the protagonist dying a hero!

Some people prefer 'touching' to 'uplifting,' fyi

wtf are you talking about
its a kids movie and if they killed him it would make no damn sense, and wouldn't be any less of a 'cop out' just because it makes the LIFE IS ROUGH crowd feel better

Jesus, once again, I don't have a problem with them ending it the way they did because it is a kids movie, but it is not weird or stupid or 'fucking retarded' to say that i personally would have liked it more had he died saving the world.

i cried

haha my god-daughter is named Eva - she is 3 years old and i am sure that once she sees this movie she'll fully think that Eve's name is Eva and exploit that fact (in adorable ways obv) regardless of any explanation re: mispronunciation

did not like peter gabriel song but liked end-credits animation

all in all though i liked this a lot i also found it super depressing. and could not help but think it was like 'idiocracy' with harsh ironies & the black humour replaced by adorable lovey robots and a simplified plot & themes. but i think that's a good thing.

My ramble.

xxxpost I'm doing your moms on dares now.
http://www.justinpante.net/NoBully.gif

forksclovetofu, you laugh, but this is Pixar's in-development movie for 2011:

Newt and Brooke live in a community college science lab and don't care for each other, yet as the last remaining blue-footed newts on the planet they are forced to mate to save the species. Rydstrom explained "Newt is smart but he's never had to think for himself and is pampered. Brooke on the other hand is streetwise and not to be messed with."[2]

Streetwise Newts!

Newt and Brooke live in a community college science lab

James Franco as the one student who can hear them talk.

but did you cry ned?
command-f says no

Hahah. I had my soppy moments.

p.s. deej, have you heard the story of Jesus? it's quite popular with kids!

Wall-e.

WAAAAAAAAAAL-e.

He could have died for our sins!

In the name of the father, son, and trash-compacting robot.

Walle eleison; Eve eleison; Walle eleison.

bambi would have been better if thumper and flower had gotten shot by a hunter. the same hunter that shot bambi's mom. also if the hunter shot bambi. then raped her corpse.

more "real"

that's a fantastic and v. logical argument!

you really wish wall•e was more like the story of jesus?

*SPOILER FOR DONNIE DARKO* my favorite film ever is donnie darko (which is basically last temptation of christ)

ha ha, way to eradicate any credibility you had had left

(intentional "had had" to subtly echo the opening "ha ha")

i feel like i'm arguing with rush limbaugh

i feel like i'm watching rush limbaugh argue with the pope

i feel like i'm arguing with someone who will admit that donnie darko is their all-time favorite movie

s1ocki, i'm going to blow yr minddddd

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=donnie+darko-like+figures+in+film&btnG=Search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=tape+store-like+figures+in+film&btnG=Search

i feel like you're a christ-like figure on this thread!

xxp

killfile not being used enough on this thread now

my point: Jesus does not follow some weird-ass, horrible character ark. In fact, it's quite a classic template, and you probably love tons of shit that uses it.

ethan's point: unsuccessful zing?

doesn't mean we want to see it applied to bugs bunny either

character ark

please tell me this was intentional

PLEASE

****ET SPOILERS****

Do you not like ET?

raiders of the lost character ark

"DON'T LOOK AT THE LIGHT, N/A!"

arc fuck off

Do you not like ET?

Hath not an ET hands?

Do you not like ET?

-- Tape Store, Monday, July 7, 2008 7:36 PM (12 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

ET comes back to life

as a matter of fact, so did jesus

and so did wall•e

so what is your point

El Tomboto also comes back to life

as did the Iron Giant

ET goes away, leaving Elliott by himself. Jesus too leaves all his friends. Wall-E does not.

you know who doesn't come back to life though?
http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/greenoasis/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/bob-black-hole.jpg
this poor bastard

R2-D2 came back to life like six times

so did RJD2

you know who doesn't come back to life though?

Eight year old me was v. v. sad when B.O.B. died. ;_;

El Tomboto also comes back to life

-- El Tomboto, Monday, July 7, 2008 7:39 PM (36 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

Thank u for this

so did RJD2

-- s1ocki, Monday, July 7, 2008 7:41 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

so did RJDHoos

You guys are funny!

should we just do a "robots that come back to life" poll

C3PO also got the resurrection courtesy of chewie that one time

i got me some preview tix (me + wife + 2 kids who have no idea)
saturday morning 10am.
i cant wait.

You have to love a gender ambiguous love story that ends with the re-imagining of the planet earth as a giant collective farm. Stalin would love this film.

there is nothing really 'gender-ambiguous' about those robots altho i guess u are joking

No, I'm deadly serious.

her name is eve ffs

This film is like a gay orgy on a kibbutz. But with Fred Willard.

xp
I should introduce you to some of my eves

okay, I'm just fucking with you. haha

bambi would have been better if thumper and flower had gotten shot by a hunter. the same hunter that shot bambi's mom. also if the hunter shot bambi. then raped her corpse.

this made me LOL so hard

this was so fucking good!

^^^ ive been thinking all day how i want to see it again

^^^ good thing you made clear what post you were referring to

^^^arrows just mean im hoosing a post, sentence afterwards is simply an addition

http://www.buynlarge.com/

Hahah, nice.

Definitely read the legal notice at the bottom in full.

The ironic thing is that every time we see Wall-E (or buy merchandise related to it) the money goes to a corporation called Disney. Eat your cake and have it too.

Man that is some ironic shit.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/06/bravery-and-wal.html

(nb: I still get way irked by the reek of pitch-maker's cadence that infuses everything godin writes)

The ironic thing is that every time we see Wall-E (or buy merchandise related to it) the money goes to a corporation called Disney. Eat your cake and have it too.

-- Cunga, Tuesday, July 8, 2008 6:31 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

i know, it's so hypocritical that they didn't just make a photocopied zine about consumerism and send it out to 100 million people. would have been a much better way to get their message across!!!

Yeah, I know, it's too bad Disney/Pixar is spending so much time making the second sequel to Toy Story that they can't take more time off to warn us about the dangers of greed and whatnot. Let's hope they continue to fight the good fight.

As long as you're around to keep it real we're ok, though.

i really loved this movie.

I'm going to see Wall-E on Saturday! Em arranged for us to go to a preview screening via the Sunday Times. Awesome!

It's still pretty fresh so I don't know if I trust myself to say this but my instant reaction was that this is the best feature film from Pixar yet.

My housemate (who is a film nerd) swears it is the best Disney film. I can't really stack this up against Fantasia but I applaud his excitement.

http://www.zazzle.com/bnl_legal_t_shirt-235853950522832594?gl=buynlarge

I d/l'ed the score for this and it's just great. Thomas Newman at the top of his game. Some cues are like his traditional orchestrated "big moment" stuff from other work he's done, sometimes it's nearly avant garde, reminiscent of Jerry Goldsmith's Planet of the Apes score. Wall-E's own theme on oboe is tremendous. And the guitar bits from the cue where the ship arrives on the Axoim are incredible!

let me be more clear... i LOVED the first half but the second was not as satisfying. kind of amazing to have no dialogue for such a long stretch... longer even than "there will be blood"! take that, plainview...

at heart this is a surprisingly dark, even haunting--though not particularly subtle--movie. and sweet.

i liked it.

-- s1ocki, Thursday, 26 June 2008 01:46 (2 weeks ago) Link

OTM,more or less

unfair to fatties? lol

All this may be enough to leave some overweight viewers of Wall-E in tears. It's easy to imagine how they might respond to Pixar's dystopic vision of our fat future, in which puffed-up bodies are played for cheap laughs. What happens when the movie ends and the lights come up? Does the rest of the audience stare at the lone fatty as she waddles her way toward the theater doors? Do they see in her body a validation of the film's "darker implications"—a signpost for what we might become if we don't change our ways? Or do they just scowl at her, convinced that she's part of the problem?

What happens when the movie ends and the lights come up? Does the rest of the audience stare at the lone fatty as she waddles her way toward the theater doors?

lololololol

Fat people need to get less fat if they want to be taken seriously.

saw this again today, still great.

Just got home from this morning's screening - really, really enjoyed it. Can't wait to see it again (on DVD) and ruminate on various aspects (segregation of mental people, apparent extinction of all animal life, etc).

Is all of the merchandising O_o ?

http://static.zoovy.com/img/toynk/H330-W330-BFFFFFF/D/dgc_7152_ca.jpg

http://fashionablygeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/wall-e-costume.jpg

Let me raise a voice of dissent. Wall-E is an innovative and visually stunning film, but the "satire" it draws is simple-minded.

once again,

IT'S A KIDS MOVIE

its also not a satire

To be fair, this is what he was responding to:

Slate's Dana Stevens describes a "richly detailed satire of contemporary humankind," in which the world is populated by "obese, infantile consumers who spend their days immobile in hovering lounge chairs, staring at ads on computers screens—in other words, Americans." (Edelstein sums things up in five words: "You should see these blobs.")

i think if it was way nuanced it would distract from the love story, which is the point of the film

Kids ruin everything.

sliding down the box office chart already? or is this normal?

http://www.imdb.com/chart/

Yeah, pretty normal.

lol@ Meet Dave

I liked this, although after the brilliant first 40 minutes, it was basically a game of losing the plant and getting the plant back over and over again as an excuse to create all sorts of visually impressive set-pieces, which were great to look at but also made the film feel busy and overcomplicated. (But then this is the first Pixar film I've seen since Toy Story 2, so what do I know.)

Admittedly the one thing that made me wonder was that I never figured exactly how the plant got lost.

spoiler: autopilot did it.
is it just my hazy memory or is the bit where EVE is supposed to open up to reveal the plant but turns up empty-handed kind of Logan's Run "THERE IS NO SANCTUARY"

I thought of logan's run when the floating chairs were all automatically summoned to lipodeck (leaf = lifeclock, recolonize = carousel)

saw this a third time (was travelling with good friends who hadn't seen it). I don't think I can make it through those opening trailers once more in my life ever, but there were tons of things I missed the first time -- plot details in the first 40 minutes, and meta-references to other SF films in the last half. I completely missed the fact that Wall-E lives in the truck that delivered all the other Wall-E's to the city, and as the other units broke down he filled up their spaces with his museum of human detritus (& scavenged robot parts)

first time I saw it I liked the first half all right but I have to admit that when I thought it was _only_ going to be a robots-in-love story I was fading a bit, so I was grateful when the film went into overdrive and it revealed what had happened to the humans. seeing it a second time knowing the film's razored pivot point was coming, I could get completely lost in the first half. dropping the humans from the first half to feature only robots meant that section is one of the first pixar feature films that's perfectly photo-realistic, you just get lost

that spaceflight scene where Wall-E's clinging to the side of the ship is the one scene where I got seriously misty, and I finally figured out why -- 40 years ago, 2001 depicted space flight with hope and a kind of inevitability, and while there's some optimism in this film, it also seems like a stern reminder that we're actually not going to make it off the planet in any large scale form this empire around, and it's sobering and so sad to be faced with that in a film. and when Wall-E shakes the garbage away after breaking orbit and the last thing he pulls off his face is Sputnik, it seems like the film is telling us that this is a good thing

it is a good thing to be rid of sputnik?

badly constructed sentence, I meant in the film you suddenly see mankind's first orbital satelite not as a triumph but as just another piece of space garbage. and seconds later, the film shows you the Apollo-11 landing site, unchanged but for a 'megamart coming soon' billboard, and you just start thinking the film's saying "it's just as well". then right on the heels of that you get this fantastically beautiful cosmos flight scene and... man it just breaks my heart, that scene

yeah I know it's just a movie, Sputnik-1 burned up on re-entry

but we'll always have the stamps

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Sputnik-stamp-ussr.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ussrsputnik2-20kop1957scott2032.jpg

It pisses me off a little bit that the plant survived several minutes of vacuum.

if it survives on what remains of Earth it's probably not much of a stretch.

Saw this at the weekend with the missus and her 6 year old niece and it split the critics: I adored, wife liked and small fry thought it ok. Certainly, in the full house that we attended the kids seemed split between rapt attention and fidgeting.

Particular highlights for me were Eve's arrival and her gleeful flight (got shivers when she broke the sound barrier), Wall-E's ride on the spaceship, their "dance" and every time Wall-E was able to induce waving from other robots.

The transition from first to second half did feel quite jarring (and the inclusion of actual humans in adverts etc didn't help given the distinctly unreal look of the Axiom's passengers). I almost wish that the second half could have played out without humans at all; if they'd all been in suspended animation or similar then the plot could have unfolded the same way. I imagine that the major problem with that though is that the return to earth *has* to be a choice that a person, and not a robot, makes to allow for a redemptive ending.

I still absolutely loved it though, and cannot wait to see again - this time preferably in a late-night, child free auditorium. Another voice of praise for Thomas Newman's music here too, just wonderful and easily up there with his very best.

The human plot was the worst thing about this beautiful movie imo. And when eve's human voice got so humanly bitchy "Walll-eee!" I hate women.

Everything approaching 'human' really set this movie off, except for maybe the wall-e eve luv plot. The last half really fucked it up thematically. They could have been so much more interesting, but I don't blame them (them). Exasperated ITunes eyes. I wanted to love this when I saw Wall-e's tracks on earth in the first ten minutes....

The space flights were magnificent though, they made me gasp.

This is a weird script, and I wasn't crazy about the late second act switch to following Garlin's character (who was infinitely less interesting than Wall-e). It took away a lot of the magic that had been built up during the first 30 minutes for me.

I didn't like the "Hello Dolly" stuff either; I wish they had done something different than the E.T./Splash/outsider-who-watches-something-on-TV-and-learns-amusing-human-behavior trope. Johnny 5 learns moves from old gangster movies in "Short Circuit," for crying out loud!

I didn't realize there was discussion about the obesity stuff until I saw the links on this thread, but the "fat = lazy & dumb" stuff really did strike me as cheap and easy. (Yes, I'm huge).

So I guess I'm one of the haters on this thread, or at least a hater for everything that happens after they leave Earth.

(another huge endorsement note for the "Presto" short, though - I was in hysterics).

(some x-post-ness)

>I didn't like the "Hello Dolly" stuff either

The row of youngsters behind us cannot ever have heard those songs before but within about two bars of the opening tune they were taunting each other with chants of "Barnabeeeeeeeee" which did make me lol.

I was irritated by the dumb fat plebs subtext that's run through Pixar from Incredibles through Ratatouille to this. Still it was pretty good - in some ways it's There Will Be Blood for kids, in that I wish the whole movie had been as audacious as the first 15 minutes. Though the 6 year old on our row only really gurgled with glee at the magic rabbit short that preceded it. I was surprised at how empty our screening was - three-quarters empty on an opening weekend afternoon.

awes! :)

the closing credit "ancient art" bit was amazing and inspired btw

one potential bum note - when the ship tilts and the ppl pile up against the wall, their red costumes bear more than a slight resemblance to Liverpool home kit = Hillsborough echoes?

i really love the peter gabriel song!!

Louis, Hilsborough!? Ridiculous. Sorry, but that's just you looking for something to moan about.

I wasn't looking to moan! It was just a very personal observation.

"I almost wish that the second half could have played out without humans at all; if they'd all been in suspended animation or similar then the plot could have unfolded the same way."

YES!

When Is Someone Gonna Make A Sci-Fi Show Or Movie Without Any People In Them?

although i still haven't seen Robots (got it the other day on dvd for the kidz), that movie is peopleless isn't it?

(and cars had no people. but cars wasn't very good. and not really sci-fi. although i guess in the alternate reality sense it was.)

"Certainly, in the full house that we attended the kids seemed split between rapt attention and fidgeting."

yeah, that was me fidgeting. sorry. i dug the first half and the animation and all, but i got bored towards the end. i didn't really care if they made it back to earth. i was kinda hoping they would leave earth alone.

Robots was awesome! what a hoot. (i dug it more than wall-e. so did rufus. and no humans! okay, they look and act like humans, but still...)

(that initial rube goldberg public transit scene and the dominos scene were wowsville.)

the one thing that stuck with me about this movie was something my wife said: "this film included every cute robot noise known to man"

i don't think that much about the movie but i make robot noises all the time: "MOE!", "WALL-EEEEE!!" (rising and descending, "eve-aaaaaaaa!" etc

i especially like "MOE!"

I just saw this last night (it only came out here last week, boooo). It was great! I'd echo much of whats already been said. Esp loved the animation ending w/Gabriel song. I was busy mopping up surreptitious tears at that point heh.

I know its a kids film, suspend disbelief and all that, but:
- how did the plant grow in a fridge with no light in it?
- if it was one of next to no plants left (those weeds at the end were planted by the humans right? They werent there before or the probes would have found them) tghen how come earth still had oxygen after 700 years? Or was the point that plants HAD been there all along but the bastard little robot had been sabotaging all the sucessful probes the whole time?
I think I missed a point there maybe.
- How come the fatties could walk when they got back to earth? Aint no way anyone that big and boneless who has never walked a day in their life will suddenly be able to do so in non-artificial gravity.

But I had to say "shut up shut up shut up" to my brain, cause that shit spoils the fun. And it was fun!

were you rocking back and forth in the theatre, going "shut up shut up shut up" under your breath the whole time?

Magic fridge.

I loved it, 'er indoors hated it.

Yes, yes slocki, I was.

The fridge was a metaphor.

Man, what is there to hate about the film? Find twee and saccharine, perhaps, but hate?

Especially from Mrs OMG BOB U R SO CUET!!!!!!!!111

;)

whole movie should have taken place on the planet with no humans. that ruined a heart-tugging robot love story that could have been genius

^^^ art student

http://comicsidontunderstand.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/wall-e.gif

lol

Rather unfortunate hand placement on wall-e there.

She was bored.

wall e is the dude

Should've had her saying "DIRECTIVE" pointing to a full garbage bag.

ace move: centrality of Hello, Dolly! w/out any Streisand presence (I'm imagining she nixed use of her image, or that Pixar just has good taste)

also, OTM prophecy that our coming Grand Fuckup will be overseen by Fred Willard.

extra special bonus wall-e short!
http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/k1uCDheC6Itc4PQ1V4&related=1&canvas=medium

this movie is so great

ben burtt deserves a million awards for the voices

― max, Sunday, June 29, 2008 2:55 AM (4 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

burn-e is super gerat

gerat being a higher fucking level of great

I loved it, but it's quite an opinion divider. Lots of my friends and both my parents thought it was a bit rubbish.

And I really don't understand why. 'Too slow' seems to be a common complaint.

British people.

Maybe if Wall-E and Eve chased each the other robots around in a single file line to "Yakety Sax" they would like it more.

chap, be sure those relations sit in first row for Quantum of Rubbish.

lol whiney

http://www.collider.com/entertainment/interviews/article.asp/aid/9762/tcid/1

Ben Burtt extended lecture on Wall-E sound design

Favorite moment: when a guy in the audience asks ‘Do you ever try to sneak sound effects that you've put into previous films into your current films’ and before the guy even finishes asking his question, Burtt triggers the Wilhelm Scream from his controller

hahahahaha

Thanks for those videos, Milton.

This movie made me cry! I don't think I've really cried at a movie since The Iron Giant, apparently I'm only moved if robot life is in danger.

robots are the only true innocents left

Got me the double DVD set, this movie and everything about it is an absolute delight, even on the smaller screen at home. <3

loved this flick, saw it with my little brother a few months ago i guess. i'm a sucker for just about anything pixar (even those great shorts!), and any movie that can so blatantly and repeatedly reference 2001 and get away with it is OK in my book

the Burn-E short was great, especially since we watched it right after watching the movie, and I was like (*****WARNING WARNING WARNING BURN-E SPOILERS AHEAD IF FOR SOME REASON YOU CARE*****) "hey, what ended up happening to that robot who got locked out?"

I watched this for the first time yesterday. It seems like the greatest Disney film of modern times, but that's unfair to say as I haven't seen the other new Disney films.

i just finished watching this right now. it was v cute but i am not sure i understand all the "WOAH OMG GREBTEST MOVIE EVER" reactions...

I watched this for the first time yesterday. It seems like the greatest Disney film of modern times, but that's unfair to say as I haven't seen the other new Disney films.

― HI, YOUR BAND! (Mackro Mackro), Saturday, November 29, 2008 5:56 PM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

It's no Mulan.

i just finished watching this right now. it was v cute but i am not sure i understand all the "WOAH OMG GREBTEST MOVIE EVER" reactions...

― very quotatious (tehresa), Saturday, November 29, 2008 6:13 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

wait u dont understand why a movie about robots w/ very little human interaction would be massively popular on an internet message board populated by aspie rubes?

nah man, real people are obsessed w/ that joint, too!

oh shit max bringin the challops!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
guys did you get how schockkked I am by his ideas I mean !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!
http://www.thoomcare.com/archives/images/apr07/1-whoa.gif

hahahahahaahhaaha @ both

ILXors much more like space station castaways, max.

hey tom thats a lot of adjectives

uh i mean exclamation points

btw dorkwads i love this movie read upthread i saw it at 10am on opening day so whos the aspie rube now

wall-e was totally omg grebtest movie ever

is there anything on the 3-disc worth getting that's not on the 1disc?

spoiler thing:

I was unable to read every post, but I'm pretty sure no one has yet mentioned the zero-gravity sequence w/ the fire extinguisher, which is one of the most beautiful scenes of any recent movie I can remember.

whiney: I got the three-disc because it was basically only like $4 more than the one-disc on amazon and the answer appears to be NO becuase disc #3 is just some kind of disney fucko "digital copy" crap with an unlocking code that you can "enjoy on your favorite device" e.g. copy to your hard drive without being brought up on felony charges

watched this last night, totally agree that the human element ruined what could have been a great robot romantic movie. and also

one potential bum note - when the ship tilts and the ppl pile up against the wall, their red costumes bear more than a slight resemblance to Liverpool home kit = Hillsborough echoes?

i totally got this too, really unfortunate scene.

The moments on Earth though were brilliant, should have just been all that.

max's usage of the word 'rubes' is p. delightful 2 me

I admit part of me really hoped they'd go with the memory-wiped Wall-E.

ok i would have drowned in a room of my own tears if they'd done that

needs geekier commentary rather than the story evolution commentary that we got.

Having watched this on DVD recently, I enjoyed it more second time around (although, as detailed above, first viewing was not quite ideal). There was a lot less time spent on the Axiom than I remembered, and the human involvement was less than I remembered too. Or went quicker. And the space dance! Wow.

but I'm pretty sure no one has yet mentioned the zero-gravity sequence w/ the fire extinguisher, which is one of the most beautiful scenes of any recent movie I can remember.

― billstevejim

yep - it was something special.

is there anything on the 3-disc worth getting that's not on the 1disc?

― uәʇɹɐƃu!әʍ ˙ƃ ʎәu!Ⴁʍ (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, December 1, 2008 10:08 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the main thing on disc 2 worth seeing is about 10 minutes worth of Buy N' Large corporate messages to the shareholders / training film for the Axiom Captain's first day / advertisements for BNL history: "After our initial series of mergers, Buy N' Large began lead the world in every industry, including... World Leadership!"

there's also about 8 minutes of very rough, non-animated early storyboard alternate takes, which are interesting once. originally the captain was even more of a wide-eyed limbless balloon who could barely form complete sentences, and it's hard not to think about how great it would have been if they'd held on to more of that characterization -- as much as I love this movie, the captain is the weakest link of the entire film, every one of his scenes is nearly painfully mediocre. though I know that if they hadn't made him a Hero character, this film would have ceased to work as a film for kids.

yeah basically I think if you're much harsher on the human beings than this movie already is it basically becomes Silent Running

now would that have been so bad

aw how nice, the person who posted that transcibed Joan Baez's lyrics in the sidebar

Gather your children to your side in the sun
Tell them all they love will die,
Tell them why in the sun

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3154/3081904301_2519404f94.jpg

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/1848/imageuploadimagemo3.jpg

dremel work never really has the charm of actual carving.

STEEMPUNK

I'm awaiting the Wall-E trash compactor and Chia-Eve.

Wood-E

Wall-E Wood (comix joek)

so fucking good

so great when wall-e arrives in the main body of the cruise ship and is suddenly surrounded by robots of every description, waxing, scouting analyzing, buffing - wall-e's a trash collector but these guys are high-gloss cleanliness technicians!

my biggest laugh was at the double take of the doddery desk guard robot, when wall-e wheels eva into the elevator. i wonder how the animators work out the timing for these things - do they block out the scenes with actors first and then use the same timings for their animation or what?

i sorta feel this was all premise and no payoff. once the plot mechanics kick in it's rushed and by the numbers - wall-e gets physically battered while saving the day and hey presto we're on earth. and the citizens of buy n large came around with no effort at all; one minute they're passive drones and suddenly they're like whoa yeah, we have nothing to lose but our slurpees!

the number of amazing little moments here would fill three other normal movies, but the story felt small. what i would have liked: the ship comes back to earth about midway through the film. NOW what mothafuckas

I am sure I am not alone in finding the cross-species implications of the relationship between Wall-E and Eva slightly disturbing. You tell me how they make babies.

http://www.black-sabbath.de/lyrics/te.jpg

Well Ned, exactly.

Another niggle for me is that in real life, let's face it, Eva wouldn't go for Wall-E. He's not crisp enough.

There's sort of a Mac/PC thing going on there.

tracer i agree with 95% of what you said there—plot wasn't entirely satisfying, but at the same time the movie is so good otherwise that it's almost completely forgivable.

not a dry eye in the house at the theater in which i saw this

was tempted towards weepiness in the final moments, but managed to restrain the free exercise of grubby human feelings. hooray me. still the best movie i saw last year.

now that i think about it.. auto controls the whole ship, so why is he still sending out the EVAs if he plans to do nothing about them?

and, fred willard said there wasn't any life on earth anymore, so don't bother coming back.. but isn't the whole point of the EVAs for exactly this circumstance? if life exists on earth, the EVAs aren't needed

or rather if life is KNOWN to exist, the EVAs aren't needed

the Burn-E minisode on the DVD is also fantastic (vendorbot drops the rod when asked for a THIRD one)

Burn-E was great, especially because when I rewatched the movie I was like "hey, I didn't notice this the first time, but what ever ended happening to that robot who got locked out...?", and then I go to the special features and BAM!

There's sort of a Mac/PC thing going on there.

― Nurse Detrius (Eric H.)

That's true - I missed that.

glad to see that i am not the only one who saw the similarities b/w wall-e and the lyrics of gary numan's "m.e.":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnakzyCKhiA

... though i would've used different film footage if i made this video.

Honestly the first 20 minutes completely won me over and then the rest of the film mostly just held my attention. I want to see Pixar do a dark 2-hour meditation on the solitary life of a trash-collecting robot on a waste planet.

why did president fred willard secretly change the instructions for the spaceship again? the entire plot turned on that but i don't think i ever understood it

"The Captain replays EVE's visual recordings and sees that Earth is still devastated and nothing like the imagery of it that he has seen... The Captain, meanwhile, comes to the conclusion that humanity must return to Earth to restore the planet. Auto, however, reveals that he was given a final directive: when the cleanup project had been deemed a failure, the BnL CEO ordered all autopilots never to return to Earth. When the Captain resists it, Auto stages a mutiny."

"Fred Willard as Shelby Forthright, historical CEO of the Buy n Large Corporation. Known for his seemingly unending optimism, Forthright proposed the plans to evacuate, clean up and recolonize the planet. However, he gave up hope after realizing he underestimated just how toxic the planet had become."

I've read interviews by Christian magazines with both Andrew Stanton and the Monsters Inc. guy. It's weird to be reading 'robots space the future animation other robots Jesus robots" – wait what? This one ends with a Watchtoweresque sidebar trying to mesh Wall-E and the Bible. "In contrast, WALL•E, the meek little trash collector, accepts stewardship in a way that people have rejected. And because love springs from service, he comes to love the creatures that inhabit Earth. That's not an environmental message, it's a biblical one."

I don't find this bad or sinister, fwiw, just odd.

predicted upthread:

you really wish wall•e was more like the story of jesus?

― s1ocki, Monday, 7 July 2008 20:15 (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I am all for people who want to draw good lessons from the words of the Bible and inspiration to do good from the words and example of Jesus. It is when the lessons are all shitty ones and the inspiration is toward smug self-righteousness that I cringe.

<3 Wall-E

so great. had some non English speaking family over. i couldnt think of anything for them to watch so i threw this on, they loved it.

http://blastr.com/2012/08/guys-spends-two-years-bui.php

Cool story, bro.

Anyone watch Wall-E (2008) recently? Looks a bit different from 2020. It came out the year after the iPhone was invented and it seems like our take away was Ok, so we can just look at these screens 24/7 and eventually a trash compacter will tell us when it's time to rebuild.

— Miranda July (@Miranda_July) February 18, 2020

Now here is some news:

We're proud to announce our first collaboration with @Pixar: WALL•E (2008), directed by Andrew Stanton, entering the Collection on 4K this November! https://t.co/1T7kQ7nsSY pic.twitter.com/MG7WOoP1zR

— Criterion Collection (@Criterion) September 8, 2022

Our director-approved edition features two commentaries, a masterclass with Stanton, behind-the-scenes footage, more than a dozen documentaries, deleted scenes, a tour of the Pixar Living Archive; selections from Stanton's sketchbook, and so much more! pic.twitter.com/VXuo0bPgl1

— Criterion Collection (@Criterion) September 8, 2022

https://www.criterion.com/films/33246-wall-e

Oops, missed that the link is in that first tweet.

No Hello Dolly, No Cred