Pixar is an embarrassment to the moviemaking industry.By that, I mean that every other studio in Hollywood should be embarrassed that Pixar consistently outshines them.
Rival studio executives hoping for a little schadenfreude at Pixar's expense will have to keep on waiting—by every conceivable measure, WALL-E, Pixar's latest offering, is a huge success. It racked up a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 93% on Metacritic. It earned 63 million dollars in its first weekend—easily outgrossing a film whose trailer prominently featured Angelina Jolie's unadorned back. It currently sits at #6 on IMDB's top 250.
I'm here to tell you that these metrics all undersell it.
If you haven't already heard, WALL-E tells the story of its titular robot, a trash-compacting droid still plugging away on Earth hundreds of years after humans—and pretty much all other forms of life—have left. Starved for company (aside from his pet cockroach), WALL-E whiles the day away picking up trash, compacting it into tight little cubes, and stacking these cubes miles high. When Eve, a plant-sensing robot hundreds of years more advanced than WALL-E, arrives on the godforsaken Earth, WALL-E looks past her apparent indifference to him (and the fact that she could easily destroy him) and attempts to befriend her. Just as his persistence begins to pay off, WALL-E shows Eve a plant he found, causing her to snatch it from him, stow it, and go into a dormant mode until she is picked up by a spaceship. WALL-E, not allowed to let his one friend disappear without a fight, stows away on the spaceship in hopes of rescuing Eve.
Of course, that little plot summary does the film absolutely no justice.
Pixar has long made a living creating characters that are adorable without being sickening, and flawed without being irredeemable. WALL-E ratchets up the adorable while still adroitly avoiding the sickening—probably because he's so much more than that. He's clever, he's dogged, he's inquisitive, he's resourceful, he's hopeful, he's loving, and he's refreshingly unconcerned with himself. He'll also probably go down as one of the most memorable characters of this decade.
Pixar has never really shied away from putting small social messages in their films, but they probably make their boldest statement here. Not only is the Earth left completely uninhabitable by human consumption, but the humans out in space do nothing but consume, converse, and coast around in these neat little hover-chairs. Their every whim seems to be catered to by a conglomerate called "Buy-n-Large"—a not even remotely veiled swipe at Wal-Mart. (And in what I understand is the first appearance by an actual human in a Pixar film, the inimitable Fred Willard plays the CEO of Buy-n-Large at the time of Earth's evacuation.) That said, the environmental and consumerist warnings are delivered with enough of a wink that they at no point seem preachy.
WALL-E does all of what Pixar does best. It's gorgeously rendered. It features a subtle but incredibly efffective score. It uses non-human characters to remind us what it means to be human. But WALL-E outstrips its Pixar predecessors in a number of key ways as well. While all Pixar movies take us deep into the psyche of a three-dimensional main character, WALL-E takes us there with barely a shred of dialogue. While all Pixar movies offer a new way to see the world, WALL-E goes further by offering a whole new world to see. But where WALL-E really blows away the competition is in its contagious, infectious, intoxicating sense of discovery. It's enough to turn even the most stone-hearted viewer into a state of wide-eyed wonder.
I don't know what more to say. WALL-E made me laugh. It made my eyes well up. It made me cheer. It filled me with hope. It did everything you'd ever want a movie to do, and only my extreme hesitancy to use the very top number on our belovéd scale is keeping WALL-E at a 21.
19 comments:
wow. really, wow. like, i mean, WOW.
i know Pixar is probably staffed by heavenly beings, because they do every aspect of the movie-making business so much better than any other studio out there. but are you saying they topped themselves AGAIN? this is like, the fourth time!
I don't know.......the way people have been hyping this film, I'm going to have a hard time enjoying it. There's hyping a film, and then there's overhype. And I wouldn't consider WALL-E's opening weekend a huge accomplishment considering that it didn't even crack $70 million, AND it made only $12 million more than Wanted, AND it's G-rated and Wanted is R-rated.
I don't know.......the way people have been hyping this film, I'm going to have a hard time enjoying it. There's hyping a film, and then there's overhype. And I wouldn't consider WALL-E's opening weekend a huge accomplishment considering that it didn't even crack $70 million, AND it made only $12 million more than Wanted, AND it's G-rated and Wanted is R-rated.
http://www.superherohype.com/news/wantednews.php?id=7413
The above link also elaborates on why one could make a case that Wanted performed more impressively at the box office this weekend, despite making less money.
Fair points, YRF. I'll just say this: I had enormously high expectations heading into this movie, and my expectations were well exceeded.
YRF, I feel that the hype of this movie is not hurting my desire to see this movie. DW does not often praise a film to this degree and although sometimes we are at totally opposite ends of the spectrum in regards to what we thought of a movie, I feel that his praise of the movie has actually increased ym desire to see it.
first, great reaview.
second, I don't think the hype of the film hurts it one bit. other than the dark knight, Wall-E was the film I was most looking forward to seeing. Although I have enjoyed this summer season very much, Wall-E was definitely, by far, my favorite film of the whole year. at this point, I am skeptical about even the dark knight topping it.
third, I completely agree and am shocked at how pixar seems to top themselves every single time. I loved last years ratatouille but Wall-E pretty much blew it away. Not only does the animation and level of detail improve with each film, The writing and overall production improves.
lastly, just a quick question, is this the highest rating you guys have given a film? has there ever been a 22?
Thanks for the positive feedback, y'all.
cmdluke: Only one film has ever been given a 22 on TMBC. Stormy Pinkness bestowed that rating on White Christmas, which I regarded then and still do as something of travesty. But, then, we all see the 22 scale a bit differently.
However, I haven't ruled out giving WALL-E a 22, but I decided I couldn't do that after only one viewing. It looks like I'll be watching it again Thursday afternoon, though, so you can check back here after then for an update.
I'll add this as well, which I wanted to include in the review but couldn't bring it up naturally:
I'd obviously be shocked to bits if WALL-E didn't win Best Animated Feature at the Oscars. Pixar's long held a stranglehold on that (and rightly so). But this is the first Pixar film (except for, perhaps, Toy Story) that I can also confidently say belongs in the Best Picture conversation (even though the year's only half over). That's a tall ask for a G-rated, animated summer movie, but I'd be shocked to see 5 movies better than WALL-E come out this year.
although its nice that animated films have their own oscar category now, its a shame at the same time that films like wall-e are kept out of the best picture category for this reason. I think that animated films should get recognition every year, but they should still be allowed in the running for best picture. If it weren't for that category, Wall-E would certainly join the ranks with Beauty and the Beast for the only animated feature nominated for best picture.
We'll see. It's been a pretty crappy year for film outside of genre pics.
It's always nice to have expectations met. My expectations for The Dark Knight are ridiculously high, but I don't think I'll be let down.
And yeah, DW knows what he's talking about. It's just that the trailer didn't really grab me, and everybody around me has been talking about this film like it's the cure for cancer.
LOL.
I wouldn't be surprised if it IS the cure for cancer...
The hype actually started to get to me before seeing WALL-E, so I wasn't as excited to see it as DW was. But I also loved it. DW summed it up splendidly so I don't feel I have a lot to add. And if I tried, it'd sound like I'm gushing.
Just go see it, for heaven's sake.
Just a thought experiment: I wonder if there are people out there worrying that the cure for cancer won't live up to their expectations...
I would like to add the following: most "romantic" movies I've seen don't even come close to the level of romance and pure love emanating from this movie.
Doctor,
Regardless of the movie that would probably wait till southern hemisphere summer time and then a few months more for a DVD release:
I think you're putting too much emphasis on the opinion of others in your review. Do Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB ratings really matter that much in shaping your opinion, or do they just point to the public’s lowest common denominator? Are Oscars always given to the worthy ones or are they over-influenced by politics? Are box office figures an indication of quality or an indication of the success of the marketing machinery?
Sure, having all of the above in your corner gives you some indication of what's ahead, but have a look at history books: they're full of examples where most if not all of the people were wrong all of the time (don’t get me started with examples, but if pushed and given today's date (at least here in Melbourne) I would start by pointing at your country’s choice for president over the last 8 years to name a recent occurrence).
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't care what others think, when I read the Doctor I want to know what the Doctor thinks.
[Disclaimer time: I know Rotten IMDB and the rest were all quoted just as a form of introduction]
As for the cure for cancer:
Since we already have some cures for cancer (e.g., a vaccine to cervix cancer), we can certainly see how people react to what we have. The fact that people really think in terms of finding a cure to cure them all and expect such a thing to exist actually shows you how detached people are from the realities of this world and also indicates at their levels of expectation.
I think the Tomatometer rarely lies, though it can be unreliable in cases of artier/bolder/more unusual films. I feel that that, and IMDB ratings are pretty good INDICATORS of how a film is preceived by the public at large, more than the be-all, end-all final word of quality. As always, it boils down to individual taste, and knowing what you like.
i think you may be misunderstanding the Doctor a little, Moshe. my reading of his Tomatometer/IMDb/box office numbers things "i think this movie's good, and these sources agree with me," not "these sources all say this movie's good, so they must be right." we at TMBC pay a lot of attention to the Oscars not because they know better than us, but because they are a very high honor, and we want to see the right things honored, and call the Academy on the carpet when they don't do that. like YRF said, these things are good indicators, but a individual ultimately decides for himself/herself.
i just saw WALL-E with my girlfriend, and i must say it's the best Pixar yet. DW's assessment was right on, and the movie made me do all the things that DW described in his last paragraph. i'm giving it a 17, not because i found stuff wrong with it, but because there are movies that i like more that get en equal or higher score. but i've only seen it once, so my rating has lots of space to grow. fantastic movie.
This is definitely a hit for Pixar. I loved it and gave it an 18!
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