Oh no! Wall-E!

[Radrappy]

So I'm sure a good number of you have seen Pixar's Wall-E by now. I've seen the movie twice now and am really interested in what this community thought of it. The critical response has been overwhelmingly positive and yet I'm still not convinced. The film had its brilliant moments to be sure but was weighed down by a number of issues.

The human segments were awkward and overly didactic. "I don't want to survive, I WANT TO LIVE!"

What dialogue there was was very average at best and poor at worst. "Get ready to have some kids John!"

The ending was broken and shamelessly catered to a family audience. They introduced such a complex and compelling problem at the end only to solve it in under 3 minutes with Disney magic..

Also on a minor niggling note, When Wall E takes the plant out of himself in space near the midpoint of the film, shouldn't the plant have frozen? Or I don't know, exploded or something?

Anyway, I thought it was a good movie but that it doesn't touch the Incredibles in terms of quality. How about you?

[Segaholic2]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBsxqQIu_5s

[Radrappy]

ouch.

[Oompa Star]

I found this in a list of related videos.

[Ritz]

What I want to know is, what was so great about The Incredibles? I saw it once or twice, but it didn't tickle my fancy any. In fact, I'd say it was the weakest of Pixar's films. Now, Ratatouille- that was a great movie. How does Wall-E compare to Ratatouille?

[Zeta]

I'm sorry, I just couldn't enjoy Wall-E. The beginning was just too depressing for me. For some reason, nothing makes me cry like a baby more than abandoned robots. I have no idea why, but I really couldn't enjoy the rest of the film because of that.

What I want to know is, what was so great about The Incredibles? I saw it once or twice, but it didn't tickle my fancy any. In fact, I'd say it was the weakest of Pixar's films. Now, Ratatouille- that was a great movie. How does Wall-E compare to Ratatouille?

The Incredibles is only great if you go in looking for a superhero film. Or a good Fantastic Four film. It's really not like anything else Pixar has ever done or likely will ever do again. I'm a big comic fan, so I loved it.

If I had to rank their films and a reason why, it'd probably go:
* Ratatouille: Absolute perfection. The atmosphere, characters, music and plot fit together perfectly.
* The Incredibles: One of the greatest superhero movies of all time, but not really animated family fare. Not really a hardcore superhero movie either. It's in a middle grey area that some people just couldn't get.
* Wall-E: They definitely had a good idea. The first 20 minutes are just Wall-E on his own, and he's great. He makes the movie. He's one of animation's most lovable characters ever. But it's just a really depressing 20 minutes. The last hour of the movie is less depressing, but the dialogue bogs it down, because this movie was almost filmed with the intent of making it totally silent. It's almost like two totally different movies, each with opposite flaws, glued together. The character of Wall-E really makes the film though, and they did a fantastic job with him.
* Finding Nemo: Good, but meanders a lot. Didn't seem to know what they were doing. Ellen Degeneres single-handedly saved it.
* Toy Story 2: Took a lot of the stuff from the first one and improved upon it.
* Toy Story: Still holds up well in retrospect.
* Monsters INC: I liked this movie better when it was "Aaaah Real Monsters!" on Nickleodeon.
* A Bug's Life: Fairly bland. It was just "meh". Definitely a sophomore slump. Totally generic.
* Cars: The worst thing Pixar's ever done. Bland humor, boring characters, mindnumbingly dull setting. And they're making a fucking sequel. Just ugh. In fact, it's the only Pixar movie I would venture to call truly BAD.

[Green Gibbon!]

Ratatouille is completely freaking awesome. I've watched it I think three times already. I can't find a single thing to complain about except that I'm afraid they'll never top it. I'm pretty sure Bird is the best animation director alive today (with all due respect to Miyazaki whose best work, I think, is behind him - though I hate to say that Bird's may be as well after the sheer perfection that is Ratatouille).

I don't think there are any Pixar films I actually dislike (certainly not compared to the rest of the CG schlock that's out there). I haven't seen Wall-E yet, but I happen to have a gift card for The Grand, so I'll likely check it out this week or next week.

[Radrappy]

Well, there's going to be A LOT more cg bullshit coming out in the next year or to be sure if the trailers before Wall E are any indication. The best part is that they all look absolutely terrible.

Igor
Space Chimps
Fly me to the moon
Bolt
Madagascar2
The Tale of Despereaux
Beverly Hills Chihuahua

As for Miyazaki's best work being behind him, I believe we'll have a good feeling soon enough seeing as Ponyo comes out in July.

[Esrever]

I liked Wall-E, but not as much as I was expecting. The human sections were overly didactic, and the spoken dialogue was awkward in places.

And Pixar's biggest recurring weakness -- the tendency to dip too deep into the sentimentality bucket -- was sure in full force on this one. Pixar films are always "heartwarming" seemingly by requirement, but some of them handle the sentiment with a light touch (Incredibles, Finding Nemo) while others just kind of devolve into painfully trite schlock (Cars). Wall-E is hardly the worst offender, but it definitely got a bit too Hallmark in places.

It's a shame the film was weighed down by this stuff, because it had a great premise and the robot characters were fantastically handled. Almost all the problems were in the final third of the film, and while they aren't enough to ruin the movie, they do take it down a peg or two below Pixar's best.

[Locit]

Just got back from my second viewing, and I'd have to say Wall-E is probably the best thing Pixar has ever put out. Period. Wall-E is a love story. If it were any other kind of movie I might (might!) agree with what Radrappy is saying, but I don't. The whole movie is about Wall-E and Eve's relationship, mostly conveyed through beeps, whirrs and incredible body language. I feel basically the opposite about every complaint Radrappy has (except for the line about kids, which is pretty weak but hardly a dealbreaker). I think it's the strongest, most beautiful film they've made to date. It also had an absolutely incredible score.

Can't wait for Up!, though.

[Zeta]

Also on a minor niggling note, When Wall E takes the plant out of himself in space near the midpoint of the film, shouldn't the plant have frozen? Or I don't know, exploded or something?

No, no exploding.

No freezing.

[Radrappy]

Ok so while those things wouldn't apparently happen to an extreme, the site you list still states,

"Well, that's the movie version. In fact, as unfriendly as the vacuum of space is, the body's made of stern enough stuff to stay in one piece. When you step outside, you've got about 15 seconds before you pass out from anoxia (which is, of course, less time than most people can go between breaths if pressed; vacuum is a very efficient de-oxygenator of blood), a couple of minutes at best until you die from the same, and all sorts of nasty decompression injuries and having exposed areas swelling up and ohmygod the water just boiled off my eyes in between, but you never quite go boom: remember, technically speaking, your blood is not in a vacuum: it's in you, so swelling and boiling blood only occurs toward your squishiest, outermost layer."

Remember, this is a freaking plant we're talking about here. It does not exactly rival the human body in terms of durability. Also, the water in a plants body is very well close to the surface (not that a plant's epidermal layer is that strong to begin with). I maintain, something should have happened. That plant should not have been unscathed even though it was only exposed for under 10 seconds.

[Esrever]

I agree, that part of the robot love story was very unrealistic.

[Radrappy]

You may think you've made me sound like a silly goose, but its the little realistic touches that make a story believable. lack of attention to detail is something that can completely take you out of the story. So poo on you.

[Segaholic2]

Yes, I was completely taken out of the love story between a robot that somehow managed to remain functional for the better half of a millennium and another robot that seems to draw from an unlimited source of power that takes place 700 years in the future in a world where the planet has been completely destroyed by a megacorporation because a plant's reaction to vacuum exposure doesn't line up with my own untested theories of such a hypothetical situation.

[Segaholic2]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBsxqQIu_5s

[Crazy Penguin]

The Incredibles flirted so close to brilliance. For the most part it was a played straight super-hero story with a good dose of humour and it worked well, occasionally though it fell into genre parody that undermined the rest of the film. The level of consistency wasn't where it should have been.

The scene where the family put on small domino masks to maintain their secret identities was played absolutely straight and true to the genre, but then we're expected to laugh at the impracticality of capes. It really pulled me out of an otherwise great movie.

[Zeta]

The capes thing was probably a nod to Watchmen.

[Esrever]

Also, let's all have a laugh about how the existence of plant life somehow indicates breathable air for humans. Or how Wall-E could recharge his entire solar battery in under ten seconds.

It's a cartoon, dude! Realism is frequently tossed out the window in favour of streamlined storytelling and interesting visuals.

[j-man]

I haven't seen it yet. Does it have songs by Randy Newman?

[DackAttac]

Nay. Peter Gabriel. =(

[Shadow Hog]

Could've sworn I saw Newman's name in the credits somewhere, though. Didn't Buy 'n' Large have a theme song that played when Wall-E first looked upon the insides of the Axiom? He might have written that.

Either that or I remember squat.

[Senbei]

Gotta agree with Locit. It's just a sweet little love story that happens to be backed up by intense musings on the future state of humanity, and even then it's all in good fun. Who knew fat people could be so cute? Anyway, you gotta love those ending animations that cycled through the re-evolution of historical art stylings.

I thought the film was gorgeous, and it simultaneously satisfied my love of sci-fi and brilliant Pixar toons, so it gets nothing but thumbs up from me. And really, how awesome is it that someone in this day and age could make a cartoon with almost no dialog? That they could get away with that is an achievement by itself, but that they did it well is phenomenal. And no famous celebrity voice-overs either!

Also: PRESTO and his bunny, ALEC AZAM!

So any ideas on where they're going to go with Toy Story 3?

[Radrappy]

Well, apparently it's the next logical step in the trilogy. That is to say, Andy abandons Woody and Buzz and they have to deal with whatever comes next together.

[Yami CJMErl]

Personally, I liked the story premise whipped up before Disney bought out Pixar--the one about Buzz Lightyear getting recalled and sent back to Taiwan, with the other toys going to rescue him.