Wall-E

[liralen]

Jet and John and I went to see Wall-E this afternoon.  The whole gang is a fan of all the Pixar movies.  So we just had to just as soon as we could.

Jet really liked it.  He was kinda bemused by some parts of it, though.  I ended up kind of depressed.

The cartoon at the start was great and totally worth it.

Wall-E and Eve really are as wonderful as the commercials show them to be, though, and I loved how their personalities came out and how they interacted, and the plot was rather fraught, but good and solid.  The continuity was pretty good.

And there were moments that were visually stunning, which really did make me go... wow... the universe is so amazingly beautiful.

There is one very short flash of a funny at the very, very end of the credits, right after the Pixar bouncy little light guy.  So if you want it stay longer than you think you have to.  It's pretty funny, but there's not much to it.



I do wonder, though, if Pixar, as a company, is just really depressed about being a part of the Disney juggernaut now, as wow did they really, really hit commercialism and big company values and... wow. 

And it was really, really heavy handed about the destruction and devastation of Earth by consumerism and throwing everything away.  It was like getting beaten over the head with a 2x4 with all the really, really, really fat people in gravity couches and Jet was like, "Everyone is like a baby.  That's really weird."

The sheer waste of it all just ate at my gut so badly, especially given all the efforts we, as a family and as a church, have been going through lately; but I do know that not everyone gets it.  So maybe it is just me, and I'll be happy if anyone tells me that it was a really good message.  But it just hurt so badly that when the ending credits rolled and they showed the folks fixing things on the Earth, and there was a *happy* ending to it all, I just cried so hard at the supposedly "happy" bits, that I was nearly embarrassed.  I never cry at the sad parts, only when someone's actually doing the right thing...

Jet loved it. 

We both thought the animation was really spectacular.  I loved the dancing through space bit.  But, yeesh.  I was so depressed afterward I'm still kind of stunned by it and hating people in general, even though the people that did figure things out did the right thing when they could but the whole concept of 700 YEARS of everyone living like fat slugs tied into simulations just... ugh.

And both John and I wished they'd done more with the lighter.  It seemed so significant when she first lit it, but then nothing...

Comments

[uke.livejournal.com]

I think it's a good message because it was a warning--and yes, an extremely heavy-handed one. That heavy-handedness as well as the happy ending are pretty much required by the kid-movie genre, and the overall message is obviously one of hope... but also it's clearly hope that is tinged with sadness from the enormity of the original loss. That's something that older kids might get.

hmmm.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

the only other review i've seen of it so far (over at io9.com) was similarly critical of the depressing and pessimistic parts.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Cool. I'm glad you thought it was good enough.

I'm still wibbly as Jet completely missed the whole background message. It just blew right over his head completely. And, for me, the message of hope blew completely over my head. *laughter*

But we aren't average bears, so maybe it'll work on others.

Re: hmmm.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

The interesting thing is that since it was all background, the kids all loved the story about the little, quirky guy that saved the day kind of thing.

But every adult going out of that theater was NOT smiling at the 'happy ending'...

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Pixar's done critiques of consumerism before: I've heard that Monsters, Inc. actually has a lot of it. (I haven't seen it, though, so take that with a grain of salt.) But, yeah. I've been dealing with political critique lately and, my god--

Oh, well. Good things to photograph here in Zacatecas.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yeah... Monsters Inc had a smattering of it, and I've seen it so many times I can pretty much say all the lines. Exploitation of kids, too. Hm...

Anyway... yeah. *laughs*

[niherlas.livejournal.com]

A few observations:

It seems to me that there were likely some late cuts/edits/changes - possibly in response to screenings. Some pieces of the story didn't seem as smooth as the usual Pixar fare (your observation on the lighter is one), and there were some trailer scenes that were very different in the movie (Mo in the airlock doors). Pixar doesn't usually change up like that - they've talked in interviews before about how they work the story hard before they ever go to render (in part because render is expensive).

Several reviews have talked about the first part of the movie (on Earth) vs the second part (on Axiom) feeling like two distinct parts. I agree.

The message is heavy, yes. But worthy. Rampant, unchecked consumerism? Check. Rampant unchecked capitalism? Check. Disconnect from fellow persons? Check. Infantilization through convenience technology? Check.

It seems the "message" of Pixar films has been getting heavier of late. Incredibles had a message against sameness. Cars had a message about the emptiness of pursing glamour and fame. Ratatouille's side message derided the poor food and mass-market chow we see all too often. Now we have Wall-E.

Someone has to talk to us, after all...

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Well, I've seen some significant changes between trailers and the film before... but yeah, about the lighter... and the heaviness of the messages. I think this one just made me more disgusted with the whole human race than others.

But I'm glad it doesn't do that to everyone.

Well...

[(Anonymous)]

I think Wall-E was pretty good, simply because of the deeper messages within it. I'm in high school, and we really dig into the whole conformity issue with books like Anthem, or technology taking over, like with Fahrenheit 451. To see this on the big screen made me pretty happy, actually. Like, maybe since it's a big movie, more people will start to realize what could happen.

What made me kind of sad was that a lot of kids didn't get it. My younger cousin is nine, and she wasn't very impressed. I really hope they watch this movie again after learning about those issues. Maybe they'll like it more...

Re: Well...

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Ah. Thank you, very much for commenting on this. That does make me happier with the movie in an odd way.

I'm glad you found it a useful message to do in this way, even if the other kids with you didn't get it.