Wall-E
Ouch!
Half-a-month since my last post! Well, time
flies when you’re having fun time flies.
Things have simply been too hectic outside the
blogosphere lately but hopefully things will
improve from now on. One of the things I
did get round to was to catch Andrew
Stanton’s Wall-E
in the local theatre. Being a huge animation (and
Pixar) -fan I had been looking forward to this
film ever since it was announced. The panegyric
reviews it received upon its stateside release
further fueled my excitement. Thankfully the film
was well worth the wait.
Look - No Words!
I figure most of the people on the planet have an idea about the plot already so I want reiterate this in any detail. The film centers on the relationship between the two robots Wall-E and Eve. Perhaps more interestingly, it also includes some fairly serious social commentary.
The
plot itself doesn’t necessarily redefine the
art-form. It is however well structured and
tells a concise story with one amazing
constraint: For the most part the film is told
without any dialogue what so ever. The two main
characters don’t speak at all (apart from a few
robotic renditions of their names). This is one
of my favorite aspects of the movie and a truly
brave decision of the filmmakers. It serves as a
reminder that storytelling doesn’t necessarily
require loads of words to work. (Unlike this
blog-post).
Taking its time
Another surprise was the film’s willingness to
slow down and «smell the 
flowers». On several occasions Stanton slows the
action down and lets the audience drink from the
fountain of amazing visuals. Normally I would be
critical of an approach where the progress of the
story is sacrificed for the looks. Yet, in the
context of this film it works beautifully. Wall-E’s
character justifies it. He is in essence a child and
we get to share his awe of the wonders of space and
futuristic technology.
But the willingness to slow down isn’t used
exclusively to show off extra-
terestrial
visuals. No, the earthbound opening is a
particularly interesting part in this respect.
Here we are presented with a dystopian
future-earth deprived of (almost) all life. If
you think this sounds dark for a family-film
you’re right. The tone of the film is one of
dark melancholy and while it betrays this
feeling occasionally the feel of the piece is
certainly not the un-compromised positivity you
might expect from Disney/Pixar. This might sound
like a turn-off to some of you but the film is
all the better for it.
Wall-E is simply put a masterpiece. It challenges the genre and treats the subject matter in a way that’s quite uncommon in contemporary Hollywood. In many ways it seems to borrow storytelling elements from asian animation (Hayao Miyazaki’s Totoro springs to mind).
If you have any interest in films, storytelling or animation go and see it.
