Quick Review: WALL-E

Posted on July 2, 2008 by andrew

I don’t know how they manage it, but Pixar is so many light years beyond anyone else making “family” movies that they must be somehow cheating. WALL-E is thoroughly enjoyable and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

The animation, as we expect from Pixar, is nearly perfect given the technology available. The robots all move more fluidly- and display more emotion- than would have been imaginable ten years ago. (The sound design, highly noticeable in a film featuring two leads with minimal vocal abilities, is superb.) The extremely stylized human characters look just as good as the focal characters from The Incredibles while maintaining a bit of distinctiveness pertinent to this particular movie. And a few of the dramatic shots in the film just plain blew me away.

Of course, the thing that really separates a Pixar movie from any other “family” or “kiddie” movie is the plotting and characterization. These characters are fully formed and the story in which they are placed is intelligent and well-considered. The humor appeals to a broad audience without ever resorting to fart jokes, and the drama is moving without ever going over anyone’s head. Sure, the message is delivered a bit heavy-handedly at times, but given the importance of the message, I’d hardly criticize the movie for this minor flaw.

By the end of the movie, I wanted to see WALL-E win over EVE, I wanted to see the humans overcome their many failings, and I wanted to see more, more, and more of the delightful and fantastical world created by the filmmakers. Doesn’t all of that cover all of the reasons I would ever go to a movie in the first place?

(Alright, fine, there weren’t any gigantic robots fighting each other and producing lots of explosions, which is a bit of a disappointment for me given that the movie was about robots, but I suppose you can’t have everything.)

» Filed Under WALL-E, movies

Comments

• Navigation

  Home
  About
   Subscribe

• Archives

  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008

• Blogroll

  • AMERICAblog
  • Balkinization
  • Buster Olney
  • Capitol Punishment
  • City Desk
  • CNN Political Ticker
  • Comics Should Be Good!
  • Creative Juices
  • Crooked Timber
  • Crooks and Liars
  • D.C. Sports Bog
  • Daily Kos
  • DCist
  • DEAD AIR SPACE
  • Eschaton
  • Ezra Klein
  • Feministe
  • Feministing
  • FIRE JOE MORGAN
  • Firedoglake
  • Glenn Greenwald
  • Grasping Reality with Both Hands
  • Horses Mouth
  • Hotline On Call
  • Hullabaloo
  • Majikthise
  • Marc Ambinder
  • Matthew Yglesias
  • Monitor Mix
  • MyDD
  • Nationals Farm Authority
  • Nationals Journal
  • Obsidian Wings
  • Oliver Willis
  • Open Left
  • Outside The Beltway
  • Pandagon
  • Paul Krugman
  • Political Animal
  • Raw Fisher
  • Rob Neyer
  • Selling Out
  • Shakesville
  • Steven Douglas Maloney
  • Strange Maps
  • Swampland
  • Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire
  • Talking Points Memo
  • TAPPED
  • The Carpetbagger Report
  • The Comics Curmudgeon
  • The Daily Dish
  • The Fix
  • The Plank
  • Think Progress
  • toohotfortnr
  • TPM Election Central
  • TPMMuckraker
  • War and Piece
  • War Room
  • White House Watch
  • Wonk Room

• Search

• Recent Comments

  • SKates: Hmm...going back through my trash folder, I did not find any...
  • Brad M.: I got the email, and I'm not Jewish, but I am young (kinda)....
  • MDK: Andrew, I agree with you. I don't think it had any racial u...
  • Brad M.: I think you're right in that it isn't coming from a consciou...
  • Judy: Your Canadian Uncle just received his voter card in the mail...