‘WALL-E’ or “I think this movie is calling us a society of fat-asses” (Review)

Posted by danhacker

July 13, 2008

The new Pixar film WALL-E is a truly amazing an amazing visual accomplishment. It’s been receiving rave reviews and they are all justly deserved. ‘WALL-E’ is another addition to the Pixar library of films and only adds to the argument that as a production company, Pixar cannot create a bad movie. What ‘WALL-E’ also does is elevate the CG cartoon medium by providing a deep social commentary throughout the movie to which kids will be oblivious, but adults will find engaging. Most will be surprised that an animated film is daring to tackle such issues.

My only up-front problem with ‘WALL-E’, which isn’t even a problem, is that the first forty-five minutes of the movie were pure magic and I wanted the entire film to be just like that. It was groundbreaking filmmaking since it’s in-essence a film without a vocal narrative. There are no words uttered by anything on screen (besides robot sounds of course) and that shows just how powerful the narrative of the movie is since it can rely solely on WALL-E’s actions without needing the central protagonist to speak. As much as I loved ‘WALL-E’ as a whole, the first part of the film shows what possible innovation Pixar has the potential to create, even if it’s only briefly touched up. I hope their future projects they will be even more daring and take the CG animated medium take to its next evolutionary jump point.

What ‘WALL-E’ accomplishes on the surface is very impressive. Year after year Pixar takes the quality of their animation and steps it up just that little bit further that makes you amazed at the power of their animators. From the textures to the lightening effects used, there are times that ‘WALL-E’ doesn’t even look like conventional CG imagery. Pixar surpasses them selves in the quality of their product as they annually put out something new to gush over and set their own bar of quality to exceed.

Mass-consumerism, environmental issues, overpopulation, and reliance on technology are a few of the many issues tackled in ‘WALL-E’. The creative forces behind this movie make no effort to hide what they want to convey while also seeking to make a product that entertains. ‘WALL-E’ shows us a future where planet earth is trashed by humanity because of our need to constantly consume more and more. Instead of fix our habits we leave the planet to let some one else deal with the mess- it’s a very diffusion of responsibility situation. Eventually in the film (spoiler?) it’s revealed that humans have turned into obese masses of flesh that can’t even support their own weight without the help of a robot assistant. People are constantly video-chatting and hooked into what is a facsimile of the Internet of the future. Rarely does any one have one-on-one interaction with any one else. It’s a scathing satire that is saying that the robots in the movie are in fact actually more human they humanity has evolved into. Of course the overarching ploy involves the little robot WALL-E helping the displaced members of the human race come back to being in touch with their own humanity and the place that they used to call home.

There are so many elements and themes that comprise ‘WALL-E’; it would be derogatory to even refer to this film as a cartoon. Aesthetically and contextually it’s truly so much more than that. ‘WALL-E’ is a cinematic masterpiece on almost every level. This film entertains and makes you think…and is that not the true purpose of art?

Dan Hacker

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