Wall-E: Nothing Like Getting Smacked With A Moral Stick
There has yet to be a bad Pixar movie. Genuinely, I have yet to see one. Even the lower end ones like A Bug’s Life or Finding Nemo still had plenty to like about them, and this is the case with the most recent Pixar release Wall-E.
Wall-E assumes a corporate-dominated future in which the planet is falling apart. Choked with garbage and suffering from vast damage to the ecosystem, the inhabitants of Earth board a series of interstellar spaceships and head outward, leaving the Earth’s cleanup to a tiny little robot named Wall-E. Wall-E is essentially a trash compactor on treads with a limited AI, and when he comes in contact with a sleeker, upgraded model robot–the EVE unit–after seven hundred years of trash grinding, he oddly enough falls in love with the new model, and follows her everywhere. Including back into space, when she leaves to report on the resurgence of plant life on Earth. The residents of the starships, meanwhile, have grown bloated beyond recognition on a lifestyle of all-you-can-eat fast food and hover-capable chairs that leave movement utterly unnecessary. But will these loungers head back to earth? Or will the ships’ AI prevent such a thing?
If you were left feeling bludgeoned over the head by at least THREE messages in the synopsis alone (help the earth! corporations are evil! exercise and eat right!), then you are not alone, and you see my objection to Wall-E. I find myself unable to recall the last Pixar title that was THIS PREACHY. The only way it could have been worse is if they’d actually put the messages into text fields and showed them throughout the movie.
But this is my ONLY real objection to Wall-E. All the standard things you say about Pixar still apply; the characters are well-done and memorable, the animation is jaw-droppingly beautiful, the sound quality is beyond belief. It looks great, it sounds great, it watches great, there’s plenty of laughs and a little action and there’s a lot to like.
And I wouldn’t have any complaints if they’d just dialed down the sanctimony a few dozen notches.
God you whiny little losers who complain about the “preachiness” of the film WALL-E are SO overdoing it. Not only was there no “message” intended in WALL-E (just read any Stanton interview) but the bit of messages that did emerge were not only SPOT ON but in the BACKGROUND of the film where your whiny moral superiority complexes shouldn’t even notice them unless you’re just digging for something to complain about. But I guess that’s what people who complain about “preachy” entertainment do, isn’t it? Dig and dig until they find something to complain about so their sense of pride will feel better for having actually learned something from *gasp* a cartoon.
Ironically, I thought just the opposite–that THEY were the ones overdoing it. I mean, I was watching the movie, and they’d keep swinging the messages at me, and all I can think is, ENOUGH already! I get it!
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