Movie Rec: "Wall-E"

[retsuko]

yebisu9 and I see a lot of movies; to both of us, this is one of the great pleasures of life, especially because we come from childhoods where we didn't go to the movies much. So we're both making up for lost time, and enjoying ourselves thoroughly. Every now and then, though, I get a little "movied out" and worry that we're not doing enough for our souls, that we're just mindlessly taking in media to make up for the lacking of our upbringings. And sometimes, I'm right about that.

But then there are movies like "Wall-E", which are good for our souls and minds, but are not stodgy or preachy. Movies like these make me glad that film was invented, and animation techniques perfected and honed. The spectacle that unfolded on the screen this afternoon was truly innovative without showing off, clever without being overdone or forced. I teared up for an eccentric little robot, for a ravaged and empty planet Earth, and for the simple magnitude of what was on the screen. There was real meaning behind the story and certain moments resonated and held genuine tension, a sure sign of a great film. Another sign that this was a great movie was that half of the time, I didn't even notice there was a soundtrack: the music so perfectly complemented the action and mood of the scenes that only moments later, I would think, oh, yeah, that's a reference to this or that. And the first 40 minutes of the film has virtually no dialogue--and yet the story moves along at an efficient, sweet pace that introduces our lonely hero, his one friend (an adorable cockroach; which is a phrase I never expected to write), and his love interest. And then there is a monumental transition, and things go rather quickly, but the film never loses sight of what makes the story interesting and touching and keeps returning to simple visuals that stunningly beautiful. The comedy in this story is fairly well-timed, too, although it gets a little frantic as the narrative comes to a climax. All in all, this is lovely piece of storytelling and highly worth seeing, on the big screen if you can. I haven't seen something so wonderful in a long time.

The film is also accompanied by an animated short "Presto!" which features the antics of a magician's top hat and a reluctant rabbit. It's a glorious throwback to some old Warner Brother shorts, but with the "pretty" of Pixar mixed in. Also highly recommended!

Comments

[apintrix.livejournal.com]

Oh, it was a *little* preachy. I might even go so far as to call it a morality tale... still excellent tho.

I pretty much always find Pixar quite preachy, albeit usually on a symbolic level.

[retsuko.livejournal.com]

Well, perhaps a little... but I didn't find it as preachy as, say, "Spiderman" where the message was drilled into your head a bajillion times. I felt like the writers had a bit of an agenda, but largely let the story do the speaking, instead of using repetition to get their point across.