Wall-E is a special type of movie¬¬– it is science fiction for children. Not only that but Wall-E is sci fi in its purest state, reflecting on human society and condition from the outside; and this time through children’s eyes.
This movie stimulated in me what so much science fiction has overlooked: my heart. Lo, in little Wall-E all the short comings and pity I’d ever felt at the realization each time I watched Star Wars that R2-D2 and C3-PO were programmed AI machines were washed away and I saw a robot as human being and more. And that is the essence of appear for this film, a story which not only lights up neurons in the intellectual mind but touches and wrenches at the lover’s heart as well. A movie about love, love of life and love of freedom, from when Wall-E longingly looks from his isolation on earth at the wonderment and grandeur space to the realization of a few choice and lucky human souls that there is a world beyond their own egocentric existences. Wall-E and Eve, Mary and John, even the Captain and Mo, all took that first step away from their individual solitude and duty, and, like stepping out across the sea of tranquility, realizing that though they had never been told they could, there was a whole world beyond their track willingly opening itself to them. Most stunning to me about the character and action of the film was the purpose which Eve, the robot of Wall-E’s affection, ultimately serves and represents: she is the birth, or re-birth, of life on earth. Eve, like her namesake, is sent to earth to become the first mother, again, with the intention of finding and harboring the slightest sign of green life returning to the desolate surface of the planet. (Slight spoiler) I was dumb struck by this, both the implication and the incredible, yes I’ll say it, cuteness of the whole thing- Wall-E presents Eve with a plant, a plant she holds within her very ovarian looking body, a plant which means the future of all life on earth. Wow, now that is good story telling.
Wall-E has all the special touches a science fiction fan would like to see from Pixar. Just like the “Binford” tool box in Toy Story stood out to any self respecting Home Improvement fan, this film didn’t miss a chance to make homage to the classics of sci-fi films and literature. And the film is full of these little nods and notices as it mixes ideas from some of the greatest science fiction conceived with out allowing the knowledge or obviousness of the influences to feel pretentious. The story has elements of Huxley’s Brave New World and its Pavlovian conditioning. Bradbury’s conception of a age of humanity subject and witness only to video screens and cheap media as he wrote of in Fahrenheit 451 is perhaps less present in the story but still adds some eeriness of disconnect and inhumanity to the ambience of the films human race. I think Matt Bias said it best when he wrote “Dressed up in all these pretty colors is a dystopian world that would make Orwell proud.” It isn’t an Orwellian story, but it has an adversity to totalitarianism and concept of dystopia that any one can recognize and appreciate. Visually the movie is a stargazer and futurist’s dream. In no small way are 2001: A Space Odyssey’s influences on the film hidden, including not only the visual and character traits of Hal that appear in the film’s Auto-Pilot but also in the architecture and acoustic atmosphere of Wall-E. Both a knock at her role as the computer repeating crewmen in Galaxy Quest and a modest bow to her status as a living science fiction icon, Sigourney Weaver could be heard as the ships voice. Perhaps though what I found most impressive was to see that the animators had properly rendered the moon landing site as it sands today, something which even Futurama was unable to do and is an amazing example of the attention to detail and scientific accuracy under which the entire film was produced.
I must, as I’m so sure many have, breath a sigh of regret and sorrow for all those other movie patrons I saw that night buying tickets and walking blindly into canopies of darkness only to be met by some other story about someone who was not the little robot, Wall-E. It is in every respect a dazzling and binding film, out weighing any prior animations and I can only hope will someday stand among other science fiction films as a rare and unlikely classic; not a children’s toy rocket like Ewoks the movie but a fully realized and appreciated Saturn V titan of a film.
Sometime in our childhood we each sat down to a movie and had no idea that the seeds of a classic were about to be planted through our eyes and into our hearts and minds. Last night, I saw such a classic, and being fully realized to me I allowed myself to once again slip away to the land of my youth on magic carpets and rocket ships which embellished me with winds in my eyes and exhaust in my throat so strongly that tears were easily welled up in my eyes the whole night long. It is a wonder why anyone would like this film, it seems at first thought so alien, so far removed from anything recognizably emotional or human, but, as does all good science fiction, it is a retrospect through which we may see our true selves, both our inhumanity and our compassions.
Caleb Michael, go see Wall-E.
This movie stimulated in me what so much science fiction has overlooked: my heart. Lo, in little Wall-E all the short comings and pity I’d ever felt at the realization each time I watched Star Wars that R2-D2 and C3-PO were programmed AI machines were washed away and I saw a robot as human being and more. And that is the essence of appear for this film, a story which not only lights up neurons in the intellectual mind but touches and wrenches at the lover’s heart as well. A movie about love, love of life and love of freedom, from when Wall-E longingly looks from his isolation on earth at the wonderment and grandeur space to the realization of a few choice and lucky human souls that there is a world beyond their own egocentric existences. Wall-E and Eve, Mary and John, even the Captain and Mo, all took that first step away from their individual solitude and duty, and, like stepping out across the sea of tranquility, realizing that though they had never been told they could, there was a whole world beyond their track willingly opening itself to them. Most stunning to me about the character and action of the film was the purpose which Eve, the robot of Wall-E’s affection, ultimately serves and represents: she is the birth, or re-birth, of life on earth. Eve, like her namesake, is sent to earth to become the first mother, again, with the intention of finding and harboring the slightest sign of green life returning to the desolate surface of the planet. (Slight spoiler) I was dumb struck by this, both the implication and the incredible, yes I’ll say it, cuteness of the whole thing- Wall-E presents Eve with a plant, a plant she holds within her very ovarian looking body, a plant which means the future of all life on earth. Wow, now that is good story telling.
Wall-E has all the special touches a science fiction fan would like to see from Pixar. Just like the “Binford” tool box in Toy Story stood out to any self respecting Home Improvement fan, this film didn’t miss a chance to make homage to the classics of sci-fi films and literature. And the film is full of these little nods and notices as it mixes ideas from some of the greatest science fiction conceived with out allowing the knowledge or obviousness of the influences to feel pretentious. The story has elements of Huxley’s Brave New World and its Pavlovian conditioning. Bradbury’s conception of a age of humanity subject and witness only to video screens and cheap media as he wrote of in Fahrenheit 451 is perhaps less present in the story but still adds some eeriness of disconnect and inhumanity to the ambience of the films human race. I think Matt Bias said it best when he wrote “Dressed up in all these pretty colors is a dystopian world that would make Orwell proud.” It isn’t an Orwellian story, but it has an adversity to totalitarianism and concept of dystopia that any one can recognize and appreciate. Visually the movie is a stargazer and futurist’s dream. In no small way are 2001: A Space Odyssey’s influences on the film hidden, including not only the visual and character traits of Hal that appear in the film’s Auto-Pilot but also in the architecture and acoustic atmosphere of Wall-E. Both a knock at her role as the computer repeating crewmen in Galaxy Quest and a modest bow to her status as a living science fiction icon, Sigourney Weaver could be heard as the ships voice. Perhaps though what I found most impressive was to see that the animators had properly rendered the moon landing site as it sands today, something which even Futurama was unable to do and is an amazing example of the attention to detail and scientific accuracy under which the entire film was produced.
I must, as I’m so sure many have, breath a sigh of regret and sorrow for all those other movie patrons I saw that night buying tickets and walking blindly into canopies of darkness only to be met by some other story about someone who was not the little robot, Wall-E. It is in every respect a dazzling and binding film, out weighing any prior animations and I can only hope will someday stand among other science fiction films as a rare and unlikely classic; not a children’s toy rocket like Ewoks the movie but a fully realized and appreciated Saturn V titan of a film.
Sometime in our childhood we each sat down to a movie and had no idea that the seeds of a classic were about to be planted through our eyes and into our hearts and minds. Last night, I saw such a classic, and being fully realized to me I allowed myself to once again slip away to the land of my youth on magic carpets and rocket ships which embellished me with winds in my eyes and exhaust in my throat so strongly that tears were easily welled up in my eyes the whole night long. It is a wonder why anyone would like this film, it seems at first thought so alien, so far removed from anything recognizably emotional or human, but, as does all good science fiction, it is a retrospect through which we may see our true selves, both our inhumanity and our compassions.
Caleb Michael, go see Wall-E.
2 comments:
Weaver - also the Planet Express ship computer's voice.
Shit, how did I miss that point?! Oh, shut up Paul, You're just jealous! Nobody loves you 'cause you're tiny and made of meat!
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