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Friday, August 29, 2008

Miedy likes Wall-E

*I'm very happy to have Miedy writing the very first guest review here. We've been fighting to see who gets to watch Wall-E first and she won. LOL*

Whenever Pixar released a great movie, I always wonder whether the next one will be a disappointment. I've been asking the question since Finding Nemo (2003), but I found myself enjoying The Incredibles(2004) so much that I've been watching it over and over for God knows how many times. Perhaps Cars (2006) was not as entertaining but you got to admit that it is beautiful to watch so I will not consider it a disappointment as well.

Ratatouille (2007) however, brought back the Pixar we know. It is funny, adorable, smart and original so this time I decided to stop asking the same old question about whether the next film would fail. I don't want them to fail but I'm afraid now that I am so attached to their works that I would not be able to handle it if they do.

That is then when I first saw the trailer of their upcoming movie, Wall-E and felt a sense of excitement about it. It looked so promising. The trailer featured a robot that reminded me a little of ET (maybe it was because of its size and voice). The narrator said that Wall-E is the only one left on Earth. His duty is to clean up the Earth and I could imagine how lonely he must have felt. I felt sympathy and maybe a little sad towards him right away and from that day on I just couldn’t wait to see Wall-E in the theater. I even prayed that it would not be a disappointment. It has to be great.

When it finally hit the theaters I didn't get the chance to see it right away but I kept hearing people say positive things about it. Some of them mentioned that it is a movie that kids will find hard to follow and that had me a little worried because Pixar movies are usually kids friendly. Why is it different now?

But there I was sitting in front of the big screen, feeling excited, nervous and anxiously waiting to see the little robot that had captured my heart for months. I finally got to see Wall-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class). He looks even smaller now as compared to the big abandoned city. Wall-E wakes up everyday to do his regular job without complaining. He cleans the garbage that the humans leave behind after they departed from Earth, with his own unique way. He appears like a kid at heart beaming with curiosity with the things around him. Later we learned that he was not actually alone as there was a little bug that kept following him.
The bug however appears more like a pet to him. It is something like the relationship between a man and his dog. But what Wall-E really wanted was a real friend.

At night, he would watch the video of the 1969 musical film Hello, Dolly! The video probably belongs to some of the garbage that he is supposed to "recycle" but had kept it as one of his personal collection among some of the other “valuable” things. We become aware that these are the activities he do everyday and every night for a very long time and to have a real friend is just like a fantasy that probably would never come true.

That was probably what life is to Wall-E until the day he discovered a seedling plant. He didn't know what it was but he decided not to destroy it. In fact, it even became part of his valuable collection.

But how was Wall-E to know that something would happen later that would change everything he ever knew…

A huge spaceship arrived and surprised Wall-E when it landed on Earth one day. Wall-E was terrified but being the curious little robot he is, he couldn't help but want to find out what was going on.
Then he saw EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), a female (there was no mention about EVE’s gender but judging from the voice and the way she moves we could tell right away) robot.

As compared to the old and rusty Wall-E, EVE looks so modern and high tech. Instead of walking, she flies around and even shoot laser. How cool is that?

Wall-E felt afraid and admiration towards her at the same time. Maybe it was too cheesy to imagine a love story between robots but the Pixar team knew how to do it the right way. Yes, they are robots but somehow you know you just want them to be together.

When Wall-E presented EVE with the plant he found, EVE took it and stores it inside her. But something went terribly wrong and she stopped moving. Wall-E got into a state of panic so when the spaceship came back to pick EVE up, he followed.

The ship brought them to Axiom, the place where the humans are living after abandoning Earth. Here is a place where the humans need not go to work because robots are doing everything for them. It was like as if the humans are vacationing on a cruise of eternity.
The humans here are extremely fat but why? Was it because all they ever do is eat and sleep all day long?

That is not the only mystery because you would also want to know why EVE went to Earth. What else will Wall-E discover from his trip?

This movie is directed by Andrew Stanton who also brought us Finding Nemo, and just like Nemo, Wall-E is charming and adorable. The difference is the lack of real dialogue in Wall-E. It makes sense because the story is created in a robot’s point of view. Having a robot that talks too much would ruin what I felt gave Wall-E its character. To me it is good enough knowing that they (the robots) can feel and have emotions. I wouldn’t have like it if Pixar characterized them too humanly. It would be like seeing a dog acting like a dog only that they can be portrayed as smart, but once dogs start to make coffee for their owner then that would be too much. I am glad Wall-E, EVE and all the robots are still robots.

After watching the movie I now understand why young kids (under 5 years old) may not enjoy Wall-E. This is because there is a lack of really funny jokes and slapstick scenes. The movie is better suited for older kids, teenagers and even adults. I didn’t mind the lack of dialogue. In fact it made me realize that a great story do not need well-written dialogue. Wall-E may only voice things like "Wow" or whistles when he sees something amazing, but Pixar did a wonderful job in having the audience understand his language. He's only a robot but Pixar was able to express emotions into his eyes. I could almost feel how he felt.

Wall-E is a movie that is great in every way. The characters, the scenes and the animation are perfect to me. I am 100% confident that the Oscar for best-animated picture will be going to Pixar. And to be honest I lost the interest to watch Kung Fu Panda or Space Chimps and maybe any other animation movies that are not by Pixar after watching Wall-E.

People kept saying that The Dark Knight should be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Award but I felt that Wall-E deserves it more. I think this is the one time where the highest acclaim should go to an animated movie.
I mean, who other than Pixar deserves better? This is a company that brought us Toy Story (1995), Finding Nemo (2003), Monsters, Inc. (2001) and The Incredibles (2004).

You be your own judge.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yay!You published it!! I hope you'll enjoy this one as much as I do.
I am gonna also republish this on my site, if you don't mind ;)