Wall-e ~~~~

23rd July 2008

Those Pixar chaps and chapesses are really pulling their fingers out on the animation front. If someone had shown me this film twenty-five years ago, I would have totally freaked out – it was what any kid would have dreamt of seeing. We seem today a little blasé about the standard of animation being produced around the world but it’s still worth shouting about. I have a general understanding about how they do it all and how long it takes but it still amazes me. And it can’t get much better when the story matches the quality of the graphics. And here, with ‘Wall-e’ it does.

I’m sure it’s been said before but if you liked the film ‘E.T.’ (who doesn’t…) you’ll like this. Wall-e is the 21st century E.T., get over it and embrace it. The story is simple but ingenious at the same time. Sticking with the theme that us stupid humans, if there is a way, we’ll f**k it up, the scenario is plain and simple. In the distant future (or possibly in the next hundred years or sooner, discuss) we’ve abandoned Earth for outer space having divested the planet of all resources and natural life leaving behind only those hardy little cockroaches’ and one solitary rubbish robot. Not a robot who’s rubbish but a rubbish collecting robot. (Garbage, for those of you who live on the continent.)

Wall-e lives alone, carrying out his day job collecting, squashing and stacking crap. But he loves it. He has a little house and happily mends himself when he gets broken. The scenes focused on out little hero, a nine to fiver if ever I saw one, wheeling about his home town are almost joyous. He’s the king of his domain. The well observed touches of modern life are picked up beautifully by the animators making one feel like it’s our world now. My favourite nuance had to be the immense detail of Wall-e’s world but also of the subtle flecks of dust floating around. Ten out of ten film makers. Wall-e watches old films on his home-made screen and dances about fantasising about being a human. But for his mechanicalness, he is indeed one of us. So cute, it hurts. He carries on, day after day with the audience being taken deeper and deeper into his little world, shown his idiosyncrasies and his joys and fears. Until one day, fast from the skies, another robot descends to change his world.

Eve. The beautiful life searching robot sent to see if Earth still lives. Wall-e falls in love and discovers what she came here for was not him but the green sapling living in his boot. Life, not metal and bytes. He can’t help himself and so we are taken, along with Wall-e and his little bug friend on a journey to an alien world, or rather where the humans are. And this, I am almost certain most people will agree having watched the film, is where their interest may wane. After being treated to minimal dialogue (not unlike the tremendous ‘There Will be Blood’ at the beginning of the year) and maximum emotion and sentimentality, we meet what’s left of the human population.

They are fat, they are greedy, they get about in whizzing chairs and they are spoon-fed life. Floating consumers. How’s that for social comment? The film, at this point, descends into a comedy chase. Will Wall-e get Eve to fall in love with him? Will he escape the clutches of the evil spaceship computer? In their quest for their ultimate return to Earth, will the humans ever snap out of their lazy-hazes? It got a bit predictable at this point but nevertheless, it was beautifully done and gave the grown ups in the audience a chance of a bit of serious musings on the previously made points regarding the preciousness of life and precariousness of modern advancement and technology.

Fat captain to the rescue. With Wall-e as his guide, he learns to walk, to talk and to say “no” to the evil computer ultimately straying off course and guiding them all home. Wall-e finds true love, and rightly so. Never before have I felt such joy at seeing two hunks of computer generated metal declaring love for one another. (Plastic, yes – ‘Toy Story’, of course.)

This is a well meaning, well scripted, well delivered and well produced film – let alone ‘animation’ which, by now should no longer be thought of as the poor cousin to ‘real’ film (please note however the irony of saying ‘poor’ when I am positive these pictures costs caboodles more than their live action counter-parts.) The Pixar stable have produced another classic. Without being too sentimental or too preachy about the enormously important issues of environmental and political debate, they have set yet another standard in film making. Wall-e will be with us for many years to some and could easily beat up the cartoon fat Panda who paraded out the week before. Take note Disney. This is an important lesson in getting your priorities right – morality tales are important but the issues today are bigger and more serious than whether fat Panda’s can kick ass.