WALL-E (2008)
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
Directed by: Andrew Stanton
Written By: Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter
Cast: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, & Jeff Garlin
Runtime: 97 min.
Rating: G
Trailer
Pixar’s creative team has once again created an animated film that, for its first half, is one of the most believable and joyous romances this side of Annie Hall. Their newest creation is WALL-E, co-written and directed by Andrew Stanton, a story of a loveable, trash-collecting robot living his days in an unnamed American city devoid of human life. Garbage and decaying buildings are all that’s left of the city and presumably of the entire planet. It is in this ruinous state that WALL-E’s reason for being is made evident.
Collecting garbage and organizing them into massive skyscrapers is all he is programmed to do, and so he does it. He collects certain items he happens upon, either for their sentimental value or just because he finds them interesting. In one instance, he finds a magnificent diamond ring inside a jewelry box but throws the ring out and keeps the box. WALL-E retires at the end of every day to a trailer crammed full his prized possessions, including a television playing (off an iPod) the musical, Hello, Dolly!, repeatedly. But, as the animators and Stanton show, life sure gets lonely. What WALL-E watches over and over again on the screen is not so much the film (we figure it’s the only one lying around for him to watch) but a scene in which the two main characters sing and hold hands.
It is the eagerness of love and the resulting union with another soul that WALL-E yearns for, a longing that is undoubtedly human. Life is abruptly changed, however, when a spaceship arrives carrying Eve, a robot designed to search for organic life in a seemingly barren landscape. Without sounding overly flattering, the relationship between Eve and WALL-E during the first third of the film is the crowning achievement of Pixar’s animators and filmmakers, and perhaps the greatest twenty-five minutes of cinema this year. Ok, so I guess I failed to temper my enthusiasm but I stand by what I said, regardless. The beginning is filled with physical comedy, romance and essential Pixar conceits, including the introduction of a sidekick (a cockroach). But what makes this third remarkable is the willingness of Stanton and his creative team to construct WALL-E as an ode to silent films, particularly Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights.
Since WALL-E and Eve don’t talk but make robotic noises, the narrative relies on the power of the visuals to further the relationship. Using cinematographer Roger Deakins (No Country for Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) as an advisor on the look of the film doesn’t hurt either. Forget that the film is animated; WALL-E is pure cinema.
It is during the second act and the interaction between the humans and the robots where, regrettably, the realization that I was watching an animated film dawned on me. The action was cartoonish and, while it was impressively realized, never connects as emotionally as the filmmakers had hoped. The story focuses on a captain (voiced by Jeff Garlin, Larry David’s agent on Curb Your Enthusiasm) of a large ship housing humanity for hundreds of years, and his desire to return to Earth after Eve and WALL-E prove there is a chance for life to flourish once again. The interaction between the humans, who have become lethargic, obese consumers who get around on mechanized vehicles, and WALL-E works only in the superficial sense. It looks pretty but where is this going?
For a film that borrows liberally from apocalyptic and utopian science fiction films, WALL-E feels small. It’s almost as if there wasn’t much of a story to sustain the film. The subtext hints at the evils of consumerism and corporate control, but whereas the beginning held the possibility of an epic story focused on a few characters (think There Will Be Blood, without the blood), what we are given is a film which abandons its singular vision and not as unique as first promised. A scene where two human characters accidentally make physical contact with each other for the first time in a generation was the only moment where the level of emotional involvement was consistent with the scenes back on earth between Eve and WALL-E.
That is not to say the film as a whole is not entertaining or impressive. The animators at Pixar have again pushed the boundaries of animation a monumental leap forward, making it hard, if not impossible, for animation departments at rival studios to keep up. And yes, the story overall is very satisfying, which is expected coming from filmmakers who spend years crafting and refining the narrative before going ahead with production. Perhaps I was spoiled during the opening act of WALL-E. What it achieved was not merely animation but art at its most humanistic and inspiring.
Richard X
© Cinephile Magazine, 2008
