I love animation. I love Pixar. I love the character of Wall-E, and enjoyed the relationship with EVE. Is the animation amazing looking? Sure. Not as great as last years wonderful little rat movie or even as enthralling as Finding Nemo, but still an achievement and better than what most other studios can even dream of.
But
There was about 15 minutes of story here. Maybe 20. Much like a silent film of the past which doesn't hold up to today's standards, Wall-E just wears thin after a while. Yawning was contagious in parts, as was seat squirming. I've only experienced that once before at a Pixar film, Cars. Which also had a very shallow story, BTW.
Wall-E felt longer than it was, never a good sign for a film. That they can carry a film that long with almost no dialog is amazing, but the pacing could have been stronger.
But frankly, what you watch is a very compelling character basically run around in a video game environment. It's as if the whole movie was created just so it could be put onto an Xbox. "This is the garbage collections stage." "Now that you cleared that, here's an interstitial story element." "Now this is the run away from EVE stage." "Now the run away from the guard robot stage." "Now the run away from cleaner robot stage." "More guard robots, different floor" Etc. And watching someone play a video game is just not that exciting. How many chase scenes does one movie need? If you thought the end of Monsters Inc. was overly long due to the drawn out chase, you ain't seen nothing until you sit through the 40 minutes of chases in Wall-E.
A technically distracting problem was the mixing of LIVE ACTION footage of Fred Willard and Hello Dolly with animated humans. It made no sense from a visual standpoint, and I really don't know what Lasseter was thinking here letting this idea get into the final film. Why Fred Willard wasn't animated like everyone else is just beyond comprehension.
Another major problem with the movie is that Wall-E doesn't matter much to the story. He is not concerned with getting from A-B, which is kind of important. Without giving too much away, Wall-E is only interested in making EVE his girlfriend, which means that the "mission" that he is put on is not important to him. Which means he has no stake in the outcome. He doesn't care if it succeeds or fails other than it would please the girl robot, and even then, she doesn't really care either. And the resolution is full of deus ex machina moments. All of which reinforce the video game feel of the movie, where it's about clearing levels and completing tasks rather than a uniquely compelling story.
In addition to the lack of a layered story and main character who has any stake, the environmental message was heavy handed and logically flawed to the point of being laughable. Goes far beyond the most outspoken doom and gloom propaganda you've ever heard. And it's not an ironic extreme, it's just a stupid one. The opening of the film was annoying in it's stupidity, no matter how well crafted it was. (The wall-mart bashing was similarly stupid, but at least that was more ironic.) But in terms of the trash and the air, humans could not have survived on the earth they left long enough to create the technology to leave it if it was in that condition. And no matter what some would like you to believe, it would be impossible to reach that state in less than 100 years. Not to mention that if humans create a giant biosphere to live in until they fix the earth, why do they fly off into a far off solar system it it? There is no need. Just create it ON earth. Self-contained is self- contained. And this shouldn't matter at all except it is a film aimed at children (and simple minded adults) with the goal of indoctrinating them into an extremist way of looking at the world, and specifically the USA (the world was deserted, but there was no mention of any city or country other than the USA).
And I truly believe that the reason so many critics liked this film so much was this last point. It was anti-USA, anti-business, and environmentally alarmist, and fits perfectly with the Hollywood and media agenda of the last 15 years. I really respected Pixar for not falling into the "message film" trap, but I guess that combining Pixar management with Disney brought some of that influence into the fold, which is a bad thing for all of us.
But
There was about 15 minutes of story here. Maybe 20. Much like a silent film of the past which doesn't hold up to today's standards, Wall-E just wears thin after a while. Yawning was contagious in parts, as was seat squirming. I've only experienced that once before at a Pixar film, Cars. Which also had a very shallow story, BTW.
Wall-E felt longer than it was, never a good sign for a film. That they can carry a film that long with almost no dialog is amazing, but the pacing could have been stronger.
But frankly, what you watch is a very compelling character basically run around in a video game environment. It's as if the whole movie was created just so it could be put onto an Xbox. "This is the garbage collections stage." "Now that you cleared that, here's an interstitial story element." "Now this is the run away from EVE stage." "Now the run away from the guard robot stage." "Now the run away from cleaner robot stage." "More guard robots, different floor" Etc. And watching someone play a video game is just not that exciting. How many chase scenes does one movie need? If you thought the end of Monsters Inc. was overly long due to the drawn out chase, you ain't seen nothing until you sit through the 40 minutes of chases in Wall-E.
A technically distracting problem was the mixing of LIVE ACTION footage of Fred Willard and Hello Dolly with animated humans. It made no sense from a visual standpoint, and I really don't know what Lasseter was thinking here letting this idea get into the final film. Why Fred Willard wasn't animated like everyone else is just beyond comprehension.
Another major problem with the movie is that Wall-E doesn't matter much to the story. He is not concerned with getting from A-B, which is kind of important. Without giving too much away, Wall-E is only interested in making EVE his girlfriend, which means that the "mission" that he is put on is not important to him. Which means he has no stake in the outcome. He doesn't care if it succeeds or fails other than it would please the girl robot, and even then, she doesn't really care either. And the resolution is full of deus ex machina moments. All of which reinforce the video game feel of the movie, where it's about clearing levels and completing tasks rather than a uniquely compelling story.
In addition to the lack of a layered story and main character who has any stake, the environmental message was heavy handed and logically flawed to the point of being laughable. Goes far beyond the most outspoken doom and gloom propaganda you've ever heard. And it's not an ironic extreme, it's just a stupid one. The opening of the film was annoying in it's stupidity, no matter how well crafted it was. (The wall-mart bashing was similarly stupid, but at least that was more ironic.) But in terms of the trash and the air, humans could not have survived on the earth they left long enough to create the technology to leave it if it was in that condition. And no matter what some would like you to believe, it would be impossible to reach that state in less than 100 years. Not to mention that if humans create a giant biosphere to live in until they fix the earth, why do they fly off into a far off solar system it it? There is no need. Just create it ON earth. Self-contained is self- contained. And this shouldn't matter at all except it is a film aimed at children (and simple minded adults) with the goal of indoctrinating them into an extremist way of looking at the world, and specifically the USA (the world was deserted, but there was no mention of any city or country other than the USA).
And I truly believe that the reason so many critics liked this film so much was this last point. It was anti-USA, anti-business, and environmentally alarmist, and fits perfectly with the Hollywood and media agenda of the last 15 years. I really respected Pixar for not falling into the "message film" trap, but I guess that combining Pixar management with Disney brought some of that influence into the fold, which is a bad thing for all of us.