Saturday, July 19, 2008

The one with the Wall-E Review


Back in the day, I don't know did anybody think that the Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Project, would evolve in Pixar Animation Studios. When Steve Jobs handed over a few bob for them way back when, did even Mr.iPod think that they would turn out they way they did. For years, Pixar has set the level, to which all others have followed. Dreamworks got in on the animation deal with the likes of Shrek. Blue Sky Studios did the same with Ice-Age and ever since, we've been inundated with computer generated, animated movies. And unfortunately quite alot of them have been shite.

Pixar's work has always looked outstanding. That said, Dreamworks made Shrek look very good. Ice-Age turned out pretty cool as well for Blue Sky. But!!! And theres always a but, Pixar always had amazing stories to go with the amazing look of their movies. And thats where alot of other animated features have fallen apart. Their story side of things, couldn't even cut a sliced pan!

Wall-E is yet another amazing feather in the cap of a company I wished to work for, many years ago. Andrew Stanton is in the directors chair, who's previous writing credits include Finding Nemo and Toy Story. And man, has he come up with goods again.

In a little nutshell, which is the sweetest one you'll see all year , Wall-E is a robot. Yes, he's got the big eyes and the cute mannerisms, kinda like Johnny 5. His days are spent stockpiling rubbish on earth. Its a different Earth at this point though. Everyone has fecked off somewhere else. The planet is just one big rubbish dump. Skyscrapers of rubbish dot the landscape. All created by a variety of Wall-E's, who were invented to clean the planet up and load a few space ships with rubbish. The ships would then bugger off into space and get rid of the rubbish. Happy days, for a while.

Wall-E is the only one left on the planet and has only a little cockroach as a physical companion. That said, he has a huge collection of rubbish in his storage unit. Wait till you see Pong, or the VHS deck playing Helly Dolly, through an iPod video. After much of these hilarious antics, EVE arrives. She's looking for signs on the planet coming back to normality. Wall-E falls in love and follows EVE onto a rocket and the story continues in an intergalactic mode. As a gift Wall-E has given EVE a plant that he found, a sign that life is sustainable once again on earth.

From that point on, the story revolves around the plant and Wall-Es obsession with EVE. The plant is the key item for the intergalactic cruiser and its hover chaired inhabitants, to return to Earth. I don't want to give too much away from here on in, but its a great story. There are genuine moments in the film, towards the end that the whole cinema was absolutely quiet. Nobody farted, nobody even took a breath. And its moments like this that you know Pixar has done it yet again. They made you fall madly in love with an animated Robot. And keep in mind, this was a late show at 11:45pm with zero kids and nothing but adults in the cinema!!!!

Excluding the fatter, lazy human folks, there is very little dialogue in Wall-E. Beeps, Blips and a wide selection of robot sounds make up the conversation. There is no sub-titles or anything of the sort. You don't need them, because you understand every single thing that's going on. Every blip, buzz and motion means something. The man behind the sound of Wall-E, Ben Burtt has done an amazing job. But this is the guy that injected life into R2D2 back in the late 70's, so theres no surprises there.

Wall-E looks and sounds amazing. As a movie, this is one of the sweetest intergalactic love movies you will ever see, animated or otherwise. If this movie doesn't warm your heart, then there is a good chance your actually dead.

10/10