Movie Review: WALL-E (8.5/10)

By Old Man

My wife and I went with my folks, who were in town, to the one movie theater in Malibu Sunday night and watched Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) and Disney’s Pixar Animation Studios (The Incredibles, Cars, and Ratatouille). There were three movies stars with their kids in the theater – always a bit unnerving when you see them in such normal circumstances – you have a moment of recognition and think “I know them from somewhere” and then you realize “Nope, I don’t know them – but I know who they are.” What must it be like to be a movie star? I would be willing to bet they make eye contact with more people than anyone else in the world…probably why they wear sunglasses all the time – I imagine it would be unnerving.

Thus the beauty and freedom of animation. The stars are truly of the imagination, they are drawing come to life on the screen, works of the hand (and mouse) set into motion – at once mimicking those film actors in the theater yet also in a realm all their own. Could an animated character ever be up for Best Actor? Best Supporting Actor? Could a computer animated character (say, Gollum from Lord of the Rings) ever be up for the Best Supporting Oscar? I hope not – but I enjoy the freedom of not having to judge performance, I feel looser watching animated films and not have to be thinking of how well the actors are pulling off their character.

WALL-E was a dandy of a movie, one of those gems that a child could love at the narrative surface level, but also filled with Huxley-esque futurism and a very compelling “what if” that drives the movie and may even cause adult conversation after it’s done. There is even a love story, between robots, and I was embarrassed by how drawn in I became in one of those moments (few) that I snapped out of the hyper-reality of the movie.

I mentioned the Oscars, because never have I seen two robots say so much with so little. Great acting? By animated characters? I hate that I am writing it, but if it looks like a banana, and smells like a banana...

What WALL-E and EVE did put some real, live, flesh-and-blood human actors to shame. I wonder what the film actors in the theater were thinking?