WALL-E: Some One Sided Thoughts
iView Author: RoodRow (Kolkata, India)
Email: rchak2k [at] yahoo [dot] com
WALL-E: Some One Sided Thoughts
Last night, when I came out of the movie theatre watching WALL-E, the first thing, which came to my mind, was when it was the last time I saw a film with first forty minutes without dialogue. I knew. There was a guy tried that staff nearly forty years ago where he made some strange humanoid beings grunt and fight for nearly an hour at the start of the film, and fascinated us with one of the greatest masterpieces of all time. WALL-E, the latest creation from the PIXAR factory, is a fitting tribute to the surreal, profound and visionary 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Wait.
Was it all about Kubrik? Then what about the little guy with a little moustache and derby hat? Isn’t WALL-E a reminiscence of the trump and the blind girl of City Lights?
Yes, very much it is.
And now, I realize the big truth. I have just compared WALL-E with two of the greatest works of all time. An epic, prophetic science fiction and an ethereal love story? Is it
possible to blend these two? Yes. That is exactly what WALL-E is all about.
For long, we were fascinated by the remarkable technical wizardry of the PIXAR folks. They have been the paragon of 3D animation. But now, specially after last year’s
Ratatouille and now with WALL-E, they have ventured into a world beyond animations and developed a completely new language of filmmaking which transcends the barrier
between live action and animation. It is not just the animation genre any more. I dare say, it is the PIXAR animation genre. There are animated films, and there is PIXAR.
WALL-E, a visual poetry, is perhaps the first masterpiece of this incredible (pun intended) journey. Is it the greatest animated film of all time? Possibly yes. It’s only
competitors are Pixar’s own “Ratatouille” and Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away” which together, to me, is now a distant second. (I am keeping Persepolis and other similar
works out of the competition, as it does not belong to the animation genre per se.)
Why WALL-E is different? WALL-E is different because it is undoubtedly the darkest, grimmest depiction of a dystopian future ever shown in a Disney animation film, with a hint of 1984-ish, Orwellian society. In the same time, it is probably the first satirical animation film to lash blatantly at the consumerism of the developed world. It asks to be eco-conscious but does not feed that to the audience with lectures. It shows a love story without a single dialogue apart from some machine squeaks, which is bound to remind you of a certain Charles Spencer Chaplin. It makes a number of unmistakable allusions to 2001: A Space Odyssey, a rather heavy reference for a film targeted at
kids and yet, it couldn’t have been done in a better way.
Andrew Stanton, the director who made the immensely enjoyable Finding Nemo, invites the kids into deeper water this time and makes sure this is not just another kid movie. I am not sure about the effect though, as I saw a number of kids leaving the theatres early. WALL-E is certainly not the quintessential kid movie. It is a matter of debate whether the level of maturity required to understand and appreciate WALL-E is prevalent among the kids today. But, at least for once, there is a so called kid film, which is not an escape route from the reality but an invitation to the real world. Text books dont get better than this.
PIXAR, Take a bow.
P.S.:
This is not a review or criticism. This is just some random thoughts about a film, which is at least capable of mesmerizing people to write these kinds of brazen one-sided write-ups. Waiting to be bashed and for the opinions from the pfc crowd regarding WALL-E, PIXAR and animation genre in general.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Absolutely loved the movie … Have never felt so deeply for a non human / animal character since Wilson in Castaway.
The best film of the year for me, already seen it thrice. If Kubrick ever made an animation movie, it would have been WALL.E.
I guess I’m the only one who had to drag myself through the film. I didn’t like it at all. Wall E is a robot but is shown to behave and feel just like a human does. The same with Eva too. Hence we have the love story and hence the film. What is unique? The techniques used? Of course they were superb but I could see a well made rom film starring humans.
I’m not very fond of animated films as I feel that even though these are stories about other creatures – animals insects et al – their behaviour is modeled after us – the human race. What’s the point then? Yesterday’s film took this to another level. Wall E gets touched when he sees a rom scene on his TV, tries to hold Eva’s hand and tries to be with her – just like in any other normal hero / heroine oriented film. The fact that these 2 are robots made it worse for me.
Secondly, the spaceship episode is more like showing the extent to which the hero Wall E will go to to win his beloved’s love. This place has humans who live a life that is robotised – kind of insinuating at the kind of world we live in today. Fine, point noted. Then what. They relaize he existence of what Mother Earth was like , what has to be done now to get it back to its former glory and hence this sets pace for the climax which a typical Hollywood kind of ending. It felt weird.
This is what I feel. Since yesterday I am struggling to understand and find a deeper meaning as said by so so many but I am not able to. Wall E a very well made film for sure but I could not relate to it at all and found it very unreal.
I am with you RoodRow …
Watched it yesterday …
Enjoyed it thouroughly …
The thought never crossed my mind even once that there were no dialogues in the movie for the first 40 minutes …
They were not required either …
@Arthi V -
Robots are modelled upon humans .They are meant to do what humans should be doing but due to the lack of certain capabilities, can not do …
Whats wrong if they have shown Robots emoting like humans ..In my opinion that was the USP of the movie that the makers were successfull in portraying human feelings thru robots and thats where the beauty of the movie lies …
Anyone can show human reacting to another human’s activities but depicting it thru metallic, clunky,non-human andf totally romantically challenged droids … What an idea sirjiiiii !!!
Two thumbs up to Wall E !!!
Pixar, Disney – Take A Bow …
@ Avi : “…. but depicting it thru metallic, clunky,non-human andf totally romantically challenged droids …..” – Were they? My point is they weren’t. Their behavior were just like humans. So it was good anim techniques used. Story wise its usual.
“…Anyone can show human reacting to another human’s activities….” – Seriously? then we would never have failed movies ever.
I just wanted to say that there was nothing novel in the story or the characters. If you mean that the anim was great, then , yes I agree too but that isn’t enough.
This is what I feel. I don’t think I should be watching anim films no matter what the reviews say. These aren’t meant for me.
Arthi
.
i agree with you totally
what’s the point
there was ‘cars’ ‘nemo’
same bullshit
human characters with bonnets as the face
now this (i haven’t seen it, and will never)
this is crap ..full on crap
.
arre main bhi comics padta tha yaar
per bachpana gaya, comics gayi.
badi umer ke bacche, bade parde per comics dekhte hain
had hai
.
animation ke naam per mujhe ek hi cheese pasand aayi thi
ek film hai jisme ‘rasputin’ ka character hai
per woh film mujhe rasputin ke character ke karan pasand aayi thi, inspite of animation.
.
technique is good
so what
if a kids garment is well made
should i try to wear it?????!!!!!
just because it is well made
if fishes, robots and cars are so developed that they can feel, what only a human feels, then…
.
suppose fishes made a movie
about human being
and they show human being behaving like fish
how do you feel ?????????
if this bhedchall continues
i fear the day
when someone from desny will be championed, by his fans
as next pablo picasso
@Arthi,
“I’m not very fond of animated films as I feel that even though these are stories about other creatures – animals insects et al – their behaviour is modeled after us – the human race. What’s the point then?…”
It is really unfortunate that you dont get the fun of Tom and Jerry, bugs bunny and the disney characters(Mickey, donald, goofy etc.), folks who seldom show animal-like characters. Anthropomorphism is being used in animations for a long long time. It made a legend out of Disney. I am really curious to know your opinion about Orwell’s Animal Farm, which similarly, though on a much sombre and serious note, alludes to the human society. I am not comparing Orwell with any cartoon, but just want to make the point that anthropomorphism can be done with a multitude of creative prowess. But off course, relating to that or to appreciate it is entirely a matter of personal taste. I do agree with you on that point.
I saw quite a number of animated films/animated shorts featuring anthropomorphic creatures having some really thought provoking themes. I feel WALL-E falls in that rare category. But again, its all IMO.
@vishrant,
love your crap!!
@Anurag,
“…If Kubrick ever made an animation movie, it would have been WALL.E.”
cud’nt agree with you more.
@ Rudro: Yes, I used to watch these cartoons when I was kid. Didn’t know much then and found them really funny and entertaining. Well, I grew up and realized all these are there to amuse us – in a way we understand it. Hence anthropomorphism was the way out. And that’s when i ceased to relate to them. That’s all. (I find T&J extremely violent and the method of violence used is our way, the human way). So the amusement begins. I don’t think its unfortunate.
Yes, I have the book AF. Animals here are used delibrately as a metaphor by the author to depict how human behaviour is vis-a- vis onself and others. It was not for entertainment but for a reflection of how we are. That’s Orwell’s way of putting this across. It’s very different from whats here.
And lastly – “…I saw quite a number of animated films/animated shorts featuring anthropomorphic creatures having some really thought provoking themes..” – what were
the themes plz id like to know. Because I missed them. Am seriously asking this.
The phrase I’ve used ‘..these are there to amuse us..’is opening another thought to debate – if not for amusement then what? And this I guess will go on and on. Hence I’m not writing any more on this as its kind of digressing from the post. People will kill me for doing that :-).
you’re not including my neighbor totoro and grave of fireflies in the competition?
@Arthi V
Have you seen
“Triplettes de Belleville, Les”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286244/
(it is not anthropomorphic though)
I like the film Wall E,.
Designs are all fantastic
“Wall E” character reminds me of my other 2 favourite characters “E.T.” and “R2D2″
(with sound),.
but in my opinion; it could be little shorter,
@Arthi,
points taken @ right spirit. Its just POV I believe. Just for clarification, I did not compare AF with any of these(I mentioned that). I just wanted to point out that anthropomorphism can have multifarious use depending on the creative path. Thanks for your thoughts.
As for suggestions, films spirited away and my neighbor totoro by Miyazaki and shorts like The fan and the flower(Bill Plympton) and Bunny – Blue Sky (Chris Wedge) are my personal favourites.
@adesh,
I just picked my favourite Miyazaki film. No offence to my neighbor totoro, it is indeed a great work. I just like spirited away more. Again, IMO.
Yet to catch grave of fireflies. looking for torrents! Thanks for mentioning them.
from mechanical point of view
robots made in japan will be the best ones
.
can you imagine
a movie like wall-e
coming from japan
.
question is?
why anthropomorphism is practiced more in hollywood!
.
(i am aware of panchtantra that’s why i put the word ‘more’ in my question.)
.
east is east, west is west, and the twain shall never meet. – rudyard kipling
.
this will encompass many things
films, cinematography, why takeshi kitano is takeshi kitano, why bourne series can not come out of japan, why super man is from hollywood, why there is not one hero in ‘the host’….
.
hah
(if) this is going to be any thing but a discussion about cinema
.
per itna likh diya hai to chhap dete hain
.
waise ho sakta hai na chhape, mere post moderate hote hain, sabhi ke hote hain, ya ye vishes sammaan sirf mujhe hi prapta hai
.
ye baithe thale ki dimagi khujli hai
isse aana jaana kuch nahien hain
so sirf fursati log hi sochein
haan
to sochna kya hai
“why anthropomorphism is practiced more in hollywood?”
a big sigh of relief
.
acchha hua kissi ne baat aage nahien badayi
subah fresh dimag main khayal aaya ki kis magazmaari main ulajh rahe ho yaar
uper wali post aadhi raat, aadhi neend ki halat main hua kaam hai
dafa karo
raat gayi baat gayi
.
akkal her ik cheej ko ik jurm bana deti hai
besabab sochna, beshood pasheman hona
@ Arthi V – ‘their behavior is modeled after us – the human race. What’s the point then?’- The emotions of every machine will always be modeled on humans only because we make them and in controlled environment they will behave the way we want them to behave. Human can show only those emotions in movies which he/she can understand, seen or possibly imagined. Let’s say why we show every alien having legs, eyes etc etc. Why they are always in 3 dimensions. They might be in some other form which we have never seen or thought about may be having some 4th dimension. Humans feel, think, touch, see , sense and taste things (might forget some) and same things it expects from others unless otherwise proved.
Coming to the point i.e what’s the point then? The point is that physically we behave or react to certain situations based on our form and limitations i.e facial expression, eyes, hands legs etc etc. When we insert those emotions in other entities say machine or animals, what we see is same emotions in different forms. It gives you a chance to creatively incorporate different form and method of reaction to same situation. For example to see how eva and wall E shows emotions just through eyes (esp eva) without any facial expression is just exhilarating. To some people (including me) it give different perspective to see things. I’m not saying you should like this nuances, this is just a perspective.
Coming to the wall E, there is nothing new in the story except tit bits. What’s new is the content, detailed art work, characterization and thinking. ‘Why not use humans?’, let’s leave context (Humans can’t live on earth), there would have been nothing new to see if robots were removed. The novelty lies in the forms and their creative use.