trash-compacting robots are LOV·E

[xparrot]

Got back to Kyoto last night, jet-lagged as anything today *yawn*. One of the things I did on my visit stateside was catch a couple movies not yet released in Japan, The Dark Knight, which was good, if so damn dark I'm not sure I enjoyed it (but I still adore Gary Oldman's Gordon, and all the accolades Heath Ledger's Joker got are well-deserved); and WALL·E (not out in Japan until December! Why, Japan?)

Concerning WALL-E. First, I must qualify that, one, I loved Short Circuit as a kid, and two, Pixar has owned my soul since the first Toy Story. They consistently produce some of the most gorgeous, touching, creative films ever made. CGI movies are a dime a dozen nowadays, but Pixar isn't about CGI; they're about art and story, as told with computer animation. They have only two settings: "great", and "flipping phenomenal."

WALL-E is the latter. It might be their best yet, and I say that after having watched The Incredibles about a dozen times and still not tired of it. I say I don't cry at movies. I should change that to "don't cry at movies that aren't Pixar's," because I was fighting tears for about the first ten minutes of WALL-E. And the last ten minutes. And several places in the middle. I'm practically tearing up just remembering certain moments.

Not that it's a sad movie, it isn't. It's frighteningly depressing in places, but it's also ridiculously cute, laugh-out-loud funny, breathtakingly beautiful, and hopeful to the point of heartbreaking; and half the time you're crying it's tears of joy. It makes you despair for our species, and makes you proud to be human. It's about how everything changes eventually, and even endings come to an end, come to new beginnings. It's about loneliness and individualism and realizing beauty. It's about how love conquers all, how life conquers all.

And yes, ultimately, it's a love story, a good old-fashioned boy-robot-meets-girl-robot tale, in the best of ways. This is how you do romance - this is how you do science fiction, this is how you do animation. This is how you make a movie.

(Also it will make you love a cockroach. Because Pixar is special like that. I think they challenge themselves: "Well, in Finding Nemo we made people cry for fish within three minutes, and then in Ratatouille we showed how adorable rats really are. How do we top that? Wait, I know!")

Comments

[hils.livejournal.com]

I would say I spent 60% of Wall-E crying. LOL! For lots of different reasons

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

The beginning is the worst, I think - it's seeing Earth as much as WALL-E that breaks you...

[busaikko]

Hey there! We got back from the States last week, right before Obon, and with the heat, jet-lag was nasty... it was so much nicer being awake at 3am as opposed to 3pm. Good luck! (and hey, if you want to have a coffee or something, I don't work much in August. My mail is busaikkobaby atmark yahoodot com.)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Heh...I tend to be up to 3 AM normally (usually work evenings)...however I'm on the same schedule in the States, so the jet-lag's bad regardless! Though after New England's lovely mid-20 degrees, Kyoto's heat nearly killed me today...thought I was gonna faint off my bike. >_>
(Hey, cool! I'm gonna be busy the next couple weeks, but maybe will drop a line when my sis gets back?)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hmm...I think it's worth seeing WALL-E in the theater, the animation is serious gorgeous and there's a lot of big, planet/solar system-spanning shots. If you liked Pixar's other movies, I'd say you're going to like this one (though I always hesitate to rec anything to people whose tastes I don't know...I thought it brilliant, but as always, YMMV!)

[ezazahaz.livejournal.com]

You know, I already saw WALL-E and loved it, but your review makes me want to go out and see it again RIGHT NOW. Wow. It was a wonderful movie, wasn't it?

Also, I want a pizza plant. :)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Part of the reason for this squee is because I was thinking how I wanted to see it again right now! If only I could, instead of having to wait months - stupid release dates! XP

ps

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

OMG ICON! Ivanova forever & ever (amen).

Re: ps

[ezazahaz.livejournal.com]

Hee, thought you'd like it. :)

[amalthia]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one that LOVED WALL-E. Everyone I know in real life was meh about it and they give me funny looks when I wax poetic about how wonderful it was.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Aww - my whole family loved it, we spent the next hour after we saw it squeaking "Wall-e!" to each other and flailing about it. I haven't read many other reviews because I don't want to hear non-squee...loved it too much for that!

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

Apropos the first three words in this post, I will be in Kyoto mid-September to ??? So if you aren't adverse to meeting other random fen from the internet, perhaps we could get a coffee or udon or something sometime;-)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hey, that'd be cool! Let me know when you arrive (you're going to be in Kyoto the whole time? whereabouts? and on vacation, or other...?)

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be in Kyoto for about 1.5-2 years starting mid-September (I got a Monbusho, so, yeah).

I'm planning on getting s place somewhere in Kita-ku, but don't want to commit to somewhere until I've seen it, so I'll be in one of the Ritsumeikan dormitories till then;-)

[innueneko.livejournal.com]

Oh my, you're going to BAWLING in the next film then, I guarantee it. Pixar's next film, Up, is made of PURE LOVE AND AWESOME. I love it. It made me laugh, it made me cry (more then once). Real HEART FELT SOBS OF SADNESS AND JOY. It's my favoritest Pixar film to date. (yes it kinda tops Incredibles *GASP*)

I love yacking about how awesome Up is, now if only everyone else can see it...

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

GAH SO JEALOUS!!!!

(Is Up their next summer release? Did you have anything to do with it, or was it done before you got there?)

[vejiicakes.livejournal.com]

YES, THIS. Man, the movie starts off so powerfully and tearjerky! There's the cheery showtunes playing and that gorgeous pan-in through space onto the earth and then just.. wasteland and ruin D:

Then Wall-E with his, his.. he's so tiny and he's worked so hard all by himself and HIS LITTLE PINCER HANDS! HIS LITTLE PINCER HANDS!! T____T

A lot of people I know had complaints about Wall-E, especially in comparison to the (very entertaining, and I had no problem watching it multiple times) Kung Fu Panda, saying it was too preachy or whatever. And for the record, I thought it avoided being "preachy", but I suppose if you didn't think an environmental message was just intrinsic to the future being depicted in the movie, then.. sure, it might seem preachy. I loved it though--beyond the cute robots (OMG CUTE) I just love movies like this. Movies with that sense of wonder and discovery and curiosity. Wanna go again.. (*cried almost the entire length of the movie*

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

My eyes were welling up for the entire beginning. Partly because Earth as a wasteland is so helplessly affecting - and then he is so, so, so alone, and it's so sad it's not even terrifying, it's just...so immensely sad. And yet he's all cheerful and finding toys and that moment he watches the stars...gah. I start sniffling just remembering it.
And oh man, when he rolled over the cockroach - I have never been so glad that roaches are so unkillable (...not that this predisposes me to kindness to my own roach roommates, I've still got the bugspray handy...but Wall-E's little pet was just so...awww! in its twinkie! awww!)

I haven't seen Kung Fu Panda (I couldn't find an English showing here! They usually show English movies dubbed & subbed but sometimes kids movies are only dubbed...) Well, except I caught a little on the plane without sound...want to see it, though.

But Wall-E...preachy? Really? I didn't think there was a message so much as a "wouldn't this be a cool world for a story..."? Are dystopias passé now? It's not like it was Captain Planet; the megacorp was pictured as stupid and agonizingly short-sighted, but not deliberately evil; and wasn't the ultimate message, "even if we fuck up the world, it will come back to life eventually, and however badly we screw up ourselves, our robot friends will save our souls in the end"? Either that, or "humans would rather float than walk", which isn't really true anyway - but either way, it's not really political, more just observation on human nature...

And the real story is about the robots anyway, and like you say, the wonder - I love Pixar because they're not intent on being hip or cool or whatever the word is now; they're not afraid to have heart, to evoke something powerful without leavening the pressure with a smart joke. And there's a...sincerity?...to Wall-E that reminds me of, hmm, Tonari no Totoro...there's a larger world in the movie, but what matters most is the small and sweet love story at its center.

...I am driving myself crazy now, because I wanna see it again, and I can't! *sniffles piteously*