Monday, June 30, 2008

Wall-E

I have to say, I didn't love this movie. Actually, that's not quite right. I didn't love it as a KIDS' movie.

You know that movie with Tom Hanks, where he's on the desert island and there's no dialogue for like an hour? This is the Pixar version of that movie. For the first 2/3rds of the movie, you just see this robot wandering around a trash-filled planet. You don't know where he is or what's going on. There are some visual clues, but they're a bit advanced for the average kid to pick up on. Other text-based clues, like what "Wall-E" stands for, are also a bit much for the kids to grasp--if the child is even able to read at all. (When my Little Sister asked me what was written on the front of Wall-E, I whispered back, "It says, 'Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class'." She looked at me like "Yeah, thanks for clearing that up." Telling her that EVE, the robot who later and mysteriously joined him, stood for "Exterterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator" was met with the same look.)

Then when you finally learn where Wall-E is (Earth), where all the people are and why they've left their home planet, you've already answered the questions "What's going on?" "Where are they?" "Who's that?" and "What is that?" a few dozen times. And the message of the movie--that humans will make Earth completely inhabitable if they don't (literally) clean up their acts--with a side helping of "our society is on its way to becoming a bunch of fat and lazy slobs"--is a bit heavy. In fact, most of the kids in the theater didn't even seem to be picking up on any of that. They just thought Wall-E was cute (and he was. Very much so).

In many ways, Wall-E is a masterpiece. I just think that the factors that make it so are lost on the majority of the audience. For older kids and grown ups, though, this is a great movie.

So tell me what YOU think. Am I completely off base? Do you totally disagree with me? Was I just in the "slow" theater? Or was this representative of theaters across the country?

8 comments:

Renee said...

I didn't love it, either. Brent said it was awesome, but he always says that until we compare it to other movies that he really DOES love. I asked if he liked it as well as Cars or Open Season and the immediate answer was no :-)

I agree-- the message was good, but lost on the kids in our theater, too. And I fancy Brent a pretty smart and intuitive kid (who DOESN'T fancy their kid that way, though?) and he missed a lot of it. He did say how fun it looked to wander on one of those hovercraft thingies, but then asked why they never got out and ran around, and then observed that without exercise they were all fat and couldn't even get back on their little hover-thingie when they fell out.

But even though I "got" all the messages, I still didn't think it was a great movie. Yeah, Wall-E and Eve were cute, but I was bored out of my mind. And I usually enjoy the kid movies. And I cry at Cars, Over the Hedge, Open Season, pretty much every Pooh video ever made... Wall-E didn't make me cry. AND I have PMS, so that's quite a disappointing feat.

Anonymous said...

It doesn't look interesting to me from the previews I've seen.

I'm getting a little tired of the underlying messages (political, moral, etc.) of moviews lately. Why can't they just be what they're supposed to be - entertaining?

keesh said...

Took Mason, he didn't think it was great, I thought it was awful. I agree totally 100% with what you said just didn't know how to word it :)...it sure is no ET :)

Jen said...

OMG this is so weird. There are 3 comments here but when you look at this post on the main page, it says 0 comments. Is it doing that for you guys too? (LOL, I was WONDERING why no one responded. I thought I alienated blogland with my criticism)

Jen said...

PS--yeah, I was bored too. It seemed to drag, esp. at the end.

And the beginning.

And the middle.

Jen said...

PS--my comment thing is fixed

sparkydiva said...

i was in the short bus theater. and apparently i was driving. i didn't get what wall-e and eve stood for...i'm an idiot. and yeah...i was bored. i was a bored r-trd.

*sigh*

Jen said...

i was in the short bus theater. and apparently i was driving. <---LOLOLOL