The best movie so far...

Pixar's Feature Films WALL•E
#1

Hello everyone!
There’s been a week since I saw Wall-e for the first time. And just after that I got addicted. I was stunned while watching it, I couldn’t get it off from my mind, so I watched it again and again. Overall, I watched it three times and it made such an awfully crushing effect on me during the third repeat, that I don’t dare to watch it again (until I find a girlfriend)
I think, even Pixar doesn’t completely understand, what a MASTERPIECE it has produced. Without hesitating I can claim that Wall-e is THE BEST MOVIE EVER, among both all the animated and live-directed (with real humans) films so far. The way the feelings are showed is Awesome! The plot is very apt and… just brilliant! Wall-e is the hash-one good, moral film, that is both appreciated (doesn’t matter that in different ways) by children and grown-ups. The problem of environment, the disability to be satisfied with what we have and pursuiting to get more, the problems of friendship and support, the people who tend to be stuck in digital world having doing nothing… dang, how all that is up to date! And, probably, the main problem - Love story… Peeps, if it was a regular movie with regular people, or even a cartoon but with people (like Ratatouille), it wouldn’t be so impressive. But ROBOTS!.. The creatures who seem to be heartless, cold… they can feel?!.. they can change?!.. they can LOVE?!.. People, don’t you see that WE the humans, who are supposed to ‘invent’ feelings and love, can’t simply love and be loved? Why there are always loads of problems with that?.. Why it is too hard to have true romantic feelings? Wall-e and Eve… they showed us an example. You might see that there is not too much of that love stuff - just a couple of episodes. This is another thing that makes Wall-e a masterpiece - nothing is explained to the end, but everything is understood - even more than it is showed.
As I told before, I had seen it thrice and I didn’t dare to watch it again. After the third watch I felt really embarrassed, blue, depressive - just couldn’t concentrate on anything but thinking about Wall-e. It seemed unfair, that the ones who really deserve their piece of happiness, have to wait for it for hundreds of years…
I do not understand those who didn’t enjoy the cartoon, but I feel sorry for them. They simply might have bad attitude towards cartoons, or they didn’t like the plot. Tastes differ, what can I say? Also, I do not understand when someone asks, for example, whether Wall-e can climb the stairs or whether Eve can distantly operate her head… Didn’t you like the movie so much, that you bother yourself with that sort of things?
Loads of fanfic and deviations show that Wall-e is really appreciated. Someone may wait for Wall-e 2… I am myself AGAINST the ‘To be continued’ - if only Pixarians want to worsen it overall. The idea of Wall-e is complete, especially if to watch its end titles to the end. There’s nothing more to add - the movie doesn’t need that. If Wall-e 2 is launched, it will seem to be just a product to make money on.

What do you think about that. Maybe, I’m not right - looking forward to your responds.
And… there is too much we all need to think about.

Edited for language. – Mitch

#2

I’m pleased to hear that you really enjoyed the movie, Actine. I’ve seen it three times as well, and I totally know what you mean- it takes over your mind to the point that seeing it again is almost too sad an experience! I probably don’t agree that it’s the best movie ever, but it’s certainly up there among the greats, as a cinematic experience that, as you said, truly everyone can enjoy, which makes the film almost even more unique.

As for how a lot of us on the boards seem to be asking questions of the more practical nature, that’s probably just because we all love the movie so much, we want to understand absolutely every bit of it, and really immerse ourselves in the world of WALL-E. And thinking about that sort of thing can also be very fun! :laughing:

I agree that it is a film as a whole, and doesn’t need a sequel. It’s so perfect as it is, that adding more would sort of ruin it, I think.

Anyway, good to have another avid WALL-E fan on the boards! I see that you’re from Ukraine, which officially became my favourite country in the world after the Eurovision Song Contest a couple of years ago. Just legendary. :smiley: So, welcome to the boards, Actine!

#3

Thank you, lizardgirl, for understanding and some warm words! :smiley:
Forgot to mention that it was the first time when I said ‘he’ and ‘she’ about robots.
Well, I see this topic can be turned into one more general discussion thread, so I have some questions. First, I’d like to know whether Disney helped Pixar to create the movie (not only to invest in it). Second, what’s the music in the scene where Eve flies above the Earth and the canyon, and then Wall-e and Eve are flying in the space together?[/b]

#4

Actine - The music where WALL-E and EVE are flying together is called “Define Dancing.” When EVE flies above the Earth and the canyon, I believe that the music that’s playing is called “EVE.” I do have the soundtrack, however it’s been months since I’ve seen the film, so I hope I got this right. =)

#5

Ah! qxgnxamy has beaten me to answering the question for you. They’re beautiful pieces of music aren’t they? :wink:

And welcome aboard the PP Express!

#6

Well, this movie is my least favorite Pixar movie. I didn’t like it at all, but I respect the fact that you love it to death. And you now are amongst a group that shares the same feelings about WALL-E like you do. Welcome aboard Pixar Planet Actine.

#7

It’s awesome to know that WALL•E had such a profound effect on you, Actine. I went into WALL•E thinking it was going to be a sci-fi adventure with a cute little robot, but by the end of the film it had moved me so much, because I didn’t expect the message(s) of the story to be so deep, and touching. Darn you Pixar - always blindsighting us, and having us crying our eyes out by the end of your films!

Yes, kind of clever how the most human of all the characters were WALL•E and EVE, and also how they exhibited the most human of emotions… love. And yeah, it’s great how Pixar feel they don’t have to whack you over the head with their message - they give the audience credit.

As for WALL•E 2, I agree with you. I wouldn’t want a sequel. Not because I don’t think Pixar wouldn’t do a good job, but because there are other movies out there that would not be made if WALL•E 2 was made in its place. And it would make WALL•E, I dunno… less special. I don’t think you could recreate what they created in the first movie.

And welcome to Pixar Planet - it’s nice to meet you! We have quite few other WALL•E (and other Pixar-related) threads that you may find interesting, too, especially if you like to talk about the many intricacies of the movie. =)

I hear ya… :frowning: (except sub girlfriend, with boyfriend.)

#8

Aw…not at all, TSS? :frowning: I can understand if you’re not as big a fan of it as the Incredibles or other Pixar movies, but in the words of Syndrome, “Come on…you’ve gotta admit this is cool!” It is, IMHO, the most epic and grandest film Pixar has ever attempted, in terms of scale and story. Didn’t it move you the slightest bit? :wink:

And I agree with actine that Wall-E is complete in itself. The credits charted the entire human race’s history over again, for Pete’s sake! Then again, most people thought that films like The Godfather and Toy Story couldn’t be topped or continued, and the sequels turned out better. If Pixar ever came out with a sequel (although I hope not), I’d still give them a chance, because I trust they couldn’t come up with a bad movie even if they wanted to (though I hope they don’t get any ideas if they read this! :stuck_out_tongue:).

#9

thedriveintheatre: Nope not at all. All of the other Pixar movies really hit me in my soft spot, but WALL-E didn’t. I’m different from everyone who watched and loved the movie.

#10

:open_mouth: …
Seriously? Wow…that’s…weird. Most people I’ve talked to said they loved it and had some form of reaction to it…either of amazement or wonder or sadness… Oh my gosh! We need to check his heart, people! :smiley:

Naw…I respect your opinion. Maybe it just didn’t connect with you…but that’s okay. You just have a different taste. Different strokes for different blokes…

#11

For some reason, WALL-E produces very extreme responses in everyone who watches it. They are either totally awestruck, or completely put off. I have not met anyone with a lukewarm response. I find this very curious. I think it mainly depends on two things:

The first is whether any of the themes of the movie offended the viewer. Some people are annoyed at its portrayal of fat people or its environmentalism or anti-consumerism. Usually, they have been hit over the head so many times by these messages that it is natural to get defensive when seeing another movie with them. This is despite how gently WALL-E deals with them (and the Axiom passengers are more childlike than fat, really).

The second is whether WALL-E and EVE “work” for the viewer, since the movie is primarily a love story. It is a bad sign when someone comes out of the movie and did not even realise there was a love story at all. Despite Pixar’s groundbreaking effort in the movie, some people just cannot see WALL-E and EVE as “people”. Once that happens, the whole movie is shot. It becomes gags and eye candy instead of epic romance.

There are other less important issues, like whether the setting is plausible. Some people just don’t take sci-fi well, especially harder sci-fi. If the viewer thinks the setting is contrived and artificial, it takes a lot of the magic out of the movie. Doubly so if he thinks the purpose is to beat a message into him. Another issue is the extent to which he was spoiled by trailers and such. WALL-E is a particularly very sensitive movie to this. The most magical moments were ruined by the trailer. I went in myself knowing nothing but the name of the movie. However, I think these issues are less important than the first two. The viewer must not feel insulted and the love story must work.

As for me, I agree with the original poster. In my eyes, this is one of the best movies ever made, if not the very best. After I watched WALL-E (up to about 6-7 at this point, plus the occasional scene here and there), I went back and rewatched some of the other films which I considered the best before WALL-E. It stands up to side-by-side comparison in the light of day. But I can see why it leaves some people completely cold. It is extremely ambitious and takes huge risks.

This is why I am a little concerned about Disney shooting for the moon with WALL-E at the Academy Awards. It is not a safe or easy shot. Huge risks are being taken again. I think that it is nevertheless the right thing to do, but it will be a nailbiter for me.

#12

The matter that you didn’t like the movie doesn’t mean you are right or wrong. I respect each opinion. I’m agree with everything written in the previous message, and I don’t blame people who do not like the things I adore. Then, I also can’t assume lots of things that are supposed to be right choice.
What about the sequel - I’m glad that you are against it, too. Remember Shrek? When I was 12, I liked the first movie. Then they made Shrek 2 and it was far worse, and when it came to the third chapter - I rejected to like the whole sequel. (my opinion - no enemies here :slight_smile: ). Also there are some things I get annoyed of, such as videogames. I think, only the not-so-brilliant movies need to have equal videogames in order to attract somehow. A game is a movie itself (the most vivid example is Mafia), so if idea is great, there should be a choice what to produce - a movie or a game. Then, I do not understand the value of fan fiction. If the movie is logically finished, there is no need to coin more - just relax and enjoy. But the overall attitude towards fanfic is softened by understanding that it is the only way for someone to express his gratitude. Despite this, I accept drawings and pictures based on the movie.
Oh, forgot to tell in my first post that Wall-e was the first time when I used ‘he’ and ‘she’ about robots :slight_smile:
Thank you, forumembers! I’m so glad that I’ve registered here! At last I’ve found the community where Wall-e is highly appreciated and where there are the people I can discuss Wall-e with! :smiley:
PS: Kaykaun, greets and welcome to the boards!

#13

You make some really interesting points, kaikaun, and you’re right- there seem to be very few people that only ‘like’ WALL-E. It seems to evoke great emotion, either positive or negative, in most. And I agree that that’s probably partly to do with the way it can be percieved as offensive in some cases, and that sort of thing. Although Disney might be aiming pretty high by giving WALL-E a shot at the Oscars, I think and hope that, ultimately, it will be worth it.

And welcome to the boards, kaikaun! Good to see another avid WALL-E fan around. :smiley:

#14

Perusing the reviews at Fandango, it looks like about 70% thought this movie was either great, loved it, or it was so cuddley cute. The rest actually felt it was boring, even their kids were bored to tears (or sleep). Very few thought it was so-so or ok. There were some who thought it was preachy, leftish, anti such and such. Now these are people who were impelled to make a review, they were not exit interviews.

Did you really encounter such people? It’s believable; when you dig deeply into the why, you often come across astonishing findings about people. This is why so many blockbuster movies are so bland, and substitute easy to understand violence for anything of substance.

The sci-fi setting: interestingly, when I read in a review that this was an animated science fiction movie, it was like “Eh?” Because there will indeed be Wall-e like robots in just a couple decades. Eve in 100 years? Maybe. Vastly greater environmental degradation? Yes. But probably not of the kind shown. And except for the people shown and some of the canyon scenes where you see Eve flying, it hardly resembles an animated movie. It looks real.

I saw some of that in the on-line trailers. Must have seen like 20 trailers around here. But at many of the film school advance showings, the viewers were exclaiming that it was so much better and so different than what the trailers promised. And Stanton did say that they had purposefully demurred in showing much of the real juicy scenes in the trailers. In fact some of the trailers were purposefully contrived and misleading. So there. But I admit, 2-3 of the trailers, which I fortunately did not see, were spoilers. Whew! I went into the movie with only extremely skeletal information, and thank God.

I agree. It’s probably some sort of statistical fact that there will be thousands out of the 50-100 Million viewers who will be extraordinarily smitten by this film, even to a greater degree than its actual creators.

And so here it is… One day a few years from now, a real Wall•E will wake up one morning in the workroom of an inventor/toy maker who has been building him. He of course will want to go forth and cube garbage, and collect knick-knacks in his Igloo. And this he will do, following a garbage truck with his stealth like tactics, to the city dump, where he will cube away. But how to get inside? He climbs into a dumpster at a nearby industrial park and makes sure to look poker faced when the crew comes for it. Wall•E climbs to the front top of the heap and opens a little slit to view the driving compartment. He is in!

But eventually, Fat Jack, a crane supervisor spots Wall•E and summons the local authorities, who are perplexed and don’t know what to do with him. They would like to turn him over to DARPA or the Secret Service, but word has leaked out and there is an outcry. After a few days of stormy media coverage, it’s agreed upon to deliver him to Pixar. Early the next morning, the Pixar suits, including Andrew Stanton, and even the beaming toy maker himself are assembled for the Big Day. Conspicuously, an expert in Robotic Empathics (PhD MIT 2003) is there standing alongside a government man wearing shades.

Wall•E is led down a ramp from a large para-military looking vehicle to the assemblage. He looks up at the Pixar crowd, looks at the robot expert who advances toward him, and looks at the beaming toy maker, and finally looks at a bewildered Stanton, his ultimate creator. Then he hears muffled cries from a nearby white Security van. “Oh!” He trucks over to the back and knocks, just like he did on the refrigerator in another life. More muffled cries. He uses his laser on the door and a cadre of bedraggled adults and one child spill outside. In unison they burst into cheer and gather around Wall•E. Suddenly, the government man and one Security guard head toward the group. Wall•E lets out a shriek. He puts his hands together several times while thinking and then his index claw in the air, “ah-aaa.” He trucks over to the front door, extends up his legs and hops inside. The cadre gets the cue and jumps back into the van.

Wall•E had watched the garbage driver very carefully during his rounds. Now in a panic he pulls and turns every switch in front of him. With windshield wipers at full tilt, bright headlights and the cd player blasting out Wall•E track #3, he roars out of the lot, taking care to wave at Mr. Stanton. “Yoo-hoo.” Andrew waves back with a little tear in his eye.

sqwak “The kooks we picked up climbing over the fence last night have escaped, with the ‘package’.” sqwak

And off they went. The middle-aged black lady at the toll booth looked a bit perplexed. “Yoo-hoo.” But that just added one more official car to the screaming horde trailing our hero. Down Fulton Street in San Francisco they went, in a chase that would have made Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn proud. How did it all end? Well… I’m not into spoilers. But the moral is: Don’t underestimate Wall•E fans.

#15

That game is the best video game on Earth! It’s GTA’s Realism x10 with a very engaging storyline. Seriously…It. Is. Epic. Love it love it love it! :smiley:

Ahem Sorry, back on topic. I’m praying Wall-E does the impossible and nab Best Picture. Finger crossed…

And welcome to the forums kaikun! You’re gonna like it here.

#16

[off-topic]It may be gta’s x10 realism but old-fashioned graphics - i’m talking about Mafia - the city of lost heaven. I ment the storyline, which was also my fav game storyline[/off-topic]
DarkHand, your last paragraph was a fanfic, wasn’t it? :slight_smile:

I saw one when I was about to watch Hancock (or Most Wanted) at the cinema. It was about Wall-e wxploring a vacuum-cleaner. It didn’t impress me. Then, there was a short advertisement on TV, like ‘He has the job he loves, he has the girlfriend of his dreams, he has the aim to save Earth…’ that totally destroyed my pre-vision of Wall-e. I thought it would be childish (as childish as Finding Nemo or Monsters, Inc). I didn’t want to watch Wall-e. Soon I got Ratatouille to watch and I liked it. It was a cool funny cartoon, so I thought Walle will be funny too. I was eager to watch it…
Now try to imagine how I was stunned while watching it…

#17

Yeah, the last half of my last post was sort of fanfic, but I inserted it to make an important point: that we ‘#1 Wall•E fans’ have to consider the following question:

Are we truly enlightened to love Wall•E so much or are we just a statistically inevitable fringe?

I try to keep an open mind about the answer to this question. Perhaps there is a website somewhere with a thread entitled ‘Hancock best movie ever. Period.’ Well ok, that’s ridiculous, but how about ‘IronMan: the best yet!’. And I just know there is such a Dark Knight thread.

I don’t blame you Actine, felt the same way, that it would be ridiculous, two robots falling in love in the future, and an animated feature to boot. Only a super review on opening weekend got me to see it, otherwise I was going to see Hancock, which was so-so. Why didn’t Pixar/Disney make a variety of ads which accurately displayed the dichotomy of the film? Kids and families first , I guess…

#18

Yeah, that was the game I was talking about. If you meant old-fashioned aesthetics like the cars and the historical setting, yes, I agree with you. But you’ve got to admit the graphics technology like the rendering of special effects like the countryside sunlight, the city’s old buildings, explosions and bullet holes, as well as car deformations, was groundbreaking for its time. And yes, I love the storyline too, that was epic, with the cutscenes and intermissions and all that. And the characters were cool too. :wink:

Anyway, sorry to digress, back to the topic.

I’m not sure what you meant by the phrase “a statistically inevitable fringe”, but I believe that irregardless of whether we are deserving to like this film, no matter how many times we’ve watched it or fanfics we’ve written about it… or whether we are in the minority (which I don’t think so, because a lot of critics and non-Pixar fans seem to like this movie too), that doesn’t negate the fact that Wall-E is a modern masterpiece in every sense of the word, not that you implied that it isn’t, of course. So my answer to the first question (“are we truly enlightened”) is yes, because we’re Pixar fans, and my answer to the second (“are we just a statistically inevitable fringe”) is no, because Wall-E is popular-culture, but of the highest degree. :smiley:

Yeah, they should have emphazised the romantic and philosophical aspects more, but I guess they were trying to appeal to kids and the “kid-at-heart”. Imagine their pleasant surprise when they were blindsided by a story of such emotional complexity and depth, instead of a “kiddy robot malfunction cartoon”.

#19

I think PIXAR’s best feature film so far is WALL-E.

You just can’t beat it.

#20

DarkHand, I may not understand your post correctly, but it seemed to me that you took my words about trailers wrong. It wasn’t a weird thing that robots were about to be in love - I just wanted to tell you what the poor trailers I saw, and that formed my pre-impression of the movie. But I saw the thing which was totally opposite to what I had predicted. That even strenghtened the effect Wall-e made on me.
As for the ‘best movie ever’ thread title - so, it is my thread and I had to name it. I was about to make kinda review based on the impression the movie made on me, and to read your comments about it. It is my most fav movie so far (forever and ever?), so I named this thread in such way. I also liked Hancock because it was also moral on some scale, so I accept that Hancock is a fav movie of someone else.