Short Circuit for Pixar: Reviewing Wall-E
By Matt Nathanson | July 7, 2008
Category: The Wasteland
Even now, sufficiently distanced from the film, I can’t quite put my finger on just which circuit doesn’t quite light up with Pixar’s Wall-E, a movie I eagerly anticipated and ultimately feel fails to reach its potential or hype.
Most of the brilliance of Wall-E is jam-packed into the first thirty minutes, where everybody’s-favorite-robot is isolated on Earth with no one but a cockroach to entertain him. Enamored with movie-musicals, bemused by a spork, collecting Zippo lighters and not knowing their function – Wall-E’s curiosity and interest in the very stuff of human society intones somewhat ironically; after all, all humankind has now left Earth and is living in a space station because this very stuff has piled up so high and has made Earth uninhabitable. Sure, Wall-E’s curiously hording sporks serves to gently critique a society that creates new silverware when the eating requires, but it also works as an expression of love. It’s a pathos that is not remotely dissimilar to that of Arial in the—I can’t believe I’m saying this—“now classic” Disney film The Little Mermard. She collects “thing-a-ma-bobs” (corkscrews) and “snarfblatts” (pipes) out of endless fascination and desire to be “part of that world.” Because a society that creates such things is the society for me.
And maybe that’s where Wall-E intends to take us: a society that throws away such things—such treasures—has lost track of itself. It’s bloated with garbage and general bloated – fat, fat, fat. But this heavy-handed moralization is not as cleverly infused into the action as one might hope. In fact, for all Pixar’s trademark maturity and tact, I found Wall-E to be only slightly more subtle than Over The Hedge or the far more egregious Happy Feet—films that also tackle our growing environmental concerns with computer animated animals and yet even more proseletyzing scripts. If Wall-E’s message is, Love Earth so You Can Love Each Other, my response is: Stop Nagging Me.
But I guess that’s the problem with “message” movies, they are intrinsically designed to have us question and change, things not usually part of the protocol for us humans. Once our titular robot reaches the space-station and leaves earth, the writing turns somehow. The satire is less benign, somehow easier. I lost the film somewhere into its first hour, sort of uninterested by the slothful depiction of obese humans in 2700 A.D. I wanted something more. And I guess that’s why (to balance its socio-political pointedness) Wall-E is, essentially, a love story. But the sad truth here is that the “romance” never really resonates beyond infatuation. Because Wall-E loves the very first sentient being he sets his eyes on (barring the cockroach), I somehow do not “believe” his love – no matter how far into space he travels to find his girl Eve (which I guess makes him Adam, and the Garden of Eden resembling a Jersey tire yard).
But the romantic in me recoils: I admit that even for its day-old romance and pontification on Global issues, perhaps the most truthful moment in the film is one of genuine romance. When Wall-E is injured and insists his love goes on to Earth anyway to return the last living plant so humanity can begin anew – Eve realizes she loves the cute little hunk of scrap metal. She throws the plant away, choosing Wall-E instead. He, of course, scurries after the plant, reminds her of how important it is. But in that moment where Wall-E, not the world , is Eve’s choice, we see a realistic glimpse of love’s solipsism, it’s intoxication. It forces us to break protocol, and that feels great. This speaks so innocently on love’s exquisite selfishness and, in doing that, nails how complicated it can be.
I wanted to love this movie, because I respect Pixar for movies like Monsters, Inc. and Ratatouille that acknowledge, even celebrate, our at-times bumbling and ephemeral humanness. And while thematically Wall-E continues this tradition (saying we humans are worth saving; our world is worth saving), it doesn’t do it so nimbly. Simple put, it isn’t as fun: it is a rusted, squeaking, yet still functioning mechanism, cute to look at but easily lost in a world inundated with better ideas and, of course, more prominently, trash.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
I dug this film enough to see it twice. The sudden appearance of “clay-style” CGI humans was indeed jarring (esp. after seeing live-action humans for the first time in a Pixar film), but the fact that their evolution is explained in the Captain’s portraits is clever enough for me. IMO, WALL-E’s start-up sound is worth the price of admission.
July 7th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
I LOVED this movie.
I agree that after the first half of the movie, it does kinda seem like the writers started slacking off. But all in all, I loved this love story between the two robots was pretty good. I got more choked up from this movie then my girlfriend did.
This movie just shows that Disney is a communistic corporation by trying to tell us that the capitalistic ideas of Wal-Mart is what will lead to the end of the Earth.
July 7th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
thanks for the comments. I know im in the minority on this one, as critics and audiences adored it. It just didn’t stick to my ribs, sad to say.
not sure it’s DISNEY that has communistic inclinations — maybe pixar is an internal faction with anticorporate leanings — but i think the message is more universally about waste, greed, and human consumption. Wal-Mart is a product of US — what we want, what we expect, and how its never enough.
July 8th, 2008 at 12:25 am
i agree the message was kinda hamhanded, but i think it was intentionally so. remember its a kids movie. i think the enviromental message was over the top to reach the people who can have the most impact down the line.
July 8th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Great review. While not everyone may agree with you (though check here–http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/01/right-wing-hates-wall-e/–I think some may, even if you do a better job of explaining yourself) you justify each incongruent aspect of the film in a logical and digestible manner. And while you may not love the film you wanted to adore, you will almost certainly prompt readers who haven’t seen the movie, to venture out and make a decision for themselves. If this be the case, then both film and review have created a multi-layered discourse–and ultimately, that’s what these things are about.
July 12th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I don’t think the message of Wall-E is “Love earth so we can love each other.” The people being fat wasn’t meant to be a subtle, clever reveal, though I think them keeping the human factor of the movie secret in trailers helped with not distracting potential movie goers. read moriarty’s review on aicn: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/37364.
it’s a very good read. i like hearing the varying opinions though, but i’m sad that you didn’t love it as much as me.