Jun 29 2008

PIXAR Disappoints With WALL•E

Published by at 5:39 pm under All General Discussions

Our big family event for the day was to all go to see Pixar’s new movie WALL•E, and sad to say we came away none too impressed.  We love Sci-Fi, Fantasy and animation of all forms.  I own a lot of animated movies which I love to watch. And we can usually tolerate or look past liberal platitudes in movies and simply enjoy the story line.  But not with WALL•E. The main robot characters are good (EVE’s mega-gun is hilarious), and there are great comic moments.

But in the end the story is just too much a liberal elitist fantasy to enjoy.  It is incredibly insulting to mankind in general, human achievement, human sacrifice and human determination to name a few specifics. For those who don’t want to have the movie ruined stop reading here.

(Click the image above to see a truly prescient post on the movie). The opening scene is ludicrous. Piles of trash and garbage higher than most skyscrapers, sometimes consuming the buildings. Supposedly one small ship leaves Earth so mankind can hide out in space while robots clean up the mess – which after 700 years is still not done when we check in on the cute and likable WALL•E.

From this Al Gore fantasy Earth it goes downhill as we find humanity fat, dumb and oblivious on the one ship they had to leave on. And I mean literally fat and dumb. Happy to live in floating lounge chairs from conception to death, and have every need handed to them by robots, humanity as lost the gift of mobility and reading and education. It is a childishly lame view of humanity, assuming we would trash our world and then grow fat waiting for robots to clean it up.

It is a dark and ugly view of humanity that leaves everyone with more than two IQ points to rub together cold. The movie is the Ford Edsel of entertainment. It is too bad, it had the makings of something enjoyable. But when you walk out and find a devastated world that has to be put back together by fat, lazy humans it is just not a happy ending (or beginning, or middle). WALL•E is a real downer when you think about it.

8 responses so far

8 Responses to “PIXAR Disappoints With WALL•E”

  1. the struggler says:

    I kinda like Jimmy Neutron.Always entertaining.I remember watching Looney Tunes on Saturday mornings and my Dad chuckling in the background while he read the paper.Too bad Looney Tunes is now considered politically incorrect.(C,mon man,can’t I just watch my cartoons?)Animation can be pretty funny.Family Guy cracks me up.

  2. robert verdi says:

    Its a general contempt for America and the Middle Class that I find so disgusting. They really despise their fellow americans, except when they need them of course. Good topic, and your right it sounds like it really could of been fun.

  3. Bottom line, Wall-E is an unlikeable movie. Keep the Wall-E character- he’s the only good thing in the movie and start again. Oh wait, it’s out.

    Pixar had always had a good balance between entertainment and “enlightenment”, but no more. This one and Ratatouille aren’t worth patootie as family-oriented, kids-targeted movies.

    Beautiful animation though.

  4. dhunter says:

    The indoctrination and dumbing down of America continues.

    Perhaps they will be happy when the whole country is New Orleans.

    At least now days the are alternate media for those who care to seek the truth.

  5. gwood says:

    Thanks for the heads-up, AJ. We are attempting to counter-balance the “education” our nine year old is getting in school, which is apparently designed to inculcate an anti-capitalist, environmental viewpoint in its students, and this is a PRIVATE school. (Yes, we do seize every opportunity to let our objections be known, and it seems to be working; the public school alternatives here in town are much worse) We may let her see it, but she will get a full critique from us if we do. Wifey is from Austria, where she experienced socialism first hand, and she sees the creeping variety here, clearly. Little girl will definitely vote Republican when the time comes, trust me.

    On a side note, wife and I rented two movies last night-Midnight Clear, and Guantanamero. The former is an outstanding movie, with a positive, spiritual message I would recommend for everyone on this forum, (Norm wouldn’t like it, perhaps), and the latter is a hit piece on the American variety of torture, complete with the lovable, innocent, Arab terrorist. What a crock.

  6. AJStrata says:

    Gwood,

    I asked our 8 year old twins what they thought (they were not going on and on about the movie as they usually do). They both were bothered by the scenes of trash and the fat, bloated humans.

    The movie is a disaster – but it can also be used as a lesson to your kids on how to detect propaganda – this one is so blatant anyone can see it.

  7. dave m says:

    Golly. It sounds almost as bad as “Babel” or “Million Dollar Baby”

    two total stinkers.

  8. MerlinOS2 says:

    AJ

    You will just love this take on what was wrong with the flick over at PuffHo.

    But I do have two beefs with Wall-E:

    + Why did Pixar pass up the opportunity to help people learn what they can do to become better stewards of the planet?? The movie is an inspirational environmental call to action, and yet there is no mention of how or where people can learn to cut carbon emissions, save water, reduce their trash production, etc. Why didn’t Pixar put up a simple screen with “ten recommendations for loving planet Earth” at the end of the film — or a link to a site with educational information? It pains me that MILLIONS of people will see this movie and learn nothing about what they can do to save the planet!

    + I also find the message at the end of the film a bit troubling. The humans return to Earth and it seems as if everything will just be hunky-dory. Yes they have some clean up to do, but it won’t be that bad. I was sad to see that Pixar took this easy out; we don’t need to be telling Americans that our environmental practices can be swept away with some kind of simple big broom