Courtney does Wall-E

“Humans who put seeds in the ground pour water on them, and they grow food – like, pizza!”

The Scoop: 2008 G, directed by Andrew Stanton and starring Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, and Jeff Garlin

Tagline: After 700 years of doing what he was built for – he’ll discover what he’s meant for.

Summary Capsule: Two robots, one distinctly female and the other just plain cute, fall in love while humanity gets lazier and lazier by the second.

Courtney’s Rating: Eagerly awaiting the inevitable Wall-E attraction at Disney World.

Courtney’s Review: I am not a huge Disney fan. Anyone who knows me can attest to that. I’m that chick whose always talking about how much better the world would be if children’s films didn’t promote stereotypes or provide shallow storylines. A big part of that is the fact that my family is very much Disney-obsessed, and being around all that magical goodness for two decades can really spoil the inner-child until it turns into a rotted, ironic version of itself. I have been desensitized, and therefore could have been perfectly happy living my whole life without ever having watched Pixar’s Wall-E. Perfectly happy, indeed.

But I would not have been a complete human being.

Okay, that sounds super corny. But it’s cool, ‘cause isn’t that what the Disney magic is all about?

Before I actually watched this movie, I thought I’d already figured it out. It was just a cheap attempt to make big bucks by introducing children to a saccharine love story involving an “adorable” character whose vocabulary is restricted to one word. Toss in a few fat-people gags for good measure. In a way, I guess I was correct, but when I actually did watch it, I was taken aback by its depth.

Knowing that most of the movie contained little to no dialogue, my expectation was that I’d be bored to death. Which is kind of why I watched it in the first place; I was flying home after my semester abroad, and I always have trouble sleeping on planes, so I thought a boring kids’ movie would lure me into a ten-hour coma. Fortunately (or unfortunately, however you wish to see it,) Wall-E proved to be far more interesting than I thought – so much so that I watched it a second time during the same flight.

What I thought was most awesome about it – and I absolutely love it when any movie is like this – was that it was incredibly entertaining and an intelligent piece of cinematic art. Because it works on these different levels, I can watch it while babysitting my neighbors’ kids or I can write a good 10-page analysis on it. And lord knows how much I love both of those! (The sad thing there is that I’m not being sarcastic. I actually do love babysitting and writing analytical papers…I usually don’t have a lot going on.)

The thing that’s frustrating right now is that I can’t quite figure out what was good and what was bad about the movie. I’m a little flummoxed – I think Pixar actually managed to balance everything so perfectly that it’s hard to say. I will let you know that anytime the humans were talking (like, using actual verbal language instead of delightful beeps and whirs,) I got bored. From a narrative perspective, it was a necessary sacrifice to take us out of the “silent film” thing. But I did want to fast-forward through all that and just watch Wall-E get himself into more hilarious predicaments with the evil robot.

Oh, and I really liked the OCD robot. He’s my favorite ever.

And because this is an animated movie, I’m going very easy on it for committing a crime I’d normally butcher a “legit” movie for. Like Lissa said, it’s not subtle. Like, at all. But then again, its target audience is about 7 years of age, and when I was that young, I didn’t know a darn thing about subtlety. Mickey, I grant you my forgiveness.

All I’m really trying to say here is that, despite my best efforts to hate on all things Disney-related, this was a genuinely beautiful movie. I even may have shed a tear or two, but it’s not like I’m gonna actually admit to that on the Internet. You have no proof!

And Peter Gabriel is at least 4 shades of awesome.

M-O: Like Roomba, but cuter. And more likely to clean your room.

Groovy Quotes

Teacher Robot: A is for Axiom, your home sweet home. B is for Buy N Large, your very best friend.

Voice in commercial: Too much garbage in your face? There’s plenty of space out in space! BnL StarLiners leaving each day. We’ll clean up the mess while you’re away.

Captain: AUTO! Earth is amazing! These are called “farms”. Humans who put seeds in the ground pour water on them, and they grow food – like, pizza!

Also check out Lissa’s, Drew’s, and Justin’s review of this film!