Pixar Sundays: WALL-E (2008)

          Not since Toy Story, had Pixar made a movie as experimental or ambitious as WALL-E, a film featuring very few characters, and mostly non-speaking at that. The latter is particularly significant, as many American animators in the past expressed great interest in making a purely visual film (of course outside America, many of these were being made). Don Bluth’s original idea for The Land Before Time especially comes to mind, which was going to have more in common with ‘Rite of Spring” from Fantasia than Bambi. So WALL-E is in some ways quite revolutionary for a mainstream animated film. 
          …And this is the first I’ve seen it. Yeah, even after I stopped going to Pixar movies, I still eventually wound up seeing most of them one way or another. The Cars movies I avoided of course, but Wall-E was the one I never got around to seeing that everyone insisted I had to. Now I completely get why. I’d say it’s one of Pixar’s greats, but they’ve got so many at this point, it’s a statement that doesn’t do the film justice.
          Like Ratatouille, the premise sounds like one that would work as a short. WALL-E is a small robot trash compactor and the last of his kind living on Earth after the human race abandoned it seven hundred years ago to live on great space arks. His simple life consists of compacting garbage, befriending cockroaches, and collecting various relics. When a probe robot called EVE is dispatched on Earth, WALL-E quickly becomes infatuated with her, and her discovery of plant-life he previously unearthed sends both of them on a journey across the galaxy to let humanity know their planet is habitable again.
          WALL-E is easily one of Pixar’s most original stories, and writer-director Andrew Stanton is largely to credit with executing it so well. Apparently the idea was pitched at the same meeting between Stanton, John Lasseter, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft that birthed the ideas for A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc., and Finding Nemo (and since those were each directed by Lasseter, Docter, and Stanton respectively, I wonder if Ranft would’ve helmed this if he hadn’t passed away). Unlike those other ideas, this one is far into science-fiction territory and actually is a little grim at the start. How many family films portray a barren Earth devoid of life with humanity possibly extinct? Nonetheless, WALL-E manages a whimsical tone in its early scenes that suitably contrast this. I love how unconventional the first act is, illustrating the development of WALL-E and EVE’s relationship as well as how they relate to the junk WALL-E collects. It’s very vivid and emotional storytelling. When it gets to the Axiom, it loses some of that but the plot’s still interesting and well-written. The near total lack of dialogue early on though just really impressed me, and the film relies a lot more on it once they reach the humans. I’d have wished they tried to go all the way. The animation is superb, particularly as WALL-E witnesses the universe while on his journey to the Axiom. The cinematography is striking, no doubt thanks to the consultation of Roger Deakins, and the character design is really good, WALL-E looking like the practical and clunky robot he is while EVE and the Axiom robots all have more or less Apple designs to them. Which is curious. Obviously, Steve Jobs was one of the creators of Pixar, so it would make sense to homage his technological style, but these robots aren’t all portrayed in the best light. Then again, it is truthful in how Apple products take over peoples’ lives.
          The strength of this film relies a ton on its characters. And there’s more personality to WALL-E and EVE, who utter maybe ten different words between them, than in many animated or live-action characters. WALL-E’s kind of a perfect bumbling hero. He’s clumsy, and timid, but also curious, enthusiastic, and dedicated. What I particularly like is how willing he is to put himself in danger to save EVE and the plant, but the film never tries to pass him off as brave. He’s pretty much a fool in love, but one who to his own astonishment, is actually very capable. And he’s immensely likeable. He’s voiced by Ben Burtt, one of the most accomplished sound designers in movie history (you have him to thank for the lightsaber sound effects for instance). He voiced WALL-E’s lines, but also created the unique sound effects for the character. And you can tell this is a guy who worked on Star Wars, as there’s definitely a little bit of Jawa in WALL-E’s tones. EVE, the robot bent on saving the Earth, is also very likeable. When she first appears she’s stern and disconcerting, she’s very much a typical emotionless robot. But her growth is more substantial than WALL-E’s as she begins to ingratiate herself towards him more, and as the mission gets direr she comes to care quite deeply for WALL-E, especially given all he’s gone through for her. It’s a really sweet relationship, which again is incredible coming from two non-anthropomorphized robots. It’s legitimately sad when EVE retreats into standby for example, and subsequently moving when she sees what WALL-E was doing for her all that time. Her voice is particularly endearing, provided by Elissa Knight, who is very good. 90% of her dialogue is just “WALL-E”, but she gets so much out of each individual intonation of that name that it actually gives EVE some very emotional scenes. I wonder if the writers gave her her own script, like Vin Diesel’s for the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, that translated the dialogue so she knew what she was communicating. The only other notable character is Captain McCrea of the Axiom, the delegate for humanity in this movie voiced by Jeff Garlin. There’s also the sentient Axiom pilot AUTO who’s sort of a lesser HAL 9000, a funny little robot constantly cleaning up WALL-E’s tracks, a pair of humans voiced by John Ratzenberger and Kathy Najimy, and a ship computer voiced by Sigourney Weaver. Oh…and Fred Willard. 
          One of WALL-E’s stranger choices is its use of live-action. Early on, we see some screens on Earth where the exposition to what’s become of the humans is done in live-action, headed by Fred Willard as the guy who owns the arks sent into space. It’s jarring for Pixar, but not completely without reason until the humans show up. When they do, and they’re clearly animated, it makes no sense why the movie would include live-action, especially in scenes where McCrea is watching these recordings and you essentially have two humans belonging to completely separate art forms. 
          But what it lacks in this stark inconsistency, it makes up for in its significant themes and commentary. On the one hand the satire is pretty obvious. WALL-E finds humans, and they’re all morbidly obese, lazy, and complacent, perfectly willing to let technology control their lives. It’s the apocalypse where the robots and corporate overlords won and we’re all just fine with that. They’re so wrapped up in their luxurious lives, that they’re barely aware of their surroundings and have very little in the way of relationships with other people. Even children seem to be raised by machines over parents. It’s a pretty frightening fate for the human race and it’s very explicit. But it is a little more nuanced than it looks. For one thing, the weight gain is shown to be only in part because of their lazy lifestyles. Living in a microgravity environment for centuries has done a number on their collective bone densities. Also the film takes the time to suggest they want a little more. When John and Mary are able to notice each other, they start connecting. Captain McCrea falls in love with Earth after researching it (it’s a good thing his computer is a little less cynical than Earth: A Visitor’s Guide to the Human Race). And it would have been so easy for Stanton to have him lose faith and go back on his plan to return upon seeing EVE’s footage of the ruined planet. But he realizes the importance of taking care of Earth, a responsibility they shirked centuries ago, and should never have done in the first place. WALL-E presents humans as incredibly fallible to the temptation of technology and luxury, but still conscientious about doing the right thing. This leads also into the films’ interesting environmental message. Though never directly explained, the implication is that massive pollution and environmental damage caused the great exodus. The hope to rebuild the world properly is the incentive behind all the action in this film, but it’s never massively stressed. Stanton and co. trust that the audience, that the kids are smart enough to understand the value of green life without spelling it out. But yet there’s no shying away from the devastating impact of environmental disregard, as we see in the landfills upon landfills of waste WALL-E works in, and even the network of satellites dirtying up Earth’s atmosphere.
          On top of all this, WALL-E is just pure cute, and these other factors make that cuteness justifiable.WALL-E’s giant eyes are cute, EVE’s electrical kisses are cute, that whole scene where he shows her his place, and his VHS of Hello Dolly is adorable. That scene where they dance outside the Axiom is joyously cute, and the moment at the end where she desperately tries to revive his memory is tragically cute. The humour in the film largely derives from these moments, but many of them are genuinely funny too (there’s a rubber tire gondola in this -that’s brilliant!). There are some good musical choices as Stanton reunites with Thomas Newman. Michael Crawford’s renditions of “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” and “Down to Earth” from Hello Dolly are used to nice effect. And as you probably can guess from my reaction to last week’s film, obviously I love “La Vie en rose” in any movie.
          My criticisms for this movie are really just disappointments. Disappointment that they didn’t go as far as I would’ve liked with the non-verbal form, disappointment that the brief live-action segments didn’t make consistent sense, and disappointment that the climactic conflict was ended pretty much in just a standard 2001 type of resolution. But they were only disappointing because outside of them, WALL-E does so much so well. It’s pretty great, and the last really ambitious experiment Pixar would attempt until Inside Out. It’s got a fantastically original story, wonderful characters, and smart meanings hidden inside the obvious commentary. WALL-E stands out, even among the Pixar canon, and I would hope more animated films try to do so for the same reasons.

          We return to slapstick with Presto. A magician is getting ready to perform a rabbit-in-the-hat routine but his rabbit is sick of having to wait for his reward carrot. So each time he attempts to pull the rabbit out of the hat, the rabbit on the other end does new and creative things to torment him, eventually getting so elaborate with the portal nature of the hat that it endangers the magicians’ life. But the rabbit saves him in the end, and gets to eat his carrot too. Once again this is heavily inspired by Looney Tunes, from not only the carrot-happy rabbit and slapstick, to also the animated expressions and timing -little things like holding on a mouth agape make a difference. The vaudevillian concert hall setting particularly reminds me of High Diving Hare, one of my personal favourites. But credit where it’s due, there’s a lot of original comedy in this and it’s very funny. Both halves of the double act have good comedic personalities and the pacing is tonally perfect. I love how the magician’s sufferings go from a mere mousetrap on the hand, to having his head stuffed in a hot ventilation shaft, to electrocuting his finger causing him to convulse and the orchestra to break into bluegrass music. It’s fun, insane, sharp, and very funny. Also, wasn’t that Mickey’s hat from “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” that the rabbit was carrying? Well played, Disney.

Next Week: Up (2009)