Freedom, truth, love, beauty.

WALL-E

Erika and I took Elizabeth to her first movie at the movie theater during our vacation this past weekend. It went OK, but the movie was lame and the animated short that preceded the feature scared Elizabeth to tears.

The short was essentially a modern Looney Tunes cartoon, but Elizabeth hasn’t seen much of those (if any) and so didn’t grok the slapstick violence. She was really upset that the magician was getting hurt badly. She settled down about halfway through WALL-E, but never left Erika’s lap after she climbed into it during the short.

As for WALL-E [oblique hints at plot points spoiler warning]: Did I see the same movie as everyone else? It is not good; it’s pretty, but stupid.

The live action scenes with Fred Willard and “Hello Dolly” are bizarre. Those scenes, the ultra-realistic camera work reminiscent of 70s westerns, and the abandonment of the laws of physics during the space scenes conflict and ruin the suspension of disbelief (such as it is). That is really off-putting considering Pixar usually takes great pains to get that right.

The story is cliched (true love is the only thing that matters) where it isn’t just nonsensical (WALL-E losing his memory then magically getting it back for no good reason; the ship’s robots committing mutiny because, um, I’m still not sure) or surprisingly cynical (people who shop at big-box discount stores are ignorant and fat). Everything that happens with the plant is completely unbelievable and dumb, from where it’s found to how it’s transported to how it’s treated once it reaches it’s destination.

To sum it up, this is a really disappointing film and unworthy of the near universal critical praise it is receiving.