Comments on: Pixar Gets Political

By: Pixar soars once again, lifting audiences UP « Critical Confabulations

Pixar soars once again, lifting audiences UP « Critical Confabulations — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:47:11 +0000

[...] The Incredibles. Cars was utterly boring. Ratatouille was cute, but lacked inspiration. And WALL•E, which began with such invigorating promise, quickly devolved into cute-robot-saves-the-day dreck. [...]

By: lilyseye

lilyseye — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:38:24 +0000

I can see what you’re saying except for “Wall-E’s desire to do something good…” Wall-E does not desire to do something good. All he desires is to be with Eve, which is totally fine (though we’ve been given no reason for that either besides the fact that he’s desperate for companionship after being by himself for so long), but if that is the case, the film should spend more time developing their relationship and individual characters instead of devolving into an unnecessary environmental plotline. I think it’s strange, if not irresponsible, to use such a political issue as a simple “nail to hang the plot on.” The film’s politics are valid; the film’s use of those politics is sketchy at best.

By: Evrim

Evrim — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:04:23 +0000

I think you’re focusing on a side of the film which is there merely to propel the story forward: I don’t think the message is as political as it is a nail to hang the plot onto: the whole of the second part is occupied with Wall-E desperately trying to help EVE complete her ‘directive’ : the fact that the directive involves the delivery of a plant neither is here nor there. The film does not spend time chastising the enviromental politics: if anything what it says it that we need to use less technology and be more open to the beauty of what is around us. But it still remains second nature: look at the weird plethora of robots who occupy major roles in the plot: they are still continuation of Wall-E: the odd, the unloved, the innocent who simply do not fit in with the rest of their ’society’. Wall-E’s desire to do something good stems from the most basic desire to not be lonely, to have a companion: the fact that the directive turns out to be universe changing for the entire human race remains still a secondary plot: in the end it is not the captain’s efforts to re-cultivate the land we focus but EVE and Wall-E hand-in-hand, with ‘Hello Dolly’ still echoing in our ears.

By: lilyseye

lilyseye — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:19:42 +0000

If what you say is true – it’s supposed to be about the beauty of simple emotions and the wonder of cinema, what then are we to make of the environmental politics that are not just simple, but simplistic? I think your analysis works wonderfully for the first part of the film (which I loved), but falters when considering the political slide downhill in the second half. Sure, there are some lovely fleeting moments in that portion of the film, but they are few and far between and almost entirely buried by the strange turn in the story.

By: Evrim

Evrim — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:06:39 +0000

I think what you’re missing here is that Wall-E is a tribute more than anything else: here Pixar and Andrew Stanton salute the genius of early pioneering silent cinema especially comedy. In Wall-E is a protagonist as innocent as Chaplin’s Tramp or any Tati creation: someone who is at odds with the world around them, someone who is propelled by simple, human emotions.
Remove the entire soundtrack from it and Wall-E still remains perfect: sequences such as the space dance bring to the fore the magic of cinema; here Pixar re-invents those moments that made us swoon in the first place – each gesture, each movement is carefully designed, carefully arranged. If complex characters seem to be not existen on surface of the film, it’s because they’re buried deep within its’ structure; look carefully and you see hundreds of years of influence working to create something as original as WAll-e.