The first U-rated film I've seen in years
Jun. 28th, 2008 10:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davidnAs I've always maintained, one of the best parts about being married is that suddenly it becomes acceptable to watch cartoon films again. And now that Disney and Pixar seem to be getting on with each other again after their own divorce a few years ago, the two of them seem to be coming out with some amazing things recently. Whitney and I went to see the irritatingly-named WALL-E yesterday night.
Unfortunately it's rather difficult to describe this film without spoiling it massively because as seems to be the fashion recently, everything I've seen in trailers for it is very misleading and doesn't give away any of the actual story. So I have to just summarize it in general. The central character is a tragic-looking waste disposal robot, and the majority of the other characters are robotic as well. This, combined with the way that there is very little dialogue (there are a couple of words exchanged about half an hour in, and nothing resembling human speech until quite a while after that) makes it all the more surprising that everything in the film has so much character to it, in their movements, mannerisms and their BBC Micro-like speech. Even finding out the names of some of the characters is really quite a big moment - in particular the curved white robot that was clearly built by Apple.
So I don't care if you're 25 - see it anyway, and just tell everyone that you're going to see it for its animation (which is naturally spectacular). As harmless as the film is to have earned a U rating (I am still uncomfortable about using the term "G-rating"), the theme of it is very dark at times, with at least one scene that's a frankly horrifying look at what consumerism would have evolved in to in the film's setting. And even though it's on the surface a children's film, it's as clever as you could hope, with a number of in-jokes and references to popular culture - one of the best ones comes when the titular character is obviously unable to classify a spork.
Speaking of U-rated films, I hadn't been to one in ages and they always show you trailers that you never see otherwise. Apparently we're now feeding our children with these horrifying aberrations. And I thought chihuahuas were a bit frightening anyway.
Unfortunately it's rather difficult to describe this film without spoiling it massively because as seems to be the fashion recently, everything I've seen in trailers for it is very misleading and doesn't give away any of the actual story. So I have to just summarize it in general. The central character is a tragic-looking waste disposal robot, and the majority of the other characters are robotic as well. This, combined with the way that there is very little dialogue (there are a couple of words exchanged about half an hour in, and nothing resembling human speech until quite a while after that) makes it all the more surprising that everything in the film has so much character to it, in their movements, mannerisms and their BBC Micro-like speech. Even finding out the names of some of the characters is really quite a big moment - in particular the curved white robot that was clearly built by Apple.
So I don't care if you're 25 - see it anyway, and just tell everyone that you're going to see it for its animation (which is naturally spectacular). As harmless as the film is to have earned a U rating (I am still uncomfortable about using the term "G-rating"), the theme of it is very dark at times, with at least one scene that's a frankly horrifying look at what consumerism would have evolved in to in the film's setting. And even though it's on the surface a children's film, it's as clever as you could hope, with a number of in-jokes and references to popular culture - one of the best ones comes when the titular character is obviously unable to classify a spork.
Speaking of U-rated films, I hadn't been to one in ages and they always show you trailers that you never see otherwise. Apparently we're now feeding our children with these horrifying aberrations. And I thought chihuahuas were a bit frightening anyway.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-30 05:37 am (UTC)