MOVIE REVIEW - Wall-e

Pixar has developed so much of a name for themselves I imagined that they could do no wrong. Now they are an animation powerhouse reputed to be the best at what they do over such stalwarts like Disney animation studios. Where did Pixar come from? Now a household name, pixar started with John Lassiter who in 1984 left his animation job at Disney to work with George Lucas' special-effects computer group which later was to become Pixar.

In 1986 the computer graphics division of LucasFilm, Ltd was purchased for a tidy sum of $10 million by non-other then Apple CEO Steve Jobs. At this point Pixar employs numbered 44 people. The now iconic Luxo Jr.- the animated star of Pixar's current animated opening logo short - makes his first squeeky, ball-jumping appearance starring in the animated short “Luxo Jr.” at the world premiere at Siggraph*. Within a short time this character would come to represent the company itself and go to become one of the most recognizable lamps ever.

The 1987 Academy Awards saw “Luxo Jr.” receive a nomination for Best Animated Short Film and at the 1987 SIGGRAPH conference Pixar's second groundbreaking short 'Red's Dream' is released. "Red's Dream" is a story about a lonely and rejected unicycle with an overactive imagination and a desire to gain fame and adoration by juggling like a circus clown. Over the next several years we see the release of even more expansive and technologically groundbreaking animations like “Tin Toy” and “Knick Knack”. Each short film pushing the capability of the technology further forward toward true realism.

Between 1990 and 1995 Pixar produced many recognizable animated commercials including the popular vine swinging Listerine bottle.

Toy Story hits the theatres in 1995 changing the animated film genre forever and become the highest grossing film of the year making almost $192 million domestically (U.S.) and $362 million worldwide. Pixar joins forces with Disney to distribute the film. The same year Pixar goes public with 6.9 million shares at $22 a share.

Today you would need to live under a rock not to have at least heard of one of Pixar's films or shorts. They have produced now beloved classics like A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, the Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille and most recently Wall-E. They also continue to produce outstanding shorts like For the Birds, Geri's Game, Boundin, One Man Band, and Lifted.

Pixars latest, and many say greatest, opened late June. The talk about town is that Wall-E is pixar's greatest film ever. IMDB.com lists Wall-e with a very high 9.1/10 stars. Filmcritic.com give it 5/5 stars. IMDB puts Wall-E at number 9 in it's top 250 films of all time – as voted by users - which in itself is remarkable.

From a technical standpoint it is as near to perfection as any CG film I've ever seen. The action, the presence, were perfect. Every object, every environment was completely believable. Grunge, dirt, decay, it was all there. It completely sold the illusion of a decayed and dead earth. Wall-E and other characters interact with their environment in a completely believable way. The lighting and sets were so detailed and so well rendered it is photographic and completely convincing. Then the action moves to space aboard the Axion earth's population's last bastion of civilization. Humans have become – a la Matrix – plugged-in protoplasm devoid of any sort of situation awareness. Pudgy, baby-like and stylized here lies one of my few quibbles with the film.

For the first time the real world intrudes on pixar's lush cartoon 'reality'. Video clips of the human leader – a popular comedian – Fred Willard represents the president of earths largest corporation and those responsible for the construction of the Axiom and of Wall-E himself. The inclusion of live action juxtaposed with obviously stylized and surrealistically rendered humans left a bad taste in my mouth. Like an open window with unwanted traffic noise floating in messing with my nice clean music. It's not a deal breaker for me I loved the film, but I found the overly glib video of long dead corporate president to be inappropriate and took away from a stunningly rendered film. There were a few other minor things, the story is very slow in the beginning and the last half of the film is completely different from the first half. The romance between the two robots at first is completely unbelievable but after a while you start to buy it, and by the end your totally routing for them to make it function.

I'll stop there, leaving some to the imagination, but I must say, so far in 2008 it's the best film I've seen. I'd highly recommend seeing it as soon as possible.

Resources

View Pixar Animated Shorts on their website: >>

IMDB.com Entry for Wall-e >>

Hello, WALL•E!: Pixar Reaches for the Stars >>

(click through the advertising to get to feature story)

Bill Desowitz talks to DP Jeremy Lasky and Directing Animator Angus MacLane about making the new look old in Pixar's latest animated masterpiece.

The iBot and the Rust Bucket: An Interview with WALL•E Designer Jay Shuster >>

Joe Strike talks to the Pixar artist about cars, Cars and the creation of the robotic couple of the year.

WALL-E, Disney team up with NASA to spark imagination >>

Another, more detailed review of the film: >>

Pixar sets 'Toy Story 3' for June 2010 >>


Disney Purchases Pixar >>

*Siggraph – An acronym for Special Interest Group of GRAPHics and Interactive Technology. First held in 1974 SIGGRAPH has been the venue for the most cutting edge and artistic computer graphic technology of the time. The conference has been held in many major American cities such as Dallas, Seattle, Los Angeles, New Orleans and others.