I caught a midnight screening of WALL-E last Thursday night. The movie is simply amazing. I think it currently tops my list as best movie so far this year.
The movie does a few interesting things. It mixes in some live-action video clips, for one, bringing actor Fred Willard into the film. The most daring thing the movie does is that it goes for long stretches without any dialogue aside for the very small vocabulary the robots have, limited basically to their names and a couple other words. Both of these are risky moves for Pixar, but I think they were a rousing success, particularly the lack of dialogue. It makes for one of the most heartfelt, funniest movies of the year.
Something else to note with WALL-E is the short that runs with the film, Doug Sweetland’s Presto. Presto had me laughing harder than I have in a long time. In the short, Sweetland channels Chuck Jones at the top of his form… it’s very trippy to see a Disney short done in the Warner Bros. style. The short alone is worth the price of admission.
Dude – couldn’t agree more. I caught a midnight screening of Wall•E at Disney’s El Capitan here in Hollywood. Throughout the entire film, I kept turning to my girlfriend and saying, “This is amazing.” -or- “I can’t believe what they are doing. This is unbelievable.” etc. It was unlike any pixar film I’d ever seen – actually, it felt much more like a feature length short – in the style of their older shorts (Red’s Dream, for example). There was definitely a heavy Chaplin/Keaton influence.
Also – yes. Presto was FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC. Possibly their best short. Incredibly comedic timing – definitely Chuck Jones inspired.
I’ve seen it twice now and god damn is it good. I love just about everything they do over the course of the film… the Chaplin-style comedy, the lack of dialogue, the use of Hello Dolly (which, at times, has a very Kubrick feel), the love story, the commentary… everything.
And it looked incredible. Did ya hear they brought in Roger Deakins in as a visual consultant? I’m sure his input didn’t hurt.
Probably my favorite Pixar film so far.