You know, for kids
OK, I've seen the much-hyped new Pixar animation WALL-E. It's the school holiday so I had to go and see it in a cinemaful of kids. This was an interesting demographic experiment. I'm sure you know all about it: dystopian sci-fi fable in which the human race has been forced to leave Earth due to pollution, leaving just one rubbish-compacting robot to clear up; he meets a nice lady robot who's been sent back to search for plant life, and they fall in love, ending up on the space station where a now cripplingly obese human race, 700 years after evacuating the old planet, lives in consumer purgatory. It's a hugely melancholy film. I hardly need mention that its animated to within an inch of not looking animated at all, certainly on Earth, and that you will simply forget that it's the cumulation of a lot of noughts and ones, cleverly arranged by men with beards and plimsoles. The big question is: who is this "U" certificate film aimed at?
There were plenty of tinies in the cinema, with their parents. These were the ones who, in some cases, actually got scared, and before it began, couldn't help themselves calling out "WALL-E" in the correct robotic voice. (Presumably they're downloaded clips? Bought the toy? Who knew that advance marketing could be so effective? It's not as if we all knew how ET could talk before seeing the ... oh yeah.) I couldn't help but think that, even though the message is quite an adult one, it's no bad thing for an anti-pollution, anti-obesity message to seep by osmosis into their impressionable minds. Better than films about stabbing people, anyway. Behind me were some older kids, old enough to be in the cinema without adults, maybe early teens? They were much more cynical, calling out "WALL-E" in a jokey way and making wisecracks at their friends sitting, naturally, across the other side of the aisle. At the end of the film, which had clearly not entertained them (the first 40 minutes have no dialogue), one of them shouted out, "Well, that was random." Another said, "Hooray, it's finished." Any film which centres on a love story is not going to appeal to boys of this age. And all the eco-stuff is surely just plain boring. I, on the other hand, really enjoyed WALL-E. And I'm an adult. Perhaps this film is aimed with laser-surgical demographic accuracy at parents and very young kids. All the rest should stay away and go and see something less "random" instead. Like Batman, with its knifeplay and explosions.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 12:05 PM
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I saw it last weekend with my girlfriend. Was wondering whether we should find a small child to bring with us so as not to look out of place, but actually there were loads of other adults couples/groups in there anyway.
I thought it was great. Cute but not to the extent of being sickly. Good positive message too, particularly at the end. The humans surprised me actually. There was a real sense of hope that came through I thought.
The one thing that still grates is that the message, which is essentially an anti-consumer society, and junk etc. is being pushed by the same company that is also pushing all the merchandise to accompany the film. Toys that will no doubt be in a landfill site within a year!
Oh the irony.
Tie-in merchandising toys promoting how terrible consumerism is.
It seems everything can now effortlessly be assimilated into the Borg-like cube of consumerism.
Now that even the notion of how empty consumerism is, as the moral framework for a society, is itself being marketed, surely a rift must be opening in the space-time continuum any time now.
I think it started with Jurassic Park. Remember, Richard Attenborough's character actually had branded Jurassic Park lunchboxes for sale in the fictional Jurassic Park, that had the same logo on as the non-fictional lunchboxes would have, thus actually advertising the merchandising of a film within the film in a metatextual sense.
Whe I watched it last weekend, I found myself enjoying the earth-bound segments much more, partly because they looked so much more 'real' than the spaceship-set scenes. Mostly, that's down to the "cinematography" -- or rather, the effort Pixar went to to digitse those scenes in techniques that mirrored what we would expect to see if such futuristic scnearious had been shot with convetional film camera lenses.
They do feel much more realistic than any previous Pixar movie has managed. And it fascinates me that to be more realistic, what the producers, the director and animators have had to do is emulate the artificial nature of live-action film-making.
Once the action switches to the spaceship, that element is lost -- it's almost as if the animators thought that once we were propelled into a completely artificial environment, that attention to detail wasn't warranted. Instead, we got the usual Pixar (and Disney) trait of being unable to render humans in a very good way, especially when the protagonists are non-human. In many ways, it's a shame: The Invisibles showed that Pixar can cope with cartoon-like humans, while Ratatouille ilustrated their ability to endow supporting characters who were human in believable ways, and to that extent Wall-E seems a backward step.
But despite that, there's a lot to love about Wall-E as a film. And previous years have shown us that where Pixar leads, all the other animation studios follow: in this case they have a strong central story that survives despite the occasional misfire in plot and/or animation -- hopefully that's something that other, lesser animation studios will pick up on.
WALL:E was truly adorable.
Also, I enjoyed the nod to A Matter of Life and Death in the opening titles. At least I think it was a nod.
When I was 12, I though Policy Academy 8: Mission to Moscow was hilarious, so hopefully they will come to like WALL:E in later life.
(Footnote: I think 'random' now seems to mean anything vaguely incongruous 'these days')
I bet it's a while since you've been able to use the term 'metatextual' in a complete sentence.
Is that simply a Metrosexual who does a lot of texting about the nature of texting?
Saw it at a screening full of parents and kiddies of varying ages. Before it started the little yappers were scrabbling about making a hell of a noise. I was thinking being there might be a bad idea. But once the film started they pretty much shut up and watched.
I thought it was a staggeringly beautiful movie. Hurrah for the ones and zeros men. And I loved that it took a swipe at big business for ruining things, especially since it's the first Pixar release since they were bought by The Mouse.
Those rancid teens sound like the sort who would have snarky comments in any film just because they thing it's clever. Probably the sort of little wankers that should have their heads stabbed off.
I took two children who did like it, but I really didn't. Too bleak a vision of the future followed by characters that were too twee and the anti-consumer message wasn't strong enough for me. I must just be a miserable so and so who doesn't like robots. There will be no merchandise in this house, that's for sure.
I went to see The Dark Knight the other day, and the group of teenagers in front were clearly expecting an all action blockbuster and were rather bored by the psycho-drama that made up a substantial chunk of the film. On the whole, I'd rather watch films at home on DVD rather than put up with people chattering through them.
Despite the noise and the constant flickering lights of mobile phones being texted upon, I still prefer to watch new films in the cinema than at home. I'm watching a lot of preview screenings at the moment, due to imminent Kermode duties, and although critics tend to maintain a respectful silence, it can be a little sterile watching with other professionals. There was a woman near me at a screening of the forthcoming documentary Man On Wire who was abandoned enough to squeal each time a vertigo-inducing shot came on the screen, and it really improved my enjoyment - critics can give the collective impression of folded arms and a big "impress me" face. This woman was just getting into the film. Like real people do. Including the wisecracking boys behind me in WALL-E.
I've only just figured out that the vacuum cleaner character in the car billboards around town is a reference to this film.
Anyway, Andrew, there have been a couple of asides about the new Batman film, indicating that you were not so impressed. Given that it is a BIG Cultural Event, might a blog entry about it appear here?
I saw it on Saturday and I thought it was brilliant. The Relationship between WALL-E and Eve reminded me of Charlie Chaplin and Edna Purviance. Its heart-warming,sometimes sad, sometimes funny but overall I enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to seeing The Dark Knight this week But it will be difficult to top WALL-E. Also the four minute film that was on beforehand also made by Pixar was very funny. Looking forward to hearing you on Five Live standing in for Mark Kermode Andrew.
A friend from the west coast had a valid and slightly disturbing point that rings a little bit too true, causing a brain haemmorrhage of cognitive dissonance. Anyway here tis:
"I think this film was Steve Job's response to the Greenpeace report that
said Apple was one of the worst offenders with eWaste per product. The
earth's debris is suspiciciously void of cast away iPhones or iPods. Then a
trigger happy future iPod (a knight in shining Apple white tm armour) comes
on the scene and tries to blow up another Apple product (has Mac start up
sound) but finally realizes they are both of the same brand and live happily
evah after."
Hmmmmm. Whilst he may have gone a bit ott at the end, the whole white symbolism thing is verrry Apple.
Maybe it's just because they're surrounded by Apple stuff so much, Derrin Brown like, the brand marketing just seeps in to the storytelling without them realising.
I went to see The Truman Show when
I was 16, and there were many young teenage girls there who were expecting a Jim Carrey film to be a comedy (this was 1998, remember). During the bit where Truman tries to sail out of the city on his boat - which made me cry then and still can - they were comparing shoe sizes. But they may have grown up to love Wild Strawberries for all I knwo./
- mippy
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