ID:44821
 
Deadron and I saw Wall-E while he was in town. It was terrific. I keep thinking about different parts of it, and it's pretty rare to find a movie that I actually think about after having seen it.

One of metacritic.com's readers didn't think it was so terrific. The review doesn't say a lot about the plot, themes, animation, voicing, music, or production design; in fact, I would go so far as to say that this reviewer is the cinema's equivalent of a "single-issue voter":

Conrad B. gave it a 5:
I saw the movie with my 12-year-old son the day it opened. Like most, I love Pixar's movies and we couldn't wait to go see it. My own reaction and that of my son both are negative. When the fat people plot was revealed, my son leaned over and whispered, "That is so wrong." Of course, he's grown up in a size-positive environment, but he is quite capable of deciding himself what he feels is good old-fashioned fun, what is clever speculation, and what is just a cheap grab for laughs at the cost of fat people. Both he and I felt it was the latter. I mean, what with exhaustion of renewable resources, our ability to nuke ourselves into oblivion, global warming and whatever, the worst that can happen to our planet is that we drown in garbage and then become hugely fat and lazy? Ha ha ha. I am sure one can construct some sort of justification into this movie, but in a society where fat people (and no, fat people are not a majority of the population, only statistically fat people are) are ridiculed, discriminated against, and exploited, is it really necessary for the next big Pixar megamovie to equate garbage, eating, fat, and lazy? Is it necessary to gleefully portray a ship full of obese people plop around, unable to walk or reach or anything? In my opinion, with Wall-E, Pixar is so far off, it's off the scale. Sure, some of the Pixar folks may be fat themselves, but that just makes them apologists. They did our children and the fat people in this nation and anywhere a huge disservice with this movie. More, really; a cruel slap in the face.


Being a Person of Girth myself, and therefore an "apologist" for Pixar's effort, I can only respond: SUCK IT UP, FATTY.
if an opinion exists, somebody, somewhere will adopt it.

Forget the single issue voter issue. This guy would vote based on whose tie he didn't like.
Since I got a chance to tour Pixar and hear about the development of this movie, as well as see the assets they developed and prototyped during production, I can say this person is missing their intended point.

The reason people were fat was because they brought in a NASA guy who told them that, under the circumstances of living on such a spaceship for generations, people would turn to "gelatin".

In fact, for much of the film's development, they ran with the "gelatin" concept and created pseudo-humans called "gels" that you could see through. They pulled back to making the humans more recognizably human for purposes of making the story relatable.

They also, I should say for completeness, originally had the humans being more stupid, along the lines of what this guy is complaining about. But then they realized the combination of fat people and dumb people wasn't compelling, so they actually worked to make the humans be respectable and intelligent.

Notice that the captain is genuinely bored of his existence, and gloms onto everything he can learn about Earth as soon as he can...then he takes action to correct the situation, at great peril to himself, and is an unqualified hero in the story. (I won't say more to avoid spoilers).

Notice that the couple of other humans we get to know on the ship are responsible people who, once no longer distracted by their video screens, immediately recognize the beauty of what's around them, and display responsible behavior in several ways, including saving the lives of children.

There's a way I agree with this complainer -- I don't like stories that make lazy fun of people, where the author just uses stereotypes to get a laugh, without bothering to have real human beings in their story.

I'm gonna go on record to say that not only does Wall-E not make fun of people, it's downright people-positive.
The other subtle thing that most people didn't noticed is that the people who survived were rich enough to afford that "5-year" cruise.

It's sad that the guy didn't realize that the generation was used to having all these fatty food, because of their ancestors and don't know how to do much of anything else, along with the lack-of-gravity effect on our bones.
I found it pretty interesting how the movie judges character entirely on whether someone acts "like a robot" or like a thinking, feeling being. Those who meet Wall-E not only accept him as an individual, but wake up and become individuals themselves. Several characters (human and robot alike) go through this transformation from robot to person, and the inverse is presented as tragic. Conflict is driven by those who unerringly stick to the status quo.

As for the criticism that the movie is poking fun at fatties, I'd say its real target is brainless consumerism, where people just buy buy buy instead of appreciating what they have, earn, purchase, and lose. In this sense it's every bit as much a send-up of thoughtless living as Over the Hedge was.
This was hands-down the best film Pixar has made yet; a masterpiece in every way.

Not that I really give much credence to the Academy Awards these days, but this movie ought to be a front runner for Best Picture.
I find something about a 12 year old getting bent out of shape over that a little disturbing. That and the use of the term 'size-positive environment'.
To me that just screams the sort of household that enforces mandatory blind political correctness. If you say 'that's gay' you get grounded for being intolerant, without a single thought being given to explaining why it's offensive or why you shouldn't say it.
Like living in an office where someone just filed a sexual harassment lawsuit.
What the hell is a "a size-positive environment"?

Just as an irrelevant side note @ DarkView: I don't use the word "gay" as an insult, but I strongly defend the rights of anyone wanting to use it as such. What's the use of a politically correct insult? Pointless... :p
Lummox JR wrote:
As for the criticism that the movie is poking fun at fatties, I'd say its real target is brainless consumerism, where people just buy buy buy instead of appreciating what they have, earn, purchase, and lose.

Funny thing is, what I took offense to in the film was the bashing of mindless consumerism...at least when it involved playing online games or the equivalent.

And, well, I'm pretty much a fan of mindless consumerism. Nice TVs, DVDs, iPods, laptops, decked out gaming systems, a Netflix subscription...sure I could survive without them, but (and I'm somewhat serious) would it be living?

And I think it's fair to say the pursuit of such luxuries drives much good in the world.
Elation wrote:
What the hell is a "a size-positive environment"?

My pants.
Heck, you'll find me a very willing apologist for the evils of shopping. I think what Wall-E was getting at, which Over the Hedge also touched on, is needless waste and a kind of blandness from everyone needing to have the same things. In Wall-E when everyone is told about the ability to use blue clothes, they all switch to blue. In Over the Hedge, the villain of the movie brooks no deviation from the utterly fascist homeowners' agreement--those contracts that somehow require giant developments to keep looking like every house is exactly the same. I think the movie is vilifying a homogenized existence, which is nicely represented by the fact that everyone has their food served in liquid form.

I suppose there's a thin line between that and America-bashing, though. There's an implicit criticism of the "supersize" mentality there. Oddly the people who criticize that never seem to get that buying at Costco/BJ's/Sam's is a good way to save money, save gas by taking fewer trips to the store, and avoid wasteful extra packaging. The economy of scale really does matter. Where I think Wall-E avoids stepping over the line is that in the movie, BnL has taken over everything and it's clear that the lack of competition served them poorly. The CEO is even referred to as "Mr. President" and speaks from behind a podium with a presidential seal; it's clear that BnL is a monopoly devolved into a sort of accidental socialism, so really you could say that the movie is a strong critic of socialism.
I loved the movie. I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed Iron Man, though I do regret not taking a girl out to see it (I need to do taht).

I think about certain parts of the movie too. There are just moments of the movie that are so beautiful, musically and graphically... scenes that I'm sure I won't forget for a while.
Wall-E would be a better movie without the sour taste of The Happening still lingering around.