Tuesday, July 15, 2008

WALL•E

WALL-E

 

  • Released Internationally on 26/06/08
  • Released in Malta by KRS on 18/07/08

 

Preview (01/07/08)

In a nutshell

WALL•E stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth-Class, and is the name of a pint-sized robot who is left behind on a deserted planet Earth in the year 2700, to clean up the mess. He’s cute, he’s got personality, and he’s about to welcome a very special visitor.

Why we’re hyped

Pixar have been churning out one quality hit after another ever since they launched computer-animated feature films with Toy Story back in 1995. Their recent offerings were all brilliant family films, and with such a cute title character, it looks like this will be the film that adults will be enjoying this summer after being dragged to watch it by their offspring. He seems like a cross between E.T. and Number 5 from Short Circuit, and we can expect to see him everywhere very soon.

Who’s in it?

Have you ever met anyone who didn’t like Finding Nemo? Well Andrew Stanton, who wrote and directed Nemo, is the man behind the scenes here. He also has Monsters Inc., A Bug’s Life, Toy Story and Toy Story 2 on his impressive CV. The voice of WALL•E was created by sound effects guru Ben Burtt, who back in the 70s created the voice of another lovable and functional piece of hardware – R2-D2.

 

Review (15/07/08)

Yup, you guessed it

You may have heard or read this numerous times before, but Pixar and Disney have, (surprise, surprise) done it again. Every year or so they release a film amidst a wave of high expectations based on their stellar track record, and every year they manage to raise the bar. WALL•E delivers on every level, and isn’t just the best animated film of the year so far, but one of the best films of any sort.

Silence is golden

WALL•E is a guy of very few words. But the wizards at Pixar have filled this tiny metal robot with so much character and charm that for the first chunk of the film he steals the show by just scurrying around planet Earth on one of his typical days, with only a die-hard cockroach to occasionally keep him company. But then another robot, EVE, suddenly lands on the scene with much fanfare, and WALL•E’s mundane routine is sent into orbit. The action never lets up from then onwards, but no matter how huge matters get, our little rusty hero never loses sight of his original target – EVE.

Technical brilliance.

Whichever way you look at it, this piece of movie magic is amongst the best of what cinema has to offer. The main characters, although mostly tiny robots, are all memorable and unique. The humour is fine-tuned and frequent. Plus, the expansive apocalyptic cityscapes, balletic flying sequences, and maestro Thomas Newman’s warm and colourful score combine effortlessly to give us numerous breathtaking sequences. And amidst all the technology and spectacle there’s a hard-hitting message for us sedentary humans who might be spending just a little too much time in front of our flat-screens. Then, as the last frame fades to black, we’re treated to one of the most ingenious and beautiful end credit sequences I can remember. Brilliant stuff.

 

Mark9

 

Trailer:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/walle/ (High-res QuickTime)

 

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