Absolutely. Wall-E amazed me.

It was about a whole lot of stuff besides love.

Mark

Nah, it was all about love, apart from some simple digs at America being a consumerist society. If you say that Wall E isn't about love it's like saying Cinderella is about dresses and palaces, The Lion King is about animals, and Transformers was about explosions.

Oh no wait that last one is true.

I suppose love does play a bigger part in the film than just that between two main characters; love for ourselves, and the environment that we find ourselves in, love for others around us and the way we go about our daily lives and the impact we have on other people and our surroundings.
Essentially the film portrayed humans as a scourge not only on Earth (which it all but destroyed before heading off to contaminate space) but also out in the Universe.
There's no hope for humanity — even at the end of the film (no spoilers here I hope) there's nothing to suggest that things are actually going to turn out good in the end.
So humanity gets a second chance on Earth. Whoopee.

Mark

Shrek 2 was bettwe than Shrek
Shrek 3 was a little bit poor
Shrek 4 was a steaming turd.

I'd quite like to see an Incredibles 2.

I quite like to see a sequel to that. There is a natural progression for the story as the kids age.

Generally speaking, I like all of the Pixar movies apart from Cars and Up.

I think that one of the problem with Cars is that I read a poor review before I watched it and spotted all the faults with it- like the main characters were- well- just cars!

Up was OK for a watch, but there was nothing there that made me want to see it again.

Love Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo. I am always quoting the turtles. Sweet!

I also love the out-takes that they insert at the end.

As for the Toy Story franchise. I still love all three, although I think that I can see why others might not like them if I am truly honest.

Loved:
Toy Story 1, 2 and 3
Incredibles
Monsters Inc
(and the short film about alien abduction)

Liked:
Cars (visually stunning)
Finding Nemo
WALL-E
A Bug's Life

Didn't like:
Ratatouille
Up (apart from first 10 mins it was actually boring)

Not Pixar, but loved Iron Giant and many of the Studio Ghibli films. Oh, and Shrek and Ice Age.

Cars was scrapped by Pixar early on, but part of Disney's takeover stipulated that they'd re-do Cars and force it out, they did a good job polishing up a bad idea in the end, but it just ended up being awkward, like Days of Thunder awkward, you really don't care what happens but you kinda wait to see what happens anyway.

I think Wall-E as a character was a beautifully poignant way of showing up the flaws of humanity, as a small robot is seemingly able to see all that is beautiful about humans, when all the humans care about is breakfast in a cup. A robot throws away the diamond ring because he likes the way the case flips back and forth, a robot who collects junk and re-enacts cheesy musicals and sings and dances, and then meets the love of his life, and he instinctively wants to protect her. It shows up our lack of love for our own planet (without resorting to Avatar-levels of in your face preaching). It's about the human capacity for love of all things, and the real ending of Wall-E is in the credits, as they shun the technologically-aided lifestyle in exchange for going back to basics, as the cave-drawing style animations show us families working the land and cleaning up the mess - ignore the adverts telling you to re-priorities your life, telling you what colour clothes to wear, focus on the things you instinctively truly care about.

The fact Wall-E kept me entertained and interested despite the lack of dialogue in the first part is a testament IMO to the films qualities.

I think there are major cultural defences between us and the Americans. I can see why it's seen as uplifting and positive at the end - it's the kind if redemption tale that is usually found in the more facile sic-fi offerings that pervade SyFy these days.

However, this side of the Atlantic, we see things in a different light. I'd agree with Mark, Wall E is hopelessly depressing. I feel that humanity which has been surviving on what is essentially the B Ark for generations has arrived at its ultimate obese, indolent form. There is nothing to suggest that humanity has the will, drive or even the physical strength to clear the rubble found on Earth and starting again. I fear that Wall E 2 should feature the erstwhile little droid using resuscitation paddles to jump start the hearts of the humans who have collapsed due to cardiac arrest caused by the sudden demands that a fledgling agricultural society would place on a human body. Humanity is just not up to it in that condition. It will fail, and spend it's last months gasping for breath through minimal exertion.

Failing that, someone will find the ON switch for all the dead hardware lying around, and the human race will continue in the fat, lazy, bloated form that it has become.

People cried at the end of the film, I understand. The only thing that would make me want to cry is the utter hopelessness of it all. The ship's navigator should have blown the whole fat blubbery lot out of the airlock and saved us all a lot of time in trying to arrive at the assumptions that Disney expected us to arrive at.

This is, I know, a very cynical loom at the film. However, there are, as I said, fundamental differences between the needs of a USA audience and a UK one. We much prefer disaster and conflict, and a more ambiguous resolution. The USA needs to see heroic triumph in the face of adversity adversity. So, an American film about an asteroid threat would have people travelling to the rock and stopping it hitting the planet. We would have it hit the planet, and then have the whole humanity dealing with the after effects. Our story would end far less positively than the American one would. It's how we are, so seeing a different outcome for Wall E is not as crazy as it may appear.

Thank you Paul.

Mark

You’re welcome.

Yes Paul, that ending you just described is depressing, but you just made up a completely different ending for the film. In the film they are strong enough, they do succeed. *shrug* And to critisice a fairytale for having an idealised ending is like criticising opera for people singing to each other. Totally not realistic!

I saw the *promise* of a happy ending, but not the happy ending that we expect. Maybe the film was left deliberately open to interpretation.



Fairy tails are pretty grim(m) and sinister in content, and end far less clear and upbeat that you would expect. The Grimm brothers collected and wrote down these tales which were traditional to the areas they visited and generally told using various oral traditions. They certainly don’t all have a happy ending, and if they do, it’s usually with a cost to the protagonists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_little_mermaid
End - she dies, and dissolves into the foam. No happy ending marriage here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella
Step Sisters end up marrying Lords - implying some kind of reward despite their treatment of Cinderella.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapunzel
One story variation has her trapped forever in the tower after the witch cut the hair.

Disney like to run things through their Sanitation Engine, and provide a standard issue Happy Ending. It sells burgers, Barbies and holidays.