movie review - Wall-E
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
If a perfect animated movie is possible, this is it. Just the opening sequence of this movie so thoroughly gets it right I was prepared to accept any matter of mixed results following but it remained quite solid throughout.Here's why I was so thrilled with the start of this thing: they didn't open with a silly "hook" of unnecessary action to show us how amazing the heroes are. They started telling us the story from the first frame. But telling is not the right word: they start by showing.
We see a lone robot toiling to deal with a comically terrible load of environmental damage. Without anyone saying a word, we immediately perceive a future in which Earth has undergone an ecological collapse (and possibly the destruction of the hydrosphere). This is later alluded to in a note-perfect video clip in which the great Fred Willard says, "Hey there... Got some bad news. Um... Operation Cleanup has, well uh, failed. Wouldn't you know, rising toxicity levels have made life unsustainable on Earth." But this total collapse is rendered personal in the enormous and cruel suffering of the last of the clean-up robots still working away, gathering trash and piling it in compressed cubes into towers that reach several stories in height. The character of the robot is absolutely spot-on. Relentless in its optimism and clearly an emotionally mature and lonely person, it's resourceful and loyal and honorable. The run-down robot is clearly shown to be in its final decline, worn out and operating only when it can find spare parts. The work load and the ravaged atmosphere is given to sandstorms that are clearly damaging to robot-kind, as we see any number of the robot's peers damaged and inoperative. We get it, right off the bat. This is a genuine hero.
I won't get into the rest of the story but the robot is drawn into what's become of humanity, which is depicted as slothful, distracted, and oblivious. The robot's bottomless well of character carries the day time and again in a way that feels authentic and doesn't devolve into melodrama in the slightest. The tone certainly changes fairly dramatically at times, but I think this was a necessity in moving with the content of the story; it can't all be silent and bleak when the depiction of the humans is so satirical.
Strongly recommended. I wouldn't be surprised if I've already seen the best film I'll see this year. A favorite.