July 2, 2008

Wall*E




I saw the latest film by Pixar over the weekend, which I've been very excited to see for a couple of months not. Pixar rarely churns out anything but brilliant films (I'm not a huge fan of Monsters Inc or Cars, but they were both pretty good). Wall*E had some pretty high expectations from me, and it surpassed them easily.
The film, which centers around a small waste compactor robot (Wall*E: Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth Class), who has developed a personality. He collects stuff that he finds, repairs himself and longs for company, with a cockroach and an old copy of Hello Dolly for company. Humanity has left the planet a mess, and are floating around in a space ship, the Axiom. The action starts when Eve arrives, a small probe (who looks very much like an iPod) who's looking for plant life.

The entire movie encompasses a number of themes and motifs, from the dangers of overabundant consumerism, environmental degradation, living in comfort, but also identity, fitting in and uniformity. Not to mention the idea of robots thinking that they know what's best for humans. There's some great 2001: A Space Odyssey references here.

I loved this movie, from start to finish - I think Pixar has put out their best film yet, right ahead of The Incredibles.

The Axiom - Thomas Newman
Define Dancing - Thomas Newman
Down To Earth - Peter Gabriel