I don’t get this “It’s just like Short Circuit” argument. I just returned from seeing it and it’s fantastic. *Short Circuit * shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same sentence as Wall-E.
Just back. I adored it. Clever, beautifully animated, nice little message they don’t thump you over the head with, funny, sweet . . . I’ll definitely go see it again in the theater and buy it on DVD.
Come and get it, Blinky!
The movie was great. The kids and adults all loved it.
As to the Short Circuit debate … Pffffthpttt! to you. Next you’re going to complain about how similar the dance numbers on the video was to Hello Dolly and how the Auto Pilot was reminiscient of Hal from 2001 or Otto from Airplane. 
Damn those yellow cream filmed cakes sure looked like twinkies, taking advantage of the old jokes of twinkies having a shelf life of hundreds of years.
what other silly nitpicks are there that I missed. Oh, I know roaches aren’t anywhere near as intelligent as the one in the moive. How did the plant survive the vacuum of space? etc. etc.
Any way great movie, another instant classic by Pixar.
Jim
The Twinkie reference was great. The contradictions were a bit strange with the plant. You mentioned surviving the vacuum of space, what about being able to photsynthesize in the dark inside an old fridge?
:dubious:
Still, a very cool flick.
Saw it Friday night with my sons, ages 11, 8 and 5, and we all loved it (although the youngest got a little fidgety in the last 20 minutes). I’d say it’s Pixar’s best since The Incredibles, and probably among the studio’s best ever (despite the inexplicable inclusion of Fred Willard =shudder= ). Heartwarming, funny, and a pungent environmental and anti-consumerism message, too. Sigourney Weaver was just too cool as the computer voice; reminded me of the gag in Galaxy Quest, when she was always repeating what the computer said. Loved the 2001 gags here, too. Two thumbs way, way up!
The short feature about the rabbit, the magician and the top hat was terrific, too.
Two questions:
[spoiler]Why make Eve so trigger-happy on her mission? Didn’t seem to fit with trying to find plant life; letting local critters live might lead her to plants, after all.
Why name the starship Axiom?[/spoiler]
I liked that the final credits of WallE* showed
human civilization being rebuilt, with the artwork mirroring earlier eras like cave drawings, Greek mosaics, Turner, Pointillism, Impressionism, Van Gogh, etc.
If you stay through all of the credits, you’ll see
a big BNL - Buy N Large (pun I didn’t get until well into the movie: “by and large”) - logo.
Disappointing. Still a good flick…or at least the first 20 minutes, then it was all down hill from there. (and this comes from a huge Pixar fan, but Finding Nemo or Toy Story this movie certainly is not).
First, the mishmash of combing real-lfe actors with CG (particulary with CG humans) was an enourmous mis-step and pulled me out of the movie every time one appeared on-screen. And Fred Willard’s (often seen on The Tonight Show) portrayal as the president was a significant miscast. It instantly told me “hey, don’t this this role seriously,” but unfortunately, he wasn’t funny either.
Scondly, as established before, the movie was great up until they landed on the ship and the ridicolously fat humans showed up – they destroyed the movie for me. Their comic viual style was completley at odds with the rest of the movie, and even worse, they distracted from the core story. It’s as if the producers at Pixar simply had no better method of providing conflict (and thus the necessary resolution) for our two robo-lovers. Shame, that.
Thirdly, the movie slapped me in the face and spanked me in the ass with its oh-so-blatant political commentary. Yes, we know we’re fat, and we’re trashing the earth. STFU.
Also, my overly anal detector (OAD for short) was set abalaze a couple of time too. First, THERE’S NO SOUND IN SPACE. For a movie that seemed to pride itself on minimal dialogue in the begining, those robots just wouldn’t shut it when in a vacuume. Granted, few movies get this right (except for, of course, 2001 – which is odd considering the many homages this film paid to it), but I think those scenes coud have been even more powerful devoid of audio distractions.
And next up on my OAD was the shifting of gravity when the ship tilted…what? Despite it making zero sense, it reminded me of a near-identical scene in Episode 3, and anything that reminds me of that train wreck deserves little sympathy.
Now, despite my ramblings, I don’t think it’s a bad movie – in fact, I rather enjoyed myself. But just no where near on the level I had hoped, or expected based on previous Pixar flicks. I dug both the Wall-e and Eve characters themselves, but their story got lost amongst a mass of mediocrity. Although I will grant the 2001 scene near the end had me in stitches – too bad that was the only use they found for the human characters.
This casting told me that the President was supposed to be a big commercial huckster. For this reason, I think it was a brilliant choice.
Just on this part. Willard was not the President, but just the president and CEO of BnL. I did not think that was all too bad despite being no fan of Willard.
His presence, for me, was akin to the janitor from Scrubs being in Indiana Jones. So well known for the one character they play that their mere presence in anything other instantly destroys any immersive qualities the film may have had.
So, who did the janitor guy PLAY in IJ4? Indy’s kid? I didn’t notice him anywhere.
One of the government agents briefing him after the nuclear bomb goes off.
yeeaahhhh…I walked out a little put-out, too. I really, really, really hated them using live actors, and I thought that the extrapolations of current society were ridiculous. Like you, the space scenes bothered me, especially when they exposed the plant to space. It was purty ‘n’ all, but…I was unsatisfied It’s no Incredibles.
From the previews, Wall-E looks like what would happen if R.O.B. and E.T. met in a bar and got drunk.
Very, very drunk.
Is it wrong to admit that I’d really like one of those floating chairs?
I think the two positions are one and the same by the time they had to evacuate the Earth.
My wife and I each managed to see 4/5ths of it – our daughter was a little too young to enjoy the whole thing. She got fidgety once they went to space, in part because the theater was “too dark” at that point.
I really want to see it again, but I thought what I did see was excellent – not up to Ratatouille or Toy Story 2 or Monsters, Inc., but very possibly my fourth-favorite Pixar film so far.
And, having seen the film, I think people who think the character design is a rip-off of Short Circuit are nuts. It’s clearly a ripoff of E.T..
It’s very sad at the beginning, because the little robot is very lonely. I actually cried a little at the beginning. And of course the robots are in peril. I don’t think there’s anything too upsetting, though - no jump scenes, nothing very scary.
I thought it was Pixar’s best. But then I didn’t think The Incredibles was all that, like everybody else seems to. Different strokes.
I have some questions that may have been answered in the first page (will look back to check). Spoilers in case…
[spoiler] How did they reproduce? Up until the woman touched the guy, it didn’t seem like they developed any type of relationships with other humans that included touching (much less having sex).
Where did the CEO ended up going? There is no mention of him being on the ship, and it is obvious him and his crew were about to leave the earth by the time he gave the A113 order. Are there other Axioms floating through space? Or did they die, like it happened to all those that didn’t get to float into Axiom? 
What happened to all the other robots, how did Wall-E survived? [/spoiler]
I found it a cute touch that when Eve was rebuilding Wall-E on Axiom, the big Wall-Es provided light and didn’t harm them. Perhaps they recognize one of their own (albeit a very old model).
I loved the film. It is one of the best films I’ve ever seen. It is a classic sci-fi movie. I also see a real Miyazaki influence with the ‘dance’ sequence and I like it.
I will own this movie and I’m sure I’ll discover layers and layers in with each viewing.
Nitpick: the big’uns were Wall-As. The ‘E’ in Wall-E stood for “Earth-class,” so I assume the ‘A’ stands for “Axiom-class.”