So after almost two months of being in theaters, I finally got around to seeing Wall-E yesterday – probably just in the nick of time, as I was beginning to think that it was going to have to wait until DVD because we kept putting it off – and ultimately, I think I probably would’ve been ok if that had been the case…
Honestly, I was very torn about this movie even when I saw the previews last year, although I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt not only because it’s a Disney-Pixar picture and I’d probably pay to see these guys animate the phonebook (although I wouldn’t automatically come back for the sequel…), but also because I came into Cars with the exact same feeling and ended up absolutely loving that movie so I figured that there was always a chance that Wall-E would fare the same.
Unfortunately, it ended up just being ok for me.
I mean, sure – the imagery was beautiful, especially the scene where Wall-E goes into space after Eve, and it definitely continued the trend of every single Pixar movie looking better than the one before it – that, I can’t deny. And I even enjoyed the character of Wall-E, watching him interact with the world almost like a child as he explored and learned about his surroundings – the personification was another plus. But ultimately, there was just something missing, whether it was the lack of real “speech” in the film for me or possibly just a lack of that shivery feeling that I usually get when I watch a truly great movie – like in the scene where Remy’s rat friends all come to help in the restaurant in Ratatouille, the montage at the end of Meet the Robinsons where Lewis “grows up,” or even the very opening scene of Cars as the title comes up on the screen in the middle of the track.
In the end, it was a quaint story, Wall-E was adorable, and the movie had some scenes that really left me in stitches, but it didn’t exactly knock any of my favorite Pixar movies out of their ranks (Cars, The Incredibles, A Bug’s Life for my top three) and even in comparison, I think I still enjoyed Ratatouille from last summer better. Of course, no studio is going to crank out a hit for everybody every time – Disney itself has been a prime example of that lately, so now it’s just a matter of what we’ll see next. I still look forward to adding the DVD to my collection this fall, not to mention seeing just where they fit the little robot into the parks in the future. It seems like it would be easy to fit Wall-E into either Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom or Future World in Epcot, although admittedly I’ve thought the same about Meet the Robinsons ever since I saw the flick, too, and we’ve yet to see anything on that front.
Next spring brings us Up, the tenth feature film from Pixar … so despite Wall-E being “not bad” in my book, hopefully I’ll have a slightly better review for their next offering come springtime!