Comments on In Palinode's Palace: It's Wall-E's world, we just live in it

Calla - Thank you.

2008-10-27T08:25:00.000-06:00

Calla - Thank you.

You write very well.

2008-10-27T08:23:00.000-06:00

You write very well.

feroz - Yes, that part of the movie was troublesom...

2008-09-04T10:00:00.000-06:00

feroz - Yes, that part of the movie was troublesome for me as well. There were 5,000 or so humans on that ship and they were cheering for the dissolution of the only life they'd ever known. Maybe Andrew Stanton believes that humans are born with an unchanging core, an instinctual sense of What's Good - which in this case, appears to be labour.

There's something a bit armchair-reactionary about this point of view, in which people can reflect on the world of leisure they've inherited and find it wanting. I think it's not so simple to separate leisure and craft, as Wall-e attempts to do. The ending is kind of a utopian mash-up of the post-industrial future (sleek helper robots) and the agrarian past (hoedown nights in the village).

In a way, the metaphor of a hard drive reboot is particularly apt - you're starting from scratch, but what is 'scratch' in this case? 'Scratch' is a fantastically complicated piece of technology that has only existed since the last part of the twentieth century. The reboot only appears to be starting over, but you've got helper robots everywhere.

I'm a bit late to this, but the movie has only com...

2008-09-03T20:52:00.000-06:00

I'm a bit late to this, but the movie has only come out now in India...

The movie is definitely addictive and certainly of the better ones I've seen in a while (the last one I saw was Hancock, god save my soul). I was in a photo studio a few minutes after the movie and the clicks and clacks of the photo printer they were using nearly made me look around to see if Wall-E would roll out of the nearest crack.

Yet you know what really didn't make sense to me? Forget the plant and the ridiculous physical damage done to Wall-E. What really didn't make sense was the fact that humans who were probably drifting around on their little hovermobiles for the last 600/700 years accepted the decision to begin life on an arid wasteland without so much as a word of dissent.
Everyone seemed so - happy. Even when Wall-E rammed into them and knocked them off their chairs and caused all manner of chaos....
Maybe humans minds had become pliable like putty by then, with nothing to get angry about for 600/700 years, would you forget anger? Or were they just trying to close off the plot? :S

jdg - I was experiencing the same problem: nothing...

2008-07-25T13:24:00.000-06:00

jdg - I was experiencing the same problem: nothing much worthwhile being written about the film. So I went and did it myself.

The first time I saw the film, I was so entranced by the opening sequence, with its evocation of pre-Lucas science fiction movies, that the bright and orderly Axiom seemed like a letdown. The robots did such a good job of being human that the humans could only disappoint. And I wanted a different ending. I didn't think the humans deserved to inherit the planet.

On second viewing, I knew where the film was headed, so I was prepared to consider the movie on its terms instead of mine. I realized that the film became very different if I read it as a story about humanity, not a couple of robots.

And yes, I wondered about the plant growing in the fridge. That plant survived pretty much everything that an indifferent universe could throw at it: darkness, robot insides, hard vacuum, ideological battles, you name it. I think Stanton is making a point about the indomitable spirit of life or some such - 'the force that through the green fuse drives the flower' drives humans back to Earth, maybe.

Gwen - You're right. There is that last shot of plant life returning, just in time to be devoured by blobby humans intent on the blissful resubjugation of the planet.

It seemed like a bit of magic at the end - the return of life both vegetative and conscious to a world finally ready to sustain life again. Maybe that was the point at which I ceased believing in the story. The first part of the movie was so powerful that it cast a cautionary pall over the rest of the film.

I would submit that, 1, the planet wasn't barely s...

2008-07-24T20:26:00.000-06:00

I would submit that, 1, the planet wasn't barely sustainable. I didn't notice until the second viewing, but at the very end, the camera pulls back and we see that there are plants growing all around the edge of Wall-E's city.

2: Maybe the plant in the refrigerator thought it was still emerging from the ground? No...

Okay, I have no second point, then.

fucking best thing I've seen written about this mo...

2008-07-24T14:55:00.000-06:00

fucking best thing I've seen written about this movie, and I have been looking for something good written about this movie.

would be interested to know more about how "both times [you came] away with an entirely different opinion of the film."

also, how did a plant grow inside a refrigerator? explain that, oh wise one.

Pixar had my number one vote until they were gobbl...

2008-07-15T23:11:00.000-06:00

Pixar had my number one vote until they were gobbled up by Disney.

Cheers

lotus07 - I too liked the Mac bootup sound. What g...

2008-07-13T12:36:00.000-06:00

lotus07 - I too liked the Mac bootup sound. What got me were the constant nods to other sci-fi movies, like the Blade Runner-esque public announcements and the HAL-like autopilot.

'sir' - Thanks for the link to Lileks. Definitely worth reading.

sarah louise - I liked the musical component as well. For about a week after the film I found myself humming the Hello Dolly tunes in a Wall-efied voice.

sparkliesunshine - I recommend it.

keli - That's entirely possible, and now that I think about it, probably necessary. It seems to cheapen the humans' triumph a bit if they're just carrying out instructions, but then again, I think there's a strong subtext in the film to the effect that our technologies and ourselves operate in symbiosis, and that in any case, there are fewer differences betweent ourselves and our technologies than we assume.

Regarding the end of the story, I just told myself...

2008-07-13T12:17:00.000-06:00

Regarding the end of the story, I just told myself that there were elaborate recolonization protocols already in place. The doughy humans, after all, were good at taking direction.

Nice review of my new favorite movie.

All of this discussion I have been hearing about t...

2008-07-11T22:26:00.000-06:00

All of this discussion I have been hearing about this movie fascinates me. It's a children's movie that is up for picture of the year! I guess I will really have to watch this to get an opinion about it. Everyone seems split.

You are being featured on Five Star Friday:http://...

2008-07-11T08:09:00.001-06:00

You are being featured on Five Star Friday:
http://www.fivestarfriday.com/2008/07/five-star-friday-lucky-edition-14.html

Oh crap. And I loved your line about romance being...

2008-07-11T08:09:00.000-06:00

Oh crap. And I loved your line about romance being all about deferral of romance and how the humans on the space ship had no deferral.

So. um. Yeah. I really liked this and will be thinking about it and as a result probably will soon be doling out another $6 to watch it again...

oh, and thank you for pointing out how crazy it is...

2008-07-11T08:07:00.000-06:00

oh, and thank you for pointing out how crazy it is that the plant was inside a refrigerator. Um, sunlight? Photosynthesis much?

But what can I say, I forgive a lot for the sake of story.

Okay, where did you have your first asterisk? I, t...

2008-07-11T08:04:00.000-06:00

Okay, where did you have your first asterisk?

I, too, have seen Wall-E two times. The second time I saw it I thought it was a completely different movie.

It had me from hello with the Hello Dolly song at the onset, HD being the first Broadway show I saw (at the ripe age of 8).

I agree with the last commenter, this is one of the best reviews I've read. And now I might have to go see it a third time. Well, what ya going to do, it's summer, and the theatres are air conditioned!

I love your take on movies. Keep going! Keep writing!

Also, I was oblivious to all the Mac "jokes" as I work and live in a PC world. I'll have to study up.

Yours and Lileks impromptu reviews are the only I'...

2008-07-10T09:41:00.000-06:00

Yours and Lileks impromptu reviews are the only I've seen that were worth reading. I haven't seen the movie yet, but will soon. It strikes me as being far better than most non-animated fare pumped out by the machine these days.

Your third paragraph neatly sums up the cause of my general lack of esteem for wide swaths of the human race these days. Sadly cynical, perhaps, but no less accurate.

It is hard not to like a Pixar film. They have su...

2008-07-10T09:35:00.000-06:00

It is hard not to like a Pixar film. They have such good production values, but this film sort of puzzled me. It was sort of between the adult / child genres.

The undertones of a world gone mad / lazy from wanton consumerisum was disturbing, but used only as a plot device, as though this is already a fate acompli, it is bound to happen. Which is disturbing.

The subtle nodes to Apple were the most humorous. The iPod video and the fact that when Wall-E charged up his solar cells, he made the same sound as a Macintosh Quardra booting up. That made me giggle.

No closed fists means that they won't be punching ...

2008-07-09T23:30:00.000-06:00

No closed fists means that they won't be punching each other. On the other hand, the far future may hold many slap fights.

The humans were to physically ineffectual for me t...

2008-07-09T23:27:00.000-06:00

The humans were to physically ineffectual for me to feel any hope for them in the end. They could not even make closed fists, they were so fat and soft.