I saw WALL-E this past weekend, and may well see it again today or tomorrow. I enjoyed it, though I can't say I fully loved it, and feel it deserves a second viewing, if only to appreciate the incredible level of detail director Andrew Stanton packs into every frame. This fully CGI-animated film truly looks more realistic than most CGI-enhanced live action pictures.
WALL-E, of course, comes from the folks at Pixar. With the exception of Cars, the creative geniuses at this studio have yet to make a bad, or even routine, movie. And yet, I must admit, with the exception of Brad Bird's The Incredibles, (and, to a lesser extent, Bird's Ratatouille), I just can't really love any of their output. Admire, sure, and enjoy, and you can't help but admire them for clearly trying to make good movies. But...I can't quite take them to my heart.
Maybe it's because Pixar seems trapped in a paradox its creative gurus can't quite admit: Though Stanton, along with studio godhead John Lasseter and pretty much everyone who has ever worked there, claims directors are free to pursue their own visions, those visions always somehow wind up being G-rated. The people creating these films are adults. Surely they must have darker thoughts, the desire to pursue more daring material.
Sure, they've made small strides. Stanton's Finding Nemo is about a father's realization that he needs to let his son grow up--but it's about cartoon fish and includes plenty of kid-friendly slapstick. WALL-E is about nothing less than the near-death and rebirth of the human race, and the transforming power of love, and while much about it feels fresh, and it certainly doesn't pander to a family audience, it's concept of love seems very wholesome. All the sad, lonely title character longs to do with his dream girl is hold hands--he can't imagine doing anything else, and neither, it seems, can the film's creators.
The Incredibles may have been a spoof of superhero conventions and a tribute to sixties-era James Bond, but it was above all else a very human comedy, the story of a middle-aged couple learning how to love each other again. It's the only Pixar film to allow moments of real pain, the only one with a distinctive point of view, and incidentally, the best, most vividly realized cinematically. Not surprisingly, Bird had written and developed it independently before Pixar agreed to produce it.
Bird, one of the finest directors in animation history, is, sadly, no longer with the studio. It would be nice to think that Pixar would follow his lead, at least, to allow itself to grow and mature. Since upcoming releases include something called Up, about an irascible old man and a young boy and their wacky adventures--gee, do you think each will learn Valuable Life Lessons from the other?--as well as (sigh) Toy Story 3 and Cars 2, that seems very unlikely.
But I'd love to be proved wrong.
