Storytellers
I'm a year late to game, and lots of people have already said lots of stuff about how awesome Wall-E is already. However, there really can't be enough praise for Wall-E, so I'll add my 2 cents anyway.
The fact that the movie works both for adults and for very, very small children - and does so by making the "adult" jokes allusions to 2001 and old musicals, rather that toilet humor - is why PIXAR runs circles around everyone else. (My favorite is the Apple start sound* when Wall-E and Eve reboot - hi-larious.) They not only know how to tell stories better than most everyone else, they know how to do so using pictures and motion and sound and not just words. If they didn't know how to do this, they wouldn't be able to make a movie that not only makes absolute sense to toddlers, but also makes me ponder possible fanfictions about all the other Starcruisers.
Also, I love, love, love the end credits. Yes, I know it's a minor thing compared to the awesomeness of the movie itself. I just happened to be thinking as they were showing the clip from Hello Dolly for the last time, that Wall-E isn't just meant to be about ecology and apathy, but also about the importance of narrative and knowledge. The bits where Wall-E is dancing to "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" and the scene where the captain stays up asking the computer questions about things like pizza and farming aren't just there for laughs or even just to move the plot along. They are there to emphasize how important story and information are to humanity - and all other sentient life forms. It was nice to see this echoed in the credits as well.
One last thing - if anyone still doesn't understand why completely ditching old technologies for brand-new ones is rarely a good idea (yes, I'm talking to you Eisner), watch the special feature about how they came up with the sound effects for Wall-E. V. cool.
*my pc at work makes a similar start up sound, but it doesn't sound quite like my macs at home. And Wall-E and Eva sound exactly like my macs.
The fact that the movie works both for adults and for very, very small children - and does so by making the "adult" jokes allusions to 2001 and old musicals, rather that toilet humor - is why PIXAR runs circles around everyone else. (My favorite is the Apple start sound* when Wall-E and Eve reboot - hi-larious.) They not only know how to tell stories better than most everyone else, they know how to do so using pictures and motion and sound and not just words. If they didn't know how to do this, they wouldn't be able to make a movie that not only makes absolute sense to toddlers, but also makes me ponder possible fanfictions about all the other Starcruisers.
Also, I love, love, love the end credits. Yes, I know it's a minor thing compared to the awesomeness of the movie itself. I just happened to be thinking as they were showing the clip from Hello Dolly for the last time, that Wall-E isn't just meant to be about ecology and apathy, but also about the importance of narrative and knowledge. The bits where Wall-E is dancing to "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" and the scene where the captain stays up asking the computer questions about things like pizza and farming aren't just there for laughs or even just to move the plot along. They are there to emphasize how important story and information are to humanity - and all other sentient life forms. It was nice to see this echoed in the credits as well.
One last thing - if anyone still doesn't understand why completely ditching old technologies for brand-new ones is rarely a good idea (yes, I'm talking to you Eisner), watch the special feature about how they came up with the sound effects for Wall-E. V. cool.
*my pc at work makes a similar start up sound, but it doesn't sound quite like my macs at home. And Wall-E and Eva sound exactly like my macs.