The Wonderful World of Wall·e
I was listening to a podcast (TED Talk) at work yesterday and in one of the segments they interviewed a man who works for Pixar. He was talking about the movie Wall·e and how one of the big things they did in preparation for the storyline was to watch a lot of silent films. By studying Charlie Chaplin and other famous silent movie actors they were able to visualize how the were going to build a love story without any words. To do this they relied heavily on musical cues and insinuations to character develop in such a way where you would first fall in love with Wall·e and then route for him as he falls in love with Eve.
After listening to the podcast, I thought about the movie the remainder of the day and decided to snuggle up and watch it when I got home from work! Side note: it was unbelievably stormy yesterday and we were in a tornado watch for hours so it was a perfect nighttime activity since you couldn't really go anywhere. I have always loved Wall·e and I would say it is tied in first place as my favorite Pixar movie (its leading opposition: Finding Nemo). Having been a while since I last watched it, I was completely glued to the TV. And here is why…
1. It is a classic love story! Here you have Wall·e, this adorable, slightly clumsy, lonely robot living alone on a deserted Earth who's daily job is to compact trash. To entertain himself he collects little treasures and watches a tape of Hello Dolly, his prized possession. Then along comes Eve, this independent, slightly aggressive robot who is on a determined mission to find any signs of life on Earth. For Wall·e it is love at first sight and he proceeds to try and impress her with his treasures. Wall·e's one goal: to hold Eves hand. How unbelievable cute and innocent is this? All he wants to do hold her hand, the simplest sign of affection that he learned from watching the Hello Dolly musical. The entire time all I could think was… "I'll hold your hand Wall·e!!"
And that is just one example of why Wall·e is an amazing movie!
After listening to the podcast, I thought about the movie the remainder of the day and decided to snuggle up and watch it when I got home from work! Side note: it was unbelievably stormy yesterday and we were in a tornado watch for hours so it was a perfect nighttime activity since you couldn't really go anywhere. I have always loved Wall·e and I would say it is tied in first place as my favorite Pixar movie (its leading opposition: Finding Nemo). Having been a while since I last watched it, I was completely glued to the TV. And here is why…
1. It is a classic love story! Here you have Wall·e, this adorable, slightly clumsy, lonely robot living alone on a deserted Earth who's daily job is to compact trash. To entertain himself he collects little treasures and watches a tape of Hello Dolly, his prized possession. Then along comes Eve, this independent, slightly aggressive robot who is on a determined mission to find any signs of life on Earth. For Wall·e it is love at first sight and he proceeds to try and impress her with his treasures. Wall·e's one goal: to hold Eves hand. How unbelievable cute and innocent is this? All he wants to do hold her hand, the simplest sign of affection that he learned from watching the Hello Dolly musical. The entire time all I could think was… "I'll hold your hand Wall·e!!"
2. Wall·e's best friend is a cockroach. Living in the south I have seen my fair share of cockroaches. Not once have I ever considered befriending one. Then here comes Wall·e - befriending everyone he meets- which includes the indestructible (even when the world seems unlivable) cockroach. He shelters and feeds his companion as if it is a pet.
3. He is an Apple product! (Insert the noise a Mac makes when you turn it on here)
4. This scene: There is this one scene where Eve tries to send Wall·e back to Earth. Wall·e doesn't realize yet what Eve is trying to do and invites her to sit next to him on the mini space ship. He claps his "feet" together and then pats the seat loving like as if to say "come sit right here… right next to me!" For some reason I am in love with this scene. It again represents his innocence and naive nature that you can't help but fall in love with.
5. The entire movie is a warning to human kind about how destructive we could be to both the planet we live on and to our own bodies. The earth is abandoned do to its unlivable nature and its overflow of human waste. To make matters worse the surviving humans become so morbidly obese that they lose bone development. This results in them being immobile traveling around in these tv screened hover beds. Additionally the people in the movie are so absorbed in their computerized tv screens they are hardly living in the "real" world. At one point a women exclaims, after her hover tv chair breaks, "I didn't know we had a pool" and later marvels in the beauty of stars in space as if seeing it for the very first time. It is a scary but completely believable image of what could happen to the human population.
6. Finally the movie is just so visually beautiful. All of the scenes where Wall·e is in space are so masterfully designed they almost appear three dimensional. Love every minute of it!
If you have not seen this movie (of have not seen it for a while) put that on your to-do list for this weekend! I truly believe it is one of the best Pixar films ever crafted! Have a great weekend <3 WC
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