Ray calls WALL*E a "wordless masterpiece"
Thank you, Pixar!
I want to work for Pixar. I would scrub trash cans. Shine shoes. Give discreet, stress-relieving blow jobs under their computer desks. Hell, I might even clean windows. I would do almost anything to touch, even momentarily, the magic that pulses in the halls of this cinematic utopia. From the brilliant TOY STORY to THE INCREDIBLES, you would be hard pressed to find a studio with a better track record of success on all levels of moviemaking. During this time period, which covers a span of seven feature films, Pixar managed to combine concise, intricately-woven stories with unique and interesting characters, creating instant classics. Then came the disastrous CARS, which gave Pixar its first dent with limp storyline and silly, anthromorphosized automobiles. They then followed that up with RATATOUILLE, a complex, adult-feeling film with a fairly rushed and thin romance at its center that looked beautiful but had little beneath the surface. I am glad to say that Pixar has returned to form. WALL*E is the kind of perfectly-constructed machine designed to reap huge rewards at the box office, the Oscars, and the hearts of millions of moviegoers. Taking a cue from STEVEN SPIELBERG'S emotional masterpiece E.T. The EXTRATERRESTRIAL, director ANDREW STANTON and his crew have crafted a non-human hero that barely speaks any intelligible language, yet speaks to the emotions of any cognitive human. The film opens with Wall*E busily cleaning up the Earth by himself. The planet has been long abandoned by careless humans, and the massive piles of debris and trash have been left to the lone janitorial droid to compress into neat piles of trash cubes. The hundreds of years that have passed have not bored the little robot; instead, Wall*E has developed a personality by curiously inspecting the refuse of his former masters. His newfound emotions come to test when a spaceship arrives and unloads a terrestrial scanning robot named EVE. Wall*E, smitten with the sleek, vaguely feminine robot, follows her into space and to the last surviving colony of humans. There, he teaches both humans and robots the value of love and responsibility. The brave decision to reduce most of the film to dialogue-free pantomime pays off handsomely; this might be one of the most poetic children's films ever. Pixar relies on the intelligence of the viewer - a rare quality in today's films - to piece together the narrative rather than explicitly explaining it through words. Like some lost, robotic Charlie Chaplin film, the story and its accompanying emotion follow from the beautiful, wordless action of its heroes. By reducing their story to its bare bones, Pixar manages to wring staggering amounts of sympathy and empathy for the love story at the center of this film. As characters, Wall*E and EVE stand as two of Pixar's greatest achievements. Wall*E, all expressive eyes and body language, is the perfect underdog hero. With his limited verbiage of blips and bleeps, he manages to convey a vast array of complex emotions. Wall*E's love interest, EVE, exudes the type of impulsive harshness and loyalty that men see in the behavior of women; it's a very precise and detailed depiction. Much of the praise for these two and their friends needs to be heaped upon sound designer BEN BURTT, who tops his work with Artoo-Detoo in conveying emotion in an inhuman object. It might be his crowning achievement, and a much-needed career revamp after he nearly destroyed the STAR WARS prequels with his meddling. While every Pixar film tops the previous one for technical virtuosity, WALL*E manages to astound even beyond the expected achievements. Little Wall*E's world is so fully fleshed out and detailed that an audience member has no choice but to accept it as real. Even more impressive are some of the space sequences in the middle section of the film. They are so beautiful and magical that one instantly flashes back to E.T. and Elliot flying past the moon for sheer emotional heft. It is a beautiful work of art. In my mind, Pixar deserves its own scale of greatness separate from the rest of the movies released by Hollywood. When compared to the other films released this summer in general, it is easily the best so far. To me, it's the best film of the year. If comparing it to other Pixar films, I put it near the top, with THE INCREDIBLES, TOY STORY, and FINDING NEMO. Yes, it is just that good. A wordless masterpiece. Thank you, Pixar.