ardathbey

Before posting my thought's on Brian's review I have to mention two things:

--I am an undying Disney fan boy and Cast Member.
--I have no problem if Brian, or ANYONE didn't like this or any other Pixar film. To each there own.

My one concern or question, and I actually wouldn't mention it normally but since Brian is on here and might be able to settle for me is this: It seems your opinion on the film is based on the context of its production, or really, who made it. To paraphrase you mentioned you would have liked basically the same film if done by and indy guy. So are you really basing your judgment on the film your witnessed, or your bias about who made it going in? Again, no disrespect or desire on my part to start a debate. Just curious on your thoughts. Thanks!

PopcornTreeCt

That sucks dude. The blind Pixar loyalty is outrageous.

FiveO

Well since The O reviewed the latest Indian Jones movie as "DVD Talk Collector Series" I definitely won't be taking their review of Wall-E seriously in any way.

I couldn't disagree with you more on Indiana Jones...and I'm guessing it'll be the same with Wall-E.

MadonnasManOne

I agree. I absolutely HATE it when people aren't really reviewing the actual subject, instead choosing to rant about the people/company behind the product. When I see a review like that, I just take it with a grain of salt. It is not worth taking to heart, because their beef isn't really with the subject/product at all, but, with those who have created it. I imagine that if it weren't created by Pixar/Disney, Brian would have likely raved about the film.

However, to each their own, and no disrespect to anyone. I am so excited to see this film, that a bad review isn't going to disuade me. Never has, never will!

MAH4546

I can't in my life remember reading so many positive reviews for one film.

And it's not as if all the reviews are just saying "it's a great movie."

All the reviews are essentially saying the movie is beyond amazing.

The Bus

Just got back from this. The first half of the movie has absolutely no dialogue. One of the best Pixar movies ever, up there with Incredibles and TS2. I'll be seeing it again; it's nearly flawless.

fumanstan

So what would you grade it? Like a D+?

nickdawgy

I'll be seeing it this weekend.

Rogue588

I saw it tonight too. I'd give it a D++.

I wouldn't say it's for the youngins (like, say, 4 & under), but responsible parents should be discussing the flicks their kids see anyways..

Superboy

Heard from a friend that it was great, and they absolutely hated A Bug's Life, Cars, and Ratatouille.

I was surprised at the arrogance of that review.

CliffStephenson

That's exactly what I thought when I read Brian's Wall*E review. "This from the guy who declared Crystal Skull a 'DVD Talk Collector Series' film."

I saw Wall*E tonight and have to say that, in my opinion, it is Pixar's best to date (and I'm not a Pixar groupie- Never saw Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, The Incredibles, or Cars in the theater, only later on DVD). Wall*E is a magnificent achievement in entertainment. The filmmakers found a way to create real, sustained emotion and characters that connect with the audience through no real dialog and no real facial expressions. They've somehow created this entirely through some truly amazing animation with less than fully articulated characters. That's where Brian's review misses the mark, I feel. He seems so busy reviewing Disney and Pixar as a corporation, that he doesn't have time for anything more than a simple dismissal of Wall*E as "cute." He never once mentions the absolutely breathtaking animation quality. At least if you don't like the story, you have to give it credit as a technical achievement, but that's not the review he wrote (which I should remind starts: "Pixar as a formidable storytelling machine is not an entity I'm entirely comfortable with.") I don't mind that he didn't like the film, buy I've yet to read his review of the film, only his overly intellectualized condemnation of the evil, toxic Disney/Pixar corporation.

But as for the film itself, it's was the kind of film that I knew halfway through I was watching a classic. Not that it's a classic today, but as someone earlier said, you just know this movie is special and that this movie is going to watched fondly for generations. As for the things Brian Orndorf is accused of eating, the only thing I can guarantee is that he'll be eating crow as the word on this film gets out.

And Brian, you also state that you were "agitated that Stanton doesn't take the character past infantilization or offer something more than pratfalls." Would you have preferred that Wall*E swing with CG monkeys or get hit in the balls with giant CG plant bulbs?

CliffStephenson

Oh, and I forgot to mention that "Presto," the animated short that precedes Wall*E, is the funniest thing I've seen on screen in a long, long time. Just full of big, hearty laughs.

riotinmyskull

like most brian orndorf reviews, i will ignore it.

just for reference: brian gave THE LOVE GURU and THE HAPPENING higher scores than WALL-E

Vipper II

With Pixar's track record I'd say they've more than earned that loyalty.

OldBoy

guys, enough with the O's review already. like it or hate it, it's an opinion.

see the movie, like it or hate it, and post your thoughts. that is all.

still 98%, 84/2...wow!

MadonnasManOne

Don't read on if you are trying to be spoiler free!

CNN.com has reviewed Wall-E:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movi...lle/index.html

Review: 'Wall-E' is a classic

(CNN) -- The most consistent production unit in Hollywood just hit another home run.

Over the last decade, Pixar has become a byword for quality, combining cutting-edge digital animation with depth of character, slapstick comedy and rich, engrossing storytelling that appeals equally to kids and adults. "Wall-E" has all of that and more.

Written and directed by Andrew Stanton ("Finding Nemo"), it's Pixar's most ambitious movie and an instant classic.

Wall-E is a solar-powered garbage drone, the last one still operating on an abandoned toxic planet that looks an awful lot like -- well, is -- Earth. A rusty box sitting on caterpillar tracks, with a retractable binocular-shaped head, he compresses junk into building blocks and then piles them up into towers that are shadow-skyscrapers of waste in the ruins of an unidentified city.

Electronic billboards still plug defunct products and bring us up to speed handily: Having polluted the planet with more waste than it could handle, globo-corporation Buy N Large evacuated its customers on a five-year space cruise ("The final fun-tier," promises the president, played by Fred Willard), leaving the robots to clean up the mess. Only their calculations were a little off. It's been 700 years, and Wall-E is still at work.

The opening half-hour is a delectable demonstration of visual storytelling. Although his vocabulary is limited to a bare handful of words, Wall-E, we gather, has developed more than a trace of consciousness. He's a hoarder, curious enough to collect unusual bric-a-brac: a whisk, an electric light bulb, bubble wrap. His most treasured item is a VHS tape of "Hello, Dolly."

His systems are scrambled when he bumps into Eve, a gleaming research pod from the mother ship whose sleek, egg-like design and distinctive start-up chime must be a wink to Pixar (and Apple) boss Steve Jobs.

At any rate, Eve is the apple of Wall-E's eye. He's so smitten, he'd follow her anywhere -- even outer space.

There's something special about Wall-E and his pursuit. Robots have been routinely humanized in sci-fi movies: in "Blade Runner," "A.I." and "Metropolis," for example. And "Wall-E" also isn't alone in implying that human beings are becoming more mechanistic ourselves, though the obese overgrown babies Stanton imagines reclining in hover chairs -- pampered and cocooned from birth -- is a more scathing caricature of consumer over-dependency than we'd expect to find in a Hollywood family film.

Indeed, Stanton's most obvious touchstones are Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey" (at one point he treats us to a parodic blast of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" to signal a small baby step for man that's also a huge leap for mankind) and Douglas Trumbull's 1972 eco-parable "Silent Running": philosophical sci-fi films made only four years apart at another point of environmental sensitivity.

But the animating spirit here goes back much further, to the sentimental reveries and delightful improvisatory dexterity of Charlie Chaplin. In "Modern Times," made more than 70 years ago, Chaplin made play with the degrading effects of industrialized society. In "Wall-E," Stanton pitches us between a post-industrial wasteland embalmed in smog and the sterile, artificial atmosphere of a giant floating life-support system.

These aren't attractive prospects, but they are transformed by the little lovelorn robot, a lonely soul who seeks companionship anywhere he can get it ... in a cockroach, an old movie and a trigger-happy search robot.

"Wall-E" isn't a perfect movie; some business involving a team of rogue robots is unduly scrappy. But, mostly, this is a film filled with remarkable moments: a pas de deux in front of the Milky Way (with Wall-E propelled by a fire extinguisher), Eve's maternal glow as she carries out her primary directive, the fleeting moment when first-time space traveler Wall-E turns back, sees the Earth and tries to share his joy in the discovery.

Grace, beauty, joy, laughter and love. A wonderful combination for any movie. "Wall-E" is easily the best film of the year so far.

Mr. Cinema

We have 1 theater here with DLP capability and they are smartly showing Wall-E. I may have to check it out sooner than later now.

JPRaup

Yeah, I think I'm going to see it in DLP tonight at 7, can't freaking wait....

The Bus

This is incredible to me as well. I'm a big fan of things that become anthropomorphised and this movie did it flawlessly. I don't want to hype it up too much, and it has its flaws (particularly near the end), but the things it does well it does so well that it's just astounding.

Brent L

I've never been to a DLP theater before, but just noticed that there's one over in Greenville. How much better should the quality for this flick be in DLP over a normal theater? If it's really a big deal, I'll likely go try and see it there tonight.

JPRaup

I would try to make it to a DLP, especially for an animated film like this. The only DLP show I've seen is Iron Man and the quality was astounding.

RichC2

DLP on digital movies like Wall E looks fantastic, it literally looks like a gigantic high definition television scaled for size (It's hard to believe the image is being projected onto the screen and not coming from the back).

The big thing though, reel films lose quality everytime they are shown, I've heard pretty high figures over a lot being lost from the first showing alone. DLP will look the same no matter when you see it, which is great but doesn't really apply too too much since this is a brand new flick. But the lack of film flaws (no shakey image spots, no rough reel transfers from unskilled projectionists, no framing issues, no cigarette burns, etc; ), superior color and excellent sharpness make it worthwhile to seek out, IMO at least.

chris_sc77

Can anyone whose seen the film tell me more about Peter Gabriel's work on the music or songs?
I myself dont watch these kinds of movies but I am curious to hear about Peter Gabriel's involvement since he's one of my favorite artists. Thanks.

BDB

He has the closing song in the film. you can tell instantly it's Peter Gabriel.

And he co-wrote some of the score. The track/score is on iTunes.

Track is called Down to Earth.

Brent L

I've been looking over the reviews, and they're not only just positive, but they praise the film as being far more than simply a great animated picture. I'm starting to wonder if WALL•E could have a shot at a Best Picture Oscar nomination next year.