Wall-E
We saw this movie yesterday, as I mentioned. It is worth seeing, and I did enjoy it, but this review at the New York Times is dishonest.
One of the great things about art, including popular art, is that it can hit audiences at a profound level beyond words. That includes children. The kids at “Wall-E” were never restless, despite the movie’s often melancholy mood and few belly laughs. They seemed to instinctually understand what “Wall-E” was saying; they didn’t pepper their chaperones with questions along the way. At the end they clapped their small hands.
I was in this movie at 10:50, and it was filled with mostly children. So full, that we sat in the very front row. But the children sitting next to us were restless. They didn't get it. One child kept kicking Lewis's seat and asking his mom if he could leave. He spilled his skittles all over the floor and she apologized to us many times.
The child next to us frequently asked his mother when it was going to be over. "Is Wall-E over?" he asked.
Further back, more children broke out into sobs than any movie I can ever remember being in. Now - point of fact I don't frequent children's films, but I'd say I see at least 2 a year. And there were many a kids a crying in this movie. And talking. Lots and lots of children talking. I do believe they keep the stereo louder in these movies to drown out that noise ... but it was often very distracting.
The children didn't get any deep political, or human motive in this film. They saw a great robot doing silly things and making funny noises. They saw people falling out of chairs and pretty pictures of earth and they saw how boy met girl, fell in love, and wants to be with girl forever.
But they didn't get "it." Whatever the New York Times reporter wants to think.
At it's basest level, Wall-E is not about green or gas or global warming or anything that the pundits will say it is a bout. What it is about, is a lonely robot that just wants someone to hold his hand.
The movie is a success not because it encourages conservation (it doesn't out right - though it is clear we have a lot of trash) or because it blames humans for earth's destruction (it doesn't) but because without dialouge or even a human face, we come to care about this robot and his friend Eve, and their pet cockroach.
And when I say it doesn't blame human's for it's destruction ... a central point of the humans floating in space is that they have to go back, because the earth needs them. The point isn't that we should leave the earth, we should take care of it and nurture it and grow things from it. The earth needs us as much as we need the earth. And how the earth got to the point it got is ... unclear and ubiquitous at best. Too much consumption I would guess, spawned by the corporation that encourages laziness and dependence upon it.
But Wall-E is the movies star. Everything else is a backdrop from which he shines. He's the center of what we all wish to be, an innocent, hard working, honest, vulnerable heart ... who really only wants someone to hold his hand.
One of the great things about art, including popular art, is that it can hit audiences at a profound level beyond words. That includes children. The kids at “Wall-E” were never restless, despite the movie’s often melancholy mood and few belly laughs. They seemed to instinctually understand what “Wall-E” was saying; they didn’t pepper their chaperones with questions along the way. At the end they clapped their small hands.
I was in this movie at 10:50, and it was filled with mostly children. So full, that we sat in the very front row. But the children sitting next to us were restless. They didn't get it. One child kept kicking Lewis's seat and asking his mom if he could leave. He spilled his skittles all over the floor and she apologized to us many times.
The child next to us frequently asked his mother when it was going to be over. "Is Wall-E over?" he asked.
Further back, more children broke out into sobs than any movie I can ever remember being in. Now - point of fact I don't frequent children's films, but I'd say I see at least 2 a year. And there were many a kids a crying in this movie. And talking. Lots and lots of children talking. I do believe they keep the stereo louder in these movies to drown out that noise ... but it was often very distracting.
The children didn't get any deep political, or human motive in this film. They saw a great robot doing silly things and making funny noises. They saw people falling out of chairs and pretty pictures of earth and they saw how boy met girl, fell in love, and wants to be with girl forever.
But they didn't get "it." Whatever the New York Times reporter wants to think.
At it's basest level, Wall-E is not about green or gas or global warming or anything that the pundits will say it is a bout. What it is about, is a lonely robot that just wants someone to hold his hand.
The movie is a success not because it encourages conservation (it doesn't out right - though it is clear we have a lot of trash) or because it blames humans for earth's destruction (it doesn't) but because without dialouge or even a human face, we come to care about this robot and his friend Eve, and their pet cockroach.
And when I say it doesn't blame human's for it's destruction ... a central point of the humans floating in space is that they have to go back, because the earth needs them. The point isn't that we should leave the earth, we should take care of it and nurture it and grow things from it. The earth needs us as much as we need the earth. And how the earth got to the point it got is ... unclear and ubiquitous at best. Too much consumption I would guess, spawned by the corporation that encourages laziness and dependence upon it.
But Wall-E is the movies star. Everything else is a backdrop from which he shines. He's the center of what we all wish to be, an innocent, hard working, honest, vulnerable heart ... who really only wants someone to hold his hand.
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