27.9.08

Wall-e : Sugary Fantasy

On the surface,Wall-E has the whole package: the central duo are quite likable,the running plot is clever and mostly well-thought out,with only a small dose of slapstick (mostly limited to the first 30 minutes) and a powerful message about preserving mother earth/being yourself that is delivered through the story,not placed front and center like a trite election-season ad that barks at you condescendingly.The overall product,however-is unremarkable-and I can point out where exactly it just didn't bode well for me.

I didn't like the way they insisted on portraying robots to behave so much like humans.Not that I expect a bunch of unemotional,beeping metal cans who take orders and wheel around (plus to suggest that robots have their "own" way of behaving,well that's just ridiculous)-but the whole thing about robots wanting to hold hands,"kiss" and find romance showed a sever lack of imagination on the writers part.Likewise,showing rats in Rataouille to be drinking in bar-type establishments and cooking in kitchens was to me eluding the true,fascinating nature of animals and settling instead on something more palatable and family-friendly.It all spells Fuckin' Disney Miley Cyrus Mass Audience Bullshit to me,a zero score on the 'wow' scale.

What more,the so-called villain (the ship's 'controlling system') is instantly defeated with a push of a button-next to the amount of attention paid to detail,this is one out of many major oversights that conveniently bring the movie to a fairy-tale happy ending,one so cutesy and artificial its too much even for a cartoon.

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