Background info

Title: WALL·E Director: Andrew Stanton Year: 2008 Run time: 1hr 38m

“What if mankind had to leave Earth, and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off? After hundreds of lonely years of doing what he was built for, WALL-E discovers a new purpose in life (besides collecting knick-knacks) when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL-E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet’s future, and races back to space to report her findings to the humans (who have been eagerly awaiting word that it is safe to return home). Meanwhile, WALL-E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets into motion one of the most exciting and imaginative comedy adventures ever brought to the big screen. Joining WALL-E on his fantastic journey across a universe of never-before-imagined visions of the future, is a hilarious cast of characters including a pet cockroach, and a heroic team of malfunctioning misfit robots.”

Live blog

2:10 - I like that sequence as a way of showing the Earth’s progression towards disaster. 3:44 - For some reason, I thought this was set on a different planet, but this is Earth. 7:04 - Pesky spork. Do you store it with the spoons or the forks? 8:31 - That’s like the white-outs in Outcasts. A tidal wave of dust. Not fun. 11:35 - The only bit of greenery for miles and he digs it up? Crazy. 15:44 - A spaceship came all that way to drop off a robot? 18:07 - She, it, doesn’t seem very friendly. How will they ever get on? 20:47 - That’s a lot of firepower for a little robot. 23:53 - Bubble wrap! When aliens take over the earth, we can baffle them with bubble wrap. 29:18 - He seems to like her more now she’s all shut up. 32:22 - They do go into space! 36:06 - A sterile environment, eh? How very Apple. 37:23 - The little cleaning robot is awesome. I expect the Roomba to turn into that at some point. 39:54 - I know it’s bad that they’re all fat and stuff, but that space ship does look like fun. 45:36 - That’s an actual human! Weird. 53:06 - The robots have gone rogue! 55:10 - Why does the other robot want rid of the plant? 57:34 - Wall-e’s in lurve. 1:01:49 - Interesting to think of these generations who don’t remember the Earth. 1:12:05 - Mo is definitely my favourite. 1:16:29 - The Axiom is a great idea for a ship. Can someone please invent that? 1:23:40 - Why wouldn’t he remember? She didn’t change his hard drive. 1:25:49 - He hasn’t even noticed he’s back on Earth!

Conclusions

It definitely wasn’t as mushy as I thought it was going to be, but my expectations were quite low. It was better than anticipated, but I did think the beginning was very slow. Whilst it was fun to see Wall-e interacting with his environment, it’s thirty minutes on the dust and depression of Earth before the fun stuff out in space begins. Overall, I mostly liked it, but I wouldn’t watch it again.

Rating: 3/5

Be Kind, Rewind - Feb 2017

In my memory, I had this film pegged as one of the weaker Pixar outings, but totally watchable - unlike something like Cars 2, or Up (which I haven’t even attempted). Watching it with a more open attitude to emotions made it slightly better, and I didn’t think it drifted too much at the start - embedding Wall-e in his lonely environment made perfect sense, and I could almost feel the solitude.

Still, even after all this time, the cleaning robot is my favourite.