WALL-E
I saw Pixar’s latest creation, WALL-E, today, and I’m sort of flummoxed that the reviews seem so superlatively positive. I enjoyed it thoroughly, but I have no particular desire to see it again - a good movie, but not THAT great.
I feel about it the same way I felt about Ratatouille and Batman Begins. Both were excellent movies, certainly. Both were clearly written by intelligent, witty folks with a human heart. Both did everything “right,” intellectually speaking. There’s not necessarily any criticism of the movie that should justify not falling completely in love with either - but you don’t. Because it’s not merely enough not to do anything wrong. You also have to make a connection with the audience - and that’s more haphazard, more difficult to achieve (and also varies from individual to individual necessarily).
Most of the movie is done entirely in mime - the robots are just anthropomorphic enough to
garner your sympathy, but not enough to really interest you as characters, apart from the wrenching sadness of their plight. Although you’re never bored, and you’re never turned the wrong way, you never really connect with Wall-E or EVE (the “girl” robot) beyond the sort of superficial “connection” you might have with a picture of a starving orphan or a three-legged puppy saying “I can make it on my own!” It’s awfully moving. But you feel kind of distant from the whole thing.
I still think back to a story told about Walt Disney’s response to some writer’s worries about the Jungle Book’s story not working. Walt dismissed their concerns and basically asked “Why should I care about this?” He wanted gags, moments - emotional connection with the audience. A story in-and-of-itself may be a way of emotionally connecting with the audience, but it can also be a puzzle-solving exercise or a useless weight. So how is the connection to be achieved? The story can’t simply be well told - it has to be a story about something worth telling. Is it inspiring? Shocking? Frightening? Thrilling? What is the emotional connection?
As best as I can tell, WALL-E primarily serves up pathos. Apart from the usual self-conscious attempts at zany slapstick, there’s not a lot of humor. The “romance” was effective as a source of pity, not as romance itself. While there’s certainly a lot of “commentary” ladled around, it’s not especially provocative. The movie didn’t strike me as having lots of intellectual layers to peel off (Ratatouille, at least, had a few). With a few exceptions, there’s no real suspense - even though I was never really sure how it was going to end (the great films now to generate suspense even with full knowledge of what’s to come). The stakes never seemed high enough, perhaps. It never once felt dull or trite, but it never really felt clever either.
So the question “why should I care, really?” remains largely unanswered.