‘WALL-E’ | 3 stars
Pixar's little robot isn't perfect, but you have to admire his originality and ambition
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Which apparently is fine with Auto, the computer autopilot that runs the Axiom. Auto is shaped like a ship’s wheel and has the same single red glowing eye so familiar from HAL 9000 in Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” (At one point the soundtrack even blares out “Also Sprach Zarathustra.”)
Ostensibly Auto serves his human makers, but like many rulers he wants to preserve the status quo. WALL-E and EVE’s news that Earth is once again habitable threatens his reign. It’s up to the usually ineffectual ship’s captain (voiced by Jeff Garlin) to defy this mechanical mutineer and steer the Axiom back to her home planet.
While the film’s opening passage is quiet and measured, the Axiom sequence is busy and a bit silly. A small army of robots must be battled, tricked or coerced by WALL-E and EVE, and the high jinks are so dense and frantic that it’s hard to keep track of who’s who.
Worse, the film fritters away its gentle, even heartbreaking mood by attempting to placate the kids in the audience. In its second half “WALL-E” becomes confusing and cluttered and fails to deliver the emotional payoff we’ve been waiting for.
Moreover, the film is rarely funny in a conventional sense. Odd and quirky? Certainly. Laugh-out-loud? Hardly ever.
Whatever its shortcomings as narrative, “WALL-E” is a brilliant visual accomplishment, a sci-fi saga in a palpably believable environment (at least until the cartoonish humans show up).
With its split personality, “WALL-E” falls short of greatness. Even so, it pushes the animation envelope with every frame.
‘WALL-E’ ★★★
Director: Andrew Stanton
Cast: Fred Willard, voice of Jeff Garlin
Rated: G
Running time: 1:38
THE WHERE OF ‘WALL-E’
Where the filmmakers got:
•The robots’ noises: Oscar-winning sound designer Ben Burtt, who created, among other things, the voice of R2-D2 and the hiss for “Alien,” ran noises through his computer to change pitch, stretch vowels and inject a machine-like quality.
•Other sounds: The clicking of police handcuffs makes the sound of a cockroach skittering. A heavy canvas bag dragged down a carpeted hallway sounds just like a windstorm.
•The film’s look: Sources include NASA paintings from the 1950s and ’60s, the first concept paintings for Disneyland’s Tomorrowland and quintessential sci-fi films from the ’60s and ’70s.
•The pampered humans’ pudgy bodies: A NASA expert told filmmakers about disuse atrophy and the effects of zero gravity.
•The robots’ gizmos: Filmmakers visited NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and robotic conferences, talked to robot designers and brought in a police department’s bomb-sniffing robot.
Source: Walt Disney Pictures
‘PRESTO’ HAS SOMETHING UP ITS SLEEVE
Don’t be late for your screening of “WALL-E.” You don’t want to miss “Presto,” which plays before the feature. It’s one of Pixar’s cleverest animated shorts.
In this beautifully rendered little classic, a pompous stage magician finds his act undermined by a defiant rabbit that not only refuses to be pulled from a hat but turns the performer’s stage apparatus against him.
It’s all done wordlessly, with an ever-accelerating sense of chaos and a truly anarchic sense of humor. Remember the high-speed hilarity of those Roger Rabbit shorts from nearly 20 years ago? “Presto” recaptures it.
@ For Robert W. Butler’s vlog about “WALL-E” and “Wanted,” go to
KansasCity.com.
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| Sharon Hoffmann, The Star | Robert W. Butler, The Star
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