“Too much garbage in your face? There’s plenty of space out in space! BnL StarLiners leaving each day. We’ll clean up the mess while you’re away.“
Automata month continues with Pixar’s hit cautionary tale that centers cute robots falling in love on an Earth largely composed of garbage. Forrest Miller, Conan Neutron & Kristina Oakes are joined by friend of the show Ross Hurt of the Rigs of Dad Prodcast to discuss Wall-E!
A deeply creative, endearing and surprisingly sweet cautionary tale. Impossible to overstate how jarring this was when it came out, a flat out provocative dystopian tale about megacorporations and pollution that features one of the most incredible first 30 minutes of animation ever put to screen and some damn cute robot character design. A prescient warning about rampant consumerism and environmental degradation.
Stealing from 2001, Brazil, Chaplin and Keaton. there are themes in this one that are explored in other films like Idiocracy, but rarely with this much heart and through the framework of characters with so many arresting and charming accord. It is a non-pandering classic FILM that makes you actually care about a sentient garbage compactor robot. Amazing! It has everything suspense, romance, Jeff Garlin’s voice, morbidly obese human beings, Hal 9000 references, Fred Willard as a real person, and a cute ending.
Also: is this the only Movie Night Automata film where the AI are the good ones? Maybe! Maybe!
Most animated fare has become completely dependent not just on dialogue, but on featured stars to sell the movie. And while Sigourney Weaver as the Axiom computer, Jeff Garlin as the captain and Fred Willard as the CEO of the Amazon like Buy n Large corporation aren’t exactly nobodies, here they are deployed effectively and a treat for people that are fans of the genre.
We talk a lot about the (excellent) sound design in this film by the legendary Ben Burtt and team. More unique sounds than the original Star Wars and all three original Indiana Jones movies? We believe it! also why Wall-E’s Ending is Actually Sad For Humans