Before the main feature there's a short film about a magician, his rabbit and his "hat of wonder". Wow, I don't think a short has ever been shown in a cinema during my life time. The short is very good silent slapstick. And because its all computer generated animation, no one gets hurt! I'm very impressed by the bravery of having a silent short (when I say silent I mean that there's no dialogue, obviously there's music and sound effects). When the visuals are so advanced, there's no need to overdress a film with dialogue.
Wall-E is also mostly silent for the first half an hour. Who would have guessed that children would have the patience for that? But they do! The establishing (opening) shot is of the entire universe - quite ambitious, as establishing shots set up the theme and location of the film. Wall-e is a meditation on loneliness. Most of the universe is empty, nothing, but its also all there is. Over these shots of outer space plays "Put on your Sunday clothes" from Hello, Dolly! which has lyrics that say something like "out there...". This opening scene ticks so many of my boxes that I begin to tear up a little.
Wall-e is the only robot that the humans forgot to turn off when they left Earth. He lives a futile existence compacting and piling up rubbish. But he has a collection of interesting things he finds in the rubbish and takes 'home'. His favourite of these is a VHS of Hello Dolly, and he listens to his favourite showtunes as he works. One of my favourite bits in the film is when Wall-e finds a hubcap that he uses as a makeshift hat so he can attempt the "Put on your Sunday clothes" dance routine.
Wall-e, both the character and the film, seem to be based on silent comedies. He uses objects for other than which they were intended like Buster Keaton. He has round, black framed eyes (cameras?) like Harold Llyods glasses.
There's always a girl to be pursued in silent comedies, and in Wall-E she is called Eve and she looks like an i-Pod. She's not so much frigid as a soulless robot. But of course he wins her eventually. There's also plenty of slapstick - Wall-e gets blasted by the flames of a space ship, Wall-e gets electrocuted, Wall-e falls over - to give us epic lulz. And there's nothing funnier than a fat man falling out of his chair. Love, lulz and space ships... to coin a phrase.
No one can help but relate to the character of Wall-e as he breaks out of his solitary life, stops hiding behind rocks, and finds love. Even the little girl in the row behind me remarks "just like me in the morning!" when Wall-e's solar charge runs down.
This is one of the most sweet and touching films I have ever seen. It's as good as Life is Beautiful, seriously, it is. And it's the best thing Disney has done since er... Enchanted, six months ago, which I also loved.
At the end of the film, the fat (lol) captain of the space ship thats been keeping all humans from Earth for 700 years brings everyone back to their planet to clean it up, and start living without technology doing everything for them. Thats how they got so fat, you see.
The Captain does this because, as he declares, he doesn't want to survive, "I want to live!"
"And that is all that love's about..."
