WALL*E
Ten thumbs up out of ten.
See it. Several times. PIXAR, an accidental film company, continues to stick its talent and skill in the eyes of the other major studios.
Watch for references to "2001:A Space Odyssey," especially the character design nod to the HAL 9000 computer.
Sly satire. Expert cinematography. "Meet cute." Stock of character actors. And all that with almost no dialogue for great stretches.
thanks for posting so I can comment.
If you give me permissions, I don't have to wait for happenstance convergences where you post on something I want to talk about. ;p
... probably best for Cogit's blood pressure that I can't post anyway...
I was going to liken it to 2001: A Space Oddity not for the HAL parallel, but for the scarcity of dialogue.
But don't forget wall.e's existence on Earth at the beginning. I was reminded of Silent Running. [sniff, still makes me misty]
Also, because you didn't deign to post about KungFu Panda (s'okay). Always remember it's central theme: No matter how fit a woman is (A. Jolie as the tiger), any man is her better (Jack Black - a fine figure of an athlete - as the Panda).
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R-Murgy: I need to get you on the horn so I can walk you through posting. You'd be a no-doubt welcome addition.
Yes; there is an element of Silent Running (the good bits; not the Joni Mitchell soundtrack) in it, and no doubt others I missed in the onslaught of elements (animation is unparalleled for the ability to "cram" every element with something humorous or thoughtful).
How *did* they manage telephoto, hand-held camerawork, for example? IT'S A CARTOON.
***
May see Kung Fu Panda (it got "better than I thought" reviews from several mates). It's not high on my list however. And any "toon," after a PIXAR flick, looks even paler for awhile. Just my two cents.
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they did a magnificent job on the cinematography... I like the telephoto shot that has you thinking wall.e is closer to the spacecraft than he really is... just like a telephoto shot (!)
Don't rush out to see KungFu Panda. Don't even rush out to rent it.
Now, according to the trailers we saw, Li'l C and I can't wait to see Bolt and one other, but we'll pass on Madagascar 2 and the other.
Oh, for cogit: the requisite short pixar tagged on Wall.e has a prominent JAY WARD credit at the end, although I'm not sure what his role was. It is a wonderfully funny short about a magician. Li'l C and I laughed out loud (it was okay, because at 11:15 on a Friday, we were the only two in the theater for the movie.)
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I am proud to say Wry Jr. caught the Jay Ward production credit, too. Perhaps there is a Jay Ward, Jr.? Could it be Jay Ward is still alive and kicking?
What I admired about the magician/bunny short (though I still like the "alien" short a tad better) was how the gag writers set up the simple mechanic and then followed the cartoon physics flowing from that mechanic fairly and remorselessly.
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I looked at IMDb.com (you people have snopes, others have wikipedia, I have imdb)
Apparently this Jay has no connection to THAT J. Ward, who died a while ago, and who has no namesakes among his children.
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On technicality, there are eleven thumbs there.
You said there were ten.
That is all.
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D'OH!!
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