If you can believe it we are in the home stretch of my Pixar reviews. Only 5 left till Good Dinosaur and Sanjay’s Super Team. I’ve been reviewing the Pixar films since April and it has been a real treat and challenging because it’s hard to write about movies you really love and have it not just be hyperbole. At least it is for me.
Well, today we have a very special animated short to talk about. One of my favorites- La Luna. It is directed and written by Enrico Casarosa and was based on the Italian fairytales his Grandpa would tell him. He also used Italian cartoonist Osvaldo Cavandoli who was famous for his line sketch style animation as inspiration.
La Luna is about a little boy or Bambino who sails with his Grandpa and Father to a spot where they climb a latter to the moon and set about their work of scraping the stars from off the moon. (Doesn’t that description just sound lovely?).
In the audio commentary Enrico says he picked a Grandpa and Father for the boy because he grew up in a house with his maternal grandfather and his Dad and I guess the two didn’t get along very well. You can see that dynamic in the short with the 2 men snipping at each other in a sweet kind of way.
But really the greatness of this short is in the animation. The stars and the light is so beautiful. In many ways it feels like a bedtime story, like Goodnight Moon or something like that. It’s lovely to think about someone sweeping stars off of the moon.
Michael Giacchino gets back to his Italian roots with a lovely score that reminds me of the great Ennio Morricone.
There are moments where it looks like watercolor and where the characters look more 2D than CG. There are no other words to describe it but BEAUTIFUL!
I love the way the stars look like little light bulbs and clank together. In many ways they reminded me of the memories in Inside Out in sound and appearance. You can feel the sense of wonder from Bambino as he looks at each glowing star.
This is just a stunning image.
It’s not the most complex as far as story. It’s basically a Grandpa and Father showing a little boy how to do a job but that job is so magical and special that it doesn’t need anything more. It’s like if someone’s job was to bathe an angel. Yes it’s ordinary but it’s an angel! I mean wow!
As I’ve rewatched the Pixar shorts I can put them into several groups. There are the jokes (Presto, For the Birds, Knick Knack), technology advancing (Adventures of Wally, Tin Toy, Geri’s Game, Day & Night), and great artistry (Boundin, Partly Cloudy, Red’s Dream). To me La Luna is the greatest of that latter group. It is an artistic joy to watch and I love it. Definitely in my top 5 of the Pixar shorts.
2011 was also a very good year for animated shorts. All 4 nominees were completely lovely and the winner The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore is wonderful. In fact, I wish it was a feature film. It’s 15 minutes as a short and there’s enough there for more. So the fact La Luna didn’t win that year I am ok with. It certainly was a much better year in shorts than feature films with Rango winning which I did not care for.
What do you think of La Luna? If you haven’t seen it there are versions of it online but none that I could download. I believe it is on the Brave DVD so you can see it there. I wanted to do another short before the Brave review called The Legend of Mor’du to go with Brave so that’s why I reviewed this one here. Next up is the much maligned Cars 2. I just watched it and honestly guys it’s not that bad. In fact, I enjoyed it! So you will hopefully enjoy that review as I am sure it will be a perspective you don’t get every day.
But nearly everyone I know agrees, La Luna is one of the best.
I’ve struggled in writing my review for Toy Story 3 because my nieces hate it. It is a film that gets very intense, too intense for my nieces and I didn’t know how much to take that into account. I had the same struggle with my Pinocchio review, which in my defense was only the 2nd review I had ever written but at the time I said:
Pinocchio is visually gorgeous with good, if heavy-handed moral teachings. It can be scary for kids and has a grim overall feel. I appreciate it but I can’t give it my highest rating because of how I know it affected me as a child.
So I gave Pinocchio a B+ and I’ve gone back and forth on it ever since. In many ways the issue is the same with Toy Story 3. How much does a child’s opinion count in reviewing an animated film? We know that animation isn’t just for children but in the same breath if they don’t like it isn’t that a problem? I don’t know. I honestly can’t decide. What do you think?
Anyway, in the end I can only review a movie based on what I think of it. At least with the Pinocchio review I was taking into account only what I thought of it as a child not other children. I don’t have that luxury with Toy Story 3. But I didn’t let anyone else’s opinions affect any of my other reviews so why should my nieces feelings be any different. I’m just going to tell you what I think. So here goes.
I love Toy Story 3! I mean this was me after watching it yesterday!
And yet I was also laughing and enjoying the tense moments so it isn’t just a cryfest. It may just be the best 3rd installment in a franchise ever. Return of the King, Indiana Jones and Last Crusade may be better but that’s all I can think of. Can you?
Anyway, in this film we are 11 years after the events of Toy story 2 and just as you might expect Andy has grown up and is off to college.
In the opening scenes they lay out two key themes for the rest of the movie:
1. Andy’s Toys are a family and while they’ve lost some they stick together as best as they can.
2. That Andy will play with them one more time.
But both seem like an impossibility because Andy wants to take Woody to college with him and the rest are accidentally sent to a daycare center called Sunnyside as a donation by Andy’s Mom.
At first the daycare seems like a pretty great setup for the toys. They will get played with again after 10 years in dust and that seems pretty great. They are also welcomed by the leader of Sunnyside, a bear named Lots-O (for Lots-O-Huggin’ Bear) voiced by Ned Beatty.
Unfortunately all is not sunny at the daycare and the next section of the movie turns into a prison escape story but it never gets serious for too long. Most of the humor comes from Buzz who gets put on his Spanish setting (so funny!).
And Michael Keaton is also hilarious as the Ken doll who falls instantly in love with Barbie and is very concerned with his wardrobe.
There is also humor from a little girl named Bonnie’s toys who fancy themselves a kind of theater group. We also learn from these toys the true story about Lots-O and how he came to run Sunnyside like a jail.
Directed by Lee Unkrich he is not afraid to push the boundaries of our expectations. Most people assume characters in a movie like this are not going to die but boy do they come close in the famous (or infamous depending on how you look at it) incinerator scene. It is such a bold scene:
I still can’t believe they cut it that close but it is incredibly gripping if way too intense for my nieces! I completely get their response because I also feel tense watching it. How can you not?
With the prison escape done we get the end of the movie which is Andy’s chance to say goodbye to his childhood and for the toys, especially Woody, to say goodbye to him. Pixar is so great at these type of emotional, life changing moments and this is one of the best.
Some may say it is unrealistic for a college student to play with his toys one last time but I don’t think it is. Maybe in a previous era it might have been but this is the era of adults trick-or-treating and dressing up for comicon. This is the era of grown men collecting Funko dolls and displaying them proudly.
I’m not the most nostalgic person in the world but even I have dolls displayed proudly in my room and I’m 34 years old. If I had to give them up I would cry because my Grandma gave them to me. There’s no reason to assume Andy would be any less attached to these toys.
But even if you set that reality aside saying goodbye to the toys is symbolic of Andy saying goodbye to his childhood and I think he knows that. In many ways it is kind of like the end of the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh when Christopher tells Pooh that he can’t do nothing any more even though it is what he loves most of all.
Plus, in this final scenes we get the fulfillment of the 2 promises made at the beginning of the film creating a nice sense of closure to the film. Just as we were promised Andy plays with the toys one more time and they all stay together because they are a family. Love that.
I think we all have those moments in life where we put away childhood and become a grown up. It’s like the scripture says:
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things”
That is the ending of Toy Story 3 and it is an emotion almost anyone can relate and respond too. In a way you could call it the great necessary evil of life. Despite what Peter Pan wants we all must eventually grow up.
It practically goes without saying the animation is stunning- bright and colorful, with a clarity and realism to all the characters I haven’t seen in Pixar till this film. Also the voice work is top notch with all our familiar characters and new voice actors such as Keaton, Beatty, Whoopi Goldberg, Timothy Dalton, Bonnie Hunt and Jeff Garlin. Everyone involved in Toy Story 3 did an amazing job.
Thankfully we have Pixar to keep making films for adults and some children who aren’t too terrified! They help keep some of the magic alive within all of us and Toy Story 3 has magic in spades. I loved watching it again and if I ever have kids maybe I will just fast forward the incinerator scene so they can enjoy it too. 🙂
Overall Grade- A+
And for the record I have faith they have a good idea for Toy Story 4 and it will be good. It is not going to be a continuation of the Andy storyline but exist solely in the world of the toys, a romance I’ve been told. John Lasseter is directing 4 so sign me up!
I hope you guys enjoyed my review of Up, my favorite movie. It was difficult to write but I did my best. Now for a nice breath of fresh air let’s appreciate Pixar’s delightful animated short Day & Night.
In many ways this short feels like some of the early shorts because it is more special because of the methods they used than the short itself, although the short is charming. It’s more like a Red’s Dream or Tin Toy where they were clearly stretching their artistic and technical capabilities and trying something new.
The new experiment was not just a hybrid of 2D and CG but telling stories with both mediums in the same shot. It’s really quite brilliant. 2 years later we would get the hybrid film Paperman but that’s more of a meshing of the 2 instead of them existing separately within the same story. For people that are down and depressed about the loss of 2D animation (I know many of you readers are) you should take heart at things like Day and Night. It’s sign that while we may not see the 2D film from Disney anytime soon a hybrid using both techniques is certainly possible and I think quite likely.
Anyway, Day and Night is directed by Teddy Newton and it stars 2 creatures, one is Day, one is night. We know this because we can see the world in their bodies from their unique perspectives.
At first they are kind of fascinated by what’s going on in the others world. Then they become envious and frustrated, even angry at the things they don’t have.
They are also very boastful of the things they have especially Day.
But they also learn they can work together and both enjoy experiences like when Night allows Day to enjoy a drive in movie. The movie on screen is the cowboy scene the puppies are watching in 101 Dalmatians.
The sound design and mixing by Barney Jones and Tom Myers is first rate in Day and Night. What’s really neat is the way the 2D and 3D worlds are connected. For instance, when Night is punching Day each punch is coordinated perfectly with a logger chopping down a tree with an ax. Then when the tree is toppled Day falls to the ground along with the tree.
What’s so lovely is the creatures go from envy, to teamwork, to seeing life from the other’s perspective and that I think is the true message of Day and Night. In fact, Dr Wayne Dyer appears as a voice from a radio tower ending with the thought:
“You know, to me, the most beautiful things in all the universe are the most mysterious.”
I like the message and it’s not as heavy-handed as you might think because it is split up into small bits. And I like the idea of walking in another’s shoes before judging them. It’s so important especially in this day and age.
And it looks so lovely. One of my favorite sequences is them battling out Las Vegas which of course looks better at night!
I guess if I was to nitpick the oogling over the bikini clad women I Could do without, but it’s not a huge problem for me.
Michael Giacchino did a great job with the music and having just enough of it to be effective without getting in the way of the sound effects.
Is it my favorite Pixar short? Probably not but I really do like Day and Night. Definitely worth seeing and I hope we see even more hybrid and 2D elements in future Pixar shorts and films.
Quick post this afternoon to share with you my thoughts on the new Good Dinosaur trailer. LOVED IT!!!! It looks stunning especially scenes like the fireflies and the lushness of the grapes and leaves. I thought the terodactyl looked awesome and the scene with the snake should be great!
It was such a well designed trailer not giving away the story while still giving us tons of images to excite us. I’m really looking forward to the relationship between Arlo and Spot and hope it is something like Dumbo and Timothy Q Mouse which I know director Peter Sohn is a huge fan of.
What a treat we are in for this year with Inside Out and Good Dinosaur. Great time to be an animation fan!
Here’s my reaction video on my youtube channel. Would love you to take a look and give a thumbs up/subscribe to my channel. Thanks so much!
It’s really hard to write about your favorite movie, or at least it is really hard for me. So has been my challenge for the last week or so as I’ve faced writing about Pixar’s beautiful film Up, my favorite movie (animation or not).
To this day I have never met anyone in my real life who doesn’t like Up, and it is both my brother and my favorite movie and we are as different as can be. It was also nominated for best picture not just animated film and receives wide-spread acclaim from critics and fans with a 98% on rotten tomatoes with only 5 rotten reviews and 276 positives. On the notoriously tough to please imdb Up has a 91% of user reviews a 7 or higher, which is truly remarkable. You get the idea. I’m not alone in loving this movie!
I like Up so much when I threw my dream party look at the cake I had made (it was an open house).
So why do I love it so much? It’s tough but I will do my best to describe.
Have you ever lost someone you love? Have you ever felt the pangs of regret that you wish you had said something or done something differently with the person who is gone? I certainly have and that is the message behind Up. It is what makes it special. It is what moves me so much. It is also a reminder that we need not feel such regret because the people we love are an active part of our lives as long as we live their dreams and make them proud.
To begin with in Up we get introduced to Carl and Ellie as little children. Carl is watching a filmstrip about Charles Muntz his hero. He tells the audience “adventure is out there”. This energizes Carl and he gets a balloon which is a hint of things to come. On his way home he finds a girl named Ellie in an abandoned house. She also loves Muntz and dreams of going to Venezuela and seeing the Paradise Falls. She chronicles all her dreams in an Adventure book and has a section called ‘Stuff I’m Going to Do’.
This is another theme of the movie- adventures and the power of big dreams to motivate us whether they are accomplished or not.
Ellie tells Carl he must take her to Paradise Falls ‘cross your heart. Cross it!’. Then we see what happened with that promise. A full life plays out and this is my favorite section of film ever. If you think of it from both the journey of a couple, of a life, and from Carl’s perspective of not keeping his promise to his beloved it is so moving. I’ve seen it so many times and it still makes me cry each time.
The thing is about regret is it can make you bitter and resentful. So has happened to our elderly Carl. He is lonely and talks to Ellie as if she was sitting right beside him (I love that throughout the movie because I believe the dead are with us cheering us on). A commercial developer has taken over the land near his house and they want him to sell. He tells him “you can have the house…when I’m dead”. You get the feeling he is just waiting to die and he see’s Ellie’s ‘Stuff I’m Going to Do’ and is overwhelmed with guilt at never having taken her to the Falls.
Through various contrivances he is going to be forced to assisted living but he decides to instead embrace the spirit of adventure and use a million balloons to take his house to the Falls. This is so beautiful when it is first taking flight.
Unfortunately for Carl he is not alone in the house but his neighboring boy scout Russell is a stow away. Russell is a lonely but eager kid who wants nothing more than to get his final badge in assisting the elderly.
There’s some dangerous weather but they eventually make it close to the Falls where they come in contact with a rare bird and some talking dogs! Some people don’t like the dogs. I do and think their fascination with squirrels is very funny especially when their voiceboxes go bad.
The most friendly dog is named Dug and he bonds with Carl and Russell quickly.
Russell names the bird Kevin and it turns out it is the very bird that Charles Muntz has been hunting all these years.
Carl gets to meet Charles Muntz and it turns out he is not the hero of his youth any more. Originally they were planning on the eggs of the bird be youth serum for Muntz but it was taking up too much of the plot so they decided to leave the Muntz/Carl plothole feeling audiences would forgive them one such problem and for the most part they do. I certainly do! Plus, our villain Charles Muntz is voiced by the great Christopher Plummer so I can’t complain about that.
The key is through all of these adventures Carl never looses his purpose of honoring Ellie. He talks to her throughout and is even willing to abandon Russell in order to get the house to the Falls for his beloved. I just love that.
Again, you can feel the weight of his grief melting as he goes on this adventure. And then he looks at the Adventure book and see’s for the first time a note from his wife.
Here’s the scene in French but you get the idea. “Thanks for the adventure. Now go have a new one”. Make my heart melt.
In that moment Carl knows he did keep his promise to his Ellie and to me that is just as moving as the opening section. I cry every time (like literally I just watched it again and cried). He forgives himself and has a whole new energy to go and save Russell from Muntz. It’s a perfect scene in my book.
To me Up is a perfect movie. The emotional journey Pete Docter takes you on should be something anyone who has lost a loved one can relate too. I certainly do. Every time I watch it I feel like I get a hug from my Grandpa who I miss everyday of my life. He was my hero and I hope he is proud of me and my little life adventure.
It’s not only incredibly moving but also funny and sweet. We get a lot of humor from the dogs, Russell and Kevin. The relationship between Russell and Carl is sweet and grows organically through the story in a believable way.
The voice performances from Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson and others are first rate (how has Ed Asner managed to play the grumpy old man for the last 40 years!). And the music by Michael Giacchino is one of my favorites in all of movies. It is literally pitch perfect.
It is obviously not the most realistic stories. For instance, it would take much more than one night to blow up all those balloons but if you can just go with it you are in for something special. The script is the typically witty dialogue of a Pixar movie. It is funny and sweet and will take you on a journey if you will let it.
Ever since Inside Out I’ve been thinking about Up and how both movies are about memories. How we deal with those memories and not have them become debilitating is a challenge whether you are 11 or 71 (or however old Carl is!). And I just love how we learn in Up the adventure of life is the greatest tribute we can give those who have past on. We never forget but we keep on living and embracing whatever comes our way! It’s the spirit of adventure!
It’s so rare a movie will teach you something about life and be a true moment of clarity. Those films are more than just entertainment. They are practically scripture in my life. Up is such a movie. It teaches me about loss, love, marriage, grief, adventure, life and everything else.
So yes Up is my favorite movie. It is a movie I could watch every day for the rest of my life and never get tired of. It’s just that kind of movie to me. Something that comes around a couple times in a person’s life and is a true inspiration.
Thanks to the entire Pixar team for making such a beloved movie!
Now we are getting down to the cream of the crop. Pretty much all of these movies could be first place on this list because I love them all for different reasons. So, don’t get too caught up in the rankings from here on out. They are all most beloved to me. 🙂
20. Finding Nemo– A film that has it all- real heart, humor, gorgeous animation, amazing vocal performances and more. They manage to keep both storylines of Nemo’s world in the tank and Marlin hunting for his son with Dory equally engaging and fun. So many moments surprise me like the AA sharks. It’s probably Pixar’s most rewatchable film and being a lover of the water it is a total delight.
19. Tale of Princess Kaguya– A movie that grows on me each time I see it. I loved it on an initial watch but have seen it several times since and now I LOVE it. Parts that seemed a little slow now feel like poetry. It’s one of the most unique and visually stunning animated film I’ve ever seen and I love the way it uses music to tell the story. It’s a very Japanese story of a woman who chooses to be obedient to her father no matter the personal cost. At times it is quite tragic and the ending is intriguing.
18. Wall-e– Another movie that grows on me each time I see it. I just reviewed it in my Pixar series but I think it is just about perfect. I love the love story between Wall-e and Eva. I love the artistry of their space ballet. I love the message about hope and that anyone can be a hero.
17. 101 Dalmatians- My favorite movie from the sketch era with one Disney’s most iconic villains in Cruella Deville. What makes her so great is she has this insane plan of killing all these puppies. It’s not a boring motive like Radcliffe or Clayton who just want money. No she just wants a dalmatian coat. She is also powerful and nearly wins time and again. I love little moments of humor thrown in and the real tension that is developed in scenes like when they are loading the van. Small characters like Sergeant Tibbs are a total delight.
16. Incredibles– a unusual combination of a movie about work and a superhero story. Bob is not happy in his life because he isn’t doing what he is called to do. His unhappiness affects his marriage which is portrayed in such a realistic way that I think is great for kids to see. I love the messaging and the villain is very evil (again almost wins which makes him menacing). Great voice casting, terrific pacing and story. I wouldn’t change a thing.
15. Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh– A criminally underrated film that is viewed by many as a movie only for small children. Each of the 3 stories is sweet and layered with great voice casting. They say Elmo means love whenever he is on stage and I think Winnie the Pooh means childhood. He is simple and yet thoughtful with a never ending desire for honey. We get the dry narration which is so funny and the ending in this film is perfect. It makes me cry every time I watch it. ‘Will you ever forget me Pooh Bear”. Not me! I won’t forget you on this list! 🙂
14. My Friend Totoro- Perhaps Studio Ghibli’s most iconic film and for good reason. It is in many ways like Winnie the Pooh, the story of in this case 2 little girls with a sweet lovable friend, the wood spirit Totoro. Totoro flies the girls around and just wants to protect them from harm or negative influence. It’s so inventive and good-natured I don’t mind the simpler story. Like Ponyo it is a Studio Ghibli film you can watch with even your youngest children and they will love it. It’s an adorable movie.
13. Inside Out– Don’t cry recency bias I loved Inside Out. I’ve seen it twice and the layers of character development are amazing. What Joy goes through in her understanding of happiness and Riley in dealing with the emptiness of having neither sadness or joy is so engrossing. I love how the entire world is 11 with Imaginationland changing and morphing before them. I love the islands of personality and their connection to memories. I love the other emotions especially Anger and Fear and how funny they were. The ending is perfection when Riley’s parents see her as an emotional equal and they bond. What they were able to do with Bing Bong is remarkable. And it’s also very funny to boot.
12. Princess Mononoke- One of Miyasaki’s most ambitious works with a battle between the humans and the spirits of the forest. Princess Mononoke is torn between both sides of the battle and we feel it as viewers. All the characters are layered and interesting and it looks so beautiful. It’s brutal at times and even violent but one of the most original fairytales I’ve ever seen.
11. Tangled– Disney’s first romantic comedy is so well done. I love Flynn and Rapunzel’s relationship. I love Mother Gothel and I think the songs are great. It has probably Disney’s biggest plothole but I will forgive it. I love the lanterns and the artistry throughout. I saw it in 3D and it blew me away. Great side characters as well and just a terrific rewatchable movie with real heart and lovely message about finding a new dream.
Next up in our Pixar short reviews is called Partly Cloudy. It’s kind of like the beginning of Dumbo but with a funny twist.
If you don’t remember the beginning of Dumbo we see the storks getting their bundles and delivering them to the anxious mothers of the circus. This is all accompanied by the song “Look out for Mr Stork” . I think it might have been fun to use that song in this Pixar feature as kind of an homage but the music they have is fine.
What we don’t see in Dumbo is where the storks get the bundles. In Partly Cloudy we learn the clouds make the babies and give them to the storks.
This is a clever concept but then they take it a step further. What about those less than pleasant animals like porcupines and crocodiles? What poor stork has to deliver those? And what kind of cloud makes such creatures?
Well one lonely dark storm cloud is given that job and a stork is assigned the rather painful task of delivering his bundles. We see him kicked by a bighorn sheep, pricked by a porcupine and finally when he is given a shark he puts on protective headgear and body armor!
Directed by Peter Sohn who is the voice of Emile in Ratatouille it is a charming Pixar short. He is directing the upcoming Good Dinosaur which watching this short kind of makes me excited for that film. (So many of these Pixar greats including John Lasseter got their feet wet in these shorts). There is a gentleness to Partly Cloudy which I have a hunch will work well with Good Dinosaur.
I also really like the music by Michael Giacchino and the fluffy feel of the clouds looks like piles of pillows. In a lot of ways it reminds of Lava which is also very textured and gentle.
I wouldn’t say it is one of my favorite of the shorts but that’s only because the other’s are so great it makes for tough competition. It’s lovely and a joy to watch.
Overall Grade- A-
Next up in the Pixar reviews is Up! Although I am slightly intimidated. How do you adequately write about your favorite movie? I will give it a go!
It is very rare a movie will take my breath away. Wall-e is such a movie. It is so bold, lovely, magical, sweet, and everything else. One of my all time favorites. I know some people think it is boring. I don’t understand those people. I really don’t. Wall-e manages to be at the same time a great sci-fi, romance, silent and animated movie and it does all of those genres proud.
It’s funny because I’ve heard people say that Wall-e is too grown up for kids but in my experience kids seem to be more receptive to it than many adults. I have yet to watch it with little kids that weren’t completely engaged. A couple of kids described what they liked about it
5-year-old Alex listed it among his favorites: “Wall-E floats in space and he meets a best friend. I love meeting best friends.” His twin, Max, agreed: “Wall-E can float! And he makes square stuff come out of his belly.”
Isn’t that interesting? It’s a mistake to believe kids need a complex plot to engage them. They need characters they like, doing things they like. I’ve seen small children watch movies of cows eating for an hour or a bulldozer clearing away land and be riveted.
So it appeals to kids. Now we must ask the question- does it appeal to me. The answer is YES! Like I said, it is bold and completely charming. Let’s talk about why I like it .
To begin with Wall-e has one of the strongest introductions of any movie. Immediately you are immersed in this world of trash and we see Wall-e going about his compacting ways.
Once Wall-e gets home we learn he is a romantic at heart. In fact, he loves the musical Hello Dolly, which honestly is much better in this movie than on its own. You can feel Wall-e is lonely and who wouldn’t be with only a cockroach for company for 700 years. These early sections are virtually dialogue free except for the Dolly songs and I think they are completely brilliant.
On one of his rounds of compacting Wall-e finds a plant inside a fridge and we can tell from his reaction he has never seen such a thing before in all his duties. Just about that time a visitor arrives. It is a girl robot that is more futuristic than Wall-e. Her name is Eve (or Wall-e says EVA).
At first Eve is kind of hostile to Wall-e. She operates completely by directive and not by the seemingly free choice that Wall-e does. She shoots at him and doesn’t want him to touch her. Even after he shows her his home she’s still very jumpy. She also takes the plant and that sends her into a green mode where she needs to get home and notify the spaceship of the plants.
But Wall-e persists and eventually the two have a moment. Again there is almost no dialogue during this whole time .
I’m using so many clips because you have to see the beautiful imagery. That will sell you on the movie much more than my explanation of what it is. Eve finally gets picked up with the plant and Wall-e follows her, hanging on to the spaceship. It creates one of the loveliest scenes ever in animation with Wall-e and Eve in space.
Once they arrive on the ship we do get a minor change in storytelling but to me it still maintains the tone and characters Eva and Wall-e that had been developed in the beginning of the movie. It turns out when the Earth was destroyed the people were sent to a spaceship with all that is needed for them to relax for what was supposed to be 5 years. Unfortunately 5 years turned into 700 and the people became very lethargic on the ship.
They don’t even realize they are being inactive because they are always looking at the screens in front of them on their chairs. When two characters John and Mary get knocked off their chairs they realize for the first time there is a pool in the ship. That’s how focused they are on the displays in front of them.
We also get introduced to the Captain voiced by Jeff Garlin. He is seemingly going through the motions but we see him grow in bits as he awakens to the stupor he’s been living in. He’s been reliant on an autopilot that looks a lot like Hal from 2001 Space Odyssey. This is an easy way of the directors to let us adults know the Autopilot is probably not going to be in the best interests of the people.
Autopilot, Captain and Eve
When Eve gives the plant to the Captain the Autopilot goes into a ‘recolonization process’ but it quickly becomes clear the Autopilot has been programmed at the start to not allow a return to Earth. This creates a battle between Eve, Wall-e, The Captain and a few other machines that they are able to recruit. I really like the team of robots they end up getting together.
At one point Wall-e is separated from Eve and they end up in space and we get an amazing space ballet of sorts. Again for me one of the most beautiful sequences of any animated film:
Some people might see this as a different tone than the beginning of the film but I don’t. We still get those sweet moments between Wall-e and Eve especially when Eve thinks Wall-e is gone several times. To me it is a building of tone and like any great story it starts subtle and builds to a climax. Plus, we get lots of little hints at the ship and leadership in the early scenes with the piles of trash and so to me it makes perfect sense to have both sections of the movie.
It also has moments of humor mixed in especially with Mary and John. I love when they stop the babies when the ship is tilted and she says ‘Get ready to have some kids!’. I guess if I was going to nitpick Fred Williard seems like a strange choice to play the CEO that sent the people to space. He is such a humorous actor I keep expecting him to do something funny but it really isn’t a comedic role at all.
As we get to our ending Autopilot has been shut down and the plant found. The ship is landed and there is a real sense of hope that the people, fat as they might be, are going to make a go of it and that they will start a real life instead of just being floating nothings.
And we get one of my favorite scenes in all of movies. Wall-e has a new memory chip and at first he doesn’t recognize Eve. It’s so beautiful!
Make sure to stay around for the credits because we get to see Wall-e and Eve through the history of art.
To me Wall-e has everything you could want in a movie. It’s stunningly beautiful. One of the most gorgeous animated films ever made- CG or 2D.
It teaches a very important message about taking care of our environment and not forgetting it because of our devices. Even more it reminds us to continually challenge ourselves and that just doing nothing as fun as might be is not a fulfilling life. We see that with the Captain when he starts to learn about Earth and he gets more excited with each new discovery. At the end he glows ‘we can grow a pizza garden!’. I know I am sometimes tempted by doing nothing and there is a place for that but it doesn’t really lead to lasting happiness and you may miss things right in front of you that could give you joy- like Mary and John missing the pool.
Aside from the message it covers so many genres and does them all well. It’s sci-fi, silent film, romance, space opera, and more. It blends it all seemlessly and with such heart that I find myself tearing up at the fate of these robots for goodness sake!
Director Andrew Stanton made a truly unique work of art that is certainly one of my favorites. The score by Thomas Newman uses the songs from Hello Dolly, La Vie en rose and Stardust along with unique themes. I agree with Hello Dolly composer Jerry Herman who called ”its incorporation into the story is genius”.
It only takes a moment after all to last your whole life through…
I’m watching Wall-e tonight but before I post about that masterpiece let’s talk about the great animated short Presto. If you haven’t seen it I think it is one of Pixar’s funniest shorts with some terrific character design.
As most of the shorts are this is pretty simple and it does repeat the same gag over again but each time it gets bigger and more humorous. It has the feel of an old Looney Tunes or Tom and Jerry short.
It’s about a magician named Presto and his hungry and rather grumpy rabbit named Alec Azam. The design of the rabbit feels particularly old school and I think it is very charming.
So basically the story is Presto has a real ‘magic trick’ where 2 hats are connected. Whatever you put in one comes out the other. This gif kind of shows how it works.
At the beginning the rabbit, Alec, is in a cage and he wants the carrots but in his rush Presto forgets and rushes to the perform. This makes Alec very upset.
Alec tries to tell Presto that he needs the carrot in order to participate in the magic show but he refuses making Alec angry and out for revenge.
Alec even worries he is going to lose the carrot for good! I love this expression!
That’s when instead of jumping in the hat like he is supposed to Alec uses the hat’s magic to send things out of the other hat to strike Presto. It is very funny with everything from a piano to eggs hitting the magician.
Meanwhile the crowd is thrilled with the crazy trick Presto is doing. I mean wouldn’t you be if you saw such things flying out of a hat! They give Presto and Alec a huge round of applause and even though he is weary Presto is thrilled with the response (as any performer would be). And of course in the end Alec gets his carrot.
Like I said, this short feels very old school like something you would see in Looney Tunes or Tom and Jerry and I like that. It escalates the madcap antics just enough to produce a laugh at each level (you couldn’t go from a mousetrap to electric shocks. It needs to be gradual). I also love the design of Alec, the rabbit. He is so cute and expressive with his eyes and face!
Presto is also bright, colorful, with great music that fits the old fashioned feel by Scot Blackwell Stafford. It was veteran Pixar man Doug Sweetland’s directorial debut and he used Tex Avery cartoons as his guide and you can feel that influence .
All in all it is one of my favorite comedic Pixar shorts.
If you can believe it we are in the home stretch of my Pixar reviews. Only 5 left till Good Dinosaur and Sanjay’s Super Team. I’ve been reviewing the Pixar films since April and it has been a real treat and challenging because it’s hard to write about movies you really love and have it not just be hyperbole. At least it is for me.
La Luna is about a little boy or Bambino who sails with his Grandpa and Father to a spot where they climb a latter to the moon and set about their work of scraping the stars from off the moon. (Doesn’t that description just sound lovely?).
In the audio commentary Enrico says he picked a Grandpa and Father for the boy because he grew up in a house with his maternal grandfather and his Dad and I guess the two didn’t get along very well. You can see that dynamic in the short with the 2 men snipping at each other in a sweet kind of way.
Michael Giacchino gets back to his Italian roots with a lovely score that reminds me of the great Ennio Morricone.
It’s not the most complex as far as story. It’s basically a Grandpa and Father showing a little boy how to do a job but that job is so magical and special that it doesn’t need anything more. It’s like if someone’s job was to bathe an angel. Yes it’s ordinary but it’s an angel! I mean wow!
As I’ve rewatched the Pixar shorts I can put them into several groups. There are the jokes (Presto, For the Birds, Knick Knack), technology advancing (Adventures of Wally, Tin Toy, Geri’s Game, Day & Night), and great artistry (Boundin, Partly Cloudy, Red’s Dream). To me La Luna is the greatest of that latter group. It is an artistic joy to watch and I love it. Definitely in my top 5 of the Pixar shorts.
What do you think of La Luna? If you haven’t seen it there are versions of it online but none that I could download. I believe it is on the Brave DVD so you can see it there. I wanted to do another short before the Brave review called The Legend of Mor’du to go with Brave so that’s why I reviewed this one here. Next up is the much maligned Cars 2. I just watched it and honestly guys it’s not that bad. In fact, I enjoyed it! So you will hopefully enjoy that review as I am sure it will be a perspective you don’t get every day.
