Wall-E

Quite right, Vic. It is Wall-E that I wanted to say a few words about, though now I have only a few minutes. In spite of this film also doing surprisingly well on imdb, I hadn't expected to like it as much as I'd expected to like Dark Knight. I thought the good reviews would be all about the typical animation strengths (of the better pixar type) of lots of wit and creatively depicted story.

In a few quick words, here is why I liked it significantly more than I expected. The first fifteen minutes or so worked amazingly well. Who could have thought your attention could be held that well for that long without words - a great job of creating an atmosphere while providing hints that make sense of the rest of the movie.

The other main thing was how well it provided some memorable symbols of social commentary: regressively evolved blobs on floating chairs constantly in front of their screens controlled by the corporate, consumerist powers. Perfect. I sit here in front of my screen appropriately feeling limited in how much time I should spend here by the image of the woman turning her screen off and exclaiming, "I didn't know we had a pool!" I think this should be a phrase that makes it into everyday usage implying the shorthand, "Get away from your screens and get a life."

[Mild spoiler here] My phrase, "regressively evolved" was of course inspired by the brilliantly applied use of "Thus Spake Zarathustra" from 2oo1 A Space Odyssey. One of my favourite moments in the film.

There were some weak moments. I thought more could have been done with the assortment of not quite repaired robots - could have been a more powerful symbol of the marginalized and wounded community created by our corporate culture. But overall I'll give my second **** in a row. Mugs up to Wall-E.