My own self

I'm not a fan of digital animation. In fact, I'm kind of outright opposed. With the exception of Toy Story, I had yet to see a single good animated movie where I didn't feel traditional animation wouldn't have worked as well or usually way better than the digital one. Wall-E is the first movie to join Toy Story in that exclusive club, and mostly that's because of Wall-E himself. Brilliantly designed to actually seem almost convincingly and realistically built, the digital animation brings his mechanical self to life in the exact same manner as the toys of Toy Story did - it looks faintly fake, but it's supposed to, because it's not a living thing, and this adds an entire new dimension to the experience of watching it.

So much for the animation - I'm still not a fan, but I admit that it's well used in this particular movie - now what of the actual plot?

Well, it's very straightforward, simple and predictable. Mostly, though, in the good ways. The Disney-ways, if you'd like. What it also was - this too unsurprising when one considers the movie's basic premise - was rather melancholy. Where it surprised me a little, though, was in how sweet it was. Not because I didn't think it would be - I thought it'd try very hard - but is succeeded at it a good bit better than I thought it would.

The first twenty minutes of the movie are the most melancholy ones, but also the best ones by far. The utter lack of dialogue, the almost as complete lack of character-interaction (making what little there is seem very precious), the completely desolate world of futuristic garbage... it's Wall-E's twenty minutes, and they're the reason the entire rest of the movie works.

While I did enjoy the movie, I sort of can't truly claim I loved it. Mostly, well, it's the good kind of predictable but still maybe a little bit too much so. But also, I'm a softy, and a world in which every surviving human is so utterly pathetic as in this one and the only creatures with sympathetic personalities are programmed machines is a world which scares me and makes me sad. No matter how happy an ending they might dish up for me. In general, I don't like movies that make me sad or melancholy.

The bug was funny, but revolted me more than the gags were really worth. What IS it with children's movies and using insects as comedic relief in recent years? Gwuahlg. The other characters were fine, and Eva and Wall-E in particular impresed me. I must say that the human captain was alright too, but having the people computer animated just looked weird next to the very realisic-looking droids. It would've been far better if they'd somehow managed to keep using real-life people like they did in the glimpses to the past, methinks. Even if that, too, would've seemed a clash.

All in all, well worth the look, I felt got exactly what I felt the trailer and the posters promised me. Which is too bad, these computer-animated flicks really need to start going down the crapper so someone puts up the money and effort required to make proper animated movies again instead...

A decent 7/10