a voice in the wilderness
Jul. 20th, 2008 09:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bethnoirIn a rather cinema heavy weekend, I spent Friday night watching Kung Fu Panda and yesterday morning viewing WALL-E.
I enjoyed Kung Fu Panda, some of it made me laugh out loud, it didn't do anything very unexpected, but it amused me (and the rest of the audience), they managed to animate Jack Black's panda to be more appealing than he is (reminding me at times of Stephen Fry's facial expression somehow) and Ian MacShane was suitably evil and English as the baddie. I'd sit through it again if necessary.
WALL-E is a different kettle of robot. I think I may be alone in this opinion, but I really disliked it. All the reviews of it are glowing, full of praise and talking about best ever this and that. I can see what they're saying, but I do not agree. In the face of such universal positivity, I thought I should examine why it didn't appeal to me.
Beginning: the initial premise finds the earth a barren, deserted wasteland, covered in rubbish and advertising hoardings, nature defeated, seas dried up, nothing worthy of love left. An incredibly bleak and horrifying vision of the future.
They introduce the only thing moving, a deluded robot who is still trying to clean up the endless mess. He's gone insane, cannibalises other robots to keep existing and obsessed by a musical film, has taken on human characteristics and longs for company. So we go from utter despair to a cute and twee Disney character. Too jarring for me and I didn't think he was appealing, I must be a cold hearted woman.
Middle: deluded, outdated robot falls in love with new shiny robot that looks like an iPod, who has come to survey the planet for signs of life. He displays mawkish affection, she ignores him, eventually he stows away on her spaceship and goes to where what remains of the human race are living. They are obese childlike monsters who have lost the ability to communicate, walk or make decisions and are unaware of the rubbish they are still generating and throwing into space. They haven't learned anything or improved, just been kept alive as docile cattle. How is this enjoyable again?
End: one of the bovine humans decides earth looks fun and defeats the resistant-to-change robots to get them back to the trashed planet, the 'cute' robot is almost destroyed but the iPod has decided she'd like to hold his hand so all is well.
Well, it's not is it? The humans are unable to do anything useful and would probably die from any viruses that have survived within weeks, there's no water, there are violet dust storms every few hours and an insane robot has been building unstable skyscrapers of scrap metal which could crush them at any time.
Yes it looks pretty (so do computer games, that doesn't make me love them), there may be a moral about consumerism and thoughtless consumption, but it the solution if offers is to go away and leave it and it will all be okay again later. No hint of perhaps we should rethink the way we're going that I could see. The calculated use of music to manipulate emotions and tweeness of the characters just made me want to nuke the robot and leave. Am I strange person to find this all too depressing for words? The kids and my husband liked it, but I'd rather have spent the morning doing housework. If anyone else has seen it, tell me why I'm wrong...
I enjoyed Kung Fu Panda, some of it made me laugh out loud, it didn't do anything very unexpected, but it amused me (and the rest of the audience), they managed to animate Jack Black's panda to be more appealing than he is (reminding me at times of Stephen Fry's facial expression somehow) and Ian MacShane was suitably evil and English as the baddie. I'd sit through it again if necessary.
WALL-E is a different kettle of robot. I think I may be alone in this opinion, but I really disliked it. All the reviews of it are glowing, full of praise and talking about best ever this and that. I can see what they're saying, but I do not agree. In the face of such universal positivity, I thought I should examine why it didn't appeal to me.
Beginning: the initial premise finds the earth a barren, deserted wasteland, covered in rubbish and advertising hoardings, nature defeated, seas dried up, nothing worthy of love left. An incredibly bleak and horrifying vision of the future.
They introduce the only thing moving, a deluded robot who is still trying to clean up the endless mess. He's gone insane, cannibalises other robots to keep existing and obsessed by a musical film, has taken on human characteristics and longs for company. So we go from utter despair to a cute and twee Disney character. Too jarring for me and I didn't think he was appealing, I must be a cold hearted woman.
Middle: deluded, outdated robot falls in love with new shiny robot that looks like an iPod, who has come to survey the planet for signs of life. He displays mawkish affection, she ignores him, eventually he stows away on her spaceship and goes to where what remains of the human race are living. They are obese childlike monsters who have lost the ability to communicate, walk or make decisions and are unaware of the rubbish they are still generating and throwing into space. They haven't learned anything or improved, just been kept alive as docile cattle. How is this enjoyable again?
End: one of the bovine humans decides earth looks fun and defeats the resistant-to-change robots to get them back to the trashed planet, the 'cute' robot is almost destroyed but the iPod has decided she'd like to hold his hand so all is well.
Well, it's not is it? The humans are unable to do anything useful and would probably die from any viruses that have survived within weeks, there's no water, there are violet dust storms every few hours and an insane robot has been building unstable skyscrapers of scrap metal which could crush them at any time.
Yes it looks pretty (so do computer games, that doesn't make me love them), there may be a moral about consumerism and thoughtless consumption, but it the solution if offers is to go away and leave it and it will all be okay again later. No hint of perhaps we should rethink the way we're going that I could see. The calculated use of music to manipulate emotions and tweeness of the characters just made me want to nuke the robot and leave. Am I strange person to find this all too depressing for words? The kids and my husband liked it, but I'd rather have spent the morning doing housework. If anyone else has seen it, tell me why I'm wrong...
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-21 02:59 am (UTC)Hm, well that was probably an entirely useless suggestion on a subject that I know nothing about, but I felt like sharing! At least you enjoyed the panda. Hopes you be well!
*hugs*
P. x.