review: WALL·E (2008)

I would class myself as a fan of Pixar however to be honest that’s all because of Toy Story and Toy Story 2. I love those films… so since 1999 I’ve been waiting for Pixar to make a film as good as those two. It’s 2008 now and while I wouldn’t say I’ve been disappointed by their other films… I just don’t think they’ve been as good as they could have been. The Incredibles was a good film and all but it just wasn’t… magical to me.

Anyway, WALL·E is the latest effort from Pixar and since it had a very cute looking robot I had high hopes. In fact I even got up on a Saturday morning to go see it. The good news is that I loved it, actually there is no real bad news… It’s a great film and stars an incredibly cute robot. It looks amazing and even though there’s very little dialogue and the main characters are robots, it’s touching and warm and in a strange way, believable.

Unfortunately I just couldn’t feel like I could give it a 10. There are 18 films I’ve awarded a 10 to on my IMDb vote history and, even though I thought WALL·E was brilliant, it just didn’t make the grade. If you didn’t click on the link above then just to give you an idea of its direct competitors – Toy Story, Toy Story 2, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Dark Crystal and I’d have to say, top of the pile – Hotoru No Haka (Grave of the Fireflies) a 1988 film from Studio Ghibli.

I’m giving it a 9/10, it wasn’t perfect and I’ll tell you why! I’ll have to admit, part of it was because of the message behind the film. Believe me, I think it’s an important message and actually I think they dealt with it really well – it was subtle and it wasn’t what the film was about in any way. My problem was that it made me feel guilty, it was ever-present and I just felt like it was too much, especially at the end. The other reason was because I did think there were elements they could have done more with, for example the other robots or the people, I just thought it could have been funnier, just a touch more comic relief would have been welcome.

On the whole though, it was wonderful, it did have that bit of Pixar magic they had back in Toy Story. It just wasn’t perfect though, when I walked out of the theatre it didn’t stay with me all day and by the time Monday came round I hadn’t thought of it at all. To me to be a 10 it has to have that resonance to it… WALL·E and EVE and their compatriots were so sweet at the time but will I remember them in 10 years time? Maybe not…

9/10