Hard to imagine Disney/PIXAR giving the green light to a film as daringly imaginative, untraditional and decidedly weird as WALL•E today. Equally hard to imagine the current company configuration living up to the concept. Stanley Kubrick and Fritz Lang are the unofficial artistic/narrative godfathers, along with THE BLACK STALLION/’79 for form (near silent first half/full three-act structure in the second.*) The brilliant first half cleverly turns WALL•E, a roving trash compactor, into something of a Charlie Chaplin figure as these Modern Times occur in a post-dystopian Earth unfit for habitation. So much to clean up, with only a cockroach and a VHS tape of HELLO, DOLLY/’69 for companionship.* Or is until an extra-terrestrial probe lands to check the place out. A chance discovery of vegetation lures them both back to the mothership where a plump, docile cross-section of humanity lead placid lives of debilitating leisure. You can figure out the rest, but not the superb manner this is finessed into lively set pieces & improbably sweet characterizations; PIXAR, without cheating, able to get laughs, original personalties & deep emotion out of inanimate objects. Sad to think that this wouldn’t get made today; sadder still to imagine its likely reception.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Look sharp for a perfectly played, endearing nod at STAR WARS/’77 as the big ship jumps into hyperdrive for the trip back to Earth.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *I suppose you could look it up on the internet, but more fun to guess what a Pan-and-Scan VHS tape of HELLO DOLLY would go for today.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: No HELLO, DOLLY! on MAKSQUIBS (cowards!), but these three also referenced above. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2014/08/2001-space-odyssey- 1968.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2013/02/metropolis-1927.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-black-stallion-1979.html
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