I don't go to the theater very often anymore. Really, unless a movie is a must see on the big screen, I just don't bother. I am not a big fan of paying a lot of money to sit in a theater and try to watch a movie with some kid crying or some phone going off, or the worse thing of all, some idiots making noise, talking and fooling around, that .. irritates me.
So then, I don't go very often. As a matter of fact, the last movie I saw in theater, was Star Trek, the latest cool trek-flick. I have never missed one, from the Original Motion Picture to now. Yeah, I am big trek geek, whatever.. Bottom line though, is I do miss some cool movies until I can catch them on the tele, via cable or DVD, what have you. Since we started doing the Netflix thing, I have been able to catchup a bit.
I am a big fan of Pixar, so is the techno-tyke. Cars anyone?? A few nights ago, we sat down and watched WALL E.
WALL E was very cool, I really liked the story and frankly, they could have kept the humans out of the movie and it would have been fine. I was totally taken by the beginning of the movie. Pixar did a great job on the animation and the story and made a very touching movie. The techno-tyke is 4, so he fell in love with WALL E right off the bat and he cried every time he though WALL E was going to get hurt. He got a bit weepy through out, but he really liked it.
As a matter of fact, we watched it a second time yesterday, and he was ok, because he knew WALL E would be ok too. That makes it a winner. This is good SF, serious good SF. Why you ask? Because, like all good SF it explores the depth of human emotion and highlights humanity from a different perspective. WALL E is more human than the humans he helps to save. Look at the beginning really closely.
He is following his programming by collecting junk and making blocks of it. But, he also is making new buildings. He searches through the refuse and takes home treasures. Holding up his busted track to an old machine to check for 'shoe size', then taking off his 'shoes' when he goes into his house. How human is that? He longs to be more human, collecting his stuff in his lunch pail while he does his job, then goes home and watches a movie. Amazing what a robot can learn from Hello Dolly!
The dance outside the ship is perfect, showing cool animation but at the same time telling the story of two robots falling in love. How cool is that? Can I also say the start up chime from Mac OS was a nice touch.. for a geek like me. That is my take on it, all stuff that the tyke probably doesn't see. But what he saw, the surface story, was something he really enjoyed. He liked it, and I liked it, in all the depths of the story. Good movies like WALL E are hard to come by, but they are there, oh yes indeed.
