Bohemian Cinema By Jonathan Pacheco

Hitting a Brick “WALL•E”?

Tags: Pixar, Disney, WALL-E, CG

By now you may know that Pixar’s CG follow-up to this year’s Ratatouille will be a futuristic sci-fi satire called WALL•E. I had heard about the project in late February, and I was curious about it, having read about some of the enthusiasm surrounding the film. It seems that everyone involved believes this to be a special project—one that will challenge them and challenge us as an audience.

A few days back, a teaser trailer for WALL•E was finally released, as well as some more news about the plot, release date, and more. I didn’t check it out until today.

Set in 2700. WALL•E, is described as a space-set remake of a 1931 Charlie Chaplin film about a blind girl wooed by a tramp she mistakenly believes is a rich man. Transferring the setting to a lonely planet, WALL•E is a cute little robot doing what he was made for - until he meets a female robot names Eve.

In case you didn’t know, that Charlie Chaplin film is City Lights, a movie I consider to be his greatest, a favorite of mine, and one of the best films I’ve ever seen. It’s absolutely sweet, heartbreaking, and hysterical. So you can imagine that I’d be a little wary of a film that seeks to “remake” a work of art that I cherish. Sure, it’s probably not going to be much of a literal adaptation, not even worthy of being called a “remake,” but anytime a film looks to another film as its inspiration, theme, and story, it enters shaky territory.

Reading a little more about the film’s plot and what techniques they will use, I found that the first third of the film will be almost entirely absent of dialogue; this is one of those “daring” and “challenging” moves that I referred to before. I applaud them for this move, and I think it could be really interesting and compelling…except that the film they’re “remaking,” well, that was a silent film. I’m afraid that more too many similarities between the two films will not be a plus for Pixar. The second I see a scene or moment from City Lights translated into robot gestures, I’m flippin’ out.

Now, this is the almighty Pixar. They have a nearly-perfect track record full of films that I hold dear, much like Disney did in the early nineties; Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King—all adaptations (to certain degrees) of past stories. Those turned out well, right? So maybe I’m overreacting—and I think I am.

But just when I was feeling better, another unrelated detail popped up: at least one real-life flesh-and-bones non-CG human actor will appear within the Pixar-created universe.

Umm, hello, Happy Feet anyone?

What is Pixar thinking? I love Pixar and I think they have enough talent and heart to knock nearly any idea out of the park, but this? Am I the only one that resents a CG project for doing this type of thing? It completely takes me out of the film. It destroys the world and the illusion. If it’s not the premise of the project (kind of like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?), then don’t taint the project with that junk.

WALL•E is led by Andrew Stanton, director of Finding Nemo. He’s done fantastic work, and he’s unbelievably amped and passionate about this one, so I’d like to believe he can pull it off.

But I’d have to see it to believe it.