WALL·E

I've stayed away from watching animated movies this last year not out of prejudice, but because I've spent such a large part of my childhood and adolescence consuming animation that I wanted to see what live action had to offer. Well, that's actually probably a lie; subconsciously there was always a nagging feeling in my head that animated movies, especially targeted towards families, was something that I'd simply outgrown. That was what I felt while watching the acclaimed Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, where my mind just started to wonder if I'd just outgrown my sense of whimsy. Thank the stars that's not true. WALL-E is an amazing masterpiece regardless of whatever standard you want to judge it on. Hell, as many has pointed out, this movie only gets better the older you are. The moment you start drawing parallels to our society and what's reflected in this movie is where this movie truly shines. The animation is just simply gorgeous, especially in the first third set on Earth. If I had to nitpick, the humans do look significantly less rendered than the robots (Pixar! Gimme less humans please) but it's not big issue. The way these expressive character models move so fluidly is really a testament to why animation is that valuable, I mean look at the dance scene holy shit. Probably the best part of the movie too is how little these characters talk. I have a theory that the more talking there is in a family oriented movie, the more annoying it gets. There's not too much clunky kids movie dialogue in this film because so much of the movie is just two robots communicating through calling out their respective names in the most adorable way. And finally, I love how hopeful everything is. In lesser hands the humans could be one dimensional, cartoonishly pathetic villains, but WALL-E chooses to treat them with empathy. I love the romance subplot between the two humans WALL-E meets (that's a whole movie on its own!), and I love the captain's redemption arc. As much as I want to give it 5 stars however, there are some flaws. That fakeout at the end is quite uncalled for, and I find the twist villain to be a tad contrived. Still, small issues. EDIT: i thought I watched this as a kid but I only remembered the stuff on Earth so I'm not counting this as a rewatch heh