Much more of a straight-up action-comedy than my favourite Pixar movies, but as a piece of cinema, it’s so well-made, I can’t complain. I’m not sure it’s a movie I’ll be revisiting often, but I still admired the hell out pretty much every technical and storytelling aspect.
So where does it fit into the full ordering of Pixar flicks?
The Incredibles > WALL·E > Ratatouille > Finding Nemo > Toy Story > Up > Monsters Inc > Toy Story 2 > Bug’s Life > Cars.
That’s where.
But did it make you sniffle? Make your eyes well up?
At all?
I kind of hate to say it, but no. The places where I know I was supposed to were just too heavy-handed and conventional — I felt like I could see the emotional strings being pulled. I actually got more choked up over the WALL-E/EVE story simply because it was less obvious.
First of all: SPOILERS
Not that I didn’t choke up a bit during WALL E, but that was just as obvious. You knew everything was going to be okay, WALL E didn’t die and his memory wasn’t lost forever. Whereas Ellie was barren, died and stayed dead. In a Disney film.
That isn’t the part of WALL-E that gets to me. It’s WALL-E looking after EVE after she shuts down, and the space-dance. As for the rest of my response, I think I’m going to break that off into a whole ‘nother blog post.