Wall-E: Best science fiction movie ever made?

[tomspug]

I enjoy watching Pixar films and this was the best in my opinion. I think it was the lack of dialogue and the visual methods used that just drew me in.

What I miss the most are old animated classics such as Watership Down and The Plague Dogs or some Rankin/Bass flicks......but that's probably nostalgia as much as anything else.

Which means I'm getting old.

Haha! Yes it does!

I've only heard of ONE of those! Nostalgia for me is Don Bluth and Looney Tunes.

 

[gnomon]

Haha! Yes it does!

I've only heard of ONE of those! Nostalgia for me is Don Bluth and Looney Tunes.

Picked up the latest Looney Tunes box set for my brother for Christmas. There's just something about the writing, humor and even the art that is lacking in much of today's animation. That or the market today is dominated by the "anime" style of which too much of it seems to lack any cohesion in the story.

Though Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke I thought were really good. Jin-Ro as well.

I watch too many cartoons.

 

[tomspug]

Picked up the latest Looney Tunes box set for my brother for Christmas. There's just something about the writing, humor and even the art that is lacking in much of today's animation. That or the market today is dominated by the "anime" style of which too much of it seems to lack any cohesion in the story.

Though Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke I thought were really good. Jin-Ro as well.

I watch too many cartoons.

No you don't. Adults don't watch enough "kid" movies, in my opinion. I'm baffled sometimes when people prefer gore and no plot to bright colors with a great story.

And Miyazaki is fantastic. Have you seen Howl's Moving Castle?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I just saw Wall-E recently. I wouldn't say it was the best sci fi film ever, but I did like it a lot.

I highly suggest checking out the DVD if you haven't already; the Burn-E short had me busting a gut laughing.

Yes it is! That's why 2001 is so great, too. I've always had a special fondness for the silence of the late seventies version of The Black Stallion for that reason. We find ourselves in silence perhaps.

Speaking of which (well, not silence, but lack of dialogue), I finally saw Le Mans the other day. Great movie.

 

[Smoke]

Picked up the latest Looney Tunes box set for my brother for Christmas. There's just something about the writing, humor and even the art that is lacking in much of today's animation. That or the market today is dominated by the "anime" style of which too much of it seems to lack any cohesion in the story.

The traditional animation process was too labor-intensive and expensive; that's why all American animation from the 1960s to the advent of computer animation sucks so bad. The writing got a lot worse, too. You can't begin to compare the insipid crap they cranked out when I was growing up to the art of writers like Michael Maltese and some of the other Looney Tunes writers; that's why people of my generation almost universally prefer cartoons produced before we were born. They're better. I do think some modern cartoons incorporate good graphics, but as animation they still suck.

I watch too many cartoons.

That's virtually impossible.

 

[doppelganger]

What I miss the most are old animated classics such as Watership Down and The Plague Dogs or some Rankin/Bass flicks......but that's probably nostalgia as much as anything else.

Which means I'm getting old.

Watership Down was a work of genius. But your affection for those Rankin/Bass productions is probably more nostalgia than anything else. I bet if you watched one now the bubble would burst.

 

[Storm]

I liked Titan AE for Fox's guts in the production values, but the story-telling fell WAY flat. Some of the characters were good, though. However, Titan AE is notorious for effectively obliterating Fox's once large animation department.

I disagree with you about the storytelling, but I'm admittedly not that critical. A movie either engrosses me or doesn't. Titan AE did.

Why do you think it fell flat?

Reposting since you seem to've missed it.

 

[gnomon]

Watership Down was a work of genius. But your affection for those Rankin/Bass productions is probably more nostalgia than anything else. I bet if you watched one now the bubble would burst.

Probably. And while I liked Wizards as a kid the whole rotoscoping thing is not as appealing. Maybe because its combined with all the psychedelia Bakshi loved.

Though I have yet to see Fritz the Cat.

 

[Functionless]

Are you serious? It looks like a kid's movie. I've never seen it.

 

[Don Penguinoini]

Then you have nothing to say about it, Functionless.

I still think nothing beats the Lion King.

 

[Smoke]

Though I have yet to see Fritz the Cat.

I saw it when I was teenager. It's an excellent example of the kind of thing it is.

 

[tomspug]

Reposting since you seem to've missed it.

The reason it fell flat was because it had no audience at the time. When Titan AE came out, parents didn't take their children to see rated-PG animated films (amazing, huh!).

There was also a lot of confusion, because it was originally pitched, shot, AND advertised as a LIVE-ACTION sci-fi film... but at some point it was turned into a cartoon. It lost it's appeal to adults at that point, despite keeping its more adult-oriented themes. It then tried to pitch itself towards teens (as is evidenced by it's soundtrack.

Fox was betting that the market was ready for a non-G animated movie, especially since they were so prevalent already in Japan. It wasn't. Even still, in America you will find adults hard-pressed to choose an animated movie over a live-action one, regardless of content. Pixar, apparently, is the only exception.

By the way, anyone seen the new trailer for Pixar's next movie, Up?

 

[Storm]

I guess I just don't see the lack of an audience as a flaw in the storytelling, which is what I thought you meant.

 

[tomspug]

I guess I just don't see the lack of an audience as a flaw in the storytelling, which is what I thought you meant.

Ah, well the flaw in the storytelling was a lack of character development. The technical effects stole the show and screen time. Some of the characters were very flat and the overall dynamics of the relationships lacked true depth.

But those aren't the reasons that people didn't come to see the movie.

 

[Storm]

Ok, that's more what I was looking for.