Wall-E

Wall-E, directed by Andrew Stanton and produced by Pixar, tells the story of a little trash-compacting robot named Wall-E. Wall-E came out on June 27, 2008 and grossed $23.1 million on opening day. It also included my favorite short film, Presto. There is very limited talking in this movie until they find humans in space (which is an eire look at our lazy future...) and work together to change the world (Global Warming? Pollution?). Also, something very interesting was the fact that this was the first film by Pixar to include live-action characters. One of the only things Wall-E has from Earth's past is an old projection of Hello Dolly, which he watches religiously. Wall-E won the 2008 Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

Andrew Stanton said the moral of the film was "Irrational love defeats life's programming." In my opinion, this means that people are very used to specific habits and rarely tend to break free of them. Often times, it's because people are afraid to face new things or the changing world. Wall-E's main function is to clean the Earth, even though it is no longer inhabited. He is scared to do anything else, or does not know how. Then EVE comes, who breaks him out of his shell. The name EVE comes from the bible because Stanton said Wall-E reminded him of Adam because he was lonely all the time. There are many different interpretations of Wall-E's character. Hrag Vartanian, a famous writer, said Wall-E is very similar to Butades, a Greek myth. It says that Butades created art to show a Corinthian maiden that he loved her. 

The design of this movie was also stellar. Wall-E took 125,000 storyboards to show the entire movie in detail. To create the destroyed Earth, Pixar went to abandoned places like Chernobyl and studied the landscape. Something I found very interesting, was that Stanton found the idea for Wall-E's eyes when he received and odd looking set of binoculars at an Oakland Athletics game. Stanton "missed the entire inning because he was distracted by them." Many people were concerned however, with the similarities between Wall-E and Johnny 5 from Short Circuit. 

Wall-E is a fantastic movie and even though there is limited dialogue, there are many lessons to be learned about love, the world and yourselves.

The Lion King

The Lion King, produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, was my absolute favorite movie when it came out in theaters. I saw it five times and still couldn't get enough. But enough about me. The Lion King came out on June 15, 1994 and grossed more than $783 million worldwide. It was nominated for two Oscars for music and received a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. Elton John and Tim Rice were the masterminds behind the music and lyrics while Hans Zimmer (The Pirates of the Caribbean) wrote the score. The animation was 2D and was originally called King of the Kalahari.

The film takes place in a secluded area of the Serengeti called the Pride Lands. Lions rule over the rest of the animals, and all males are in the running to be King. When the movie begins, Mufasa is King and Simba, his son, is just born. Mufasa takes Simba on a father-son bonding experience throughout the Pride Lands to show him the ropes. Scar, Mufasa's brother, is very corrupt and wants to take the throne, so he stages Mufasa's death and kills him. He then sends his hyenas Shenzi, Banzai and Ed to kill Simba. They fail and Simba escapes, and is raised by Timon and Pumba (a meerkat and warthog). Eventually he grows up and battles Scar for the throne, ultimately winning and ruling Pride Rock with his lover Nala.

My favorite interpretation of this movie, is that it is almost identical to William Shakespeare's, Hamlet. Mufasa, or King Hamlet, is killed and betrayed by his brother Scar (Claudius). Instead of killing Scar right away, he doesn't; he grows up... Also, Mufasa and King Hamlet never tell their sons to seek revenge directly. A very direct resemblence, is that of Timon and Pumba. Timon and Pumba to Simba are exactly like Guildenstern and Rosencrantz to Hamlet. They help them on their journey. Does this mean that modern writers are loosing their creative roots? Not at all. But it does show that writers can adapt stories from great writers and turn them into something beautiful and original in its own way.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

One of the most terrifyingly brilliant children's movies of all time, The Nightmare Before Christmas tells the story of Christmas like never before. The story begins with a dark and horrifying song about Halloween in Halloween Town. Our protagonist, Jack Skellington (Danny Elfman), or The Pumpkin King as the town calls him, gives the town a huge show every Halloween. They plan all year for this event because in Halloween Town, there are no other holidays. However, soon Jack becomes tired of celebrating the same holiday every year. He uncovers the world of Christmas Town in a group of doors leading to other holidays, and decides he wants to celebrate Christmas in Halloween Town. The town is very excited, besides the fact that they have no idea how to be "jolly," and begin preparations. Sally (Catherine O'Hara), a rag doll who loves Jack, seems to be the only one who realizes that this is a terrible idea (She also tries to poison her father daily. Cute.) Jack then orders Lock, Shock, and Barrel, the best trick-or-treaters in the town, to go bring Santa Clause back to Halloween Town. However, because of their mischievous ways, they bring him back to Oogie Boogie, a boogie man with a major gambling problem (watch and learn kids?). Christmas Eve finally rolls around and despite Sally's attempts to stop Jack, he still flies off into the night in a coffin pulled by ghostly skeleton reindeer while throwing evil presents all over the world. Jack is quickly shot down by the military, and Sally is captured by Mr. Boogie. Jack quickly remembers his Halloween spirit, and comes back. After a quick battle with Boogie, Jack rescues Sally and Santa and makes everything right.

This film was so revolutionary at first because it was filmed in stop motion, which takes a very long time to film. Stop motion animation is a filming technique in which objects are moved in very slow increments and individually photographed so it appears that they are moving. Henry Selick, the director of this film, is known for his stop-motion films. Nightmare was Selick's stop-motion debut, but he followed this up with James and the Giant Peach and Coraline. Even though the animation may not be very fluent at times, it gives the character's a very real feel. In my opinion, all the objects look more authentic than computer or hand drawn animation.

The creativity in this film is absolutely superb. It is based on the three page poem that Tim Burton wrote while he worked for Disney in the 1980's. I especially like the character development. For example, the Mayor of Halloween Town has a head that swivels between a Happy face and an Angry face. This shows the two sides of the Mayor. Also the simple fact that Jack's character, although introduced to nothing else, wants to break away and be different. He wants change in his community even though no one else even understands the concept. I think the forrest of doors is significant because if Jack wanted change, all he had to do was go for a quick walk and look for it. Everyone else in the town is content with their lives in Halloween Town.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a wonderfully dark movie that persons of all ages can enjoy. 75% of the movie is music and despite the scary look of it, it is a warm-hearted movie. It is personally one of my favorite Christmas movies ever.

Animation

I chose to watch 10 movies from the animation genre. I picked this genre because animation is fun, interesting, and tends to have underlying messages. I look forward to watching these movies and telling you about them.

1. The Lion King

2. The Iron Giant

3. My Friend Totoro

4. Spirited Away

5. Castle in the Sky

6. Who Framed Roger Rabbit

7. Wall-e

8. The Nightmare Before Christmas

9. Fantasia

10. Finding Nemo