Thursday, July 03, 2008

Willard·E

Thanks to everybody for your opinions on what I should have gone to see last night... I ended up having a bit of a headache, which kinda made the choice for me... Wanted looks very loud. I'll probably see that later today.

So I saw Pixar's latest masterpiece instead. Oh I could add to the deafening chorus of how wonderful WALL·E is - and it is truly, madly wonderful - but that'd be boring, no? So I will point out it's one massive gaping flaw, from my point of view, because I am a blogger and that's supposedly my job:

What the hell was the deal with Fred Willard?

Don't get me wrong: I like Fred Willard; I think he's very funny. He's got his whole clueless buffoon thing going on, and that can be delightful. In the right context.

But every time he showed up on-screen here in WALL·E he might as well have stepped through the screen and kicked me in the nuts. I mean... WTF?

I know we saw real living humans in the Hello Dolly video and apparently this was an attempt to to show that humans once, 700 year prior, had looked like you or I, but seven centuries of body-numbing laziness had turned us into CG blobs...

But it just was not working for me. I literally felt angry every time he showed up, because he was ruining my substantial enjoyment of everything else. Everything else was so perfect! And then he popped up, all live-action, doing his schtick, and I wanted to scream, "Go away, Fred Willard! You are not welcome here!" Anybody else have trouble with him?

Everything else was sooo good. WALL·E and Eve are just... sigh. So sweet. Not that this is a barometer of greatness since I cry so very often, but this film had my tear-ducts working about ten minutes in - when WALL·E first watched Hello Dolly and wanted someone's hand to hold... perfectly metered depictions of loneliness always get me - and pretty much straight up until the end, I was a goner. There are just moments in the film that are so beautiful visually, that that made me tear up all on its own.

If it weren't for the Fred Willard parts, I'd definitely have ranked this right at the top of the Pixar heap (though I don't think they could ever better The Incredibles). As is, Willard-filled, it's probably down around four or so with Finding Nemo (being beaten by The Incredibles, Toy Story 2 and Ratatouille). Keep in mind, we're talking tiny fractions of degrees of wonderful here - I love all of Pixar's films. A Bug's Life and Monsters Inc. and Cars - yes, Cars - are all wonderful too. And hopefully I'll find Willard's part a little less jarring on further screenings. Because - make no mistake! - there will be many, many further screenings.
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think it's supposed to represent that the centuries of not doing anything has made us into useless caricatures of ourselves.