The Way of the Game

The Way of the Game


We Just Watched a Movie - WALL•E

July 20, 2014

WALL•E this week.  Barry Lyndon next week.  As always, follow along on our iCheckMovies list, and be sure to let us know how you’d rank the movies in the comments below.



WALL•E – June 23, 2008


Director: Andrew Stanton

Producer: Jim Morris

Writers: Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Pete Doctor

Actors: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy, Sigourney Weaver, MacInTalk

Studio: Pixar Animation Studios

Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures


The course of the conversation:


A gentleman’s agreement to judge the film, not the film’s fans.


Not that that matters for an episode about WALL•E.


Jonathan gets his pleasure center tickled.


Favorite Pixar movies.


Will Pixar ever pull the trigger on breaking our hearts?


Up is Gran Torino with a happy ending.


Animating the look of film.


The clever transition from reality to animation.


Staring into the abyss of the uncanny valley.


A master class in “Show, Don’t Tell.”


The beauty of visual storytelling.


The contrivances of the humans don’t escape notice….


But who cares? Wall•E and Eve are dancing! In space!


The idea that the Earth can be ruined so badly in a hundred years is ludicrous….


But who cares?  The massage-bot just took out a hundred steward bots!


Finding Nemo and WALL•E stand above the rest of Pixar’s catalog for technical achievement.


Nathaniel puts WALL•E higher on his list than movies that should also be higher on his list.


Michael uses theme to place WALL•E between Unforgiven, and The Hurt Locker: they’re all stories told through moving pictures.


Jonathan pushes WALL•E above Lawrence of Arabia, and then tries to justify that as anything other than blind adoration.


We talk about movies you’ll force people to watch when you find they haven’t seen it.  Jonathan’s done that already with WALL•E.