Wall-E
I had a bad day at work capping off a terrible month that has me pretty down (I'm feeling pretty much worse than useless right now). So I decided to stop by the theater on the way home for a little escapism.
Wall-E is pretty much as far out there for "comfort fantasy" as you can get: lonely Pixar robot in a wasteland future Earth trying to make the best of its life, becoming an accidental participant in a larger story. It was exactly what I wanted and it served its purpose nicely: sweeping visuals, long (up to 20 min) expanses of emotive acting with no distracting dialogue, deeply sentimental. Interesting characters, interesting scenes, interesting world and a plot that seems to just naturally flow ... I was pretty impressed. It's a credit to the animators ability to project emotion onto their creations that watching a robot's "personality" get switched off can be heartbreaking.
Like "The Incredibles" though, there was something deep down in the philosophy of the film that made me squirm uncomfortably about the way "ordinary people" were portrayed. As I was riding home on the bus, I noticed that an affluent-looking woman sitting in front of me had studded piercings in the back of her neck. Such self-mutillation made me realize that I didn't believe the dystopian view of a too-comfortable humanity would ever come to pass - even when lost in our own worlds, we don't allow ourselves to get too content.
(I do have to admit that a shy and cynical part of me wonders if the moral of the story might better "don't dare leave the house or you could upset the universe")
Wall-E is pretty much as far out there for "comfort fantasy" as you can get: lonely Pixar robot in a wasteland future Earth trying to make the best of its life, becoming an accidental participant in a larger story. It was exactly what I wanted and it served its purpose nicely: sweeping visuals, long (up to 20 min) expanses of emotive acting with no distracting dialogue, deeply sentimental. Interesting characters, interesting scenes, interesting world and a plot that seems to just naturally flow ... I was pretty impressed. It's a credit to the animators ability to project emotion onto their creations that watching a robot's "personality" get switched off can be heartbreaking.
Like "The Incredibles" though, there was something deep down in the philosophy of the film that made me squirm uncomfortably about the way "ordinary people" were portrayed. As I was riding home on the bus, I noticed that an affluent-looking woman sitting in front of me had studded piercings in the back of her neck. Such self-mutillation made me realize that I didn't believe the dystopian view of a too-comfortable humanity would ever come to pass - even when lost in our own worlds, we don't allow ourselves to get too content.
(I do have to admit that a shy and cynical part of me wonders if the moral of the story might better "don't dare leave the house or you could upset the universe")