Thank you for all your good wishes on our anniversary last weekend. Dh & I celebrated by doing two of our favourite things: we went to a Sunday afternoon matinee, followed by dinner at a nearby steakhouse.
The movie we saw was WALL-E & we absolutely loved it. I think it is one of the best movies I've seen so far this year. It made me laugh, it made me cry. It made me THINK. About the environment, about rampant, mindless consumerism. About our willingness to take the easy way out & let someone else do the thinking & make hard decisions for us. About how technology (while admittedly bringing people like us bloggers together) has isolated us so much from each other that we can sit side by side, communicating to each other via screens without looking at each other & realizing what we have right within our grasp.
Let me say, however, that it is NOT a movie for kids, even though it is an animated Pixar feature & marketed to children. Older children, maybe, but I'm not sure younger children will get much out of it. The little guy behind us kept asking his mother in bewilderment, "When's it going to be funny?" & finally declared, "This isn't very funny." It WAS funny -- and sad -- and extremely touching -- but not in an obvious "ha-ha" way that a 4-year-old would grasp. There were echoes of Short Circuit, Star Wars (R2-D2), ET and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Not to mention Gilligan's Island & The Love Boat, lol.
Leave it to me to find reminders of (in)fertility & loss, even in a movie about robots. WALL-E meets up with (and falls in love with) a female robot, EVE, who has been sent to Earth to probe for signs of sustainable life that would allow humans to return to the devastated planet. She is, appropriately, shaped like an egg. Trying to impress her, WALL-E offers her a single, small green plant sprout that he discovered, as a gift. She recognizes it as the sign of life she's been programmed to find, snatches it up, opens up her belly, pops it inside & returns to her mothership, with WALL-E in hot pursuit.
When she returns to the mothership & her belly is opened up, nothing is found inside of her. Needless to say, I was in tears over this part.
But that's just a small part of the movie. Go!
We saw Wall-E during our reunion - I was the same way, sad to the point of tears, when they opened up Eva and there was no plant in there. Of course, I didn't even make it through the first 5 minutes of Disney's Tarzan before I was a bawling mess when the mama gorilla loses her little baby and then "adopts" Tarzan. That longing and need to "mother" something we know a bit too well.
ReplyDeleteHappy belated anniversary! Sorry I'm late to the party. Just now getting caught up on my blog reading. Will look forward to WALL-E - and I'm guessing I'll have the same reaction. I'm amazed at how often my brain goes right for the infertility association. Sigh. Having a few days on my own. I asked Deathstar to pick you on and head over...
ReplyDeletewe saw WALL-E this weekend too and loved it. I agree, it's not really for kids. we're in pixar country here so we always get lots of adults in the theaters though.
ReplyDeleteI love your take on it too. there was something so touching about that scene and you're right, so many layers and messages throughout.
Interesting about the IF angle. D. and I want to see this movie. Thanks for the review!
ReplyDeleteDamn, you are good. My sister just said "it's a really good movie, you should go." But that somehow didn't put on the exclamation point that you did. Definitely want to see it now. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAnd yum for steakhouse. That's usually where DH and I end up too as a complement to a movie. Funny, ha?
Okay. Must see WALL.E now. Why I chose to watch Hanc.ock over that on my b-day, I'll never know. Don't recommend that movie so much.
ReplyDeleteAnd isn't it amazing how us IF'ers tend to find the fertility themes in most movies / books / shows?
Anyway, glad you and hubby had a wonderful anniversary. July 6th is an awesome day! :-)
Wall-E totally looks like the robot from "Short Circuit"... minus the cheesy 80's style
ReplyDeleteI dragged my husband to this movie just because I read your post. We weren't planning to go. What an endearing, touching story and yet with so many layers. I feel like it's one you need to see again and again to appreciate all the symbolism and messages.
ReplyDeletenot sure I'm ready for it. But I do want to see it - someday
ReplyDeleteHmm...I may have to partake of a movie this weekend. Thank you for the recommendation.
ReplyDeleteJust returned from seeing Wall-E...definitely one of the better movies I've seen in a while, and yes, definitely not for little kids. I left feeling sad though...about what we're doing to the earth, and how generally unthinking we've become...but I perhaps am being more affected to due AF being on the way.
ReplyDeleteThanks for a good recommendation - we usually only to to the theater once a year or so, so this was a good choice!
Ok, I don't want this to come across as a brag because it's really not (my child will watch pretty much anything), but Bella LOVED wall-e, and she just turned 4. I think she mostly just got the love story, but a few quick questions near the end and I'm pretty sure she got the big picture there, too. She loves "The Lorax," so I think she understood the general theme even if she didn't get the nuance.
ReplyDeleteWe both loved it as well. And I adored the credits. Brilliant.