Wall-E & Presto

First off, I just wanted to tell you that Presto is available on iTunes (Nate mentions this below).



Wall-E



I liked Wall-E. It was amazingly emotional and fantastic for quite awhile (see Patrick’s great assessment below), and the end was decent what with the antagonists (I’m keeping this super vague), but it did seem to try to end on a high note right after several low notes, and I think the low notes took it lower than the high notes were able to bring it back up. Thus they didn’t end the movie at its peak of positive emotion.

So I completely understand why people don’t think it ended well. It definitely leaves you more emotionally exhausted than any other Pixar film.

Also, as an animator, I couldn’t get over their attempts to use live-action and stylized humans in the same movie. I think they should have increased their level of realism in characters (to something like the Final Fantasy movie or at least Shrek’s slightly more realistic approach), and used that consistently through the film rather than embracing the inconsistency. Even the pictures of the photo realistic captains changing to stylized cartoony captains basically says that we either turn cartoony when we get fat or we evolved into cartoon characters. It bugged me. =^)

That said, I also agree that it was a great Pixar film, much better than the last two.


I’d probably put it here on my list of favorite Pixar films:

1. Incredibles*
2. Finding Nemo*
3. Toy Story 2
4. Toy Story
5. Wall-E
6. Monster’s Inc.
7. Bug’s Life
8. Ratatouille*
9. Cars

That’s not a knock on Ratatouille or Cars. Both were amazing. It’s just a tough crowd they’re in. =^)

* Winners of Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature.




Presto



Looks like a waiter from Ratatouille. =^)

This is now my second favorite Pixar short. So I think Presto is very noteworthy for its excellence in humor and animation.


1. For the Birds*
2. Presto
3. Geri’s Game*
4. Tin Toy*
5. Knick Knack
6. Luxo Jr.
7. Boundin’
8. Lifted
9. One Man Band
10. Red’s Dream
11. The Adventures of Andre and Wally B.

* Winners of Academy Awards for Best Animated Short.


I want to watch it again, because I’m not entirely sure how the ladder gag and a few others even made sense. =^)

I still think it should be a feature-length film. Sure, the gag can only be used once. But I bet they could do a road film of those characters moving to America and competing against other types of entertainment. It would be a nice fun break from some of Pixar’s more emotional and heady efforts.



However, I also think they should make that Monkey movie that Lassetter had planned before George Lucas vetoed it (before Steve Jobs took over Pixar).


- TAE