Comments on: Soul of a New Machine

By: Bob Rehak

Bob Rehak — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:17:55 +0000

Thanks for the link, Alex. I watched WALL-E again this weekend and noticed a lot more of the jiggly camerawork and pulled focus that announces itself as “actual” cinematography rather than virtual camerawork. (Heck, every time we see a lens flare in a Pixar film, it’s in emulation of an older technology.)

Regarding the omission of photography and cinematography from the end credits, I like your explanation — it’s got an Occam’s-razor quality to it. But I still feel that Pixar has got something on its institutional “mind” that comes out symptomatically in its films … we may have to wait until several decades have passed to diagnose it clearly. Hope I’m still around to blog about it!

By: Alex Ho

Alex Ho — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:56:41 +0000

I might be a little late to continue discussion on "Wall-E". I thought it was a great point, one that didn't once occur to me while watching the movie, that the story of "Wall-E" so closely parallels Pixar's unique brand of infusing technology with soul and goodwill, in unquestionably granting its robot characters a "life force" as you say. Unlike the wave of digital paranoia that came with "The Matrix" there isn't nearly as clear cut a dichotomy between the analog and the digital. I found your point about the omission of photography and film in the end credits chronology really curious, especially since "Wall-E" seems to be one of the more photorealistic Pixar films. Elvis Mitchell has an interview with Andrew Stanton on his radio show in which Stanton relates an interesting story about the production of "Wall-E" at around 19:00 that shows the great lengths to which he went to keep "Wall-E" as cinematic-looking as possible, camera imperfections and all. Perhaps allowing photography and film a place in the lineage of visual arts would have been a little too meta for what is ultimately an simple, old school story.

By: Bob Rehak

Bob Rehak — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:09:12 +0000

I agree! I loved the film’s affectionate invocation of 8-bit graphics; in preparation for a future post, I’ve been making a list of my favorite computer games, many of which were from that era.

By: conseula

conseula — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:08:27 +0000

You know what I liked about the animation in the end credits? It was a great reminder that ultimately, above all else, the geniuses at Pixar are amazing storytellers. Yes, the are animation effects wizards (in ways that are, I’m sure, mostly invisible to me) but they also, at the end of the day, tell an excellent story. I didn’t tear up at the end of the movie because it was so gorgeous to look at it (though it was) but because they had told me a story that made me care about a 700 year old robot, so much so that when that same robot is rendered in 80s style 8-bit computer graphics and does little but dart back and forth across the screen, I’m still riveted