Comments on: Mini-review: WALL-E (2008) http://www.iestyn.net/wp/2008/08/11/mini-review-wall-e-2008 "the concrete world is starting to get ya." Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:02:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: zenbullets http://www.iestyn.net/wp/2008/08/11/mini-review-wall-e-2008#comment-1634 zenbullets Tue, 12 Aug 2008 08:40:07 +0000 http://www.iestyn.net/wp/?p=93#comment-1634 Yeah, it looked great, beautiful design, beautiful animation, touching story, etc., but there was one huge problem - it's not a kids film. I tried this with Rudy and it held his attention for a matter of minutes, compared to, say, Nemo, Robots or Surfs Up, which he watches for hours without taking his eyes off. Same went for Ratatouille. Pixar have lost sight of their demographic, they are making films for adults, but packaging them as kids films. Which makes for an uneasy compromise. Which was why I thought Wall-E was ultimately a failure, because it fell between two stools - it was too simple to be an adult film (but we forgive it because it's a kids film right), and too bleak to be a kids film. Doesn't Pixar have the balls to make an arthouse film? Or won't the accountants let them? Yeah, it looked great, beautiful design, beautiful animation, touching story, etc., but there was one huge problem - it’s not a kids film. I tried this with Rudy and it held his attention for a matter of minutes, compared to, say, Nemo, Robots or Surfs Up, which he watches for hours without taking his eyes off.

Same went for Ratatouille. Pixar have lost sight of their demographic, they are making films for adults, but packaging them as kids films. Which makes for an uneasy compromise. Which was why I thought Wall-E was ultimately a failure, because it fell between two stools - it was too simple to be an adult film (but we forgive it because it’s a kids film right), and too bleak to be a kids film.

Doesn’t Pixar have the balls to make an arthouse film? Or won’t the accountants let them?

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