I am mildly surprised and impressed by the fact Disney and Pixar didn’t feel as if they had to overwhelm consumers with an abundance of special features to get across how great a film WALL-E actually is. Sure, this is described as a 3-Disc release, which sounds like they have thrown everything but the kitchen sink at it, but when one of those discs is the digital copy of the film, another is dedicated to the film and the other for the features you end up with a satisfying release that will satisfy animated cinephiles, casual viewers and families with young children alike. Then again, I would recommend this title if it came with nothing but the film, because that’s really all I care about and this is one great movie.
Way back in June, I wrote an article headlined “For Your Consideration, ‘WALL-E’ for Best Picture“. It was not written as a joke and I still remain firm in my stance that it should be nominated for Best Picture even though I am now quite confident it will be ignored even if it remains the best reviewed film of 2008 (source). However, Best Picture nomination or not, that doesn’t take away from the fact this is a fantastic film you can easily watch over and over again, much like Pixar’s 2007 release Ratatouille.
The film tells the story of the last robot left on Earth after a mass evacuation. The robot’s duty was clean-up and that’s what he has been doing for hundreds of years and over the course of that time he has somehow managed to acquire a personality as he slowly learns more and more about the humans that once inhabited the planet. The film becomes a love story between two robots, if you can imagine that, as well as a spectacular sci-fi action adventure flick. It is one of the best looking animated films I have ever seen and with both the feature film, as well as ALL of its special features, in high definition, Blu-ray is the only way to go if you have a choice with this title.
On top of the film, disc one also contains two separate commentaries. The first is the Cine-Explore track with a commentary by director Andrew Stanton, and as he is talking a variety of animatics, concept art and storyboards show up on the screen as he gives you a variety of tidbits about the film, including word that the working title for the project was Trashed Planet for almost ten years. One thing he also touches upon was the discussion early on about how WALL-E appears to have a political agenda when it comes to its commentary on consumerism gone awry. Stanton still holds firm he had no intention of making a political piece, but he doesn’t dodge the subject by adding that even he works for a giant company based on consumerism and admits “we are our own worst enemies sometimes.” I can respect that.
The second commentary track can best be described as being hosted by four Pixar geeks, and I mean that in the kindest of terms. These four seem to be great friends and LOVE to talk, and talk, and talk, and talk. In fact, these people talk so much, and occasionally over one another, that it gets annoying to the point where they begin to seem like those rude people in a movie theater audience that won’t shut up. It’s unfortunate because I turned their commentary off even though there were some good bits early on such as news one scene is actually an homage to Alien, the cockroach’s name is Hal but not because of 2001 (gotta watch to find out the answer to this one) and that WALL-E’s name used to have only one “L” but they added another so people would pronounce it like “whale”. Good choice guys.
One of the big selling points of the disc is the new animated short BURN-E featuring an all new (sort of) robot and his story aboard the Axiom. You actually get a quick glimpse of BURN-E in the feature film and this short is centered on his brief appearance and how the actions of WALL-E and EVE affect BURN-E’s life. You also get a picture-in-picture presentation with the short from director Angus MacLane and the first disc also includes Presto, the short that was shown in front of WALL-E in theaters.
The second disc has two sections designated for special features: “Robots” and “Humans”. Inside the “Robots” section you find a small group of more childish features such as DVD games, product marketing, a storybook feature and previously seen online web shorts featuring WALL-E interacting with a variety of household products such as balls and a magnet.
The storybook feature has two modes, one is a read-a-long and the other involves some interactive games. The read-a-long is narrated by Kathy Najimy who plays Mary in the film and she is joined by John Ratzenberger for the interactive version. The fact it is a storybook should clue you in this a feature geared toward children and if you decide to watch it should be quite clear if it isn’t already.
The most interesting feature in the “Bots” section are the “Bot Files” detailing 28 robots from the film from the Beauticianbot (PR-T) to the Nannybot (NAN-E). I was actually surprised I enjoyed this feature since there isn’t much to it, but I think after looking at this you may see a few things in the film you didn’t notice the first couple of times around.
The “Humans” section is more geared toward the behind-the-scenes features such as four deleted scenes (22:54), making of featurettes (1:03:45), mock Buy-n-Large promos (8:45) and some rather cool 3-D set fly-throughs (10:38) taking you through several areas of the Axiom as well as WALL-E’s trailer and the Earth Refinery. The Axiom is probably the most interesting because of its other-worldly aspect, but touring WALL-E’s trailer will give you a better idea of all the stuff he collects, especially if you go through it in slow motion.
As for the deleted scenes they are introduced by director Andrew Stanton and one of the four is actually quite finished and it is an alternate version of the garbage scene aboard the Axiom, except the roles are reversed as EVE is now in peril and WALL-E is trying to fix her. The decision to change it was a very good idea because it adds a lot to the ending of the film. It’s actually surprising they had it this alternate way first considering how much the ending hinges on what happens in this scene. You’ll see what I mean. One of the other four scenes is also partially finished; the other two are animated storyboards.
The making-of featurettes cover everything from character design, animation, sound, the human aspect of the film, the score and the relationships inside the film. Perhaps my favorite feature would be the “Life of the Shot” sequence, which is a five minute look at all the people involved with bringing a scene in a Pixar animated film to life. Producer Jim Morris really hits home the relevance of the feature when he says if one person were able to do everything necessary to bring this film to life, a film made up of about 1,500 shots; it would take that one person 442 years to do it. The focus of the feature is the shot toward the beginning of the film where WALL-E accidentally runs over his cockroach buddy, HAL.
The rest of the disc includes a picture gallery, a trailer gallery and finally the feature length film “The Pixar Story”, which has been seen prior to now, but is a very cool addition to this disc as it takes a look at the origins of Pixar; it’s definitely worth a watch.
Overall, this collection is packed with stuff as you can tell, but none of it weighs the release down. You can pick and choose your battles and actually burn through a lot of it rather quickly in only a couple of sittings. I still believe WALL-E is one of the best films of the year so it obviously has my recommendation stamped firmly on it and if you have the means definitely pick up the Blu-ray version because it is glorious.
