Volume 56, Number 15 · October 8, 2009
Pixar Genius
By Christian Caryl
WALL·E
a film by Pixar Animation Studios
The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company
by David A. Price
Viintage, 310 pp., $16.00 (paper)
To Infinity and Beyond! The Story of Pixar Animation Studios
by Karen Paik, based on research and interviews by Leslie Iwerks, with a foreword by John Lasseter, Steve Jobs, and Ed Catmull
Chronicle, 303 pp., $75.00
The Art of Pixar Short Films
by Amid Amidi, with a foreword by John Lasseter
Chronicle, 160 pp., $40.00
There are underdogs and then there are underdogs. It is eight hundred years in the future. Earth is a toxic, dusty junkyard, awash in Himalayas of refuse, and the only one left to do the job of cleaning it all up is a waist-high, trash-compacting robot who goes by the name of WALL·E (for 'Waste Allocation Load Lifter—Earth Class'). The humans who made such a mess out of their planet have long since absconded to starships where they have spent the intervening centuries being waited on hand and foot by other robots. The combination of low gravity and nonstop pampering has transformed the passengers on this 'luxury cruise' into bloated parodies of themselves, baby-like fatties who are so lazy that they've lost any sense of what being human is all about. In his solitude, ironically, WALL·E has been evolving in the opposite direction. Over the years he has become sentient.
Review, 3939 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |