Wall-E BluRay movie review

1790 Views 8 Replies 5 Participants Last post by tonyvdb, Dec 31, 2008

tonyvdb

Discussion Starter · Nov 25, 2008

[img]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lXr2iiC5L._SL500_AA240_.jpg[/img]

Wall-E on BluRay Review

This weekend the family sat down to watch Wall-E, Given the anticipation of seeing this movie was fairly high I think I had my expectations set a bit high.
Pixar is very well know for putting out great animated films and this installment was a bit of a disappointment in some ways. Dont get me wrong the quality of the animation was very good in most parts of the film but there seemed to be a somewhat laziness about some of the animated sequences and I found myself getting distracted by them.
This movie is a bit of a yawner at times and even our kids seemed to get board. The nature of this movie has little dialogue for the first half and needs to keep you visually stimulated and it fails to do so. There are some funny parts that even as an adult you cant help but laugh out loud.
I dont know why Disney chooses to do so but almost all there newer animated films have some sort of hidden sexual content that if your not watching for it you would not see it but again in Wall-E there is one part that again had a questionable image (lasts only about 1 second) thats not at all necessary.

Video quality: :3.5stars:
As I mentioned above some parts of the animation seemed rushed and other parts looked great particularly the detail of the reflections off of EVE's outer shell were very well done.
For a BluRay disc I was disappointed in the playback as the new disc I had had issues playing through properly and on several ocations the video would studder and the audio would cut out completely for 5 or so seconds. This is where HD DVD really had it going for it as playback issues were rarely an issue.

Audio: :3stars:
This is what really surprised me, after going into the audio setup options there was no uncompressed audio format available not even DD+ so I had to stick with Dolby Digital 5.1 Disney, What was up with that??
The audio was good and use of the surround channels was plenty and full. The LFE channel was used well but not deep. Not once did I notice my chest or seat really rumble.

Overall enjoyment: :4stars:
The story was interesting and keeps your mind busy but there are parts that just dont have enough going on to keep you focused. I dont know why there was such a fuss made about this movie as its just not as good as it could have been.
Overall its fun and good family entertainment but to buy the BlyRay may be a stretch.

See less See more

Save

1 - 9 of 9 Posts

Otto

· #2 · Nov 25, 2008

Thanks for the review. My daughter (2.5 years) and my friend's kid (4.5 years) watched this the other night. We parents were all in the same room, but I admit that I was not paying close attention to the story line of the movie. I did get the gist of it, though. This daughter is my oldest, so we are learning what she can or should watch as we go along.

Now, clearly, this movie is aimed directly at kids. It's animated, it's cute and it's got a solid "G" rating. My question is this: Is this movie really appropriate for a little kid? The concept of a world that's clearly abandoned either through a post-apocalyptic scenario, or through a contamination scenario is a difficult thing to explain to a child. I don't mind explaining things like war, death, famine, etc., but is it something that's correct for this age? Or perhaps should the movie have a "PG" rating? I'm not a prude or a ninny, and I'm not overprotective of my children. I'll probably let her watch it again on Thanksgiving, and I'll try to get a better understanding of the story line. However, my friend and I both agreed that although the movie didn't contain any "language", "dialogue", "sex" or "violence" that would preclude it from getting "G" rating, can or should a story line's concept cause a movie to have a harsher rating.

Of course, in the end, it's all up to the parents as to what a child should be allowed to watch, and my wife and I take full responsiblity for that (which is partially why I'm bringing up the topic). I'm intereseted to hear other parent's thoughts on this subject.

See less See more

Save

tonyvdb

Discussion Starter · #3 · Nov 25, 2008

I think the issue here is that animation has become so realistic that at times you forget that it is just that, animation. I agree that some of the content is not appropriate for very young children as you stated Otto. It is clear that this takes place on earth and the destruction that seems to have been caused by man can be a little confusing for children to understand.
Our two youngest are now 2 and 4 years old and the two year old went to bed before we started it and the 4 year old didn't seem to interested, she more enjoyed the popcorn she had.

Save

Wayde

· #4 · Dec 8, 2008

Otto said:
Of course, in the end, it's all up to the parents as to what a child should be allowed to watch, and my wife and I take full responsiblity for that (which is partially why I'm bringing up the topic). I'm intereseted to hear other parent's thoughts on this subject.

I'm one of those who loved the movie. But then I took my son to the theater and my expectations were on the lower side of Cars so I was plesantly surprised.

Otto... my son is five now and I am clearly on the permissive side of what I watch with him. We've seen just about every super-hero movie together - with the exception of Punisher/dardevil or any of the new batman movies. I draw the line at really gory violence.

There are things kids relate to and find scary and possibly disturbing. I think seeing people suffer is very scary to them. The violence is bad enough but often it's the aftermath that can really be disturbing.

Then there are things we find disturbing that kids have no context to relate. Post-apocalyptic scenarios are an example. You and I know what it's about but to explain Post-apocalyptic Earth to any kid would require a lot of back-story.

I find animated violence... superhero fighting... not so alarming. My son's a boy and we spend a lot of time play-fighting.

We've talked a lot about fighting in real life. I practice martial arts and someday he is liable to as well. He also knows I was the US Army and jumped out of helicopters. He is enamored with all things military.

He's at the age where he relates strength with fighting - and toughness.

Fortunately he has me to guide him through these things. I explain to him in my yoda-like voice... fighting make not one tough... tough is the ability to endure, not to fight.

In fact, not fighting often makes you far tougher than someone who is quick to fight.

I'll add that cleaning his room, even if he doesn't want to, is endurance and makes him tough. Walking in the winter to get groceries even though he'd rather we take the warm truck... that's endurance, that makes us far tougher than someone who fantasises about beating people up.

And I am proud to say I teach him these lessons first-hand, we often walk almost a km each way to get a bag or two of groceries and he has been doing that road march with me since he was four. He never again saw the interior of a stroller as soon as he could walk.

I find watching movies with kids is a great way to talk about various issues. I think people get too bent out of shape over questionable content. Kids walk away from 'lessons' having often learned very inadvertant things.

See less See more

Save

redduck21502

· #5 · Dec 30, 2008

I agree that the movie does drag throughout much of the beginning. My wife stopped watching halfway because she was so bored.

Check the jacket cover again on the Blu-ray, mine has uncompressed audio with DTS-HD-MA 5.1
I would doubt that they would ship different copies of the movie with only Dolby Digital.

Save

avaserfi

· #6 · Dec 30, 2008

I thought the movie was pretty good. Not Pixar's best, but better than most of the trash that is currently being released.

Save

tonyvdb

Discussion Starter · #7 · Dec 31, 2008

redduck21502 said:
Check the jacket cover again on the Blu-ray, mine has uncompressed audio with DTS-HD-MA 5.1
I would doubt that they would ship different copies of the movie with only Dolby Digital.

My Jacket says it is DTS HD MA but again there is no option to select it in the audio options nor is it in the list.

Save

redduck21502

· #8 · Dec 31, 2008

tonyvdb said:
My Jacket says it is DTS HD MA but again there is no option to select it in the audio options nor is it in the list.

That is very odd, does the DTS-HD-MA work with other BDs? You have some high quality equipment with that receiver and BD player, both indicating that they work with DTS-HD. Perhaps a setting is off on one of the units?

Save

tonyvdb

Discussion Starter · #9 · Dec 31, 2008

Yes, I have watched both DTS MA and TruHD audio encoded movies and all have worked fine. The best movie so far is the new Prince Caspian it has 7.1 DTS MA:T

Save

1 - 9 of 9 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month