I caught a matinee at the Regal in Potomac Yard today at 3:30. At that theatre, all movies before 6 PM are matinees unlike Gallery Place where I think it is 11 AM! There is only one showing of a movie as a matinee there.
My partner came with me though he said he already saw the first 2. I was thinking to myself…there were 2 more before this? He was referring to Short Circuit and Johnny 5. There is a strange resemblance, check out this wheels and face with the strange “eyebrows.” While the movie seemed to be for all ages, makes the older crowd laugh more with the sounds and sights from recent technology. For example, when Wall-e is fully charged from his solar panels, Macintosh users will recognize the “gong” sound when a Mac is booted. You will also see an iPod which helps play old movies from beta tape. Zippos make an appearance and Wall-e disposes a diamond ring and keeps the fuzzy case for his collection along with rubber duckie and bobble head dog.
Movie buffs with notice a score from Indiana Jones….From the Raiders of the Lost Ark I believe. 2001: The Space Odyssey is alluded to as well. Check out the Robot that is assisting the captain. Notice the red light?
Finally, lights on the floor direct robots all over. Perhaps this should be an improvement in the next generation Roomba. Seriously, it reminded me of a robot kit I assembled as a kid which followed a pen mark on paper. I thought it was pretty cool, and in this case, ensured safe operation of vehicles kind of like how air traffic controllers or a metro control center steers planes and trains. On a few occasions a “MOP” robot, charged with cleaning, hopped off the “track” following the contamination left by Wall-e as he rolled around the ship.
Lessons to learn from the movie
- Recycle! Earth is vacated due to the over abundance of trash from shopping at a store such as Costco or BJs. Wall-e is meant to clean up the Earth while the humans are away by compacting and stacking, much like the Egyptians stacked blocks to make the pyramids, in the shape of skyscrapers.
- Get off your butt! On the 5 year temporary home for the human which turned into 700 years, everyone relies on the robots and just sits, eats, and rides around on hover crafts and have evolved to not be able to walk or have a neck!
- Meet friends for dinner. Until they were disrupted, the auto piloted hover crafts with a heads up video display complete transfixed the rider. No one socialized and there was no personal contact. Hmm…without interaction with others, there would not be “nocturnal activities” and the population would cease to exist! So get out from behind the computer, pick up a phone or meet friends for dinner.
- Cockroaches will outlive every species on the planet. There was only one plant that survived, but cockroaches abound! Not surprising since the planet was covered with garbage. We all know that cockroaches have been on this planet for a very long time, reproduce quickly, and can survive without food for a month. Oh..twice in the movie the cockroach gets run over…and twice, even though is squished, it got up and scurried off. Yuck!
Verdict?
Go check out the movie. This is one I am going to pick up as soon as it comes out on DVD. Too bad it is Disney and that HD-DVD did not make it. I will have to get the standard definition for now.