WALL-E World

Last night I went to see Pixar's new movie WALL-E. I had heard much of the buzz leading up to this picture, and I've always liked Pixar films in the past...but a robot? I wasn't too certain, until I saw the trailer about a month ago. At which point I thought "hmm, looks kinda cute a quirky...it might be worth seeing in the theatre..."

Turns out that WALL-E is really, really, really good. The animation is amazing, especially for the scenes where WALL-E looks back at the Earth (surrounded by a brown haze of garbage and space junk) or out across the Milky Way. If you really need an excuse to see this movie in the theatre instead of waiting for the DVD, go for the beauty of the space scenes.

There is very little dialogue - and half of that (at least) is in robot-speak - although the music from Thomas Newman moves the story along nicely and complements the gorgeous animation. The story draws on WALL-E's "glitch" (a personality that makes him long for friendship, and perhaps a dash of romance) and casts it against the background of a cautionary tale about overconsumption and overreliance on machines, but does so without being too heavy-handed or moralistic (after all, the movie is put out by Disney, which is in the business of getting people to buy its movies, t-shirts, vacation packages, toys, etc.).

I forced my friends to stay through the credits, which are always entertaining in Pixar films. Nothing too special here, although I enjoyed the throw-back video game-style renderings of WALL-E, EVE, and others. The song ("Down to Earth" by Peter Gabriel) is definitely worth staying to listen to, even if you don't like the little robots crawling around the credit lines.

The great thing about WALL-E is that it really does appeal to a broad audience - during the day, families will enjoy the movie's more kid-themed aspects, while those coming to the movie for a light "date night" outing will enjoy the love story between WALL-E and EVE.

Review of last night's concert + imagery + podcast

Remember Fantasia? Walt Disney's masterwork of animation set to classical music? Now imagine that the animated fairies and dancing hippos have been replaced by footage of dolphins leaping across the ocean, erupting volcanoes, and distant planets and nebulae. Last night's performance by the National Symphony Orchestra was absolutely excellent - and I whole-heartedly encourage this type of collaboration to continue. Of special interest was the conductor's podcast, which I was a bit perplexed by at first. Talking through the Symphony? I must say, however, that the commentary was mainly limited to the quieter moments in the music to avoid being too distracting and the information (ranging from background on the composers and previous uses of the music in film to riots following the first performance of "Rite of Spring" and stories about the video footage) was very interesting. Perhaps we will see more of this multimedia concert going in future concerts?

Symphony, stars, and high-def NASA pics - and a podcast to listen to during the show?

Friday will be my birthday (shameless self-promotion), and I've gathered several friends up to celebrate a night early. We'll be visiting Wolf Trap to experience "Fantastic Planet: A Symphonic Video Spectacular" on Thursday evening. Wine + symphony + huge screens with digital images of Earth and the universe = good times? In visiting the show's website today, I see that they now have "a groundbreaking and innovative 2-part, audio-described program intended to be transferred to your iPod or other portable mp3 player and brought to the performance of Fantastic Planet." iPod at the Symphony? Okay, I admit that now that I've seen the tease, I cannot survive without downloading the podcast for my listening pleasure - it's like there is a little Steve Jobs whispering in my ear "go forth and become a Pod person."