Years ago, I read an article wher I believe John Lasseter said that the best movie ever made was Dumbo and that the movie should be studied because of the Artistice relevance it has in society. At first it was an interesting comment, but later when I watched it with the kids, I gained a new appreciation for it. One thing that is hard to remember when I first saw it was that Dumbo doesn't say a word, and the words out of Misses Jumbo's mouth are extremely limited (off the top of my head I believe that it is only one line "Jumbo...Jr"). Yet the amount of communication that these animals have is amazing. With the critical response to The Piano, it is hard for me to not see why a silent communicator in animation didn't get the same recognition.
At the end of the day, Dumbo, is somebodies doodling. Not to discredit animators by calling what the do doodling. But at the end of the day it is, "ink on paper" but every single mother and most children balled there eyes out when Mrs Jumbo rocked her baby through the bars. It is hard enough for people to act in a way to spark emotions, but somebodies drawing, thats just amazing. So I was struck so much by how an animator can draw something that invokes such emotions from people. And found myself, trying to see more of the artistic side to animation, and not just the enjoying movie. Some other animated movies that I thought excelled in the artistic ability as well as entertaining were: Snow White, Peter Pan, A Bug's Life, the Iron Giant, Lilo & Stitch, and an honorable mention for the new Curios George movie (honorable mention, because I think the artisticism was lost in the attempt to create a story and ending to a movie that they should not have done). This is not to mean that other Animated movies are not extremely well done, entertaining, etc. (Toy Story, Emperor's New Groove, Shrek 2, etc)
I also had a discussion with a film professor about Dumbo, she looked at me like I was insane, and instead said Citizen Kane was the best movie ever. I never liked Citizen Kane, nor thought it was a good movie. This coupled with my opinion of Marlon Brando's overacting when he says "I was going to be an contender" means I will never be a film critic.
For Chirstmas Ron got me Wall-E. The movie was wonderful. In fact, I would easily say it was the best movie that I have seen this year. Though realize, I don't watch R-rated movies and don't watch a lot of movies at theatres in general.
Wall-E steps back to the magic of silent films, like Chaplin, etc. Leaving the story and performance to have to come out in an actual creative way. Where they can ask DeNiro, Depp, or Hopkins to act sad, a computer artist had to show emotions from graphics. But even a step more difficult then Dumbo, is that Wall-E is a machine. He doesn't have tear ducts, he doesn't have facial expressions, that had to create what they created and all they did using their imagination and reaching down deep to tell the story on an "object"
Now, I think the movie could have been better without the human story part, but I don't think it takes away. Nor do I believe their is an environmental message about the film. If anything, I believe that it shows what happens, when a society looses focus on the individual choices and instead allows a society to give power and control to somebody else. Allowing this controlling force to tell them what to buy, what to eat, what do do.
At the end of the day, if you don't own Wall-E, shame on you. Yes I said own, not just watch, own. I believe more artists could learn about story telling, imagination, and the conveying of emotions from this film then any other.
