Is WALL*E the 12th cylon?

At the end of the last Battlestar Gallactica episode for the year (what a depressing phrase) they showed a teaser for next season with the crew finally making it back to earth. Said earth looks distinctly like the earth WALL*E is attempting to clean up. Coincidence? I think not. While some might say that one destroyed earth looks much like another, I disagree. My dimunitive hero makes much more sense as #12 than any of the other ideas I’ve had. What better way to show the meshing of human and robot-kind than Mr. W? Plus it could explain how Starbuck’s viper got so clean and new. That cleanbot did it!

I have to say that watching the Battlestar teaser I kept waiting for someone to shout, “You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!”

BTW, I loved this analysis of WALL*E and how he violates Canada’s absurd copyright law.

1. WALL-E records audio from his favorite movie, Hello Dolly, putting in onto his own digital recorder (bypassing the macrovision DRM on the tape). A COPYRIGHT CRIME UNDER C-61

2. WALL-E archives the audio, he doesn’t merely time-shift it. He listens repeatedly! A COPYRIGHT CRIME UNDER C-61

3. WALL-E shares his DRM-broken music with his friend, another robot named EVE. A COPYRIGHT CRIME UNDER C-61

4. WALL-E watches Hello Dolly on multiple evenings, on the screen of an iPod. Hello Dolly is not available through the iTunes store, therefore he broke the videocassette DRM when he platform shifted it. A COPYRIGHT CRIME UNDER C-61

Exactly the kind of thing I’d expect from a cylon!

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WALL*E is amazingly good

In no particular order the greatest animated movies I’ve ever seen are:

• The Triplets of Belleville
• Spirited Away
• Ratatouille
• Pinocchio
• Finding Nemo
• Millennium Actress
• Iron Giant
  
• My Neighbor Totoro
• A Close Shave, The Wrong Trousers & A Grand Day Out a.k.a. the collected shorter works of Wallace & Gromit. (Hey, it’s my list and I say they are a movie).
• Princess Mononoke
• Porco Rosso

All of these are among the greatest movies ever made PERIOD.

Add to that list, WALL*E. Even by Pixar’s admittedly high standards, WALL*E is exceptional. If it doesn’t have the characters as complex as some other movies it is because it is a fable. In that respect it has a lot in common with Edward Scissorhands.

WALL*E is tells a fine, simple (not obvious) story superbly. (I’m going to stay away from plot synopsis. Go see it. We’ll talk.) It is essentially a silent movie, a great and bold decision (and something it shares with Triplets). In addition to being a fine filet of consumer culture, W also includes an extended comment on the sterility of life in a controlled environment designed for nothing but amusement. That would be the bread and butter of Pixar’s life-partner Disney. Is this:

1. a cynical comment by a company that makes its money from these parks; or
2. a truly subversive effort to sway the people who make The Land of Mouse so profitable?

Not sure. But I do know it’s great.

I could go on but I’m tired and heading off for vacation. See you all in a week.