Animation, Animation...

Here at Artyfacts, we have kept a well-exercised eye on developments in animation and animated movies, over the years. Like every other cinematic device, it has had its ups and downs. There was the glorious flowering of Pixar at the end of the last century with the Toy Story movies, followed by Sylvain Chomet’s incredible Belleville Rendez-Vous. Far away in the East, Hayao Miyazaki was working on Spirited Away.

A series of listless features; Madagascar, Robots, Cars brought a dip in fortunes for the animation studios but the past twelve months have seen something of a Renaissance. This summer has brought us Kung Fu Panda (Mark Osborne, John Stevenson) and WALL-E (Andrew Stanton). Kung Fu Panda is a funny, fast moving story of a, um, panda who wants to be a master in the art of Kung Fu. It is a treat to see; beautiful storyboards, sublime music score and a host of witty, well-rounded characters. If KFP is excellent, WALL-E is astonishing.

WALL-E is a robot, the last on Earth, cleaning up the mess left by the departure of humans. His days are spent on a reeking, urban wasteland, shovelling heaps of scrap metal that he compacts into cubes, then piles the cubes into skyscraper-type columns. It is own-goal stuff, of course. There is no-one to witness what WALL-E does, much less to make sense of it all. However, one day things change. A space craft lands on Earth and activates a tiny robot before taking off again. WALL-E is fascinated by this blue-eyed android that calls itself Eva. He takes her to his ‘apartment’, a truck container that he has filled with the more interesting pieces of detritus found on his daily grind. WALL-E has skilfully sorted everything but it is clever Eva who demonstrates the technical capabilities of the light bulbs, cigarette lighters and so on. A relationship grows between them.

They continue to have fun until Eva gobbles a plant WALL-E has found growing amid the garbage. Her inner system immediately reacts to the plant DNA, signalling the return of the spacecraft. It departs with Eva on board, and WALL-E hitching a clandestine ride through a junk-strewn cosmos to a gigantic space station. It is actually a pleasure dome, peopled by bloated, pampered humans. And that is only the beginning.

Everything to do with this movie is perfect; the stunning storyboards and elegant animations, the sly references to other movies, the absorbing plot and the haunting music scores that are most definitely grounded in human history. If I have one criticism it is that the dialogue-free machine shenanigans are drawn out a little bit. But maybe that metaphorizes life. The movie will bring a tear to your eye and an ache to your heart. Do not miss it, or the incredible sequence at the end – a real treat for art lovers.

Take note, also, that the London International Animation festival www.liaf.org.uk is about to flicker into life.

Mary Phelan