It was like Sam Gamgee falling in love with Aeryn Sun.

Yes! This! Perfect analogy, Hec.

I don't think Igor got much attention, but there were lots and lots of similarities between it and Wall-E. The main female is Eve (or Eva, I can't remember), and exposure to classic film is a key character development point. I wonder if the people who own the rights to Annie really understood how the song "The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow" was going to be used.

EVE = Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator

I do concur that it was pretty hypocritical for Dixar/Buy N Large to be lecturing us.

I'm not sure what the solution is, though. Should Andrew Stanton simply have not given them the script until they agreed not to merchandise it? At the end of the day I'd rather have the movie than not.

It was like Sam Gamgee falling in love with Aeryn Sun.

If Sam Gamgee were a DRD.

Finding Nemo (my favorite Pixar until WALL-E came along - I'm a shameless Andrew Stanton fangirl) didn't have an antagonist either. Stanton doesn't really do villains. At their most basic, both movies are about tiny little nerds who goes to the ends of the earth and battle impossible odds to reconnect with their most-loved-ones. His movies make me happy.

I concur with Raq that Wall-E as a movie didn't work. Any movie where I am thinking, "How do they PEE?" is not working as a movie.

I LOVE the first 40 minutes, though (until they get to Axiom). And some of the animation was so good I got shivers.

I still have not seen WALL-E. Every time I check the video store, all copies are checked out. My sister and BiL hated it, I was surprised to find.

So, since I can't really comment on WALL-E, I'll comment on 2001 instead.

But there was no real antagonist - Auto was following his directive and wasn't sentient evil, regardless of whether he looked like HAL or not.

I'm not sure why that's a problem. And if Auto isn't "evil", than neither was HAL, who was also following his directive, even if it was malfunctioning.

I recently had this discussion with my BiL, who watched 2001 late one night, having been woken by one of his toddlers. He wrote a whole blog post about the Messages of 2001, and what made HAL one of the most chilling villains of all time.

I had to completely rebut him. HAL isn't the villain of 2001. He's arguably the hero. There aren't really any villains in 2001, except for human paranoia and short-sightedness. HAL was just trying to carry out his secret mission orders to the best of his ability, without violating any of the rest of his programming. He failed miserably.

HAL was just trying to carry out his secret mission orders to the best of his ability.

Is that shown in the movie, or are you relying on ACC's retcon in 2010?

HAL was just trying to carry out his secret mission orders to the best of his ability, without violating any of the rest of his programming. He failed miserably.

And was vindicated, for what it's worth, in 2010.

HAL in 2010 was tragically touching. I always felt Dave came back for him because HAL was a victim of callous manipulation.

I loved 2010, but then I never connected completely with 2001. I need a more linear story.

HAL was just trying to carry out his secret mission orders to the best of his ability.

Is that shown in the movie, or are you relying on ACC's retcon in 2010?

Um, yes. It's never directly stated in the film, but you can arguably piece it together from what we are shown - the secret message from Heywood Floyd, combined with Floyd's secretive nature in dealing with the Russians.

But yes, I generally (and unscientifically) arrived at this interpretation based in part on ACC's explanation of HAL's behavior from 2010. It never occurred to me to think of this as a retcon, but I can accept that this is because it's the retcon I subscribe to.

But you know what REALLY bugged me about it? I sat thru the whole thing, dodging the huge anvils of MESSAGE (the starliner should have been called Anvil), even to the end of the credits where Wall-E replaces Lumo's bulb with a new energy-saver bulb. And then I looked at all the Wall-E tie-in merchandising, esp. that bit of landfill-to-be that Mal got for Xmas, a small Wall-E that responds to sound and dances. And the hypocrisy of Disney/Pixar just pissed me off. They are Buy-n-Large, by and large.

Thisis a statement of beauty...and don't get me started on my Beauty and the Beast rant...And I would like to state for the record that I'm going to beat the rush and proactively agree with whatever Raq says about movies.

Phew. That will save a lot of 'dittos.'