Blu-Ray Review:
Wall-E
3 Disc Blu-ray
By Jason Gillard
*Screen shots are not from the Blu-Ray source.
Movie
It's no secret that Pixar is on a supreme high right now. Everything they touch turns to gold. Wall-E is directed by Andrew Stanton. Andrew was responsible for the great Finding Nemo, so he had a lot to live up to. Finding Nemo was a huge hit for Pixar. The story for this film is a very simple, yet complicated one. Earth has become so filthy with garbage that humans can no longer stay there, so they go into space on what can only be called a space cruise line. They were supposed to be out there for 5 years while robot's cleaned up the planet and made it livable again. Well it's year 700 and there is no sign of going home. The robots designed to clean up the planet have all stopped working except for a very curious robot called Wall-E. Wall-e spends his time cleaning up the planet and collecting trinkets from the garbage. Wall-E is lonely, being the only one on the planet. One day a new robot shows up. She is here to test to see if the planet is inhabitable, and Wall-E falls head over heals for the much slicker EVE. From here Wall-E follows her into space on a mission to get his true love back. The movie is nothing short of extraordinary. The first 20 minutes or so there is little to no dialogue. This is one of Pixar's most charming movies. Plus, the visuals are extraordinary and shows how much they have come since Toy Story. You owe it to yourself to see this film, it's fun and has a great message. Trust me, you will thank me later.
9 out of 10
Video
Disney and Pixar are known for putting out outstanding transfers. This Blu-ray is no exception. The video, in a word, is flawless. There really wasn't anything I could find wrong with it. It's a direct digital transfer so there is no grain unless it's intentional. The black levels are outstanding. In the beginning of the movie the colour palette is a lot of browns and grays. Later is the movie's space scenes the colour's are just jumping off the screen. There is absolutely nothing more Disney could have done with this transfer. Flawless, beautiful and stunning is all I can say and what you have is a reference/demo disc to show off your theater.
10 out of 10
Audio
As with the video transfer, the audio is spectacular as well. Ben Burtt is the man responsible for the sound in this movie, and he even does the voice of Wall-e. The audio is booming out of every channel, enveloping you in a sound shower. From the robot noises to spaceships taking off everything comes across great in this 6.1DTS-HD Master Audio track. The dialogue also comes across very clear. Disney and Pixar have done it again, giving us a simply awesome lossless track.
10 out of 10
Extras
Here is what you get in the way of extras:
-Burn-E
-Burn-E with Boards - picture-in-picture (BD Exclusive)
-Cine-Explor with director Andrew Stanton (BD Exclusive)
-Axoim Arcade: retro suite of videogames with a twist (BD Exclusive)
-Geek Track (BD Exclusive)
-Presto Animated Short
-Deleted Scenes
-Sneak Peek: Wall-E's Tour of the Universe
-Animated Sound Design
-Audio Commentary with Director Andrew Stanton
-The Pixar Story by Leslie Iwerks
-Additional Deleted Scenes
-Wall-E's Treasures and Trinkets
-BnL Shorts
-Lots of Bots Storybook Making of Featurette
The best extra in this set is the Pixar Story directed by Documentary film maker Leslie Iwerks. I was absolutely amazed they included this. Disney could have easily sold this as it's own disc. This is simply a great documentary showing you how Pixar came to be. If you watch only one of the extras this is it, and it would be almost enough if they only included it, but luckily Disney has give us a lot more. I also really liked the Presto Animated Short. which I can only assume is an homage to the Bugs Bunny cartoons produced by Warner Bros. Also if your one of those people that don't have the time to go through all the extras I suggest you turn on the Cine-Explor track exclusive to the Blu-ray edition. While watching the movie you will hear Andrew Stanton talk about everything and you will also see behind the scenes info show up while watching the movie. It's a great way to get an overview of the features without having to watch everything. I also liked the Geek Track which is almost like a visual commentary because you see people's silloutes on a couch almost like your sitting in the theater watching the movie with them. I should also mention that the 3rd disc in this set is a digital copy of the film. That way you can have a copy of Wall-E on your Ipod or computer. There is also some exclusive BD-Rom content, but it was not available at the time of this review. Overall there are a ton of great extras included here.
9 out of 10
Overall
I can't recommend this set enough, the picture is awesome and so is the sound. They include some amazing extras as well. Go out and buy this set right away.
9.5 out of 10
Highly Recommended.
Wall-E 3 disc Blu-ray is available now from Amazon.com