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Post by bkim on Aug 31, 2008 0:33:18 GMT -5
I was just thinking, there isn't enough talk about the wonderful epilogue in the credits at the end of WALL-E on this forum, which reveals the fate of our main characters as well as the human race. I suppose that is because the credits are most likely not available for anyone to see unless you actually see the film in a theater. The credits are actually one of my favorite parts of the entire film.
In case anyone hasn't seen them in a long time, the story begins with cave paintings of the humans landing and leaving the Axiom, and WALL-E creating fire for the humans. Then hieroglyphic artwork depicts EVE digging a well for water in aquifers underground. Then we see a child, and the typing bot, planting seeds in the ground, which grow into grape vines and what appears to be wheat. Then we see Greco-Roman tile mosaic artwork of sea turtles returning to the ocean, and sketches of increasingly more slender humans catching fish and serving them to the community. Then we see Renaissance artwork of the humans and robots rebuilding the city together. Impressionism is represented next by a cityscape with sailboats sitting in the harbor, followed by a Seurat imitation with a much slimmer human fishing, and the Axiom covered in vegetation in the background. Next is a Van Gogh imitation of sunflowers with a bluebird in the middle. Then comes my favorite image in the entire film: An imitation of Van Gogh's The Starry Night in which WALL-E and EVE are holding hands in front of an enormous oak tree, while the shot pans down to reveal that the oak tree is in fact the fledgling plant they saved in the film, with roots emanating from the boot.**
Then, during the traditional credits we see an 8-bit retelling of the film, in which Pixar suggests that computer animation has firmly been established as a significant development in art history. Good for them.
Of course, we also hear Peter Gabriel's Down to Earth during this sequence. I may have left out one or two things, but I think it's all there. Discuss your reactions to this wonderful epilogue. Did you overlook this important part of the film the first time? Did anything strike you about it? Any important meanings you take away from it?
**Thank you to vanessajoyce for the contributions.
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Post by vanessajoyce on Aug 31, 2008 0:42:19 GMT -5
Three words: Made me cry.
I had held it together for the final "will WALL-E come back" scene, but the end credits just blew me away. I'm a bit of an art history geek and this just broke me down.
Only one thing you forgot . . . the Monet and George Seurat style paintings right before the Van Gogh. (Impressionist and Post-Impressionist references.) Yes, I'm a geek. ;D
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Post by Bubblegum on Aug 31, 2008 0:51:08 GMT -5
I'm sorry to say that I didn't stay for the epilogue the first time I saw the film, but I did for every viewing after that. It's so well done. It would have been so easy for the filmmakers to just put a caption at the end of the film describing what happened, but instead they chose to use this beautiful method of bringing the story to a close.
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bkim
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Rabbits! Plinkety Plinkety Plink!
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Post by bkim on Aug 31, 2008 0:55:52 GMT -5
My bad, the shot of the sailboats in the harbor was probably Monet, and the one with the Axiom covered in greenery was most likely the Seurat ... right? I'm not quite as knowledgeable in Art History as I probably should be, so feel free to fill in any blanks and I'll update the first post.
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Post by bima on Aug 31, 2008 1:19:08 GMT -5
It was great! I learned an art history at college, and I have a Bachelor of Art. BUT THESE GUYS, made me feel soooo small comparing to their ability to make something difficult to be understandable. Those scene were my favorite too. In fact, at the first and second viewing I didn't realize that it was the story about what happened after the human come back to earth. My mind was occupied to analyze what kind of style paintings they put on screen. Then at the third and forth viewing I recognize that it was the story about humanity afterwards. And the coolness about the story is, it was like human looking to something we missed so much. Like the invention of the fire for the first time, fishing in the sea, how many of us missed something precious like that?
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Post by Khodhum on Aug 31, 2008 1:21:57 GMT -5
First time I saw the movie, I stayed up until the scrolling part with the 8-bit images. Second time, I sat through the whole thing.
I thought it was a really unique way of showing you what happened after the ending, and I liked how the progression of art styles reflected human progress after they had returned to Earth.
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Post by vanessajoyce on Aug 31, 2008 1:37:12 GMT -5
Oh, just ignore the geeky nut. You did a fantastic job of outlining the whole series. Actually I can't remember exactly which shots were which on the Impressionist part . . . all I remember is seeing the styles and going, "Oh, Monet!" "Oh, Seurat!" The Seurat one I think had a boy fishing -- it reminded me of the famous post-impressionist painting "Sunday in the Park." A couple more I remember . . . you mentioned the drawings of the humans fishing -- I thought those were Greco-Roman drawings. I didn't think of them being Asian because my impression was that this was a journey through Western Art. But I absolutely could be wrong. Anyone else -- thoughts? The tile mosaic art would probably be Greco-Roman, too. Or at least that's what I would guess.
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Post by Callandor on Aug 31, 2008 1:40:13 GMT -5
I still have yet to see the credits :S
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bkim
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Rabbits! Plinkety Plinkety Plink!
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Post by bkim on Aug 31, 2008 1:52:48 GMT -5
Thank you so much for the input, Vanessa. You're right, Asian sketches would have been inconsistent. They probably considered this and decided that it didn't fit with the images they wanted to show, but do you find it interesting that they didn't include Picasso?
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Post by vanessajoyce on Aug 31, 2008 1:58:10 GMT -5
Well, they ended with Van Gogh. Picasso was more surrealist and expressionism and those movements were after the post-impressionists. But, it's cool that you mention that because when I saw the credits for the first time I saw the direction they were going and got all excited thinking maybe they'd do Matisse (Fauve movement) because he's one of my favorite artists. But, no 20th century artists made the cut. I loved the 80s arcade art at the end though. I thought "if WALL-E was actually made in the 80s, that's what it would have looked like." ;D
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bkim
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Rabbits! Plinkety Plinkety Plink!
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Post by bkim on Aug 31, 2008 2:08:37 GMT -5
I guess the point I was getting at was, do you find it interesting that little post-Industrial Revolution artwork (besides computer animation) was included?
Oh my gosh! This just hit me: The final image in the film, with the oak tree, features a swirling background exactly like The Starry Night! I can't wait for the DVD to be released so that I can turn that image into desktop wallpaper.
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Post by vanessajoyce on Aug 31, 2008 2:23:35 GMT -5
You got it! Actually, I wasn't surprised they didn't use any post-industrial movements in the end sequence. Because, if you think about it, the post-industrial age was the precursor to the modern age which led to the information age which led to . . . well, BNL and the Axiom. I think from a historical perspective it makes sense to stop before giving the impression that the whole circle started all over again. If everything stops in with the "post-Impressionism" era, that implies that the final result was a happy, peaceful, pre-WWI era. If they'd gone much farther in showing artistic movements as representing the progress of civilization, I'd have thought they were making an ironic statement on the inevitability of technology and modernity taking over humans again. Doesn't really jive with the message of the film which doesn't have that level of irony in it. Just my two cents. Personally, I think a shot of WALL-E and EVE in a Picasso or Matisse style would have been really cool though.
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bkim
AUTO
Rabbits! Plinkety Plinkety Plink!
Posts: 271
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Post by bkim on Aug 31, 2008 2:31:46 GMT -5
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Post by vanessajoyce on Aug 31, 2008 2:38:59 GMT -5
Whoa. There are other "thinks about this stuff way too much" people like me out there? Apparently so. Wow, thanks for the article post -- I'd never seen that and it's cool to know I wasn't totally crazy for reasoning the whole thing out this way. Guess all those art history classes paid off!
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Post by MidgardDragon on Aug 31, 2008 5:52:48 GMT -5
Beautiful. Amazing. Perfect. I loved the credits oh so much. They were the perfect end, with the perfect song, with a perfect history of animation, and perfect cute little sprites, to the perfect film. I can't wait until the DVD Screener is leaked (I'll be buying the DVD, don't you worry, but I can get to the credits even sooner when the Screener comes out!) so I can watch them over and over.
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