10. Wall:E
Andrew Stanton, 2008.
US

Two key movements in mainstream film trends represent the noughties most wholly. The first, and one that will be addressed further down this list is the superhero film. The second, and the one that Wall:E represents is the might of Pixar Animation Studios. Carrying the sort of consistency that no major studio has managed to achieve since the days of the studio system, Pixar is so reliably great that it borders on the astounding as to just how John Lassiter and company manage to pull it off every single time. Even their one “blip” proves overtly watchable with time, with Cars’ turn from Paul Newman as the ‘elderly’ Doc Hudson being the sparking point for the hugely emotional aspect of the later Pixar flicks.

I argued with myself (and others actually) about whether it was Wall:E or last years UP that represented Pixar at it’s finest. The opening 15 minutes of Wall:E, in which our silent hero goes by his day to day routine, immaculately “shot” by Roger Deakins sealed the fate of UP though. As downright great as that film was the fact of the matter was that it hadn’t had enough repeat viewings to wholly clarify my opinion on it, whereas I have sat through Wall:E a ridiculous number of times! As mentioned briefly above, the more recent Pixar films have seen a huge amount of raw emotion exposed, and while it can be glimpsed in the aforementioned character strand in Cars (and similarly in Ratatouille), it was Walle:E that saw the concept evolve into the fully fledged heartbreaker that it truly is. Harking back to the early days of Disney, and Walt’s manifesto of “a tear for every laugh”, Wall:E proved to be that truly universal of a picture that appeals to anyone and everyone . It ushered in a new era of animation that is genuinely appealing to a mainstream adult audience, an era that came full circle with UP.