David Weinberger mostly puts into words what I felt about Wall-E, which I enjoyed and respected greatly, but felt was still constrained by what I call “the Pixar tone.” Unlike David, I’m not put off by it being “another damn kids story,” as I think Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant and Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away are all superior to the entire Pixar oeuvre. While Wall-E showed the most promise yet of Pixar breaking out of its tonal formula, it was still mired in the admittedly funny but tired wink-wink jokes that pretty much all mainstream computer animated films trade in.