Sunday Best: Director 2008

Andrew Stanton – WALL-E

Photo by Victor Navone

For the 1st 15 minutes or so of PIXAR's latest masterpiece WALL-E, there is no dialogue, very little music, and nothing that pushes the story forward in any real way. We, the audience, simply spend that time watching this tiny robot go about his daily routine with no fanfare and no real spectacle. This was a gigantic gamble in terms of storytelling, but it paid off so wonderfully. Even if the rest of the story had not developed around our diminutive hero, I could have been content just to watch WALL-E wander around the remnants of the garbage dump of Earth for another 90 minutes. Director Andrew Stanton understood that if we could fall in love with WALL-E, it wouldn't matter that he wasn't human, hardly talked, and was basically a moving garbage disposal. The use of body language, setting, and quirkiness demonstrated the power of Stanton's instincts as a director and the power film has to create bond between the audience and character (even if he is a walking garbage disposal).

RUNNERS UP

-Christopher Nolan: The Dark Knight

- Andrew Adamson: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

-Sylvester Stallone: Rambo

-Alex Kendrik: Fireproof