It Only Takes A Moment

Of all the many lovely things about Pixar’s WALL-E, one of the loveliest is the use of clips from the 1969 film, Hello Dolly. As the robot gathers surviving bits and pieces from an Earth deserted after an environmental disaster, he repeatedly watches two musical numbers: 'Put On Your Sunday Clothes' and 'It Only Takes A Moment'. The songs from the film relieve his deep loneliness and give him hope.

Having just watched a repeat of Hello Dolly on television, I'm struck by how WALL-E has given it added depths. The truth is that for the most part it’s a heavy handed, stuffy old film, overlong and self indulgent; the kind of picture that made Sunday afternoons with relatives even more interminable. But these two songs were the parts of the movie which lightened your heart and made you sit up (especially 'It Only Takes A Moment', which is right in every respect). What’s interesting, and what director Andrew Stanton and the Pixar team recognised, is that it’s because Hello Dolly isn’t up to much that the songs have such resonance. If the clip being watched was instead the Gene Kelly dance from Singing In The Rain, we would smile, nod in agreement and let it wash over us. But instead we raise an eyebrow and are made to think about how special moments and memories can be found in the most banal of places.

It’s a whole fascinating topic - truly outstanding scenes in otherwise dreadful movies! The Knowledge would like to nominate The Holiday (2006), directed by Nancy Meyers, where Iris (Kate Winslet) first meets Miles (Jack Black) and told that when the Santa Ana wind blows ‘all bets are off!’