WALL-E

• Stylized as WALL·E
• Directed by Andrew Stanton
• June 23, 2008 (Greek Theatre) / June 27, 2008 (US)

Voice Cast

• WALL·E, M-O (Microbe-Obliterator)-Ben Burtt
• EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator)-Elissa Knight
• Captain B. McCrea-Jeff Garlin
• AUTO (pronounced Otto)-MacInTalk, the text-to-speech program for Apple Macintosh computers
• John-John Ratzenberger
• Mary-Kathy Najimy
• The Axiom’s Computer-Sigourney Weaver

Live-Action Cast

• Shelby Forthright-Fred Willard

A lone robot on a future uninhabitable Earth left to clean up garbage is visited by another robot whom it falls in love with.

Robot love stories of one kind or another have been done since the early days of printed science-fiction I’m sure. Some of those have been executed just to be silly while others are an interesting spin on the romance story. Enter into the mix WALL-E-a surprisingly sweet and romantic animated feature.

This is one movie that I was in no rush to watch. No good reason that I can think of. It just never came up as something to tickle my fancy enough to want to take a look. I’m sure I would’ve gotten around to it eventually, but if it hadn’t been for someone else putting it on that eventuality would have come much further down the road than it did.

Perhaps it was because this is CGI and when I’m watching animated features that’s not my first choice. CGI is only ever as good as the available technology and as the technology gets better the animation looks worse. Check out the Toy Story films. The most recent one is a lightyears ahead of anything that was done in the original. But back to the movie…

You can look at WALL-E as an allegory to the plot of people from the wrong side of the tracks meeting up and falling in love. WALL·E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth-Class) is the blue-collar individual who crosses paths with the upper crust girl EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) and they find that they have a lot in common despite very different backgrounds.

It’s the slob scoring a woman that would most likely be out of his reach in reality. Think Kevin James and Leah Remini in King of Queens. Think Adam Sandler in just about any Adam Sandler movie despite what his wife looks like in real life. Anywho…

What’s most impressive about this movie is the level of characterization that our two main mechanical characters have with very little dialogue. Not only that, but the whole story is told largely through action rather than dialogue. Once we get to the human characters, things become a little more fleshed out and the speed of information we get is much quicker but before that it’s more R2-D2 than C-3PO.

The story is not set in some pleasant innocuous future but rather a post-apocalyptic time. The clear cause of the problem is runaway pollution. WALL·E is a droid whose purpose as a robot is apparently to clean things up for the eventual return of humanity. Enter into his life an automated probe sent to Earth to see if it’s livable once again. That’s how their paths cross.

While a children’s film, WALL-E touches on things like consumerism, corporatocracy, nostalgia, waste management, humanity’s environmental impact, and obesity/sedentary lifestyles. Pretty hefty stuff for what on the surface is a cute kid’s movie. Those elements give it some weight for the adults yet how presented will go over the heads of the very young. It never talks down to the audience yet is safe enough that you can watch with kids. It deals intelligently and maturely with its themes and plot while also working in a few twists.

Much like in the world of Star Wars, the robots of the world of WALL-E are second class citizens treated as servants yet they clearly have thoughts and even feelings all their own. At one point WALL·E and EVE find themselves in a diagnostic area but honestly I was left with the impression that the robots taken to the diagnostic area were not malfunctioning, but simply wanted to do their own thing. They had grown beyond their programming. That’s exactly what WALL·E and EVE do during the course of the movie.

Humanity appears to be concentrated on a vessel called the Axiom. Pretty bleak when you think about it. A population of several billion reduced to what could only be a few thousand. There are no mentions of other ships or groups out there. And how do they keep the population of the Axiom under control or conversely continuing? These people really do not connect and are immersed in their virtual lives.

Captain B. McCrea, who commands the Axiom probably experiences the most character growth of any supporting character. One simple word sends him down a rabbit hole. Most of us have been there once or twice on the Internet while searching topic after topic that’s connected to something silly that we went to look up and that’s exactly what happened. But his trip down the rabbit hole opens up a whole other world to him that he didn’t even know existed and sparks a streak of rebellion.

We have strong character growth, great plot and direction, and just beautiful visuals. This is an amazing film. There was thought and craftsmanship done here. WALL-E was done with an eye towards art and quality and it succeeded in spades. Despite it all it is uplifting and positive and shows that love and determination can change things.

WALL-E is a wonderful film. It’s fun and ultimately uplifting and just captivating and sweet. You can’t go wrong watching this one. I’m sorry I waited to walk along to take it in. I cannot recommend it enough!