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• Director: Andrew Stanton
• Genre: Family/Animation/Sci-Fi/Comed/Romance
• Year: 2008

The fact that they would be dealing with a cast almost entirely made of robots was difficult enough for many people to swallow. It does not take an animator genius to realize a robot has only so many movable parts with which to express emotions, so having to add to that the fact that this would be essentially a silent movie, in which each robot is given a very set number of noises and sounds they can make…well you can see how this task seemed like a daunting challenge, even for a company with a sterling record such as Pixar. However, the fact that they took it on most certainly made me respect them (as if I didn’t already). This was not an out of left field idea. In fact, when they got together to decide which movies to make during their first few shots out of the gun, all the movies Pixar had done so far were all conceived…all of them leading to this one. That is, if you can take their own teaser/trailers to the word.

The fact that they saved it as one of their last was promising in that perhaps, from the very beginning, they knew that all of the other movies were merely a precursor to a masterpiece they could see in the horizon. Forgive me if I am talking a bit too poetically, but I truly feel this is how it all worked out. It may sound like blasphemy but I dare say this movie might be better than The Incredibles, the movie that I hailed hands down over all of the other Pixar movies. One thing has me saying maybe however, and that is: watchability. Already The Incredibles has proven that it is a movie that can be watched multiple times and satisfy, will Wall-E deliver the same?

I ask this because, if you have not seen the movie, which is likely the case if you have read this far into my rant, you probably do not know that this movie is perhaps the least kid-friendly movie Pixar has put out. Not to say it is not kid friendly, because it has plenty of comedy and cuteness and touching moments as well as action to keep kids of most ages occupied, save perhaps the very little ones. But there is very minimal dialogue as previously stated, plenty of social commentary to go around and a complex set of layers that beef up this film into what is in my opinion, the most meaty film Pixar has done to date.

The story is really not that complicated, essentially, planet earth, has gone to crap, thanks to our commercialism that has turned humans into lazy blobs perpetually connected to the net, forgetting the world around them. To save themselves, they have launched all of the surviving population into outer space, inside enormous, commercially sponsored ships, while wall-e robots are left to clean up the mess. But the mess is too much and the wall-e robots all have pretty much failed and stopped working, except for one that has continued faithfully to do his duty, while at the same time developing human emotions, curiosity, humor, and a desire to be needed. For all intents and purposes, our little friend is becoming human, with a cockroach as his only friend (I hate cockroaches with a passion, but in this movie, you just gotta love that little bug, which ends up getting stepped on more than it probably cared).

Though the cast is limited in its motions, expressions, emotions and vocals, none of that proves to be a barrier too difficult to overcome to a series of robots that break the mold in their personalities from what one is used to seeing in animations. It was refreshing to see the protagonist be not the ultimate machine, but the most antiquated piece of functioning equipment and not only that, the little guy is not only inquisitive, but also timid and not your rampaging, go-get-’em sort of character. Rounding him out is E.V.E., who again is not your typical out of the mold female character, but actually a lot more realistic and believable, temperamental, impulsive and with a sharply focused mind which keeps her aimed to the task at hand, but which does make a drone out of her until she meets Wall-E and learns to open her eyes to see the world around her for what it is.

All in all this is a very welcome film, worthy of the praise it has gotten from the critics over all, which have cumulative made this film the highest scoring film of the year (according to metacritic.com), no small feat considering the fact that the next highest ranking film is Up The Yangtze with 86 points next to Wall-E’s 93. Or consider this other little bit of trivia, in metacritic.com’s list of ALL TIME high scores, Wall-E is solidly set at 15.

So, now that I have expressed my own personal satisfaction with this movie, allow me to play devil’s advocate for a second. This movie will NOT satisfy all people the way it did me. You do have to consider the fact of the limited dialogue, which in many ways makes of this film a Charlie Chaplin-esque display, some people may be turned off by this. Consider also the fact that this movie was emotionally more taxing than all the other Pixar movies, with plenty of heart tugging moments to put a lump in your throat. As an adult, one may be able to appreciate the drama that unfolds and the unfortunate moments that do happen, but a very young child may fail to grasp it. I use my own four year old daughter as an example who often felt so bad and sad at the situations Wall-E found himself in, that she cried at least four times during the movie, and got upset when us as adults laughed at the unfortunate humor that developed from the circumstances. While this may make it a film that is more enjoyable for the adult audience, it may have actually had to sacrifice the youngest members of the market they were aiming for. Or who knows, maybe my daughter is simply overly sympathetic, in which case, bless her heart.

Ultimately, expect a non-traditional animation film and if you end up not being entirely convinced…that’s alright, Kung-Fu Panda is still out in theaters.

Rating: 5 out of 5
Notes: Great family film with a good number of morality to be had.
Quote: Captain: I do not want to survive. I want to live.