WALL-E (2008)

The consistency of the quality of the product that has come out of Pixar is truly remarkable, it’s the way Disney was back in the day. The companies newest feature length release, WALL-E, continues this pattern, in fact I’d say it’s their current pinnacle, and my favorite Pixar release to date. WALL-E is an absolutely wonderful motion picture, a herald worthy accomplishment. It is both a pointedly simple meditation on love, and a sweeping, even biting social commentary, one that only Pixar could present in so direct yet palatable a form.

The picture opens in the early 29th century, 700 years after humanity has abandoned the Earth to a veritable sea of garbage and ruin. WALL-E is the last continually running unit of what was once an army of matanince robots, all tasked with cleaning up the mess man had made of Earth. WALL-E spends his days compacting stacks of trash into cubs, which he then stacks into giant sky scraper like monuments to the wastefulness of the human race. It is our long gone species and its idea’s which fascinate WALL-E. In addition to his job ( in robot parlance ’directive’), and taking care of his pet cockroach, one of the last living things on the planet, WALL-E collects knick-knacks the humans left behind, and becomes obsessed with a surviving video cassette of the 1969 musical Hello, Dolly. From that Gene Kelly directed film he learns the concept of love, and longs for some equal to share his endless time with.

It seems that WALL-E’s fondest hope may be realized when he receives a visitor from space. A Macintosh looking probe named EVE, sent to Earth with a secrete directive. WALL-E attempts, quite awkwardly to court EVE, and eventually wins her over. When EVE is recalled to her mother ship WALL-E stows along, there to discover what’s left of the human race living in a giant outer space shopping mall controlled by the Buy-N-Large corporation, the mega syndicate responsible for the Earth’s condition in the first place. The people are fat, ignorant, lazy, and easily amused, waited on by an army of robots dedicated to their perpetual directive to ‘serve’ man. Here WALL-E will embark on a visually stunning adventure to prove his love for EVE, and maybe in the process save the human race from them selves.

The film borrows simultaneity from the great science fiction pieces of film making, most notably 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as silent cinema (with large chunks of the film basically free of dialogue) most notably Chaplin’s City Lights, which is the movies tonal cousin. It’s awe inspiring, the shots of space, the ship, and the decimated earth, the latter almost heartbreaking. Defiantly worthy of a big screen viewing, or two. I was most pleasantly overwhelmed and inspired by this film, and strongly recommend the reader see it. The best movie so far this summer. Five out of Five.