Review: WALL-E (2008)

[Mark R. Leeper]

                              WALL-E
                 (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

      CAPSULE: Pixar Animation is known for making good
      kids' films that even adults can enjoy.  But now
      they really have crossed over the line to make an
      adult film that even kids can enjoy.  WALL-E is a
      light fun comedy set against a very grim background.
      This film has a lot more message than just "have a
      good time."  It is all about some serious problems
      our world is facing.  Under the laughs and the
      humanized robots this is a serious science fiction
      film and well above average for the genre.  Rating:
      high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10

  Spoiler Warning: There are minor plot spoilers in this review.

  Pixar makes great, cute animated films.  Their process does not
  lend itself to making realistic human images so they tell stories
  about toys, and insects, and fish.  And these are good family
  films in the sense that they are aimed at the kids, but the
  adults really will have a good time also.  With WALL-E for the
  first time I think they started making good family films in the
  sense that it is aimed at the adults, but the children can enjoy
  it also.  WALL-E has nice robots with real personalities that
  kids and adults will respond well to.  But rather than the little
  morals to the stories that their previous films have had for
  those looking for morals, this film has serious messages.  The
  messages are wrapped in a nice animated film, but they can hardly
  be missed.  And they are a dark core to this pleasant film.

  The main character is WALL-E.  He is a servo-mechanism that was
  left behind to clean up the environment when all (surviving)
  humans left the earth to go to a utopian resort ship.  This ship
  looks like it will give the humans an ideal hedonistic life while
  back on Earth machines try to make the destroyed world livable
  again.  It should be noted that now, seven hundred years later,
  the entire surviving human race is just a few thousand people.
  The film glosses over what happened to billions of other humans,
  but it is suspected they all died from something very nasty on
  Earth.  The affable robots distract the viewer from asking what
  really happened to create this hellish future Earth.  We are led
  to assume that the giant corporations like the fictional
  WalMart-like Buy & Large ended up owning and destroying our
  planet.  Meanwhile the remaining humans are pampered on the
  Axiom, a ship deep in space that has become dangerously
  comfortable.  Humans have become fleshy eating machines, obtuse
  and obese, who have as a race voluntarily given up the ability to
  walk.  They get their nutrition from what look like 7-Eleven
  cups.  But that is the back-story.  We see little of it and its
  grimness is not where the emphasis lies.

  We focus on WALL-E, a likable earthbound clean-up robot whose
  usually wordless antics echo the antics of silent screen humor.
  He runs about his little home area picking up trash, compacting
  it into building blocks, and building what looks like a large
  pavilion out of them.  In his spare time he watches and loves one
  old human movie, HELLO DOLLY!  His only friend is a sociable
  cockroach.

  Then one day a spaceship lands and drops off an egg-like robotic
  pod.  Like Robinson Crusoe surveying the cannibals on his island,
  WALL-E cautiously spies on the pod.  After a somewhat shaky start
  in which the pod tried to destroy WALL-E multiple times, the two
  become friends.  WALL-E has not had a friend larger than an
  insect in hundreds of years.  The two become fast friends--"fast"
  in the sense of "over too quickly."  Eva, as the pod is named,
  has found something important and has to return to her point of
  origin.  WALL-E stows a ride and finds himself on the resort ship
  Axiom where in spite of the original plan it is really the robots
  that have all the power.  A fair chunk of the film--too much
  really--is just chase around the charming but sinister starship
  Axiom.

  Science fiction fans will find the film is informed by a good
  knowledge of the genre.  I found myself reminded not just of
  2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (though there are obvious allusions to that
  film) there are echoes of the writings of Clifford Simak and
  Robert Heinlein.  There are also echoes of the film TITANIC,
  though physically they do not make sense.  In written form WALL-E
  would have made a very decent 1950s science fiction story.  It
  may be the best new science fiction film of 2008.  I will not go
  into detail but the end-credits are one more very creative aspect
  of the film.

  Pixar gives a light treatment to some very heavy ideas and has
  made a film that the adults should appreciate even more than the
  kids who see it do.  While the kids have a good time, the adults
  may find that this is a film with several serious messages.  It
  is ironic that Pixar has made a film warning us about large
  corporations, and it is being released by industry giant Walt
  Disney Pictures.  I rate WALL-E a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale
  or 8/10.

  Film Credits: <http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/>

  While I am talking about good fantasy films from Pixar, PRESTO (a
  short animated film that runs with WALL-E) is both very funny and
  a film with a fun fantasy premise, expanding around an idea that
  would have been a quick gag in Looney Tunes.  Together WALL-E and
  PRESTO make a package that returns a lot for the price of
  admission.

  					Mark R. Leeper
  					mleeper at optonline.net
  					Copyright 2008 Mark R. Leeper