I haven’t done this before, but I’ll advise you this time to please be wary of spoilers in this review. Plain put, every bit of this film oozes with charm and I’d hate to be the one to spoil the experience. You have been warned.
How does Pixar do these things? While film studios all around clank out cliché after cliché, Pixar seldom resorts to sequels, instead relying on simple novelty ideas which they turn into epic, entertaining movies. Who knew that toys, fish, cars, bugs and rats could make such wonderful characters? Still, their latest innovation might be their best yet, having resulted in a film that has cute robots, which, despite their lack of dialog, project a story with such endearing heart and soul. It’s a film dealing with dark, depressing and very real issues, but has enough optimism to make it fun.
And let there be no doubt, these robots are adorable. Wall-E, the main character, is the last remaining robot on Earth who goes through a daily schedule of compacting and cleaning up scrap and trash left over by humans. In fact, the Earth is so filthy that humans have evacuated on a giant spaceship leaving (literally) skyscrapers of garbage. Wall-e has been faithfully at his job for years, and the boredom and loneliness have helped him develop humanlike qualities and feelings. When another robot named Eve is deployed on Earth to search for signs of life, Wall-E falls in love and follows her across the galaxy on an adventure. The big bulk of the adventure takes place on the aforementioned giant spaceship, where Wall-E’s surprising humanity forever changes the lives of its inhabitants.
It’s already expected of a Pixar film to have cute antics, stunning visuals, great music (with nice nods to oldies music), and of course, strong characters, and Pixar hasn’t failed. However, what really makes this film remarkable and outstanding is the underlying message. It was simply stunning when the spaceship’s inhabitants were revealed to be obese humans who, due to the comforts of technology, now travel in hoverchairs and have no need for walking. As a matter of fact, they have lost the ability to walk and every aspect of their lives, including entertainment, hygiene, communication and food (burger-flavored liquids?) can be done from the comfort of their hoverchairs.
While funny, it is a frightening look at what humanity might evolve into. The movie jolted me awake to the importance of appreciating one’s life and abilities. A scene showing the ship’s captain delighting in learning about simple pleasures such as dancing and farming really shows how beautiful life really is if we remove all the technological fog engulfing us. I was never one for environmental awareness but even I could appreciate the strong ecological message. One need only marvel at the bold panoramas of skyscrapers made of cube-shaped trash collected by Wall-E over the years to understand that our Earth is in serious danger unless we do something about it.
Yet, many critics have accused Wall-E of being hypocritical. A massive corporation such as Disney, who promotes consumerism (Wall-E’s so cute, buy the toys!), is trying to push forward an ecological message. Who are they to tell us what to do? Well, I for one, don’t agree with them. Just because it is a bad teacher who teaches moral values doesn’t mean that the moral values taught are any less relevant. Love the product, not the maker. Likewise, I love Wall-E, for its strong message, great characters and wonderful visuals even though I see the validity of the criticism directed at the producer.
There’s no doubt in my mind, Wall-E is the best animated film I’ve seen this year. In fact, it’s one of the best animated movies I’ve ever seen from Pixar and that’s saying a lot considering the studio produced marvels such as Ratatouille, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Monsters Inc. I heartily recommend this movie.
Images are copyrighted by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios
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