The word “wondrous” was invented for movies like WALL·E, which is more than perfectly fitting for a movie all about wonder and curiosity. Many great Pixar movies, from Toy Story to Ratatouille, have presented the trait of inquisitiveness as a virtue (though often resulting in a perilous but valuable journey) and in this film, it now becomes the central subject. Exploring that subject through the eyes of a robot, the Pixar animators now stake their mark of animated visual splendor in the science fiction genre.
Telling a good story is something the Pixar folks have never lost sight of and it is all the more astonishing here that it is done with so little dialogue. The first third of this movie is just a masterpiece of pure visual character-driven storytelling as we meet WALL·E (a Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth-class) who is apparently left all alone on earth compacting and piling trash. He also has that little quality called curiosity as he has collected various items from the garbage from Christmas lights to a video tape of his favorite musical, Hello Dolly) in his little home that is an abandoned storage. At night, he “sleeps” by taking off his wheels and lowering his head into his cubical body.
WALL·E’s only companion on earth so far has been a small cockroach, but his rather lonely routine changes when he follows a red light that leads him to the site of a docking spaceship. He barely avoids getting crushed via digging his way into the ground. Out of the spaceship comes another robot, EVE (an Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) who is looking around for any signs of plant life. WALL·E is instantly smitten with her, though she unfortunately has the tendency to shoot first before asking questions. After EVE bonds with WALL·E’s pet cockroach, he is finally able to introduce himself and show Hello Dolly to her (from which he desperately gets a longing to hold hands just like Michael Crawford holds Marianne McAndrew's).
Article comments
1 - Tracy
This movie was absolutely HORRIBLE. I kept waiting for it to get better, but it only got worse. The worst $35 I ever spent on a movie
2 - andythesaint
Tracy is nuts. But, hey, the fact that other people don't get WALL-E is probably what makes it so great.
3 - JOHN
I WANT THAT HOUR AND A HALF OF MY LIFE BACK! KEPT WAITING FOR IT TO GET GOOD. AND A "G" RATING? THINGS KEPT BLOWING UP, THEY PLAYED WITH CIGARETTE LIGHTERS AND JUMPER CABLES, FAT PEOPLE AND BABIES SLIDING DOWN THE SHIP TITANIC STYLE, SCREAMING AND BOUNCING INTO EACH OTHER!! PLEASE!!