Pixar has done it again. Possibly one of the best films in the last ten years and quite probably the best film of the year. If Wall E doesn’t win a mass of awards when awards season starts up I’d be surprised and ticked off. Almost everything you can do right in a film is done in Wall E. After the blunder of Cars (which is so unlike a Pixar flick in comparison to some of the company’s better works) we are given a grim view of the future, but touched with the awesome, vivid, and powerful storytelling that made us all love Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, except one thing: most of the story had to be told without the benefit of human characters. To put it simply: I love Wall E.
To the breakdown:
Direction 5/5
I’m not even sure what to say here. Pixar has managed to turn a tiny, junker robot into possibly the cutest “living” thing to ever grace the big screen. Simple things like the cute up and down motion of Wall E to how the two robots (Eve and Wall E) interact are examples of the amazing way the director managed to make me love the characters of this film. There are absolutely NO moments in this film that made me go “eh, that wasn’t good”. Everything is pulled together seamlessly, all moving progressively towards the end. The love story is not over the top, but balanced perfectly throughout. It’s just…amazing.
Cast 4/5
The only complaint I have with this movie is one that probably won’t bother anyone. It didn’t really bother me either, but it was something that made this film just short of perfect. The voice actors are somewhat sparse. Granted, Wall E, Eve, and the other robots are all dominated by slightly robotic voices, but the few human characters are a little generic (particularly the male characters). I think perhaps diversifying the cast of human voices would have helped, but maybe this is just something I noticed and that nobody else really cares about (it doesn’t detract from the story, but I’m apprehensive to give anything a perfect score).Adaptation N/AThis wasn’t technically adapted from any works of literature, but the parallels to previous written works about robots and human society in the future are there and noticeable if you pay attention to such things.
Writing 5/5
While the story for Wall E is somewhat typical (in a way), it is also extremely powerful. Earth is devastated. Mankind has abandoned the blue planet after essentially killing her with junk and other goodies (yes, Global Warming is a part of things). For the most part, this aspect of the story will roll right over your kid’s heads, unless they are very well educated. They’ll see the dead Earth, and when they ask about it, just make something up. Pixar doesn’t try to cram environmental stuff down your throat here (and people that say that’s what they’re doing are probably the same folks that think kids are too stupid to think for themselves, and thus coddle their children to create little wimpy kids who have been brainwashed). Ranting aside…Wall E is the last remaining “cleaning” robot. His job is to clean up all the garbage left behind and essentially make Earth livable again. Humans, however, have long since left on a luxury liner with the promise that the company Buy N Large (sort of like the the future Walmart) will clean things up and eventually call them all back when the Earth is back to normal (or at least life sustaining).Wall E, of course, has grown his own little personality after being stuck on Earth for some 700 years, sporting a fascination with love and old 20th century musicals (plus an obsessive habit of collecting bits and pieces of former human life, and anything that tends to draw his attention). Then he meets Eve, a “drone” sent from the Axiom (the luxury liner) to determine if Earth is good to go…and well, you can figure out how things go.The story is absolutely heart warming. The love story is accented in just the right way in the writing that it’s believable and, well, cute. It reminded me the cuteness of my own relationship, which hit a chord with me. I don’t generally like love stories, but this one really gripped me. And I almost cried…something I don’t do very often.Point is, the story is fantastic, with plenty of good stuff for the adults (let’s face it, even if GW is a part of this story and it’s preaching the green card it’s still giving us an example of the worst case scenario…a picture we need to see and one which science fiction has been doing for a long time). The kids will enjoy this too. Many people have claimed this was a sleeper on Fandango, but I don’t see it. The kids in the theater were cracking up and so were the adults. It’s simply one of the best films made in a long time.
Visuals 5/5
It’s Pixar at its best. What more is there to say?
Overall 4.75/5
What else is there to say? Between being one of the cutest stories since Finding Nemo and possibly one of Pixar’s best films to date, this is a science fiction nut’s wet dream. It’s everything that makes scifi wonderful and exciting, with all the cuteness, comedy, love, and visual stimulation of the computer animation world. If you haven’t seen Wall E, what are you waiting for? What’s wrong with you? Take your kids, or go with your friends. This film should be drowning in ticket sales right now.If you have enjoyed Pixar films before, see this. If you haven’t, see this. If you don’t know what Pixar is, see this. If you haven’t seen a movie in a while, see this (it might just make you love movies again). Wall E = awesome.
