Pixar has made some of my favorite animated films. Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Cars are all top-notch family entertainment and each of them provides humor suitable for children with plenty of adult-oriented references to keep parents from dismissing them as simple kiddie flicks. So, I was prepared for another good time when I sat down to watch WALL-E, the latest release from Pixar and Walt Disney.
The movie is off to a good start as a tale of an Earth totally overrun with garbage begins to unfold sans narration or dialogue. Through various visual cues, we learn that WALL-E, a diminutive garbage-collecting robot, has been left on the planet alone. All of humanity has departed on gigantic spaceships owned by Buy-N-Large, a gigantic corporation whose logos are on virtually everything the eye can see. WALL-E compacts the remaining garbage into little cubes which he stacks into skyscraper-sized towers. WALL-E was initially part of a team of garbage collecting robots, but 700 years has passed since the humans left the planet. Because of wear and tear on his former compatriots, WALL-E is now performing the endless task of collecting and compacting the junk all by himself.
WALL-E amuses himself by taking various items that he finds among the junk back home to his cargo-bin-turned-apartment. Among his collection there is a Rubik’s Cube, a Pong video game system and a still-working VHS player on which he repeatedly watches a video tape of the musical, Hello, Dolly!
One day, as WALL-E is out stacking garbage, a rocket lands and a white, egg-shaped robot emerges. WALL-E instantly falls in love with EVE, who seems to be searching for something among the garbage heaps of Earth. WALL-E’s days of being all alone appear to be over.
Visually, WALL-E is amazing. The character of WALL-E is very reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin and the movie’s lack of dialogue – at least for the first half – is of absolutely no detriment to the viewer’s understanding as WALL-E’s movements convey his thoughts quite well. His large, expressive eyes make any doubts about his emotions impossible. EVE, his female counterpart, has less expressive features but possesses a voice of sorts that helps get her feelings across to the viewer. WALL-E has a voice too, but it’s less communicative. Ben Burtt, who provides the sound design for WALL-E, garnered an Academy Award nomination for his work and it was well-deserved as it’s his sound effects that breathe life into many of the characters introduced later in the film.
So why only three stars for WALL-E? Well, as visually impressive as it is, the storyline falls apart about halfway through. Sure, it’s cute and mildly romantic to see WALL-E ache to hold hands with EVE but, after its beautiful and simultaneously melancholic opening scenes, the movie deteriorates into the standard kiddie flick that other Pixar films have been so adept at avoiding. I understand that there’s a desire to not bum out the children who flock to these movies but there’s a sort of frustration at seeing what could have been on an adult level if the film had continued to make its point about humanity’s current state of affairs.
By no means a bad movie, WALL-E is perfectly adequate as family entertainment but it could have been much more.
3.5 out of 5.0 stars
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