A Review of WALL E

"WALL -E" is not a movie I expected to like. Though I am a fan of Pixar's animation style, I am not a fan of their movies, having years ago dismissed them as wholly for children. Sadly it seems I'm going to have to go back and catch-up on all of Pixar's and Disney's other animated movies, because "WALL -E" blew me away. While I maintain that Pixar's movies are definitely made for children, it's not as if they're made ONLY for children. "WALL -E is a movie that entertains while informing and teaching a worthwhile lesson.

Pixar really outdid themselves this time with the animation. The Pixar animation team was proud of the work they did on "Finding Nemo" creating a realistic underwater environment and were wanting to try and create a realistic space environment. While I can't say that I've ever been in space to confirm that they got the space environment right, I can say that it seems okay to me. They explore the effects of permanent weightlessness over extended periods of time and the effects depicted in the film seem to be what would really happen.

The point behind "WALL -E" though isn't the effects of a zero g environment and it isn't about love either. Though there is the love depicted between WALL -E and EVE, it's just a plot device. The story is about humanity's downward spiral toward ruining the planet we live on and allowing machines to take over everything we can do ourselves.

Earth is depicted as a barren wasteland some seven hundred years from today. Humanity has left it to be cleaned, but time passed and passed and eventually those that left Earth died off and their descendants, generations later, are fat blobs living on a spaceship that have robots doing everything for them. They don't even have to walk or turn their heads to talk to one another anymore, because they have hover-chairs and viewscreens in front of their faces all of the time. It was a sad depiction not of what humanity could become, but of what it has become. The humans depicted in "WALL -E" are not all that different from the humans that actually exist today.

But "WALL -E" also serves to help make us feel hopeful about humanity. The humans in the movie make a startling comeback and, overtime, so does Earth. The film has a great soundtrack topped off with a new song by Peter Gabriel. I would recommend this movie to everyone, young and old. And pay attention to its message, it's more than just entertainment.