WALL-E Movie Review

Is it possible for a machine to feel love? Right now I certainly hope not because the last thing I need is my coffee maker eloping with my neighbor's toaster. Both of our mornings would be ruined.

Be glad that my visions of inter-machine romance differs from the imaginative visions of Pixar, who decided to bring their visions onto the silver screen through its latest animated film WALL-E. WALL-E is a inter-machine romance blended with space opera, an appeal against excess consumerism, and message about the meaning of life to form an animated cocktail that's suitable for all ages, but probably better appreciated by older children and their parents.

WALL-E is a story set about 700 years in the future. Having survived meteor showers, tidal waves, invading space aliens, super-powered villains, giant fire-breathing monsters, and other forms of destruction that summer blockbuster films throw at this planet, Earth is finally desolated and its population long gone thanks to excess garbage caused by excess consumerism and its enabler Wal-Mart Buy-n-Large. Accepting responsibility, Buy-n-Large's CEO promotes living in a luxury space ship as an opportunity to enjoy life while automated WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class ) robots clean up the garbage on Earth. Unfortunately, only one WALL-E robot is left to clean up the Earth. The arrival of a new robot sparks a journey into outer space where the fate of humanity rests in WALL-E's hands.

Take away the highly animation and the robot characters and you have a simple love story of one person going to the ends of the Earth (and in WALL-E's case, beyond) for the person he or she loves that has been done ad nauseum. But adding the animation and making the main characters robots instead of flesh, blood, and emotional humans makes it a challenge. Pixar manages to make what is essentially a metal box with treads, arms, and binoculars into a sentient machine. WALL-E not only has living emotions such as fear, survival instinct, and love, he can convey them through his binocular eyes. Pixar's animation is highly detailed and flowing and they manage to bring a warmth in WALL-E and eventually his love interest EVE. EVE is a dynamic character who starts off as a cold automaton on a mission that develops into a character to care about after she is cared by WALL-E.

The film begins slowly with WALL-E going about his job in waste management. There is virtually no dialogue since WALL-E is alone in his job. This is an odd way to start a cartoon that young children watch since the lack of talking and action may bore them. But if they get past those few minutes, the will soon be treated to visual gags and other eye candy when the characters reach outer space and the human infested spaceship.

In the spaceship, Pixar paints a canvas of where humans have evolved into well-fed cattle who rely completely on machines to do all the work. Without a need to leave their automated moving chairs or communicate with another person face to face, can this isolation count as being alive? Through his love for EVE, WALL-E inadvertently becomes the harbinger of change for the humans in the ship as his actions open their eyes.

This film blares many messages that may fly over the heads of younger audiences, such as the evils of excess commercialism. But it is not heavy handed when delivering the message to those who understand it. The animation is excellent in today's computer animation era. Though the film does cheat a little by using live-action footage in certain scenes. There are plenty of moments to laugh, get excited over, and even a few moments where the audience can let out a collective, "Awwww...." This is one of the great films this year. Pixar has done it again.

PS: It is kind of ironic that despite WALL-E citing the dangers of excess commercialism, retail stores everywhere have shelves filled with WALL-E merchandise. Wouldn't it be weird if a WALL-E sequel had footage of WALL-E or other garbage collecting characters cleaning up piles of discarded WALL-E toys and shirts?

PPS: If Pixar's vision of the future is correct, in about 700 years:

-Cockroaches will be the only thing alive on the Earth's surface, though Keith Richards may be hiding in a cave somewhere.
-The DVD will give way to the Blu-Ray, which will eventually give way to the VHS tape.
-Video iPods will still work.
-Twinkies are still viable food sources.
-Music from "Hello Dolly" will become a battle cry.
-Fred Willard will continue to have acting parts where he will still resemble a used car salesman who swindles people into believing anything.