Wall•E

WALL•E
BVI
RELEASED 18 July 2008
After superheroes, cars, and cooking (‘The Incredibles,’ ‘Cars,’ ‘Ratatouille’), for 2008 the digital wizards at Pixar Animation Studios have decided to travel 700 years into the future where the Earth has been filled up with so much rubbish that robots are assigned to clear it up, and at some point, the remains of humanity have jetted off in a spaceship to spend their days on an endless luxury pleasure cruise. Now only one robot still works, creating skyscrapers of junk and keeping interesting objects in his trailerhome. Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class himself (known better as WALL•E) does have one friend – an enthusiastic cockroach who sleeps inside a twinky candy bar. Each night, they both watch a video of the 1968 movie ‘Hello Dolly’, starring Michael Crawford. Although a robot, WALL•E seems to get all emotional watching the film, and he does exhibit quite the personality on his travels around the deserted- waste-strewn city. Perhaps robots have developed self-awareness…
One day, completely out of the blue, a huge gleaming starship lands in WALL•E’s neighbourhood, and a shiny white robot (like a flying ipod) emerges, scanning the surroundings and displaying a vicious ray gun should anything move within her range. WALL•E eventually gets this advanced robot (called EVE) to notice him (without blasting him), and a romantic relationship develops, which is curtailed as EVE?is recalled to the spaceship, with WALL•E hitching a ride. The spaceship returns to it’s mothership, the Axiom, where the last humans are living their days out as fat lazy pleasure seekers, oblivious to their origins.
The first half of ‘WALL•E’ is played out with no dialogue whatsoever (well, the names WALL•E and EVE are spoken), and yet this is probably the best stretch of animation the famous Pixar have ever produced. WALL•E’s lonely but inquisitive searchings are endlessly creative and the visuals are truely breathtaking. EVE?is a captivating companion and I’m sure Pixar could have set the whole movie on Earth, but it’s quite clear that the whole film would have been too clever and ‘quiet’ for the young target audience, so once we’re aboard the spaceship, we meet plenty of new robots and humans who clatter about and chase each other giving kids plenty to laugh at. I found the second half of the movie too predictable and stretched, and I didn’t really think the slapstick jokes worked as well as they have in the past.
But this is a minor criticism. If it’s only a near-masterpiece, it’s clear ‘WALL•E’ is light years ahead of the competition.
FOUR OUT OF FIVE