Joe’s Review: Wall-E

Disney/Pixar’s latest release was one of the most anticipated movies of the summer, and now that I’ve seen it, I can say that Wall-E deserves all the hype it gets. After the incredible success of Ratatouille last summer, Pixar hit the nail on the head again. This is definitely one of the cutest, well executed movies that I’ve seen so far this year. In fact, I can’t think of anything offhand that tops it.

Wall-E takes place many many years in the future… about 700 I believe. The earth has been abandoned due to the buildup of waste products and pollutants over the years. The company that has basically taken over the world, Buy N’ Large, has decided to take matters into it’s own hands. Large, luxurious cruise ships have been built to take people into space for a five year cruise, while Buy N’ Large uses robots to clean up the Earth, with the hope that people will be able to return afterwards.

Things don’t seem to have gone as planned. The movie begins following Wall-E around as he(?) performs his daily duties, taking trash in and compacting it. As he moves around, we see that there are many robots that are no longer functioning, as Wall-E’s only companion is a little cockroach who manages to get himself into a lot of squishy situations. Earth is a barren wasteland, but little Wall-E follows the same routine every day, compacting trash, and collecting items as he dreams of finding love (I know, cute huh?).

All of this changes one day when a probe ship comes, and drops off a probe to see what life is like on Earth now. In comes EVE, scooting around and probing everywhere, with Wall-E not far behind, as he has fallen in love. After finding some evidence of plant life growing on Earth, EVE is returned to the ship she came from where people have been waiting 700 years to return to Earth. Is this the sign that they will finally be going home?

Definitely going to recommend that you go out and check out the movie to find out about all the crazy antics Wall-E gets himself into. Something I really enjoyed about Wall-E was how they worked out the dialogue.
There really wasn’t much at all. However, the sounds that the robots emitted and the music set the tone very well. It was actually possible to feel the emotions that they were feeling, and get swept away in the journey. As usual, Pixar’s animation was stunning. Now that I think about it, I didn’t really even think of it as a computer animated movie. It felt just like any other regular movie.

No doubt Wall-E is more for the kids, as illustrated by the about 200 or so mothers, fathers, and screaming babies I saw it with, so definitely take that into consideration when heading out to see it. I recommend a late show if you really want to enjoy it in a quiet theatre, as that did mess it up a little bit for me. However, despite that annoyance, Wall-E is surely worth seeing. You’ll be swept up by the beautiful animation and great story.

The little featurette beforehand was awesome also!

Did you enjoy as much as I did?

Rating:

- A Must See!