To be honest, I didn’t have a whole lot of interest in seeing Pixar’s latest contribution to the American cinemascape, WALL-E. I remember seeing the first trailers for it and thinking, “boy, I really don’t see how they can make that story very interesting.” But, with family in town for the 4th of July, and being out-voted about what to see (actually there was no vote and I didn’t put up any fight…everyone else just wanted to see it, so I went), I’m happy to report that I couldn’t have been more wrong.
My mood going in wasn’t helped at all by the fact that I had woken early that morning after only four hours of sleep to play a golf with MightyThor, which proved to be a waste of several good hours that could have been used for sleep. I played like an idiot and was happy to get it behind me. I tried to catch a nap before heading out to the movie, but by the time I had settled into a deep and restorative slumber, it was time to go. Needless to say, I was pretty cranky waking up.
The moodiness wore off soon enough, aided by the animated short that preceded the feature. The short had the simplest of premises: a magician attempting that age-old magician’s staple of pulling a rabbit out of his hat. Simple and–thanks to Pixar’s amazing knack for character creation, artistic rendering, and brilliantly observed idiosyncrasies–hilarious. I won’t go into details of the hijinx that ensues as the magician tries to force his rabbit to perform, but suffice it to say, it’s a gem well worth arriving at the theater on time to catch.
A few minutes of rich belly laughs and my mood was lightened tremendously, so as the curtain rose on the feature (figuratively speaking), I was ready to be entertained, although still a little unsure of what to expect.
What followed was nothing short of brilliance as the stage–a wasted, refuse ridden version of some future Earth–was set. WALL-E is a small compactor robot who was left behind as the human race made its exodus from the no-longer viable Earth into giant spaceships until the planet can be reclaimed. His directive is simple: clean the place up. So he spends his days zipping around the planet, between the towers of garbage that have taken on the appearance of a metropolitan city scape (amazingly rendered by Pixar), picking up trash and stuffing it inside his internal compactor. When full, he crushes the garbage into cubes, spits them back out and stacks them on the next skyscraper pile.
For the first twenty or so minutes of the film, there is literally no dialog. WALL-E is alone, and though he is a robot, he has developed a penchant for collecting certain elements of human memorabilia that he finds interesting for one reason or another. One such collected artifact is a tape of My Fair Lady that WALL-E watches at night when his day’s work is complete.
One of the big surprises of the movie is an unexpectedly sweet love story. Once the scene on Earth is adequately set, a probe from the humans is sent back to Earth to search for signs of change in the atmosphere that might make Earth inhabitable again. This probe–a much more futuristic and elegant looking robot that flies and boasts some pretty wicked weaponry–is of decidedly female persona, and at one glance, WALL-E falls in love.
The rest of the movie follows WALL-E’s adventure as he follows this robot, aptly named EVE, back into space after he gives her a living plant that he has found in his digging. The discovery of the plant activates EVE’s prime directive–proof of viable living conditions on Earth–and summons the ship that brought her to come pick her up and take her back to the larger human space civilization. WALL-E, unbeknownst to EVE, tags along.
I’ll leave the narrative there and leave the enjoyment of the rest of the picture up to you. I’ll only say this much more: WALL-E surprised me in nearly every way. It’s visually stunning, heart warming, and of course, hilarious. And as much as I was afraid it would, WALL-E’s warning message about the degradation of humanity and its effect on the planet (or vice versa if you prefer) doesn’t feel preachy or condescending. In fact, it’s quite effective in its understated packaging, much more so than it would have been were it a more threatening and overt condemnation of man’s gluttonous consumerism.
All things considered, I have no hesitation about designating WALL-E as the best movie of the year, by a long shot. It’s a must-see and if possible, it’s a must-see on the big screen. And there really is so much to see.
Overall Rating: Must See! or Four Stars, or Thumb’s Up, or I Grok, or whatever floats your boat as far as ratings go. Just see the movie.
