It's Evansville — Movie Review: WALL-E

Movie Review: WALL-E

It’s hard to go wrong with Pixar. Since the release of Toy Story in 1995, they really haven’t had a miss at the box office. With this most recent release, Pixar is going strong and within the next four years, they are set to release five major motion pictures including Toy Story 3 and Cars 2.

WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth-Class) tells the story of a small robot who is left on Earth after all the humans are evacuated off the planet. The evacuation takes place due to a planet-wide overflow of garbage. While WALL-E is cleaning up the place, he finds pieces of human life that interest him and finds himself lonely in the process. Spending his days making cubes of garbage, WALL-E’s only companion is a small cockroach until an unexpected spacecraft lands revealing EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), a robot sent by the corporation, Axiom, to search for any form of life on Earth. The two eventually become friends and WALL-E follows EVE into space when Axiom recovers her from Earth.

WALL-E is a fun, adventurous, cute movie. I would even venture to suggest, WALL-E is Pixar’s cutest character to date. He has the greatest personality and I couldn’t help but be reminded of Johnny 5 from Short Circuit. When creating WALL-E, the animators used inspiration from a pair of binoculars and Luxo, Jr., Pixar’s logo lamp. Besides the lovable characters in the film, the picture itself is breathtaking. Pixar continues to push the envelope in the animation world and somehow makes each film look better then the one before.

One of the things I like the most about Pixar films is the inside jokes. Somehow, the Pizza Planet delivery truck makes an appearance in every other film, John Ratzenburger always voices a character, and ‘A113’ is used in some fashion as a nod to a classroom at CalArts where many of the animators went to school. This time the inside gag is directed at Apple fans. I won’t say specifically what the joke is, however, I will say that when it happened, and happened repeatedly, I nearly fell out of my seat. Unfortunately, I think I was the only person in the theater who got it.

I’m rating WALL-E with a 4.5. It’s good enough to see in the theater and purchase for personal collections, but I won’t be watching it like I do Finding Nemo.

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Justin Williams

July 14, 2008 @ 10:29PM

There is no shame in getting the Apple jokes. I was the only one laughing at them when I saw it. My viewing partner looked at me in shame. :)

I loved this movie. Pixar’s ability to have such a meaningful story between two characters with minimal dialog is worthy of a Best Picture nomination. Sadly, it will probably be left to win yet another award in the ghetto that is Best Animation.

Chimpie

July 15, 2008 @ 05:44AM

This was a great movie and yes, it will become part of the home collection.

And yes, the Apple ‘gag’ was funny.

Robyn

July 15, 2008 @ 06:28AM

I agree wholeheartedly about the minimal dialog. It reminded me of Fantasia, which was told completely through music, pictures and sound effects. I was in awe of the sound design throughout.

July 15, 2008 @ 06:52AM

I listened to an interview with Andrew Stanton of Pixar on NPR’s Fresh Air the other day. It’s a pretty interesting hour if you are into the behind the scenes stuff.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92400669

July 15, 2008 @ 07:31AM

I’m checking it out now. Thanks for posting the link. I had heard about this interview, but hadn’t looked it up yet. I love behind-the-scenes stuff because it’s part of what I do for a living. I am a behind-the-scenes person. I am particularly interested in sound design because that is sort of my niche at work.

If anyone else is interested in this interview, I would wait until you see the movie before listening to this. Not that it really gives anything away, but you’ll appreciate it more after seeing WALL-E.

zrx1200r

July 15, 2008 @ 07:37AM

the minimal dialogue, coupled with the quest for a relationship, is an overt homage/copy of Charlie Chaplin’s classic silent film “City Nights.” if you haven’t seen it, it’s a must.

July 15, 2008 @ 08:16AM

i meant “City Lights.”

darn sambuca-soaked veins—i can’t type.