Everyone Loves WALL-E

WALL-E (2008)
103 minutes
Rated – G
Directed by Andrew Stanton

 

 
Grade:  A
 

Everyone knows about Pixar’s perfect track record.  If not, let me refresh your memory.  They are 8/8 for reaching #1 in the box office its opening weekend.  They have received a total of 24 Oscar nominations, including 3 Best Animated Feature Oscars (a category introduced after Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and Toy Story 2 were released).  So there is no doubt that Pixar is the king of animated features (and also shorts).  I cannot recall a spectacular run of producing masterful works like this ever.  So it’s only fitting that the anticipation for WALL-E was enormous, and even more fitting that WALL-E delivered above and beyond the anticipation.
 
Here’s the simple and formulaic storyline:  A robot (who loves the 1969 musical “Hello Dolly” by the way), whose main directive is to compact junk, falls in love with another robot from outer space.  There you have it.  It’s a marvel that this is Pixar’s first attempt at a love story, but their ambition remains high and bold (not that a love-story between robots isn’t bold enough).  The plot is very layered, starting from the post-apolyptic Earth in the year 2700.  Humans have abandoned the planet and now live in space… wait scratch that.  They’re merely floating in space because their lifestyle doesn’t translate into “living” in any way.

WALL-E takes us through an adventure of how far the robot would go for love, which ends up being to outer space and back.  There are moments when children might become tiresome, maybe from the lack of dialogue or the mature moral of the story, but there are enough action and laughs that’ll prevent them from squirming in their seats too much.  In the end, what Pixar has created is an incredibly touching tale done in quite the untraditional sense.  This is as close to a silent-feature that we’ll ever see in the modern-age full of special effects.  I cannot be anymore blunt than saying this is THE animation film of 2008 and possibly Pixar’s very best.