WALL-E

Starring: Fred Willard, Jeff Garlin, Sigourney Weaver, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy

Directed by: Andrew Stanton

RS: 4of 4 Stars Average User Rating: 3.5of 4 Stars

2008 Walt Disney Pictures Adventure

First image: the Earth as a garbage dump, a future reduced to ruins. For the past 700 years, what's left of humanity has been cruising the skies in a spaceship. Only a tiny robot, WALL-E (for Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth class), scoots around on urban terra firma compacting trash into piles that grow into skyscrapers.

First sound: a voice lifted in song: "Out there/there's a world outside of Yonkers." The tune is "Put On Your Sunday Clothes," a merry ditty from the forgotten 1969 movie version of Hello, Dolly with Barbra Streisand. WALL-E, his eyes like binoculars (hell, they are binoculars!), watches an old, muddy video tape of Dolly with the same yearning we see in Michael Crawford, who plays a young store clerk at the turn of the 20th-century, warbling about finding adventure in a world out of reach, a world full of shine and full of sparkle: "Girls in white in a perfumed night/Where the lights are bright as the stars!"

First reaction: WALL-E, directed with a poet's eye by Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) from a whipsmart and shrewdly accessible script he wrote with Jim Reardon, is some kind of miracle, Talk about daring. It's Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot mixed with Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Terry Gilliam's Brazil, topped with the cherry of George Lucas' Star Wars and Steven Spielberg's E.T. , and wrapped up in a G-rated whipped- cream package. What could have been a mess of influences is instead unique and unforgettable. Tons of movies promise something for everyone WALL-E actually makes good on that promise. It's a landmark in modern moviemaking that lifts you up on waves of humor, heartbreak and ravishing romance. Want proof that animation can be an art form? It's all there in the groundbreaking WALL-E.

The first, virtually dialogue-free half hour is jaw-dropping perfection, as WALL-E (his eloquent beeps come courtesy of Ben Burtt, whose sound design for the film deserves an Oscar just for starters) watches a space probe land and discharge a sleek, robot named EVE (for Extra-Terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator). EVE (voiced by Elissa Knight) looks like an egg-shaped i-Pod with the power to vaporize any potential threat, a scary prospect. But it only takes a moment for WALL-E to fall hard for this cutie, who lets down her guard when he shares his treasures, including an eggbeater, a Rubik's cube, a Zippo lighter, a brassiere (don't ask), and bubble wrap that provides hours of popping fun. But it's a fragile sprout of plant, which WALL-E keeps in old shoe, that gets EVE jazzed. Before she heads off for the Axiom space station, with WALL-E in hot pursuit, the two strike up an odd-couple relationship that evokes, according to your generational reference points, Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp and Virginia Cherrill's blind flower girl in City Lights, Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in Annie Hall, Leo and Kate in Titanic, and – for the kiddies – the green ogre and the Princess in Shrek. There's been much talk about how WALL-E will fly over the heads of the little ones. No doubt some of it will. But the film's essential sweetness transcends age and cultural barriers. To see WALL-E and EVE dance and later kiss is the essence of movie magic. You won't find a funnier, more touching love story anywhere these days.

I could go on about the rest of the movie, which is more traditional than what precedes it, but never fuddy-duddy and always filled visual wonders that take the breath away. Those viewers with a fear and loathing of "message" may flinch at the script's warning about fat, consumerist humans and the ignorance that landed the planet in such disarray. But it's thrilling to watch Stanton and his genius crew of Pixar artists discover new levels of creativity. No movie can be a downer that fills you with pure exhilaration. You leave WALL-E with a feeling of the rarest kind: that you've just enjoyed a close encounter with an enduring classic.

PETER TRAVERS

(Posted: Jul 10, 2008)

Your Turn

Give us your review of
WALL-E

Review 1 of 18

Not Rated

It's so good, it's almost too good. An instant classic and masterpiece. The animation is jaw-dropping.
The Incredibles, Ratatouille and Wall-E are, hands-down, 3 of the best animated flicks in the last 6 years. At least.

Oct 10, 2008 15:55:35

Review 2 of 18

4of 4 Stars

I love Wall-E. He is funny.

Oct 7, 2008 05:28:08

Review 3 of 18

Not Rated

I'll have to say that I think WAAAALLLLEEEEEE is the best animated film of the summer... HANDS DOWN!

Sep 22, 2008 18:39:51

Review 4 of 18

4of 4 Stars

I can count on two hands the number of movies I've given 4 stars to, and that isn't very many.

WALL-E certainly ranks up there with the best of the best.

I must admit, I abhor watching a movie several times, but I believe I have watched WALL-E five times now, and look forward to the next.

If you only knew me, that's high praise.

Aug 23, 2008 12:46:05

Review 5 of 18

4of 4 Stars

Wow I personally thought this film reined supreme in Pixars line of classics. Very original. I loved the execution. Pixar always has a way of telling a story without actually telling it. Hardly any dialogue to speak of but still the story is told through unique visuals. The film is also very beautiful. Loved this one.

Jul 26, 2008 02:25:53

Review 6 of 18

4of 4 Stars

Normally I am not too excited when waiting to see new movies, especially from the years of disappointments that have befallen me. Well, I couldn't help myself with this film, especially with the excellent track record that Pixar has earned and the high benchmark that they normally set for themselves, and Wall-E does not disappoint. Actually, Wall-E may be the best Pixar have ever made.

Alone on Planet Earth, the Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth-Class or WALL-E has out lasted its fellow robot kind and due to almost 700 years of solitude has developed self-awareness and a personality. WALL-E collects things it thinks is interesting, while packing the mountains of trash into small cubes that are piled as high as skyscrapers. A cockroach is its only companion as its curiosity makes him explore some of the more interesting trinkets and gadgets it finds in the heaps of waste.

Then along comes EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) whose directive is to look for evidence of plant life on the forsaken planet, and who has a volatile temper and a laser to back it up. WALL-E, starved for companionship, and longing for someone to hold his hand with (from watching way too much of 'Hello, Dolly!') becomes instantly interested in EVE. However, once EVE finds plant life, she is jettisoned back to the mother ship, where WALL-E and the viewers follow to see what has become of the human race.

To say that WALL-E is adorable is an understatement. And to say that this film is great is also undermining the beautiful genius behind this mostly silent masterpiece. The filmmakers use only what they need and nothing more, and yet the 97 minutes felt to me like an epic. The mere fact that I cared about animated two robots falling in love, which say no more than three words during the entire film, is testament to the use of a creative idiom in this film that speaks to us beyond mere words.

Wall-E will jump off the screen and touch your soul, and maybe even leave you in tears. It's an animated masterpiece for the ages, and one of the best films of the year.

Jul 20, 2008 15:10:31

Review 7 of 18

4of 4 Stars

this is a pure genius movie,its the best pixar film to date,couldent believe my eyes, id give it 10 stars if i could.

Jul 16, 2008 17:57:04

Review 8 of 18

4of 4 Stars

One good movie.
But I think the storyline is so much similar to the short novel (SF) "For a Breath I Tarry, 1966" by one great SF novelist Roger Zelazny. (Well, I don't want to think WALL-E is a plagiarism or a crib.) I recommend the novel "For a Breath I Tarry" to everyone who is interested in the story of WALL-E.

Jul 13, 2008 14:19:05

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