Wall-E (2008)
Pixar’s latest animated feature, Wall-E, is set in the distant future where Earth has been abandoned by mankind after years of waste generated reached an alarming level and could no longer sustain life. Buy N Large, megacorporation that controls almost every economy on Earth, hatched a plan to offer a five-year space cruise aboard the Axiom for Earth’s citizen while hundreds of waste collection robots are deployed to clean up the Earth awaiting for the cruise’s eventual return. Our hero, Wall-E, happens to be one of those Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-class robots, or simply put, mobile garbage compactors.
After hundreds of years of cleaning up, Wall-E soon becomes the last of its kind on this planet and develops a feeling of loneliness. One day, a huge spaceship landed on Earth and deploys Eve, a scouting probe designed to seek out plant life. The two droids soon became acquainted but once Eve acquired what she was programmed to seek out, she was immediately switched to hibernation mode and awaited for her retrieval. The real adventure starts when Wall-E hitched a ride aboard the ship that was sent to retrieve Eve back to the Axiom. The first half of the movie consists of very few line of dialogues save for Wall-E and Eve’s beeps and early attempts at communication, but their expression and mannerism pretty much speak for themselves.
Eve was partly designed by Apple’s lead designer Johnathan Ive, and this probably explains the iPod inspired look of it. Very sleek and clean. Curiously though, her design actually reminds me of those quirky sentry robots from Portal. Could they have been Eve’s early ancestors ?
Wall-E started off with a bleak look at the future of the planet Earth but slowly sway to the lighter side. The story touches on the environmental impact of modern society as a result of mass consumerism. Although not too heavy on the theme, Wall-E remains a light hearted affair suitable for all ages to enjoy. As usual, the animation quality from Pixar is top notch although it is a not as colorful and vivid as their earlier works. The score by Thomas Newton made the movie even more enjoyable and epic at the same time. Wall-E is definitely my recommended feel good movie of the year. Be sure to catch Pixar’s short feature, Presto, before the movie starts too. It’s a laugh riot.
As with all of Pixar’s films, Wall-E is full of easter eggs with some quick references to their previous films, SlashFilm has a collection of it at the following link, let’s see how many you manage to spot.
Director: Andrew Stanton
Music:
Thomas Newman
Peter Gabriel
Cast:
Ben Burtt
Elissa Knight
Jeff Garlin
Fred Willard
John Ratzenberger
Kathy Najimy
Sigourney Weaver
Running Time: 97 mins
Rating: 
Disney Pixar - Wall E Official Website
Popularity: 4% [?]
