Pixar's 'Wall-E'

When the release of a new Pixar movie comes around the expectations are usually high. ‘Toy Story’, ‘Monsters Inc’ and ‘Finding Nemo’ were sublime pictures. ‘The Incredibles’ and ‘Ratatouille’ were merely brilliant and their only real disappointment ‘Cars’ was still entertaining. And so we come to ‘Wall-E’ the newest effort by Disney’s digital golden boys.

I’m going to start by saying I loved this movie and if you don’t you are either a curmudgeon or a liar. This ranks up with Pixar’s finest and in time it may even come to be regarded as their best, which puts it at the top of an incredibly desirable heap. As you would expect the film is technically excellent but the subtle methods used to show off the animation is what separates something like this from the crass, but still fun, Shrek’s of this world.

There is one jaw dropping scene where after a particularly risky escape Wall-E is stranded in space with a fire extinguisher and uses the force of the spray to glide around a space station with fellow robot and ‘love interest’ Eve. The trail of foam from Wall-E’s improvised jet pack and the trail of blue light from Eve as they pirouette through space is simply breathtaking and is accompanied by nothing but music and the occasional gasp of wonder from the human passengers viewing the whole spectacle through the space stations windows. The fact that we the audience are just as enthralled by the dancing robots makes this scene one of the most uplifting dialogue free scenes I have ever seen in a movie animated or otherwise.

While the animation is up to check a film is really nothing without a plot and strong characters. Fortunately ‘Wall-E’ delivers on both counts. The plot involves a planet Earth several hundreds of years into the future (we only know that it is over 700 years since humans left). Wall-E is the only robot left of his kind and has become a sentient being through years of isolation. He has almost entirely abandoned his programmed job of compacting garbage to explore the rubbish dump he calls home with his only friend; a cockroach. One day a probe from space lands on Earth and sends out another robot named Eve. She is looking for signs that earth might be once again suitable for human life, what she finds however is our plucky little hereo, and ‘Johnny-5’ look-a-like, Wall-E. The two robots become close during their time on Earth so naturally when the time comes for Eva to ascend back to space Wall-E stows away with her. Upon arriving at a space station, the humans new home, we find that humankind has quite literally become a race of overweight, consumer zombies looked after by their equally stupefied captain and his puppeteer, the onboard auto-pilot system Auto. I’ll refrain from giving away anymore of the plot as I’ve said about as much as I can without spoiling anything (everything I’ve described happens in the first 40mins or so). Needless to say the rest of the film is the sort of high spirited family adventure that Pixar excel at delivering.

Any criticism? Well, the ending is pure Disney schmaltz but it’s to be expected and only the blackest of hearts could fail to leave the cinema without feeling a little lump in their throat. One other accusation that could be levelled at the film is that it wears its influences very much on its sleeve. I’ve already mentioned Wall-E’s resemblance to the hereo robot in ‘Short Circuit’ but many other sci-fi movies from ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ to ‘Logan’s Run’ are referenced during this film and none too subtly. ‘Auto’ essentially is ‘HAL 9000’ from ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, right down to the sinister monotone voice and iconic glowing red camera eye. Do these blatant “homages” really affect the quality of the movie though? In short no, no they don’t.

So a big thumbs up for ‘Wall-E’ then, this is without a doubt the best animated feature since Pixar’s own ‘Monsters Inc’ and will no doubt be one of the best for a good long while. It is sad to note that it seems the film hasn't done too well at the box office, by Pixar standards anyway, and has yet to gross as much as their relative flop ‘Cars’. This is a travesty in my opinion and I urge each and every one of you to go and see this movie. In fact go and see it now, you’re only wasting your time on the internet anyway fer cryin’ out loud.