Wall-E written and directed by Andrew Stanton (2008)
29 June 2008I always at least enjoy Pixar films (even Cars, which was pretty mediocre, though most are damn good), but this is them back in Top form. I had been excited to see it, not only for the science fiction elements, but also to see a film with very little dialogue that is completely compelling, and compelling it was. Beyond compelling in fact, really an instant classic. These robots are more than human, and so expressive it is ridiculous, and not only that, but they have made a film that is a complete commentary on the direction that America and the world is going in and made it in a lovely children’s film with tons of great science fiction references in it. This is an absolute must see. And if you can see it digitally projected even better, because this film looks phenomenal, and the projector was so bright it actually showed the damage in the screen! Ha! Run out and see this film right now!!!
It is the year 2700 and the Earth has been abandoned by humanity, leaving behind an army of robots to clean up the detritus which covers the surface of the now dry and arid planet, but now their is only one left, WALL•E (voiced by the sounds of Ben Burtt) or Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class, and after being alone so long he has developed a personality. WALL•E is curious, playing with the junk, and collecting the best stuff, to bring back to his home, the vehicle he arrived in. And when he has problems he takes pieces off other dead WALL•E robots to replace his own parts. His only companion is a cockroach, and the advertisements of the Buy ‘N Large Corporation, which are solar powered, and not only tell of the former earth and all it’s waste, but also the fact that humanity left earth behind, and these robots to clean it up, and human’s were supposed to have a simple easy existence on the executive star-liner AXIOM and return to a beautified Earth. Something has obviously gone wrong though, and WALL•E is alone, until a ship shows up, and drops off a lone occupant, a robot with huge destructive capabilities, that is searching the Earth for something.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Wall is fascinated by this floating white robot, and follows it around, even when he is endangered, and eventually makes friends with the robot, whose name is Eve (Elissa Knight), though Eve won’t reveal her primary directive. She goes around scanning everything on Earth.
Eventually WALL•E shows her his home and his collection, including a video of human’s dancing and singing, and then his most recent prized acquisition, a plant in a shoe. This sets something off in Eve, and she changes and ingests the plant into her stomach, and then seemingly shuts down with a light shaped like a plant flashing on her chest.
WALL•E tries to take care of her, pulling her around with a string of Christmas lights, and keeping her safe in the storm, but eventually he goes back to work, compacting trash and making huge towers out of the detritus. WHile he is doing this through, the ship returns and picks up Eve, and WALL•E rushes back and jumps onto an outside ladder on the ship, blasting into space on a journey that will take him to the Axiom.
WALL•E gets into the ship, and follows Eve, who is taken by special priority to the ships captain, but WALL•E has a crazy time following her, crossing path with humans who live in floating chairs, with video screens in front of them, and living off a liquid diet. THey are huge and fat. And on his way WALL•E ends up making Mary (Kathy Najimy) and John (John Ratzenberger) to shut off their screens, and start to actually see the world they live in.
EVE is taken to the Captain (Jeff Garlin) whose only duty up till now was to make announcements to the humans, and now is given the plant protocol, which will send the ship back to Earth as soon as the plant is put in a special place in the ship, but strangely when the computer (Signourney Weaver) which looks strangely like HAL 9000 put into a ships wheel, opens Eve the plant is gone, and they blame WALL•E and send them both to the repair depot.
WALL•E sees Eve have her arm removed and being worked on, and goes to break her out, sending out a bunch of misfit malfunctioning robots. Eve takes WALL•E to an escape pod to send him back to Earth, but he doesn’t want to leave without her, but then another robot shows up, and strangely it has the plant and puts it in the escape pod set to destruct. WALL•E jumps in and grabs the plant, and manages to escape before the pod explodes, and is saved by Eve.
The ships computer sets WALL•E and Eve as the enemy, but they try to get to the captain, who realizes the computer is against him, and starts learning of Earth, and trying to stop the ships mutiny. He forces the computer to tell him why it is trying to destroy the plant, and it is because of a message from the BnL CEO SHelby FOrthright (Fred Willard) which said the cleaning of Earth failed, and told the ships computer to keep humanity out in the stars totally dependent forever. The computer attacks WALL•E and damages him badly and he and Eve end up in the scrap removal of the ship, and almost get ejected, and Eve tries to fix WALL•E, but their are no parts, but he reminds her of the spare parts on Earth, so she must get the plant into the computer to send the ship to Earth.
The robots head to get the plant in the computer, while the Captain fights the computer, who is willing to hurt the humans to keep them from getting to Earth, but WALL•E manages to wedge himself in the spot where the plant must go, so the humans, the reject robots and Eve can get the plant in the computer, and the Captain can shut off the computer, and the ship heads to Earth and lands.
The barely able to walk humans stumble out onto the barren landscape, ready to rebuild the planet, and Eve takes WALL•E to his house to fix him. She replaces his damaged circuit board and parts, but when she revives him, he is back to basics, just set to clean up, but she tries, and leans into him sending a spark, which re-awakens his mind, and the two can be happy together. In the credits we see Human’s and robots working together to rebuild the Earth. And after the credits we see a logo for the Buy ‘N Large corporation.
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What a wonderful little gem of a film. Really amazing. I loved it! So wonderful, heartfelt and uplifting, with a message in their about what we are doing to supersize and over-waste and destroy our planet. I hope Pixar has another huge hit on it’s hands!
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