WALL-E: Review By Dodd

There is something that Pixar can accomplish that no other filmmaking studio can. They have the gift of giving life to virtually anything and actually making it work. In previous films we have seen as characters wooden dolls, a giant eyeball with legs, a fleet of motor vehicles, and a smell rat. Now most studios would just draw a goofy face and throw in a couple of slapstick gags or fart jokes. However, Pixar is a company that I can confidently say stands superior to any other studio today trying to make children's films. They do not cave in to the expected, obnoxious clichés of what children want. Instead they focus on elegance and intelligence while still making their projects accessible to children. The most recent outing for the studio is the futuristic film Wall-E.

The adorable good guy this time around is the title character, who is a robot left to clean planet Earth. When the planet became overfull with garbage and all resources were exhausted, the humans decided to take off to outer space and leave robots behind to clean up the mess until their return. This is exactly what Wall-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) does on the planet. We are introduced to Wall-E in a rather bleak and pessimistic surrounding. The planet is covered with air pollutants and garbage, yet Wall-E manages to find happiness with the hand he is dealt. He keeps a collection of junk in his storage bin home, and is best friends with a c*ckroach. Yes, even Pixar can make c*ckroaches likable!

Wall-E's world is turned upside down when a ship lands on Earth and releases the hovering robot Eve, who is sent to the planet to find vegetation, and deliver the message back to space that Earth is again inhabitable. What happens when Wall-E and Eve meet literally creates sparks. Wall-E excitedly introduces Eve to his favorite film Hello Dolly and to his junk collection. The next thing we know, the two bots are smitten. This is until Eve is dispatched back to space and Wall-E stows away on the space shuttle for his newfound love.

The film is then taken into outer space where the film goes from somewhat dark to outright hilarious. Humans are now lazy blobs who float around on space chairs and have forgotten to walk. They drink pizza out of cups and view basic, primary-colored space suits as fashion statements. Along with some robotic friends, such as a anal-retentive cleaning droid named Mo, Wall-E sets out to win Eve and deliver the message that Earth can be restored.

I am excited every year when a Pixar film comes out. If a summer movie line-up is going poorly, the annual Pixar title is always guaranteed to put me in a good mood and reinforce the fact that people still make wonderful films. In this case, Wall-E is pure brilliance. The team involved here are so clever in their development that they can make a film in which a majority of it is composed of gibberish bleeps rather than actual dialogue. The most impressive thing is that it is 100% effective. The characters here are machines, yet within the first 20 minutes I was attached to Wall-E. With his electronic noises and camera lens eyes that convey emotion, it was hard not to hope that the little guy would find happiness and fulfillment. The same character attachment can be said for the feminine Eve and the pint-sized Mo, who provides a majority of the comic relief here. I am willing to bet that Pixar could even make us feel sorry for a Roomba if they tried.

The film is enjoyable for both children and adults, and I mean this in the sense that grown-ups have a lot of subtext to cherish. The fact that the future is comprised of obese slobs obsessed with consumerism is hilarious to me, and I commend Pixar for somehow passing the Disney guards on that one. I would almost compare aspects of this story to Mike Judge's Idiocracy, which was pulled from wide release with fear that it would refer to and offend the general movie-going public. This film is blatantly stating that Americans are getting fat and wasteful, and I loved every second of its spot-on and bold satire. However, I couldn't help but wonder what the obese people that took up half of the movie theater thought of this commentary as they shuffled out of the exit during the closing credits. There are even some slick references to the war in Iraq.

I do not even have to hesitate for a second when I recommend this film. Rather than integrating popular culture hip hop, they use great artists such as Louis Armstrong and make references to musicals such as Hello Dolly. Instead of desperately being gross, they focus on the highs and lows of human emotion, and how they are experienced by various objects both animate and inanimate. Wall-E is a film that will make you laugh, cry, and be thankful that there is still a studio out there today that understands audiences, films, and how to make said films both classy and entertaining for said audiences. This is hands down one of the best films this year, and I continuously have faith that John Lasseter and his Pixar geniuses are planning to capture our hearts once more.