MOVIE: WALL-E

WALL-E (promoted with an interpunct as WALL•E) is a 2008 computer animated adventure comedy science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film is directed by Andrew Stanton, who previously directed Finding Nemo. Most of the characters do not have human voices, instead communicating with body language and sounds (designed by Ben Burtt) that resemble voices. It is also the first animated feature by Pixar to have several segments featuring live action characters.

This computer-animated tale is about a wide-eyed robot who travels to the deepest reaches of outer space in search of a newfound friend. The year is 2700, and planet Earth has long been uninhabitable. For hundreds of years, WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) has been taking out the trash, and collecting precious knick-knacks in order to stave off the boredom of his dreary routine. Little does WALL-E realize that he has recently stumbled onto a secret that could save planet Earth, and once again make the ravaged planet safe for all humankind.

When highly advanced search robot EVE makes friends with WALL-E and realizes the value of his remarkable discovery, she excitedly races back to let the humans know that there's hope for their home planet after all. But after centuries alone in space, WALL-E can't stand the thought of losing the only friend he's ever known, and eagerly follows her into the deepest reaches of space on the adventure of a lifetime. Along the way, the friendly trash-collecting robot who has always known what he was made for gradually begins to understand what he was meant for. Featuring the voices of Fred Willard, Jeff Garlin, and Ben Burtt.



I never go to the movies unless I come into some money via a scratch off ticket. Since I haven't played that devil's game in a while it is not how I came to see WALL-E in the theater. Since I work in child care and its summertime, we take the kids on a field trip every week. Their field trip this week was to go to the movies to see WALL-E. I love these field trips because it's the only time in my entire life where I will ever be paid to go see a movie. It makes me feel like an actual movie critic. The only thing is I'm technically getting paid to watch the kids and not the movie. We only took 20 kids which is not a big deal to me because one time we took almost 40 kids to the movies and that was just mass chaos, but we got through it. So, 20 kids is nothing.

I was pretty much able to watch the whole movie except for when two kids needed a bathroom break and another wanted a refill on his sippy cup. After it was over I asked some of the kids what they thought of it. Since the movie is aimed toward kids and I had access to 20 of them, it was a good way to see how they felt about it compared with me. The little kids just loved it. They couldn't stop laughing and saying "WALL-E" through the entire movie and the rest of the day which contributed to the formation of my headache later on. The older kids however found it slow at parts, especially the beginning, but overall they liked it.

I'd have to agree with the older kids. I could understand where they were coming from. The beginning of the movie doesn't have much words but it's filled with sight gags just to make the little ones laugh. It's not funny if you're not under 7 though. The movie starts to pick up when WALL-E meets EVE and he follows her up into space. Then it starts to become a little dark and serious when the computer of a ship (kind of like Hal from 2001) doesn't want the humans to go back to earth to start new plant life. So WALL-E, EVE and some other robots try to help the humans return to earth. The movie tries to get accross this message that humans are destroying earth with all our crap that we create and pretty soon we won't be able to exist here anymore. It gets that message accross really well but I don't think its right for a Pixar film. It seems like during the whole movie its concerned with this message and it focuses on it so much that there is no room for comedy.

My two favorite Pixar films, The Incredibles and Monsters Inc., were full of laughs and fun adventure. WALL-E hardly has any laughs at all and the adventure is more scary than fun. The animation is awesome though, as to be expected from any Pixar film. It was also neat to see Fred Willard and other real people in the movie. The scenes with WALL-E and EVE were also really well done. By the end of the movie, their romance is just as real as Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal's in When Harry Met Sally. I've never seen an animated movie, especially with two robots, that had romantic scenes that were just as good as a live action movie.

WALL-E is a good movie but I expected it to have more laughs and more fun with itself. Instead it has a dark message that some kids will just not get and scenes that will bore them.

WALL-E is a 6 out of 10