WALL·E

WALL·E

10 out of 10

Posted: 07/25/08

Running time: 1:40

MPAA rating: G

Peruvian rating: Apta para todos

Cast: (voices) Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy, Sigourney Weaver, Fred Willard.
Director: Andrew Stanton
Script: Andew Stanton and Jim Reardon
Score: Thomas Newman
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures

Wall-E is definitely this year's top animation motion picture, and I really doubt any other film of this sort will be able to top it, at least not during the next couple of months. (Are there any rivals, even? Does a movie like Space Chimps even count?) As enjoyable and funny and exciting as Kung Fu Panda was, I'm afraid Wall-E is superior in almost every level. The best thing about it, though, is that it succeeds because it dares to be different. The first thirty minutes or so of the movie contains almost no dialogue at all - unless one counts the bleeps and boops made by Wall-E himself -, and although the movie is definitely entertaining and sometimes really funny, it also carries a message that is transmitted in a very non-preachy, natural way. Humanity has been living in space for 700 years, having left one robot to do all the cleaning in the planet... how has this little guy developed in all those years?

The film tells precisely the story of this robot, WALL-E (voice of Ben Burtt), who has remained behind, collecting and compacting trash in order to clean the planet, his only friend being a faithful and seemingly-unbeatable cockroach. One day, though, WALL-E's ordered life is interrupted by the arrival of EVE (voice of Elissa Knight), a robot sent by a spaceship for reasons unknown. She might look more modern and unadvanced, but after she loses fear for Wall-E and basically everything in Earth (she has a tendency of shooting things she doesn't know), they make a bond and, well, spend some time together. One day, though, she inexplicably shuts down; WALL-E first tries to revive her, but when that doesn't work, he is satisfied with protecting her until her spaceship returns. When said ship arrives and takes her, our stubborn friend decides to cling on it in order to follow his new friend, soon learning the eventual fate of our planet, as well as what has happened to humans living in outer space.

Weird as it might sound, Wall-E is a triumph due to its characters, not the action sequences (because there are virtually none) nor the humour. The central story to the movie is the romance between EVE and the titular character, and it is developed in such a tender and, well, cute fashion, that it's not hard to get interested in it. Additionally, the characters themselves, Wall-E and EVE, are marvelous creations. The former is an eternally curious, naïve and cute-looking little robot (my girlfriend loved him) who loves to collect old stuff he finds in the trash, while the latter is a more aggressive, no-nonsense kind of "girl". The characters might not be able to speak like humans, but they sure have personalities, and prove that dialogue is not necessary in order to develop a love story. The audience wants them to fall in "love" (do they feel love? I guess so).

Wall-E is also a cautionary tale. After all, it does tell the story of a post-apocalyptic Earth that has been abandoned by humans because we have filled it with too much garbage. When our little robot goes into space and into the special spaceship in which humans are now living and the audience sees what has happened to them... well, it's not hard to see what the message the filmmakers are trying to convey is. Humans have become so lazy - robots do absolutely everything for them - that they can't even walk, and have become fatter and fatter. The film is a tale against consumerism and dependence on technology, and it succeeds at transmitting this because it doesn't do it in a preachy, over-the-top fashion. The "message", so to speak, seems vital to the story itself, and thus doesn't feel out-of-place. The good thing, though, is that, although we are presented with a pretty grim vision of the future of mankind, the movie itself never feels grim at all.

Visually, this is definitely the best-looking animated motion picture I've seen. Kung Fu Panda look pretty good, but Wall-E looks better. Unlike other animated films, though, this one doesn't look neither bright not colorful. Since we're being presented with a "deserty", post-apocalyptic and abandoned vision of Earth, Wall-E's look is primarily dedicated to earthy colors. It's less "happy-looking" than the average Pixar movie, but that doesn't make it any less effective; once the pair of robots arrive to the human spaceship, the film's look turns a little more "spacey". Character design is great - Wall-E is as cute as any robot could be, and EVE looks like something out of the Apple factory, and the humans, while obviously cartoony, are expressive and very lively. The music is also unlike anything in previous Pixar films - Thomas Newman's score is effective and sometimes awe-inspiring, and the "Hello Dolly!" excerpts as well as Louis Armstrong's "La Vie en Rose" and the theme from 2001 convey the right emotions in the right scenes.

Wall-E is another success for the already incredibly successful Pixar. They have proved year after year that they seem incapable of making even a mediocre motion picture (I even found the much-maligned Cars to be a charming experience), and Wall-E has managed to further demonstrate this. The film is as good as it is because it dares to be different, and because it can be enjoyed by kids and adults - much like the average Pixar production. I was afraid that, due to the subject matter and the lack of typical cartoony stuff (like stupid jokes, funny characters and action scenes), kids - the supposed target demographic for this movie - wouldn't like Wall-E, but it turns out they loved it. The theatre I went in was full of children, and they all seem to like the film. (Although they were a bit noisy, I'm afraid.) Few movies manage to be as magical, entertaining, touching and fun as Wall-E. Yes, that's the best thing Wall-E has to offer to its audience: pure motion picture magic.