WALL-E

“WALL-E”
The only problem I have with “Wall-E” is that for some unknown reason many people seem to have fallen in love with it & brag it up to be something ‘special’... The first adjectives that entered my mind were; ‘charming’, ‘inventive’ & ‘cute’... Is it a wonderful film that I’m going to recommend to every movie fan I know? No, it is not.
Is it an enjoyable trip to the theatre that if someone were to ask me if it’s worth the time & money to see? I’d say sure, it’s a mildly amusing ‘charming’ little tale of a likeable little robot ‘box’ that falls in love with a hi-tech suppository-like robot & risks his life... er, ah, its 'existence’ to save her... er, ah, ‘it’ from being shut down by evil robots that want to keep mankind from returning to earth for some reason... (Kind of sounds like the idea Homer Simpson pitched to Ron Howard, doesn't it?)
Hey, it’s a cartoon, so I won’t dwell on whether or not the actual plot makes any sense – for a Pixar creation, it has more heart going for it than a lot of ‘human’ films...
Though he rarely speaks, other than the name of his girlfriend... er, ah, bot-partner’s name (Eve-ah; actually Eve, but Wall-E seems to have to pronounce two syllables whether they’re needed or not) Wall-E is a ‘cute’ little guy that everyone will instantly like, as well as his only friend, a cockroach that also survived ‘the end of the world’.
Set several hundred years into the future, “Wall-E” begins by showing the little clean-up
robot going about his daily task of crushing the trash that mankind has left behind into small cubes. He assembles the cubes into skyscraper-tall piles.
One day a probe sets down in Wall-E’s neighborhood & Eve emerges & starts collecting data. ‘She’ also has the ability to fire a laser that destroys everything in its path, so Wall-E approaches ‘her’ with caution. After Wall-E presents Eve with a present he found, she shuts down & is immediately called back from whence she came. Wall-E, having no understanding as to what is taking place, follows Eve by latching onto her space capsule. When they land, he learns what has happened to the human race & the story, though ‘inventive’ starts to get bogged down. John Ratzenberger continues his streak of appearing in every Pixar film by voicing one of the futuristic humans, but other than that the voiceover work here is more than a little on the bland side.
It is hard not to like ‘Wall-E’ it is a pleasant tale, worthy of spending a few bucks to view, but what’s giving it a bad name are those who are calling it ‘one of the best animated movies ever’ & suggesting that it might get an Oscar nod as one of the 5 best films of the year... That is ridiculous & creates an ‘expectation factor’ that cute little Wall-E can’t live up to. So trust my review, not theirs – For a cartoon, it is an original story that will at times tug at your heartstrings (As long as you’re able to buy into the idea that robots can fall in love) & you will leave the theatre with a smile on your face, but you won’t be ‘blown away’ or ‘amazed’ or believing you just saw the greatest animated film ever made...