Make friends with WALL-E

Production Year: 2008 - Family - Director: Andrew Stanton - Original Language: English - Classification: Universal more

Ranked 4 out of 13 in the Ciao Hitlist The best Family DVD'S

Even for Pixar, this might be a first: an animated film that contains not only a fully realised world as photorealistic as it is full of wonder, but also the Gargantuan themes and...
more...visuals of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, the stripped-down sad-clown pathos found in classic Buster Keaton comedies, and one of the most moving and simply unique love stories in a long time. Director Andrew Stanton kicked up the visual acuity of an already-stellar Pixar Animation Studios in 2003 with a reflective, refractive, color-shimmery realisation of the oceanic world of FINDING NEMO, which genuinely felt as though it spanned the entire earth. With WALL-E, Stanton replaces an apprehensively fishy estranged journeyer with a love-struck and curious robotic one, allowing the quest for eternal love to expand from a desolate, dust-covered, palpably polluted future Earth and into an even more mysterious abyss: the far reaches of outer space.

With virtually no dialogue, WALL-E's neatly contained vaudevillian first act eerily and tragically introduces the robot of the title as the last living thing on Earth (aside from a little cockroach friend) amidst dilapidated skyscrapers and equally tall compacted trash heaps. WALL-E has developed a tender and inquisitive personality doing what he was built to do day in and day out for the past 700 years--allocate and dispose of human waste--simply because no one turned him off when the human race left the hostile polluted planet. When the directive-oriented Eve robot comes crashing into his life from above, WALL-E immediately becomes infatuated with her, and is willing to follow her to back into dangerous outer space, where two robots gliding through the ether, dancing via fire-extinguisher propulsion, are among the many memorable and grandly romantic moments of an expansively beautiful, deceptively simple story.

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Make friends with WALL-E

A review by AlastairI on Wall-E DVD
September 3rd, 2008

Author's product rating: Wall-E DVD - rated by AlastairI

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Outstanding
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	pixar, animation, 3d, story, theme
Disadvantages:	long, may be a little too adult for some of the youngsters

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Please note, I am reviewing the film here, I don't own the product or know the features on the DVD, yet I always buy based on the films overall quality. Pixar usually provide animated shorts and a whle host of storyboards and extras which will really open it up further, but my text and score here is for the theatrical release at this time.

WALL-E, the little scrap collecting droid, part if a huge Earth clean up program to rid the planet of all the waste and rubbish that the human race has spread across the globe. WALL-E is the last of his kind, certainly in the immediate region, and spends everyday compacting rubbish into easy to manage cubes which he stacks to huge skyscaper heights. His only friend is a cockroach which follows him around helping him find new and exciting things to add to his own personal collection of scrap. These items range from repair parts for himself to old videos, books, lights anything and everything really that WALL-E likes the look of. One of these things happens to be a small green plant which he lovingly pots in his home.

All is well, but lonely, until EVE appears, a droid designed specifically to look for life on Earth, for signs of things returning to normal after the huge mess the human race made. The droid is sent remotely from a vast spaceship containing the survivors of Earth, all shipped out to stay enjoying the luxuries of this intergalactic cruise liner. They have grown fat and useless through the hundreds of years in which they have been absent, computers and machines cater to their every need.

WALL-E manages to talk to EVE and create a form of friendship, EVE sees this as an annoyance, while WALL-E slowly falls in love. To try and reach out to her he shows her his prized posession, the plant. She immediately goes into a frenzy and locks down into a hibernation state with the plant inside her. WALL-E continues to look after her during this period, another testiment to his kindness despite the role he's in and the lack of interation with others.

Eventually EVE is collected and WALL-E tags along for the ride ending up on board the huge ship full of humans. Without spoiling the main bulk of the story a problem occurs whereby it becomes machines vs man, but EVE and WALL-E are on the humans side. It's a race to get to Earth and reach the overall goal of repopulating, while the humans slowly realise how dependant they have got to the machines and technologhy around them.

It's a heartwarming tale, very cleverly told and presented. While the first half of the film as near to no dialogue it manages to pull you in and immerse you in the story. WALL-E is a childrens film, but it's story is quite adult and the situations quite dark at the start. It's a must for all Pixar fans and testiment to their 3D and directorial skills.

This is a great film which really hits the mark for me. Pixar have tried something different and managed to pull it off. It's not perfect, there are areas where you might feel it's dragging a little, but it's a masterpiece of 3D cinema.

Great work.