Most of the mums and dads out there will have enjoyed the recent serge of cartoons that make kids feel like adults or the ones that make adults feel like kids, stuffed full of in-jokes for the grown ups like the family are with popcorn (the worlds biggest mark-up on a food snack!) in the cinemas, a great way to get the whole family into those multiplexes as they gulp their bumper Cokes and the money roles in. But with WALL- E we have the first real carton aimed at adults that the kids can watch too, if they are well-behaved, politically aware pixel animation definitely the future. It really is a smart commercial more by Pixel and a really clever little flick to-boot that they have come up with here, comfortably one of the best films of the year, one you can watch over and over again. I don't normally fall for the hype that the likes of Toy Story and Antz somehow have something for the adults too but it's definitely the case with WALL-E, easily delivering on that score. It really is a wonderful piece of cinema for the modern age.

-The Plot-

But he is about to have a visitor, a spaceship landing almost on top of him, releasing 'EVE' (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), a routine probe sent back to Earth to effectively see if WALL-E has finished yet. After some pre menstrual behaviour from EVE the two click and become friends, maybe more if WALL-E could have his way. But when EVE abruptly completes her mission after finding what she was looking for and blasts off into space, WALL-E cant function without his new friend and so grabs on and doesn't let go of the said rocket as it glides through Saturn's Rings and slingshots around the sun into open space. But will WALL-E be welcome on the other side of the galaxy where the human's spaceship, the 'Axiom', is parked up like a cruise ship in a Caribbean port and will EVE's surprise artefact shake the pixel humans out of their lazy world of fast-food obesity, consumerism and entertainment merchandising overload. Sometimes out of sight, out of mind is the order of the day to avoid responsibility.

-Awards-

Stanton and his chief animators are all sci-fi buffs and this movie pays homage too, Sigourney Weaver even cast as the ships sexy computer voice, clearly based on HAL from Kubriks classic. Stanton also has the clout in Hollywood to cheekily have a pop at Bill Gates here, WALL-E being the dilapidated Microsoft PC, EVE being the highly advanced and shiny white Steve Job, Apple Mac machine, Apple once part of the Pixar Empire. It's very Simpson's stuff but raises a sly smile for middle-class mum and dad. The scene where EVE first speaks to WALL-E sees EVE cycle through various languages, including Huttese, spoken by Jabba the Hutt in the Return of the Jedi, according to Imdb.com trivia. Please don't correct me as that would make one of us very sad indeed. The George Lucas heraldry is a contiguous trait of the film. It's all a bit geeky but good fun spotting those references throughout, part of the deal with the Pixar experience. There's also a lovely bit where Wall-e finds a discarded diamond ring complete with flip-box, probably thrown away by one of the lovers, but Wall-e keeping just the box as it's more practical in his world. That kids of sums up the film.

Andrew Stanton revels in the layered track to tell us about his movie.

Your straightforward nuts and bolts on how to make these movies. Stanton talks about how he watched pretty much all the classic silent films to get the right feel for the movie.

***Northampton libraries (my home town) are doing a brilliant two-for-one deal in June where you rent any film for £3 and get one free for a whole weeks rental. Four new releases for six quid aint bad guys. It was me who lobbied them for the special deal in the first place. Maybe worth you guys trying the same stunt to get some great deals...? ***
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