I know I only sporadically do reviews on movies, which makes this seem a bit silly. But the truth is, I’d really like my limited audience to know this: every one of you ought to go and see this movie.
[rating:5/5]
In my personal opinion, Pixar is on this whole other level of visual story-telling. They take movie animation to this brand new level where people can feel a real kindred with fish, or find real compassion for their old toys they’ve neglected, or even, yes even, find real empathy for a couple of unlikely robots in love.
Of course, Pixar hasn’t always hit the mark. Cars and A Bugs Life weren’t the best. But they also certainly weren’t the worst. But none of them are the point here in this post. The point is that Pixar did hit the mark on Wall-E. Seriously hit the mark.
Wall-E tells the story of the world somewhere around the year 2700. Mankind has abandoned the earth they’ve wrecked to a team of clean-up robots. Unfortunately, all of the robots broke down, except for the one quirky little guy who’s glitch gave him a personality. The one little robot, Wall-E, continues to do his job attempting to clean up the earth to little avail. One day a probe robot looking for life shows up on the scene and steals Wall-E’s heart. The rest of the film we follow Wall-E’s adventure of self sacrificial love and persistence to be with “Eva” his robot opposite.
First of all, I’d like to preface by saying, I’m not going to say much else about Wall-E. The movie really will speak for itself (figuratively speaking).
I love Wall-E. This release from Pixar is, hands down, their strongest most compelling movie. The story-telling is masterful. The relationships are genuine and moving. The plot powerful and poignant. On all fronts Wall-E is a winner.
The first 30 minutes have no dialogue at all. The rest of the film, and none of the plot, rest on dialogue. It’s all communicated in “body” language and “facial” expression and the occasional computer tone emitted from Wall-E and Eva. Yet somehow, the two express more than most films express with a full gamut of dialogue.
There are obvious environmental themes to the film. But unlike other movie’s with the same message, Wall-E doesn’t come across as preachy. In fact, in a weird way it did a great deal more to cause reflection on environmental issues than any other movie has.
As a kid’s movie, Wall-E might be lost on the much younger crowd. But you know what? It was a worth while sacrifice.
On a brief final note. Wall-E made me choke up. Twice. It was worth every penny I spent, and it’s going to be worth every penny I spend to see it again.
I highly recommend you see it.
