Review 33: WALL-E
In the year 2805, Earth is an abandoned planet covered in trash as the result of decades of mass consumerism leaving a cute little robot called WALL-E (Ben Burtt) to clean up the mess.
Over time he develops emotions of free will and longs for a companion until one day another robot called EVE (Elissa Knight) is sent to earth for the "directive." The two become friends and after WALL-E shows her a plant she takes it and goes into a long sleep. When she's put back on the spaceship that brought her here, WALL-E sneaks onboard not ready to give up the robot he loves and is sent on the journey of a lifetime.
The plot is astonishing. Because very few of the characters can talk, they have to tell the majority of the film through silence and deliver a lot of the exposition visually and the amazing thing is we, as an audience, can understand what's going on.
It's the trust that director Andrew Stanton and his Pixar crews put into our intelligences that makes this film so good.
WALL-E also serves as excellently crafted, topical and funny commentary on subjects such as consumerism, corporatism, nostalgia, waste management, human environmental impact and concerns, obesity and global catastrophic risk.
With WALL-E, we're presented with dystopian Earth, but one in a conventional sense, one that's been reduced to one oversized landfill, full of garbage.
When we (along with WALL-E) arrive on the starship Axiom, we're introduced to a highly advanced world where everything is completely automated. Sounds great on paper and looks amazing from an animation standpoint. Unfortunately there's the one nasty side effect in which all the human passengers aboard are obese due to the ships extensive use of microgravity and overly reliant on the automated lifestyle.
The nostalgic overtones of the film are clearly illustrated in the scenes on earth where WALL-E collects and cherishes human artefacts such as a Zippo lighter, a Buy N Large lunchbox, a Rubik's Cube, a hubcap among other things. These modern items that we use out of necessity on a daily basis are made sentimental through the lens of the bleak future of Earth that the film depicts.
Nostalgia is also expressed through the films musical score. The film opens with a shot of outer space that slowly zooms into a waste-filled Earth while Put on Your Sunday Clothes from Hello, Dolly plays. This is meant to reflect simpler and happier times in human history.
we see him watch Hello, Dolly
But ultimately WALL-E's most primary theme is irrational love defeats life's programming: We're presented with two programmed characters who try to figure out what the meaning of life is. It takes these really irrational acts of love to discover themselves against how they were built and programmed. This is a wonderful metaphor for real life. We all fall into our habits, our routines and our ruts, consciously or unconsciously to avoid living. In a desperate attempt to avoid doing the messy part.
To avoid having relationships with other people or dealing with the person next to us.
The way the film runs with that idea in how it depicts WALL-E & EVE's character interactions and evolution throughout the film is ambitious, poignant, touching and daring. It also serves as a very positive message to audiences of all ages.
WALL-E is also a story about Friendship: The friendship between WALL-E & EVE is one that is so unconventional yet so touching and poignet at the same time. Two robots who couldn't be more different yet
Andrew Stanton's animation direction is precise, the animation is wonderful, the score by Thomas Newman is beautiful, the sound effects are cute, it's quick paced and never gets dull, the scenery is gorgeous e.g. the production design is unbelievable, creating a post-apocalyptic Earth, hundreds of Robots, outer space and a gigantic spaceship - It's simply a masterpiece. the character design is masterful and the ending was beautiful.
Thanks to the wonderful animation and the absolutely adorable sound effects of Ben Burtt (who also served as the sound designer for the Star Wars movies) WALL-E is an instantly likeable and delightful character. WALL-E is one of many WALL-E trash compactors programmed to cleaning up Earth ready for the human race to return. His programming shouldn't have gone anything beyond that. But over time he's gained sentience and can think for himself and he's naturally curious about the world. But because the world has been reduced to a barren garbage dump, he has no one to share his findings or life with, so he understandably gets pretty lonely. That all changes when EVE arrives on Earth for what is supposed to be a routine inventory check on how it's doing and if things have improved and his whole world is turned upside down.
His naivety is absolutely charming and also leads to loads of hilarious moments, mainly his lack of understanding of basic Earth artitifacts and the Axiom's more advanced environment. But that naivety is improved as the film goes on as learns more about his environments and surroundings.
WALL-E also in a way, is our audience surrogate, albeit not a very talkative one. We learn everything about this futuristic world through and along with him.
The same goes Elissa Knight as EVE. She too is a robot set to carry out a specific task
On the chattier side, Pixar's lucky charm, John Ratzenberger and Kathy Najimy show up as John and Mary, two passengers aboard the Axiom. Because they're so reliant on consumerism, they've fallen into they're own routines and let Buy n Large products take control of their lives and in the process have become oblivious to their surroundings not even noticing the Axiom has a pool.
But thanks to their encounters with WALL-E they are brought out of their trances and start to socialise together.
WALL-E is unlike any animated film ever made: Its a story about life, friendship and bravery,
What an animated film WALL-E is. What a masterpiece, 5/5.
The Anonymous Critic
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