WALL·E (2008)

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Cast

Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard, MacInTalk, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy, Sigourney Weaver

Storyline

In a distant future where mankind has abandoned Earth because there is too much trash on it, garbage collecting robot WALL·E (Ben Burtt) has been left to clean up the mess. After hundreds of lonely years, he discovers a new purpose in life when he meets a search robot named EVE (Elissa Knight). EVE comes to realize that WALL·E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet's future, and races back to space to report her findings to the humans, who have been eagerly awaiting word that it is safe to return home.

Opinion

Flawless. This is the first word that comes to my mind when I think of this animated film. Pixar has always made great animation films, but this outdoes all of their own films, and most other films.

Sweet, touching and full of love, yet thoughtful, WALL·E is a cinematic gem that suits everybody: while the kids will enjoy the cute, and funny characters and gags, the adults will have something to think about due the film's bitter social commentary about environmentalism, obesity, and commercialism.

Everything about this film is just perfect. The story, clearly an homage to Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey", is brilliant. The animation is absolutely stunning; the robots, the Earth, the humans, they all feel real. It's impossible to be let down by Pixar in this regard. The humour is also great. The characters are interesting, and involving.

WALL·E is such a lovable character, you will immediately fall for him. He is not strong, particularly beautiful, nor has super powers, but the devotion he puts into his work, and the perseverance he pursues its goals with will make your heart melt. He teaches us what human means. For us, human has become nothing but a biological classification. But it's not just about breathing and living, but also about never giving up, trying to save the world that we did put in danger, loving others unconditionally. This robot may not talk, but man if he speaks.

Among the themes, in my opinion, the one that pops out is commercialism. Everybody talks about obesity and environmentalism, but I feel like commercialism has been left behind. As shown by the first shots, the whole world is a superstore. Humans, assisted day and night by robots, follow the trends displayed in the screens they spend the whole day looking at. And they are not even aware of what surrounds them. One wonders who are the real robots.

To conclude, I can't help but thank Pixar for this piece of art. 


Quotes

Captain: Wait, that doesn't look like Earth. Where's the blue sky? Where's the-the grass?

3 comments :

  1. Not the biggest WALL-E fan. I will agree that the first half of it is truly flawless. Once people start showing up on screen, it all goes downhill for me.

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  2. I loved this movie! You don't really get that many silent films that have a great message behind them and pull off being a good movie without words as well. It does have speaking in the second half, and I can see that that part would have been hard to do without them. But part of me wishes the whole thing might have been a silent film. But yes - flawless as you said!

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