Review: WALL·E

Pixar Animation’s latest film opens on a desolate Earth, 700 years after mankind has vacated for greener pastures. WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) is a small robot left behind to clean up. He needn’t bother, really. He’s the only sentient being on the planet – aside from his little cockroach friend – and Earth, with its towering trash skyscrapers and a murky yellow atmosphere, is pretty much a write-off.

In the evenings, or in the event of a dust storm, he retreats to his home to re-watch his prized Beta tape of Hello Dolly, to see Irene and Cornelius fall in love one more time. His romantic inclinations eventually come to good use when he meets EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), an iMac-style robot dispatched to Earth to examine its status. She’s a girl, WALL-E is smitten, and thus his adventure begins.

This first third of the film is perhaps its strongest. Dialogue-free, beautifully ‘shot’ (thanks to the expertise of Coen Brothers cinematographer Roger Deakins), and utterly engrossing, this masterwork of visual storytelling sets up a huge cachet of sympathy for our little rust-bucket.

We follow the two robots into space (for plot reasons which won’t be divulged here) where they board the Axiom ship – sort of a luxury ark for the human race. The visual design here is no less impressive than the post-apocalyptic earth, but entirely different, complete with glistening surfaces and enough automated gizmos to make it a ‘dream home from the future’ on steroids. Residing here are human beings, but not as we know them. After more than 700 years of relying on automated lifestyles, they look, well, let’s say a ‘little different’.

Our hero immediately finds himself entangled in a bigger story, becoming the catalyst that lifts mankind out of an ignorant lethargy. Environmentalism and the dangers of rampant consumerism are big adult themes (all the more unusual coming from a mega corporation such as Disney) and may pass over the heads of younger viewers. But this film is so valuable for having a unique voice, shunning the lazy ‘be yourself’ mantra that every other cartoon chucks at us and coming up with something completely original.

What really sticks, post-viewing, is WALL-E‘s elegiac tone. There is something deeply melancholic about Pixar’s vision of a post-apocalyptic Earth that even an optimistic ending can’t diminish. This bold prophecy, aided by Thomas Newman’s beautiful score, gives substantial weight to a tremendous film, packed to the brim with detail and invention. WALL-E is one of the year’s must-sees.