WALL-E review

800 years from now, according to the new Pixar film Wall-e, humans will grow into fat blobs whizzed around on automatic scooters through a huge spaceship owned by a single conglomerate while drinking all of their meals on-demand and constantly watching traveling, hologram televisions. In a how-true-could-this-be moment I find myself in Wal-Mart immediately after viewing the movie where, at the entrance, three different fat people are climbing into three different Wal-Mart-provided scooters. I began laughing in the store.

Obese rights organizations (they have to exist, I assume) will most likely be up in arms about Wall-e as will many other PC-sensitive-environment-picket-anything-we-remotely-don’t-agree-with groups. (I’m thinking here about the anti-greenhouse gas folks--I'm imaging the phrase 'liberal agenda' bandied around).

As interesting as Pixar’s vision of the future is, this film isn’t even about the humans in the film. It’s about a robot. A robot whose two greatest desires are to remain an individual in a clone-like society and to find companionship after years of isolation. The film succeeds in showing us that these two desires—retaining individualism and living among a society—are not mutually exclusive.

At the beginning of the summer I said the two films I was most looking forward to were the new Indiana Jones and Wall-e. Both of those picks were based on past performance: a nostalgic love for Indiana Jones and the .1000 batting average of Pixar. Sure, I can rank the Pixar movies from my least to most favorite (That would be Cars and The Incredibles, respectively), but even the worst Pixar movie is better than that best animated film from any other studio. Prior to Wall-e, I’d considered Indiana Jones a failing disappointment with Iron Man the summer film to beat. After Wall-e, it’s a tough call which will require a little thought as to which film is better.

Prior to seeing the movie I was a little concerned because the marketing of the film was not strong. It relied on slapstick gags (of which there are tons), but thankfully the trailer only revealed 'get to know Wall-e' moments from the first act.

Mild spoilers:
In the future we are forced to leave earth because we’ve overrun the planet with our garbage. The corporation that now runs the planet leaves behind robots whose job is to manage the garbage while humans are aboard a mega spaceship drifting around space. IN due time the other robots either break or quit leaving only Wall-e who has grown a personality to cope with the solitude. A probe ship sends EVE, a newer model robot to search for any sign of new, growing life on earth. Wall-e and EVE create a relationship and when EVE is recalled from earth into space Wall-e follows.

Wall-e is a phenomenal film. Thank goodness for Pixar who teaches us once again, that the foundation for any film, even for children who clamor to see anything, is story. The humans in Pixar make brief appearances leaving the bulk of the story told in limited one-word dialogue between robots. Pixar reminds us again and again that we don’t need a sequel, we don’t need characters we’re comfortable with, we don’t need ironic pop culture references, we don’t need fart jokes…we don’t even need dialogue. We need richly textured characters and a story to engage us. Once again Pixar nails it.

At this date in the summer, I'm torn between which of the two films (Iron Man and Wall-e) is better...so as of now we'll call it a tie, and, after some thought, I'll let you know. Until then there's nothing wrong with declaring that there are two great films out there right now. Go see them.