Dir.
Andrew Stanton, US, 2008, 103 mins
Cast: Ben Burtt (voice), Elissa Knight (voice), Sigourney
Weaver (voice)
Review by Carol Allen
This latest from Pixar features innovative
and very beautiful animation, an imaginative sci fi plot,
witty visual storytelling and a sweet love story. It also
carries an implicit and tough ecological message.
WALL-E, an acronym for Waste Allocation
Load Lifter Earth-Class, is a garbage disposal robot, the
last of his kind and the only life form left on a deserted
planet, apart from his companion, a cockroach. True to
his programming, he spends his days gathering and compacting
the mountains of rubbish left by the corrupt and powerful
multi-national Buy N Large corporation, whose crumbling
superstores dominate the bleak landscape, last vestiges
of a consumer culture, which finally killed the planet
and forced the population to flee into space. WALL-E is
though fascinated by the vestiges of this culture, collecting
mementoes of it, such as a Rubik cube, Zippo lighters and
most importantly a worn videotape of "Hello
Dolly"", from which he derives his ideas of love,
romance and choreography. One day a space ship drops a streamlined
reconnaissance robot called EVE (Extra-terrestrial Vegetation
Evaluator), sent by the planet's former inhabitants to see
if life is once again possible on Earth. In total contrast
to the rust ridden, metal workhorse WALL- E, EVE is sleek,
beautiful and state of the art as an Ipod. WALL-E falls in
love with her and shows her his greatest treasure, a living
plant he has found amongst the rubble, the first sign of
botanical life for 700 years. And when the space ship returns
to collect EVE and her treasure, WALL-E hitches a ride to
follow his love.
In contrast to the apocalyptic vision of the earth, the
world of the humans in their space ship is comically satirical.
The residents of the space cruiser live their lives as one
long holiday, never moving from their reclining chairs, guzzling
food through straws, gazing at video screens, their every
need catered for by robots. They have evolved into giant
fat babies incapable of independent movement. The ultimate
passive consumer society. It is the impact of WALL-E in his
determined search for EVE, which galvanises them back into
true humanity capable of reclaiming the earth.
This film succeeds on a number of levels. As a classic love
story as in the peasant boy who wins the princess, which
has you wondering how you can be so touched and engaged by
two computer generated bits of metal in love - yet you are.
They are such appealing characters. It is also an engrossing
piece of science fiction, which gets over a serious message
without ever preaching. And it is a celebration of the creativity
and ingenuity of humanity, not only in its own existence
but also in its storyline and a warning of how that very
creativity could, if we don't watch it, be the thing that
destroys us. And above all, it is great entertainment. The
best so far from the Pixar team. |
