WALL-E review

It's been a while since I went to the movies but I plan to do that a little more frequently now. There's a bus stop across the street from my apartment building. But it wasn't accessible so I had to use Wheel Trans. Many regular readers are aware that I hate waiting around for Wheel-Trans. I want to go on my time. Well, the Islington bus was made accesible a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, my power chair brake had failed. I finally got a new motor a couple of weeks ago and I took the bus on the weekend to try out my repaired chair. I wasn't sliding around anymore so I went yesterday to the local Cineplex to see the one film I wanted to see, WALL-E. Everyone knows I love Pixar.





WALL-E is a post apocalyptic science fiction tale. It's 700 years in the future and planet Earth has garbage piled higher than skyscrapers. The planet is uninhabitable so the monolithic BUY 'N' LARGE corporation has launched the human race into outer space for their own protection. Earth is deserted except for one trash compactor robot named WALL-E. His only companion is a cockroach. How ironic. WALL-E is still doing his robotic duties but he has developed some unexplained quirky human characteristics. A spaceship drops a probe. At first it seems unfriendly but we soon learn her name is Eva. Again, the human characteristics of this robot are not explained. Eva is deactivated and the spaceship picks up the probe. WALL-E tags along and it goes to a huge spaceship containing many humans on a permanent vacation. The humans are all living a sedentary lifestyle of mindless consumerism. They are all so obese that they can't walk and use personal hovercrafts. Hey, I could use one of those. So what will happen when the intruding robot WALL-E is discovered on board?





Technically, WALL-E is perfect. The animation is typically fabulous. The film has been universally praised and received a 97% score at Rotten Tomatoes. I liked the film but I didn't like it that much. Andrew Stanton directed and co-wrote WALL-E. He also directed Finding Nemo. It's one thing to have fish with human characteristics but WALL-E & Eva were presented as robots and I think there should have been an explanation for the human characteristics. I am happy to suspend belief but I didn't buy this. And the love story was unnecessary. Too bad Stanton made it a central part of the story. The WALL-E character was a variation of R2D2 and didn't need the love story to make him appealing. And Ben Burtt's sound effects for the WALL-E character (he also worked on Star Wars) were outstanding. So WALL-E is a very good film with some very good things in it. But I didn't care for the love story between the robots. Pixar fans should see it anyway. But it doesn't hold a candle to Ratatouille. Andrew Stanton's next film will be John Carter From Mars. Check out the trailer for WALL-E. See you at the movies.