It's time for another Disney movie review. This time we are heading into the Pixar side of things with 2008 sci-fi film WALL-E. The film was directed by Andrew Stanton and it was Pixar's ninth animated feature film.
WALL-E is a very well loved film, it was overwhelmingly given positive reviews from critics and won a ton of awards including 2008 Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature. Will I enjoy it as much as the critics? Lets find out.
The plot is set in the far future and follows the titular robot named WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth-Class), who was built to clean up an Earth that has been overwhelmed and covered with waste thanks to large corporation Buy N Large. After becoming the last working robot on Earth, the years of solitude have resulted in WALL-E having a fantastically odd personality. Whilst carrying out his daily cleanup he collects a whole host of trinkets an collectables (mostly useless junk) and stores them in his homemade shelter. One day a spaceship drops off another robot, EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) who is on a mission to find any signs of life on the desolate planet. WALL-E instantly falls for her and hilarity ensues as he vies for her affection. Upon discovering a lone plant growing on the planet EVE and WALL-E end up being transported to the huge spaceship, the Axiom. This ship is one of countless spacecrafts built by Buy N Large to evacuate humanity from Earth while it attempts to clean up the mess they have caused (obviously that didn't work out too well). The ship is full of lazy, chunky humans who now rely on automation and floating chairs to get about their day.
With the return of a living plant the Captain will be able to return them to Earth after almost 1000 years in space, well that is unless the sinister computer co-pilot AUTO (who gives off series HAL vibes) doesn't get there way....
I love how the plot not only remains enjoyable for children, but also covers and critiques on issues like environmental problems that humans are causing to the planet and consumerism. It's extremely well written and doesn't fall into the issues of being preachy when trying to get the point across.
The voice cast is also great. With Jeff Garlin as Captain B. McCrea the real standout to me. Other notable names include Elissa Knight as EVE (she previously voiced one of the twins in the Cars fims), John Ratzenberger and Kathy Najimy as two unlikely humans who end up connecting thanks to WALL-E and Sigourney Weaver as the Axiom's computer. It's also fascinating that both WALL-E and the Co-Pilot AUTOs voices are both created through computer programmes. WALL-E's as designed by Ben Burtt (creator of the voice of R2-D2 and the lightsaber hum in Star Wars) and AUTO's was created by using a text-to-speech program on an Apple Macintosh.
I really enjoyed WALL-E. Not only is it a thoroughly enjoyable film for people of all ages (old and young) but it has a great message in that of looking after our planet (which all kids should really be learning about now due to the state the Earth is in). There's laughs, love and sadness to be found throughout the plot and the whole thing looks great too with absolutely gorgeous visual and animation quality. A very charming family film.
TOTAL SCORE: 8/10
KIDS THOUGHTS:
5 Stars! I liked the big WALL-A robots. - Austin 7
FUN FACTS: One of the turtles from Finding Nemo can be seen during the films credits.
WALL-E is the first Pixar film to feature live-action recording. Fred Willard played the Buy N Large CEO, Shelby Forthright. The trash cubes WALL-E makes are the same as the trash cubes found in Monsters Inc.
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