Staff Picks

Kids Review Wall-E

by Amir Blumenfeld on June 30, 2008

Wall-E was great, everybody can agree. But was it a kids’ movie? Did children understand the adult themes? We took kids away from their parents (by subtly changing the hands they were holding) as they left the theater to see what the youth of America think of Pixar’s latest film.

“My favorite part is when everybody got to ride around on floating chairs and it was so cool and so much better than regular chairs.”
— Martin, Age 10

“I hate everything about earth! Even that little plant. I wanna live on a space ship!”
— Kaylee Age 7

“If I don’t throw my trash away like mom says it means Wall-E is gonna come clean it up.”
— Teyisha, Age 9

“I wanna plant a pizza tree!”
— Yolaro, Age 10

“Wall E thinks earth is just as boring as I do. And I wanna go to space and have fun and drink cupcakes too!”
— Yung-Tze, Age 8

“Big stores should be President so that we can all go on vacation and play in pools forever.”
— Rohmar, Age 12

“I found the Chaplin-esque first act to be a visually arresting introduction to the protagonist, but felt that the film lost its voice during the rising action leading into the second act. The environmental message was forced — a heavy-handed theme slapped onto a thin, derivative narrative frame. Are we to enjoy a preachy Wal-Mart allegory masquerading as “entertainment”? Another potential-laden flop from those homogenized “imagineers” at Pixaren’t-all-they’re-cracked-up-to-be.”
— Maxdine, Age 4

“…and I’m not gonna stop throwing trash on the floor until Wall-E comes!“
— Also Teyisha, Still Age 9.

(Written with Dan Gurewitch, Age 24)