WALL E get's an A+

Well Craig and I finally made our way to WALL E on Friday and I’ve got to say I was more than impressed. Beautiful animation, a hit after hit team, and story that is not only enjoyable, but conveys a very real message. Will WALL E pave the way for more Pixar hits? Most likely.

WALL E was brilliant, there is no other way around it. The story, the animation, the sound design, all things that made me want to hug the 22 year old projectionist. Let’s start with the story, an amazing one at that, WALL E takes place 700 years into the future, where a once beautiful planet is now covered in crap. WALL E is a product of Buy N’ Large, a company that has ruled over humanity for quite some time. They are responsible for the earth’s mess, and leave it in the hands of WALL E units that compact garbage into neat little cubes and stack them to create building size piles. Our WALL E however is the last surviving unit, and after years of doing his job which he could stop at any time, he’s developed a personality.

This is how our movie begins, WALL E is doing his duty while learning about the humans that once lived their, collecting things that interest him in his little cooler/backpack, until our next robot pal, EVE stops by. EVE is a current model of Buy N’ Large, a robot sent to earth by the humans living in space, to check for plant life, testing to see if earth is ready to be repopulated. EVE is a robot with a personality as well, but one that she doesn’t really understand her self. What ensues is a relationship where WALL E teaches EVE the meaning of friendship, oh and they’re being hunted, but I can’t go into that.

WALL E is surprisingly un-Pixar like. Meaning that for once the main characters do not speak (besides some beeps), they don’t have those big Pixar eyes, oh and this story is actually somewhat grounded. In other words, it plays off a future that could not only come to be, but also makes fun of some real problems that the world is going through right now. The references to Buy N’ Large (and obvious shot to Wal-Mart), along with the humans who have developed into a world of extreme laziness (never leaving a hovering chair and being extremely fat), not only make you laugh, but make you think.

Another point is WALL E’s sound design. Ben Burtt, the man who created over 800 sounds for Star Wars, came out of retirement to create 2,600 unique and new sounds for WALL E. They are needless to say, amazing. In a movie where the two main characters don’t really speak, this is an important field, not to mention the expressions that WALL E and EVE give out help it along. Burtt’s work is amazing, the sounds seem natural, funny, well basically it makes R2D2 look like another one of those sound producing Hallmark cards.

All in all WALL E was outstanding. The bottom line is whether or not you like robots, whether or not you like Pixar, whether or not you like laughing heavily, WALL E is the movie for you. You have to see it, you just have too. This will go down in history as one of Pixar’s best films, and I really don’t know how they plan to follow it up, I hope it’s not with that “Bolt” movie they advertised before it because I will see it, but damn, Miley Cyrus? Can someone stop giving her money please? Anyway, Pixar has once again hit gold, and the inter gooey part of my heart.

Enjoy!

-Matt