Wall-E

Rating : 7/10
Running Time : 98 Minutes
Release Date : 29th August ‘08
Director & Writer : Andrew Stanton ; Music : Thomas Newman
Starring (Voices of) : Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Sigourney Weaver
The imagination and creativity of Disney and Pixar continues to astound as they create this futuristic, endearing and very funny love story amongst two robots who are separated by a technological generation gap


All humans have left earth and reside on a vast spaceship somewhere in space. Wall-E is the last surviving robot and is basically a junk compactor in an era when Earth is nothing but a vast junkyard. However, being somewhat of a romantic, he loves watching old musicals and has built a nice little home full of toys he has found in his junk forays. And he longs for the day he too can hold hands with someone. And then enters Eve. Sleek, modern, futuristic – she is a probe robot, left on earth to scan earth by a rocket ship. The two meet and Wall-E’s first romantic overtures are hilarious as are the scenes when Eve first enters Wall-E’s house. And then things change when Wall-E shows her a plant he discovered in a fridge. I don’t want to spoil it by telling you more since one of the enjoyable things in the film was the way the story unfolded – the unexpected twists and turns.


We also get to see the kind of life the humans lead on the spaceship – and it’s a delicious take on a future which I definitely see most Americans and upper-class Indians encountering – one of obscene obesity as either machines or servants cater to our every whim. The part about the ‘crazy robots’ was also really nice. And I found it amazing how, with almost no words throughout the movie, so much of emotion was shown. I’m also glad that no really mega-stars were used for the few voices / dialogue that were there in the film.

This film continues the proud tradition of Disney/Pixar where there are layers in their films – one set of jokes for the kids and some more for more mature audiences – I love this ability of theirs and admire them for their consistency. For me, this was a notch above Kung-Fu Panda and the only reason I wouldn’t go higher is the lack of real emotion / stickiness in the film vs say a Finding Nemo or even Monsters Inc (the former, coincidentally, written and directed by Andrew as well.I sometimes feel I’m stuck in a time warp as nothing really compares to these classics).

Also, special mention must be made of the short film preceding the main feature, the one with the magician and the rabbit. It was the carrot on the cake, pun intended…