Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

Updates:

WALL-E (2008)

Director: Andrew Stanton

Time Out rating

Average user rating

106 reviews

Synopsis

Lonely cleaning robot Wall-e is the last sentient being on Planet Earth, now an intergalactic waste disposal site. But one night a gleaming ship appears, whisking Wall-e away on a dizzying adventure among the stars. Disney/Pixar's latest animated marvel is sure to equal the success of 'Toy Story' and 'The Incredibles', featuring a powerful ecological message, a cast of outlandish characters and some jawdropping digital spacescapes. Overseen by 'Finding Nemo' director Andrew Stanton, Wall-e is a visual feast that's completely out of this world.

Movie review

From Time Out London

Humans land a raw deal when it comes to animations. We upright, two-legged creatures regularly have to give way to the superior intelligence or endless fascination of a deer or a dog or a penguin. It’s part of the bargain: we draw them, they make us look stupid.
And so it is with ‘Wall-E’, except this time we have only ourselves to blame. Pixar has drawn inspiration for this bold, bleak and often very beautiful film from the worst approximations of the future we’re shaping for our planet.

In Pixar’s last film, ‘Ratatouille’, it was a sewer rat who brilliantly grabbed our attention and revolutionised French cuisine. For ‘Wall-E’, humans again take a back seat, and it’s a robot with a cube for a belly and binoculars for eyes who’s bleeping for our love. When we do, finally, encounter humans – living on a self-sufficient spaceship, waited on by robots, sucking on straws – they’re fat, sedentary, greedy and unpleasant.

Plus ça change: from Cruella de Vil to our fellow folk in ‘Happy Feet’, cartoons have always held a mirror up to our selfish instincts.This time it’s 2700, and we’ve polluted ourselves out of existence. The only humans left live a sterile, bloated life high above earth, where we decamp for the second, more frenetic and less inspired half of the film. But everything that comes before is magical. The only animate object left in the lifeless, rust-coloured, dusty landscape of urban desolation that we used to call earth is one tireless mechanical waste-collector called Wall-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth Class). He lives in a cluttered container and spends his days buzzing about, piling up junk to look like skyscrapers or Mayan temples and sucking up sun for his solar panels. His only company is a lonesome cockroach.

So that’s one robot, a cockroach and a vision of earth gone to pot. This is a cartoon that offers an uncompromising, imaginative, angry portrait of the future. It’s daring in its simplicity: for the first 40 minutes, we watch in wonder as Wall-E goes about his business in near silence; it’s the sharp intelligence of the detail, always so painstakingly rendered, that most amazes. At one point, Wall-E finds an abandoned diamond ring in a jewellery box. What does he do with it? He throws away the ring and plays with the hinges of the container. Of course he does: hinges should fascinate more than precious minerals. Shame on us for not realising that before.

By rights, Wall-E shouldn’t be cute in the Bambi or Dumbo sense of the word: he’s battered and fading and the only noises he makes are computerised drawls not dissimilar to ET’s limited lingo. But Wall-E is alluring, and not because he’s got big eyes or dangling eyelashes but because he’s smart, hard-working, with a romantic side, and is hopelessly addicted to watching clips of Michael Crawford and Barbra Streisand in Gene Kelly’s ‘Hello Dolly!’ on a video screen. He’s everything we should have been if we hadn’t put all our energy into destroying the planet.
But none of this is preachy or obvious.

Environmental destruction is only the breathtaking backdrop to the film and it’s more the minimalism of Wall-E’s existence that fascinates. By the time a sleeker, feminine robot called Eve – who looks like an iPod shaped into a pepper-pot – arrives, we’re craving her company in sympathy with our mechanised friend. Pixar has done it again. I wonder a little what kids will make of the long silence of the first half followed by the disorienting mania of the second, but there’s nothing here that’s not wonderfully imagined and lovingly presented.

Author: Dave Calhoun 2008-07-15 12:05:34

Time Out London Issue 1978, Jule 17-23, 2008

Bookmark

User reviews of this film

victoria said...

Posted on Aug 13 2009 08:10 WALL-E IS THE WORST FILM I HAVE EVER SEEN. IT WAS RATED 5 STARS WHY????/?? IF I COULD RATE IT ZERO STARS I WOULD. IT WAS A COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY. THERE ARE HARDLY NO FUNNY BITS IN IT. BORING......... DONT WATCH IT. IT IS RUBBISH

Report as inappropriate
sean said...

Posted on Jan 06 2009 17:28 Wall-e is so good ,YOU CAN'T MISS IT!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is action packed and full of suprises.

Report as inappropriate
tanya said...

Posted on Jan 06 2009 17:18 it was really funny. it was one of the best films.i am 9 years old.

Report as inappropriate
Victoria said...

Posted on Jan 02 2009 11:03 I did not particularry enjoy this film, but I am sure little children about 5-7 years would love it.

Report as inappropriate
Guess who said...

Posted on Oct 31 2008 10:58 This film is ok but it drags on for ages. I would reccomend taking your kids to this film they will love it.

Report as inappropriate
Laura said...

Posted on Oct 28 2008 14:55 I could not wait to see Wall-e after the amazing reviews it had had, but when I saw it I was only disappointed. I thought there was no real storyline. Although the end of the film was good, I wouldn't recommended it, or buy it on DVD.

Report as inappropriate
aneetsa aged 38 said...

Posted on Oct 26 2008 18:15 I watched this with my 4yr old and 6 year old and we thought it quite wonderful. Afterwards we had a lot to talk about so it wasn't just entertaining, funny and heartwarming the layer of commentary about love, future, mankind, hope and salvation made it thought provoking too. I'd rather watch this than HSM 3 which the kids wanted to see but then we discovered was out the next day. I was secretly glad about that

Report as inappropriate
candy said...

Posted on Oct 20 2008 21:59 wall-e is sooooooooooooooo cute! he's like walll-ee! it sounds sooooooooooo cute!

Report as inappropriate
candy said...

Posted on Oct 20 2008 21:59 wall-e is sooooooooooooooo cute! he's like walll-ee! it sounds sooooooooooo cute!

Report as inappropriate
candyfloss said...

Posted on Oct 07 2008 16:46 I totally agree with flo. I am also thirteen but thought wall e was good the background was spectacular. I also think wall e's voice is sooooooooo cute!!!!

Report as inappropriate
flo said...

Posted on Oct 06 2008 22:56 such a sweet film. perfect for the kids but even at 13 i still loved it. my mum and stepdad both saw it without kids, and they loved it. beautiful stunning film. the scene with wall-e and eva floating through space is just truly magical. a wonderful film

Report as inappropriate
megg. said...

Posted on Sep 28 2008 15:11 i haven't seen the film but my sister has and she said it was really good but its really based for younger children but her little boy loved it:) brill film:D xx

Report as inappropriate
Scabadus said...

Posted on Sep 18 2008 17:39 Sure, it's a brilliant film, but it is NOT better than the Dark Night (as TimeOut's rating suggests)

Report as inappropriate
LAURA said...

Posted on Sep 13 2008 12:00 I WENT WITH MY NAN AND GRANDAD AND WE ALL THOUGHT IT WAS BRILL IT WAS CUTE LOVED IT

Report as inappropriate
Trish said...

Posted on Sep 12 2008 20:09 I have to take my 5 & 6 yr olds to see it tomorrow and after readind the above comments i'm no longer looking forward to it

Report as inappropriate