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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

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User reviews of this film

chicken aged 8 said...

Posted on Aug 14 2008 12:02 All people will like this film particularly if you like robots and happy films.

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Goldilocks said...

Posted on Aug 14 2008 00:03 This film in my opinion is overhyped. A little disappointing .

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ali said...

Posted on Aug 12 2008 16:45 the buildup was quit boring but when eve came then it started to become interesting
i would rate this movie the best all year

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Della said...

Posted on Aug 11 2008 17:01 If you didn't like the silent 40mins at the start you must be a idiot. If a 20ft screen with a very wonderful and amazingly animated Wall E can not hold you attention, I question whether you should have had children.

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Martin said...

Posted on Aug 10 2008 23:35 Overlong - would have made a good 10 minute short. Does not compare with Toy Story. Very slight story - essentially a large American Corporation has made a movie about a large American Corporation that has a vested interest in people over-consuming.

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jack said...

Posted on Aug 10 2008 17:02 WALL*E IS PROBALLY THE BEST FILM PIXAR HAVE EVER ,IF I HAD A 100 INCH TELLE I WOULD WATCH THIS FILM IN ALL MY SPARE TIME .VOTTED BEST

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hope said...

Posted on Aug 09 2008 17:21 well.e is soooooooooooooooooooo cute

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hope said...

Posted on Aug 09 2008 17:21 well.e is soooooooooooooooooooo cute

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Gemma said...

Posted on Aug 09 2008 09:10 loved it!!!!!!

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Erica said...

Posted on Aug 07 2008 13:41 Absolutely beautiful and so romantic! Pixar have just taken it to another level with their animation. The best of their films to date. Would recommend to anyone small or big, although it may be a little too slow paced for tiny ones. 10 out of 10.

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critique said...

Posted on Aug 06 2008 22:43 Decent but over-hyped animation.

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jim said...

Posted on Aug 06 2008 16:40 took my three grand children to see this one rainy day in wales.my grand daughter aged 15 loved it my grandsons thought ok and i wished we had stayed outside in the rain .

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Jessanda said...

Posted on Aug 05 2008 15:25 We all just loved this film.

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Chloe said...

Posted on Aug 05 2008 12:12 A really great film full of emotions and so very funny a must see for all ages.

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Demofax said...

Posted on Aug 04 2008 23:00 People who were 'bored' of this movie were either too young to appreciate it or just have strange taste, in my opinion. WALL•E was a mind-blowing, awe-inspiring work of art with beautifully rendered scenes and characters and carried an important message. It's another good example of using animation to bring to life the 'what ifs' in the world, if you get my meaning. If you find it 'boring' you've probably missed the point. I'm not even going to bother getting someone to pirate this, i'm waiting for the dvd so I can enjoy its gorgeous landscapes at full quality. One of Pixar's greatest.

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