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

mags said...

Posted on Aug 04 2008 19:45 took my 6 yr old and his friend to see this, was so bored as were the boys, watched my watch whole way through, if i was on my own would have walked out, no talking in first 40 mins or so, repetitive, deff over hyped

Report as inappropriate
X said...

Posted on Aug 03 2008 18:49 WALL.E WAS THE BEST OF THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Report as inappropriate
random.film.critic said...

Posted on Aug 03 2008 12:03 wall-e=so cute n sweet!! wunnerful movie, made me cry at one point!! only downfall is the first 1/2, wer the lak of talking affects ppls interest in the movie.. but otha then that it ws amazing!!

Report as inappropriate
sheam <LB> said...

Posted on Aug 03 2008 08:25 This is the sick,romantic good flim i ever seen in my whole life

Report as inappropriate
marie said...

Posted on Aug 02 2008 17:33 A magical film from pixar. You can notice the improvements. a lot of emotions, walle is so cute!

Report as inappropriate
Karen said...

Posted on Aug 02 2008 14:01 This film was a big disappointment, very long and boring, no proper story, even my kids didn't enjoy it!

Report as inappropriate
David said...

Posted on Aug 01 2008 22:05 I loved the film but my 5 year old got bored and fell asleep. It does last a long time.

Report as inappropriate
grandad said...

Posted on Aug 01 2008 20:50 the worst

Report as inappropriate
Julie said...

Posted on Aug 01 2008 19:20 This was the most boring kids film that i have ever seen. First half of the film there was no talking and the second half was very repetetive. Everyone i went with couldn't wait to get home!

Report as inappropriate
Fiona said...

Posted on Aug 01 2008 13:49 I went with my husband to see this film, we are big kids at heart and we couldn't find a child to borrow for the evening. Great film but we did notice that some of the very young kids did not maintain an interest in the first half. The older ones (including us) thought it was funny and very entertaining,

Report as inappropriate
milly said...

Posted on Jul 31 2008 19:30 ive not seenit yet but it looks BRILLIANT it looks romantic too.

Report as inappropriate
mattimus said...

Posted on Jul 31 2008 10:18 I THINK WALL.E IS AMAZIING AND IGIVE IT INFINITY STARS IT WAS THAT AWESOME!!!!!!

Report as inappropriate
Ellen said...

Posted on Jul 30 2008 23:46 Brilliant and memorable. Pixar continues to amaze and is to be applauded by taking a chance on subject matter that is not for the kiddies. This film is touching, political and mesmerizing--but not what some erroneously expect from an animated feature. The humor is minimal and mainly satirical, and the first 30 minutes--without dialogue--is amazing. All the adults I know who saw it the first week were blown away because the movie charms its audience while making them think about this planet. Children will have mixed reactions because that is not the target audience--as "cute" as the Wall-E character might be. Others may be disappointed because they read the initial reviews and expected something lighter, perhaps. I know the old film giants used to say, "If you want to send a message, send a telegram," but this movie entertains and inspires--the best film I have scene this year.

Report as inappropriate
leah said...

Posted on Jul 30 2008 20:58 i dnt know how ppl cna say this movie is a dissapointment...i loved every second of it and cant wait to see it again. its full of comedy, action, and romance, all i know is it left me near reaching for the screen at the back of the cinema... i loved this movie and would highly eccomend it to anyone thinking of a good night or day at the pictures.

Report as inappropriate
pop of bispham said...

Posted on Jul 30 2008 17:35 I was very disappointed with this film since there were very few funny moments and I found it totally boring - not a patch on the English Wallace and Grommit cartoons nor Ice Age.

Report as inappropriate