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Bookmark this pageWALL-E (2008)
Director: Andrew Stanton
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
Time Out London Issue 1978, Jule 17-23, 2008
User reviews of this film
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- vivster said...
- Posted on Jul 30 2008 17:16 I am going to see wall-e tommorow with my mum. I will write back if its good, but so far dreamworks and pixar are doing great so no doubt wall-e will be bad.
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- Megan said...
- Posted on Jul 30 2008 12:51 This film looks really fantastic, sad, romantic & comedy 2 me! I can't wait to watch it next week, i seen all the Pixar films but i think this one will be better. I like WALL-E he's soooooo cute & Eve well i think shes cute 2! :D x x x x
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- jasmine caines said...
- Posted on Jul 30 2008 12:31 the film was brill i luv wall.e
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- andy foster said...
- Posted on Jul 30 2008 10:27 I loved this movie! and i am a 45 year old guy
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- Josh said...
- Posted on Jul 30 2008 02:02 THIS FILM WAS AMAZING A VERY GOOD PIXAR MOVIE I CANT WAIT TO SEE WHAT TOY STORY 3 WILL BE LIKE. BUT WALL.E RULES!!!!!!
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- Tanya said...
- Posted on Jul 29 2008 16:09 This was a fantastic, heart-warming film. Not just because Pixar have managed to make us feel sympathetic towards a robot, who is very like Jonny 5 of the 80s but because in it's minimalist form, it sends out such a huge message in the right climate. The lack of dialogue I think only emphasises the loss we are inflicting on ourselves by doing such damage to the world. Every moment of the film is heart-warming, comical and serious at the same time appealing to all ages - how many films can claim that? I really love this film and think everyone who worked on it has done a fantastic job.
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- Nicholas said...
- Posted on Jul 29 2008 12:29 WALL-E is the rubbishest film in the world but I LOVE IT
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- Beatrice said...
- Posted on Jul 29 2008 12:25 I thought it was an AMAZING FILM... THE BEST IN THE WORLD...WALL-E RULES !!! 999999 STARS !!!
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- Alistair said...
- Posted on Jul 29 2008 09:36 this film is the best film ever it can tell the robots feelings and emotions it is also an adventure with wall.E and eve
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- Ryan said...
- Posted on Jul 28 2008 16:11 sorry about the last comment. My Brother sent it. Sorry. Ive seen it and thought it was really funny.
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- Ryan said...
- Posted on Jul 28 2008 16:11 sorry about the last comment. My Brother sent it. Sorry. Ive seen it and thought it was really funny.
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- SuzQ said...
- Posted on Jul 27 2008 22:14 I thought this film was very disappointing. Certainly it showed brilliant technical mastery of animation, but that's not enough to make a great film. The lack of dialogue and slow plot made it boring to watch for much of it. The eco message was really heavy handed, typical modern American film - pitch to the lowest common denomenator. There were a few genuinely warm and funny moments between the two main (?only?) but overall, very unfulfilling and desperately disappointing. P.S. I have not been on this site before, but have read all this thread - nobody has been abusive so i dont understand the complaints by some that it should be monitored - people are entitled to say the film's rubbish if they think it was!!
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- Alistair said...
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Posted on Jul 27 2008 11:10
this film sounds good and i hope it as good film i
am seeing it today - Report as inappropriate
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- oliver nowlan said...
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Posted on Jul 26 2008 22:55
I thought this film was amazing. The first half set on Earth blew me away, the endless towers of rubbish and desolution. The lack of dialogue was the best thing about this film. It meant the animation focused on the body language of the robots, adding a human emotion you don't see a lot of, a throw back to silent cinema. Although the film has the underlying themes of apathy the environment and globalisation it is a simple love story and it is the interaction of Wall-e and Eva that I really loved.
The robots on the spaceship were brilliant too. The captains computer - a homage to HAL?
The only negative thing I have to say is the ending. It felt like Pixar were almost brave enough to do the unthinkable but bottled it.
Overeall a truly great film, one you must see in the cinema. - Report as inappropriate
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- usman khawaja said...
- Posted on Jul 26 2008 14:42 critique -i totally agree with you like on new york times forum there should be moderation here too -it ia an appallingly abusive site and getting boring as people donot discuss movie but rather indulge in abusive lingo with total strangers in a very frustrated manner when they have nothing to say
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Now showing
This film is showing at these cinemas near Leicester Square, Greater London
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Cast & crew
Director: Andrew Stanton
Genre(s): Children's
Rated: U
Duration: 97 mins
UK Release: Jul 18 2008
US Release: Jun 27 2008
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