I never thought any robot would make me revisit Johnny Number 5 from Short Circuit and then reconsider him being my favorite (robot) of all time. Well, it happened. And Wall-E is the guy, errr, robot. I went into the 1:05 showing of Wall-E with no expectations really. The previews made it seem like a cute robot that made funny little noises and I was intrigued enough. Right away I connected with this "lifeless" robot.

The solitude of the opening act is what really drives you to care for our main character. Albeit a robot, a great sense of emotion comes with his personality. Whether you choose to believe in the realism of his persona or not, undoubtedly you'll become captivated by it. His little quirks and mannerisms are priceless. The humanity created within the device we call Wall-E is all over the place. I remember legitimately saying, "Wow," to what you will see when the camera pans what was once a booming metropolis and then zooms in to show what Wall-E is doing.  As the movie progresses, it begins to have shades of I Am Legend in the loneliness we see in Wall-E. And just as Robert Neville (Will Smith) had in his dog, our main "man" here has a little sidekick of his own, a cockroach. This tiny character stole every scene it was in.

                                          

Now, I like to consider myself at least tough enough to call myself a real guy. But even this movie had me saying, "Awww" on multiple occasions. And it's about a damn robot. I know for a fact that's why many people in my age bracket are staying away from the film. They don't even want to give it a chance because of the topic it approaches. But I promise you, disappointment will be the last word on your mind when you leave the theater. There is so much to enjoy. From the main character's evolution of lonely nobody to accidental hero. The relationship between Wall-E and our secondary character of Eve. The way each "talks." Or if not for those, just sit back and take in the sheer beauty of this film. Pixar really does itself in every time and continues to break animation barriers. There is so much realism to every single shot. The lighting makes you forget at times it is even animated.

Something I truly appreciated as an avid moviegoer were the many nods to past sci-fi flicks. One obvious throwback is the look and voice of the main robot in charge of the Axiom (if I explain, I'll spoil). In every way it represents the HAL 9000. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I recommend you rent 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is not only a true movie classic, but a breakthrough in cinema.

                                                  

There are a few things that irked me about Wall-E. But only a little. First was the presence of actual humans. If our human characters at present time in the film are to be animated, why show actual human actors representing characters from the past? It just messes with continuity and didn't go unnoticed. More important, though, is the excessive in-your-face confronting of today's issues. Not only do they attack our society's desire to sit on a couch in front of a screen as opposed to enjoying our world, but also the increasing problem with obesity. It's so blatant that at some points it seems they are actually telling us through the dialogue exactly what they are trying to show us. In addition, you'll notice the obvious wink to our threatened environment. The entire premise of the film is that we've destroyed our planet so much that we left it forever and put robots in charge of cleaning up until it's safe to return. We get it, global warming is bad and we don't take care of Earth. But hey, Hollywood is a truly liberal community and they can say what they want. I still enjoyed Wall-E thoroughly and kind of actually want to go and see it again.


     out of 5 trophies