Wall*e

***Note***

No spoilers here, man!

***EndNote***

Disney-Pixar, who pretty much carved out the landscape of 3D animated film and coming off two of their weakest pictures (Cars and Ratatouille had none of the heart of The Incredibles or Finding Nemo or the reckless abandon of Toy Story or Monsters, Inc.) has created a media frenzy over their new film, Wall*e. Universally, hailed as a masterpiece, Wall*e can apparently do no wrong: animation – perfect, story – exquisite, marketability - awesome.

I, too, was eagerly awaiting this film, pouring over the press releases and snippets from all the media outlets. I’ve read so much that I pretty much know how the film is going to go even before stepping into the screening. (Note: Even this didn’t ruin the picture!)

Our hero is Wall*e, a trash compactor that looks like the Muppet Babies version of Johnny 5 from Short Circuit, is the last of the planetary clean-up crew. Over the seven hundred years that he’s been cleaning up our messy planet, he’s become a little lonely. One day, a space probe arrives, this is when Wall*e meets Eve. Their relationship starts off pretty cold but warms up rather quickly even though there are fewer than 5 words exchanged.  

Wall*e decides to follow Eve out into the cosmos and has quite an adventure where the fate of humanity is revealed. Wall*e’s humanity rubs off on many of the characters, but especially the humans and they realize that the tiny robot is living the life they yearn for.

I have to admit this film is incredibly cute, looks wonderful, and doesn’t let down in the writing department either. I always feel a bit ripped off when I see a movie and it looks great, but the story is half-baked because the target audience wouldn’t know any better.  

This film is pretty much impervious to criticism, save a few miniscule, barely noticeable niggles about details (physics don’t seem to be internally consistent). I whole-heartedly recommend this film to everyone to see in the theatres and then to buy it when it comes out on DVD.