Wall-E is inflicted with a bad case of Halo 3-itis. When you go into a movie expecting it to be the best thing you’ve ever seen, to completely blow your mind, and it ends up being "just" great, you tend to walk out the theater disappointed. So I know that after that statement you probably assume I didn't like Wall-E because it didn't enthrall me in the same way Finding Nemo did, so let me write this: Wall-E is a great film. But that's it. It's "just" great.
Getting the basics out of the way, Wall-E is about a little robot left on Earth who, with his only friend being a cockroach, spends his day scouring the abandoned planet, cleaning up, and collecting numerous artifacts that serve as memoirs to humanity. One day, Eve (earth vegetation extractor) comes to Earth in search of a proof that the atmosphere is livable, and finds it in the form of a plant Wall-E collected. There really isn't much need to tell anymore. It would ruin the rest of the story, and what a story it is.
Therein lies the problem, the lone problem, with Wall-E: it's complexities. Despite its "G" rating, the story of two robots in love who must save a lone seed, proof that life on Earth is possible, from the hands of an evil autopilot aboard the Axiom, a giant space cruiser upon which humans have lived for 700 years and have become giant immobile gluttons. There is very little lazy exposition. Everything is given off through visual clues that help progress the story, and while this is great for adults, I know that about 90% of the storyline went right over the heads of every person under ten years old in the audience.
It's a beautiful, simple story, but the complexity with which it is executed and progressed is too intelligent for most kids to understand, and because of this many of them in the audience fidgeted and yawned while the adults watched on in sheer awe.
The story is much smaller than the trailers would have you believe, it involves but four characters really: Wall-E, EVE, Captain Macrea (human captain), and the evil autopilot. Other than that, the other characters, most of which are robots and synonymous looking humans, are obscure, with the primary focus of the story on Wall-E and EVE. It's not epic. Wall-E doesn't travel to many far off lands and meet tons of colorful characters like earlier Stanton effort Finding Nemo. It's small, with two locations, Earth and the Axiom, and runs a little short with a somewhat flippant climax.
The first half hour of Wall-E is by far the funniest and most memorable, with the little robot, who speaks with electronic beeps and tones, collecting things around the planet and displaying his unhealthy affinity for Hello Dolly. This is where the makers of Wall-E shine. Despite the fact that he is surrounded by humans for the latter hour of the movie, the piece of junk is easily the most human character. He knows waves, and hand holding, and basic gestures that human beings had forgotten amidst their growing reliance on technology.
The statement Wall-E makes about commercialism ruining the planet is very hypocritical indeed considering the source being one of the biggest commercial companies in the world, but that doesn't detract from the fact that the product is always grand. Wall-E is a funny, incredibly smart, touching story that works on a small scale that incorporates beautiful writing with extravagant animation that pushes the limits of human imagination. Is it perfect? No. Is it better than Finding Nemo? No. But it is the best thing Pixar, the best thing any animation company has done, since 2003.
Score: 8.5/10
