Review - WALL-E (2008)

Studio/Production Company: Disney/Pixar
Director: Andrew Stanton
Written by: Andrew Stanton, Peter Docter, Jim Reardon
Rating: G
Release Date: June 22, 2008
Genre: Comedy
Strong Points: Good laughs for children and adults alike; very clever; heart warming characters that are easy to get attached to; sweet story.
Weak Points: None.
Technical Score: A-
Artistic Score: A+
Final Score (not an average): A
Moral Warnings: Some explosions and sequences of action; very brief crude humor.


For over a decade Pixar has been the number one name in family-friendly films, introducing such titles as Toy Story, Monsters INC., Finding Nemo, and Cars. With the release of WALL-E, Pixar continues their trend of creating films that are funny, sweet, wittingly clever, and appeal to both children and adults alike.

WALL-E is the name of an adorably cute and naturally inquisitive little trash compactor robot who happens to be the last living (or operating) thing on planet Earth. Given the amount of neatly piled trash in the opening scene, it is reasonable to assume that WALL-E has been there for a very, very long time.

Nonetheless, WALL-E seems to enjoy his work. He hums or plays music that he’s recorded the night before as he goes along, happily picking up the still-remaining trash, compacting it in his little box-shaped stomach, and stacking it away. While he may enjoy his work, it’s soon enough clear that WALL-E is lonely.

But when another robot, EVE, lands on Earth, the loneliness ends and an adventure begins - one that will bring these two closer as they try to wake mankind from its current state of apathy.

As always, Pixar is able to tell a beautiful story. And once again, they prove themselves to be masters of their art. WALL-E has a touching, almost gracelike charm to it that few children’s films are able to capture. The characters are simple, yet so easy to become attached to. The setting is adorably and oftentimes humorously clever. And the story itself will warm your heart.

What’s most interesting (and also rather impressive) is the lack of dialogue between the main characters. EVE has about five or six words in her vocabulary. WALL-E has even less. So with usual Pixar cleverness, the animators focused on “body” language and their robot “noises” much like in the style of R2-D2 from the Star Wars films (humorously enough, Ben Burtt, the one who created the sounds of R2-D2, created the ‘voice’ of WALL-E).

The animation honestly makes you wonder what tree these guys picked their ideas from, because some of it is genius. By the end of the film I was half-convinced to go to Wal-Mart and see if they had any real life WALL-Es for sale in the appliance section. I love my cats, but I could easily see them being replaced by this trash-cleaning robot. The animators truly did a wonderful job of bringing depth and warmth to WALL-E.

And it's not just WALL-E, either. Every robot has character and all add to the charm of the film, whether they have as much screen time as WALL-E and EVE, or just show up once.

What’s sad is that some are already complaining that WALL-E has some underlying political message or agenda. Some say that it’s ‘anti-capitalist’ while others claim that it preaches the typical environmental message of the day. While there is certainly a ‘keep-the-earth-clean’ feel to it (and last time I checked, keeping the earth clean is a good thing), the first assumption is ridiculous. WALL-E is ultimately a love story and a sweet one at that. Nothing more. Adults will no doubt be able to pick out some extra themes from the film (I myself found it somewhat reminiscent of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four), but like any Pixar film, WALL-E is to be taken at face value. At the very least, some of the extra themes can provide for some good parent-child discussions.

Despite being rated “G”, there was definitely some violence to be had in WALL-E. Most of it is humorous, but there were a number of explosions throughout the film. The cartoonish violence is really the only thing to mention as far as moral content goes, save for possibly the noting of when WALL-E is looking through the trash and finds a bra.

Pixar outdo themselves yet again in WALL-E, releasing one of their strongest films since Finding Nemo. With such a wonderful story, heart warming characters, and humorously clever animation, the only question that arises from the film is: what will they think of next?

--Zak Mellgren (zak@revolve21.com)