WALL-E
June 28, 2008 at 12:04 p.m.
Had this film been in the hands of anyone other than Pixar chief John Lasseter and the rest of his crew, WALL-E could have easily been an epic failure: the unsettling portrait it paints of the future and the notable lack of dialogue throughout seem like a combination that would deter the family set. But the film instead uses these potential roadblocks as perfect devices for character development. In the world of WALL-E, whistles, sighs and bleeps speak louder than words.
700 years from now, humans have long since evacuated a decimated Earth for a lush, convenient life aboard a space station. Meanwhile, WALL-E, short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class, is forced to stay behind and clean up our mess. But WALL-E views his world with a childlike eagerness and intuition, picking up items humans left behind (a paddle ball set, a Rubik’s cube) and seeking solace in an old VHS tape of Hello, Dolly! Our lonely hero falls in love with EVE, a robot sent to look for signs of life on Earth, and proceeds to follow her into space, only to be inadvertently responsible for the fate of Earth itself.
Empathy alone seems to drive this film—despite never saying a word, WALL-E’s sounds and actions carry a range of emotions rarely found in more verbose films; the love story is truly one for the ages, choreographed by Lasseter with a genuine sweetness that only a pair of plucky robots could truly pull off. The film sometimes relies on simple slapstick for humor, but it never feels cheap, not even when WALL-E is run down by a barrage of shopping carts or loses control of a fire extinguisher. Since there are no big-name actors to steal the show, the characters themselves, each simultaneously simple and complex, are the stars. It is a sign of a truly skilled group of filmmakers that a cockroach can become a truly three-dimensional character.
And for what it’s worth, I defy anyone not to melt when WALL-E experiences love at first sight. It’s a movie cliché, but thanks to two robots, it feels more possible than ever.
VVVVV – See it twice!
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