WALL-E

Synopsis

Seven hundred years into the future, earth’s only inhabitant is a lone mobile trash compactor named WALL-E.  Alone and lonely, he’s the only one left of his kind after human beings destroyed Earth and fled to outer space. Hard working WALL-E’s day consists only of cleaning up Earth from dusk till dawn until the surprising arrival of EVE—a robotic probe from deep outer space. When EVE abruptly leaves Earth, love-struck WALL-E goes after her as the love story—and adventure—begins.

Review

I have to get reel for a second. I actually wrote a different review, but I read it and realized that I might have put a few spoilers in it and that's not what my reviews are about. So, here's the new review.

I was so excited to see WALL-E a Disney-Pixar film. Yes! They bring the best animation. And I adore animated movies. I know I'm going against the grain here with what I’m about to say. Brace yourself. I was bored!  It could have been because I was exhausted...no, that wasn't it. I guess I really can’t see a 5 year-old understanding this story and/or not being bored a little, too. A friend of mine's daughter, who's 4, said she wanted to go home because it wasn't a kid movie, but another friend's 7 year-old stated it was funny and he loved it. I don't know if that makes a difference to you, but I thought I'd mention it. The sound track had some old timers music, not conducive with my taste at all. The first 30 minutes dragged on something fierce. Perhaps I just assumed that there would be some verbal communication like in most of the Pixar films. Maybe I thought the movie was just taking an extra long time to set up. Or maybe I'm just crazy. All told, WALL-E was just not as good as I had hoped.

WALL-E is set 700 years in the future and the Earth is just a depressing pile of ruin thanks to Buy n Large Corporation. The back story is B n L was the manufacturer of the WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth-Class) trash compactors. Buy n Large CEO Shelby Forthright (Fred Willard, TV actor) heads up a global initiative to clean up Earth after evacuating most of humanity into outer space. Of course the project goes berserk and nearly all the WALL-E units expire except for the lone WALL-E whose rolling along cleaning up the destruction that the humans left behind. WALL-E (Ben Burtt, Star Wars) he’s the last operational mobile trash compactor. He folds into a cube to hide or rest. He lives a lonely existence like Will Smith in I Am Legend (awww). Our little guy's only friend is a big flying coackroach. EEEKKK! (Of course I've known some introverted kids who grew up in the projects that probably had a similar social circle).

Wall-E saves certain mementos for himself while cleaning and one of them being an old “Hello Dolly” video tape. Not my type of music. Mmm mmm mm. But, he learns about love from the tape. WALL-E has an adorable look about him just with his binocular type eyes. Very creative character design from the art/animation crew. My heart strings were truly tugged watching WALL-E move about Earth working diligently to clean up the hot mess that was left behind. I don’t even know if WALL-E knew he was lonely. I sure did, and I wanted to give the little rusty tin box a hug (and then take a shower—bruh man was in the trash, after all!).

Hold up...hold up! His humdrum life is interrupted by what? Huh? Ohhhhh...EVE. Classic man's groove is messed up by some curves and a little sassy attitude.

EVE (Elisa Knight, Cars), is a female robot on a direct mission. She is shuttled to Earth to check for signs of life. This little robot has it together. She is equipped with lasers and strength. She is not to be messed with, but how could she resist the quirky, cute, and very lovable WALL-E. Uh ohhh. A love story unfolds. I hear some violins.

Even though I was a little bored with this movie, I can recognize why many people would find it fascinating. It's a silent film for half of the movie. That's not really my thing, but a story is told brilliantly just with the personable WALL-E. I couldn't help but root for the little fella. He is the sweetest and most appealing character. The animation was crisp and more realistic than I've ever seen. The subplots were clever, but they still didn't get me sitting straight up in my seat excited for the film. With all the hype and the movie's trailer I saw months ago I COULD NOT wait to see WALL-E. Now I'm just thinking I could have thrown it in my Netflix queue and been okay. You're either going to love this film or be royally bored with it. The choice is yours, people. 

My Rating ~ 3 Reels

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