WALL-E Review

Experience says that Pixar movies don't disappoint, so I was excited to run out and see WALL-E this weekend. Not surprisingly, it was fantastic. Different from some of my other recent reviews, this one is spoiler-free.

The animation was spectacular, but that's hardly surprising. Pixar has spoiled us; nothing will have the same impact as Toy Story did when it was first released. WALL-E opens on Earth, zoomed way out, where we can clearly see dust and papers blowing by. It's really great visuals, and some of that detail is yet another step above for Pixar, but "great animation" is pretty standard now.

The first half of the movie takes place on Earth, where WALL-E is doing his job of cleaning up trash. There are no people around, and (somehow) he's the only robot left working. The movie does an amazing job of communicating the desolation and isolation he lives in, and the loneliness he feels--even after EVE has arrived. Consider that there's no dialog to speak of, and this is some great storytelling in my opinion.

Something that felt heavy-handed was the message to us about what people are doing to the environment and our responsibility. WALL-E has been compared to An Inconvenient Truth, and the comparison is spot-on. On the other hand, this approach is what makes WALL-E's story so compelling.

Also worth noting: we expected to see WALL-E with lots of kids packed in the theater. We decided to see it first-thing on Sunday morning, at 10:00 am--I was hoping there might be fewer people there and that parents would want to take kids to the movie later in the day, to help break it up. I was right! The theater was only about 1/3 full, making it a great time to go.