WALL-E: a space odyssey

Who would have thought that one of the most scathing criticisms of today's society would come from a Disney Pixar production? However, WALL-E isn't simply brutally honest about how today's large-scale decisions can effect our future, but it's also a fascinating piece of art that uses state-of-the-art animation technology, presents a fascinating twist on animated film story archetypes and setting and is simply a fun film with lots of adventure, mystery and comedy.

The world has become a dump and WALL-E, a robotic trash compacter, must clean it up. WALL-E spends his days rummaging through the world's garbage, compacting the garbage into cubes that are stacked upon each other, creating large architectural structures. However, once in a while, WALL-E finds an object that peeks its interest and keeps it. We soon learn that the humans that left behind the mess are up in space on an intergalactic cruise liner, supposedly waiting for the Earth to be inhabitable once again. As WALL-E is performing its daily chores, a space ship lands upon the barren dump yard and unleashes a robot. WALL-E tries to befriend the new robot, but is quickly ignored because it seems to be on a dogged search for something. During a sand storm, WALL-E gains the trust of the robot by sharing its shelter with the robot, named Eve. WALL-E gives Eve a tour of the shelter and presents a plant sustaining in a boot to Eve. Eve goes into auto-pilot and grabs the plant from WALL-E and stores it within itself then goes into shutdown mode. After several days, a ship returns to Earth to retrieve the robot. WALL-E has become attached to Eve and decides to hitch a ride, which ends up at the galactic cruise-liner where the humans are harbored. At the ship, Eve delivers the plant which comes as a surprise to the captain. Soon, a conspiracy unfolds involving the ship's computer which has orders to not return home, no matter what. WALL-E's plot is thought provoking, incredibly fun and filled with twists and turns without ever feeling exaggerated. However, it's WALL-E's first half that really peaked my interest due to its originality and overwhelming realism.

WALL-E defies many conventions of Hollywood animation. Pixar is well known for presenting films involving the relationship between reality and fantasy; talking toys in Toy Story being sabotaged by human intervention, Finding Nemo with talking fish trying to weather against the harshness of the sea and, again, human intervention in their sea world, etc. However, WALL-E, in the beginning mind you, does not use a fantastic setting, but a setting with real people on billboards and advertisements, scary environmental conditions and silence. Basically, WALL-E presents our world if a robot was the only mobile thing on it.

As you've probably heard already, WALL-E's first half plays out like a silent film, but one difference is the subtlety and scarcity of its physical comedy. Yes, there are several moments where WALL-E finds itself in a hilarious and cute situation that results in slapstick, especially during scenes where it has found an object that sparks its interest, but it's WALL-E's expressions that really captures the audience. The slight move of its camera eyes, the tilt of its head, etc. These subtleties are the moments that can be attributed to the silent greats like Chaplin, Keaton and Gish, but at the same time, presenting something original and fun.

Though there are several aspects of WALL-E that stand out, the film's absolutely breath-taking animation overshadows many of these. Not much can be said about it, you must see it for yourself. Every detail, from the dust rolling off WALL-E's tracks to the landscape, is created with incredible precision. Nothing has been produced yet in animation that has impressed me as much as this film. I could go into detail about the technology used in order to create this mesmerizing visual spectacle, but who cares. The product and its awe factor are beyond those technicalities.

WALL-E will impress anyone. It's an amalgamation of things many people want to see in their films today; adventure, comedy, social-conscience and originality. WALL-E is incredibly impressive in how it covers and offers incite into the many aspects of entertainment and filmmaking. It is immensely pleasing to the aesthetics and could be viewed several times without any chance of boredom. Pixar have, thus far, created their best film and one of their best characters with WALL-E. I haven't a clue and am incredibly interested in what Pixar, possibly the most prolific and significant film production company today, can come up with next.