Movies / Movie Reviews

Cleaning Earth With Wall E

By Hervé St-Louis
June 27, 2008 - 23:27

Starring: Benjamin Burtt, Jeff Garlin, Elissa Knight, Fred Willard, John Ratzenberger
Directed by: Andrew Stanton
Produced by: Jim Morris (IV), Lindsey K. Collins
Production Status:     In Production/Awaiting Release
Logline: A young robot looks for a home in outer space.
Running Time: 1 hr. 37 min.
Release Date: June 27th, 2008 (wide)
MPAA Rating: G
Distributors: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Production Co.: Pixar Animation Studios
Studios: Walt Disney Feature Animation
Filming Locations:     
Los Angeles, California, USA
Produced in: United States



Wall -E is a robot left on Earth 700 years-ago, along with an army of similar machines to clean up the Earth after humans transformed it into a dump.  Although fairly old and rusted, Wall -E is the last functioning robot on Earth and methodically does his job, along with his pet cockroach until the day Eve comes to Earth seeking life and proof that the planet is once again habitable for humans. Will love help Wall -E and Eve help the human race to return to Earth, or is all their effort useless?



Compared to other Pixar films, Wall -E is a totally original concept that breaks from the usual Disney/Pixar formula, up to a certain point. There are no cuddly cure animals and pet sidekicks and dialogues are limited. Although not a bad looking robot, Wall –E doesn’t strike me as a photogenic action-figure ready concept – even though toys are available. Instead Wall –E is the result of what happens when a studio tries to tell a good story.



The story itself is not very complex and with the limited range of emotions a robot can share, the wild chase on the human-populated space station, occupies most of the film. There are many questions that Wall –E did not answer, like what happened to all the animals and why would it be easier to occupy a dirty planet today than in the past?



Still, the robot has his charms and his girl friend Eve feels so much like an Apple gadget that it felt that Steve jobs, Apple’s current chief operating officer and major shareholder and founder of Pixar, might finally agree that Wall –E’s PC looks might find love and understanding with the sleek Apple-like Eve.



Although Wall –E will make any audience laugh and some cry, it doesn’t have the magic of such films like Ratatouille or the Incredibles.  Compared to other Pixar films, it is a geeks’ movie. However, when looked apart from Pixar’s other films and compared to other post apocalyptic films Wall –E stands much better.

Rating: 9 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12