The Pelican’s Perch

Ah, where to begin with this fantastic movie.  Wall-E, Pixar’s latest masterpiece, left me completely in awe and smiling ear to ear as I left the theatre.  As most of you know, Wall-E follows a robot of the same name, who has fulfilled his trash compacting duties on Earth for the 700 years since humans left the inhabitable planet.  He travels the city with his cockroach sidekick without a care in the world doing his duties, rarely noticing the monotony.  He is a robot after all.  But one of the things that instantly makes the movie so memorable is Wall-E showing that he is, in fact, way more than a simple robot.  He has heart, he has character, and Pixar’s ability to make you care for Wall-E when he’s all alone on Earth at the beginning is a feat in itself.

Soon, Eve enters the mix and the story quickly changes from a quirky robot alone on Earth, to a quirky robot in love.  Eve is dropped off to scan for any plantlife left on Earth and as Wall-E falls more and more for this mysterous new robot, they eventually become somewhat of friends.  A trip to Wall-E’s storage shed, where he keeps all his collectables, leads to his showing her a plant he recently found.  This prompts her to grab it and automatically turn into a lifeless homing beacon for the ship to come pick up since she completed her mission.

This is about the first 15 minutes of the movie, where we get to see Wall-E in all his sensitive, quirky glory, but the minute Wall-E chases Eve to the ship as it’s taking her away and grabs hold, that’s when the movie really takes off.  I won’t describe the plot much more than that, as there are quite a few surprises I didn’t see coming, but I’ll just mention briefly the portrayal of the remaining human race.  Brain-washed, overweight, and stuck in floating chairs constantly messaging others on the ship, buying whatever the computer tells them, and even changing suit colors when the computer states, “Blue is the new red.  Try it!”.  So, they press a button and their suits are now blue.  In our world of supersized fast-food meals, instant internet shopping, and our “have to have it this instant” attitudes, I found the human portrayal in Wall-E to be hilarious.

Andrew Stanton, director of Wall-E, as well as Finding Nemo, A Bug’s Life, and Toy Story 2, proves with this movie that he is right up their with Brad Bird, who is one Pixar’s top director (Ratatouille, Incredibles, Iron Giant).  Like all of Pixar’s movies, the attention to detail in the story is evident throughout every aspect of the movie.  People often look at my movie collection and see that I have most of Pixar’s movies and ask the usual, “Really, aren’t those kids’ movies?”, which I promptly answer with, “I guess you haven’t seen them have you?”  Just because they’re animated, doesn’t make them simple kids movies.  And Wall-E may be Pixar’s most widely accepted example of this fact.  Kids will enjoy it sure, but the themes of lonliness, searching for true love, and over-excessive cultures, both with consumerism and life in general, are represented in spades throughout the movie. I found it to be subtle political satire at its best.  Barely noticable, but just as powerful.

The movie really just needs to be seen to be truly appreciated.  I could rant all day long about why I loved the movie, but I’d say just go see the movie as soon as humanly possible if you haven’t already.  It’s not the highest rated movie of the year (94% on metacritic) for nothing.  Make sure not to get lost in the story and Wall-E’s personality so much you miss the visuals, which, I must say, are Pixar’s best to date in my mind.  But we really expect nothing less anymore from Pixar.

Wall-E has a really good chance of being my favorite movie of the year after all is said and done, with only The Dark Knight having much of a chance of topping it.  If something does come along and dethrones it, well, then I’ll probably have a new movie to put in my top 10 all-time list.  As it stands now though, Wall-E can really be summed up best with a quote from Robert Wilonsky’s Village Voice review.

“It’s a film that’s both breathtakingly majestic and heartbreakingly intimate”  I could have just written that quote and spared you the long review.  But that wouldn’t have been too much fun now would it?

Wall-E
Perch Score: 9.698