LogFAQs > #970196342

WALL-E (2008)
Directed by: Andrew Stanton
Written by: Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Pete Docter
Starring: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin
Previous status: Never seen

"Directive?"

Low on character development and interaction - I mean, there are only NINE total credited characters, several of them minor - and high on visuals and setting, WALL-E was a dramatic departure from Pixar's usual storycraft. Inspired by seeing love in Hello, Dolly, a robot gains sentience and finds a female robot with whom he quickly wishes to cyber. I mean, that's how robots fuck, yeah? When EVE lands on Earth, WALL-E just starts stalking her. He doesn't even go up to say "Hi" or try to help her. He just stares and this keeps him getting shot at. Her immediate aggression is... intimidating. But so is WALL-E not actually initiating conversation and only getting mauled by shopping carts. LOL!

It becomes immediately apparent that this movie has an underlying environmental message that, if we don't clean up our act, Earth really will look like this someday. Remember to reduce, reuse, and recycle, people! Don't litter and take care of things so you don't have to throw stuff out as often. Challenge corporations to be held more accountable for their wastefulness in the name of greed. But anyway, this is told through the setting and actions, not through dialogue. What little dialogue exists is adorably awkward - WALL-E and EVE saying each other's names. All his desperate attempts to impress her are actions only. She was certainly the plot twist his boring life needed. He was pointlessly compacting garbage for no real purpose, since Earth is a barren wasteland by then. Because corporations are assholes and consumerism is too rampant. Which is why everyone aboard the Axiom is basically an obese zombie, because they... don't walk anywhere.

The beautiful visuals are magnificent, and it makes me glad that I'm not overly consumeristic - yes, I bought all these DVDs, but so what? I'm not buying everything I want because I want it. I'm not maxing out my credit card. In fact, my credit score is 800 because I pay off anything before it becomes debt. While I am overweight, I still get 10,000 steps a day, and don't like being too sedentary except on the occasional necessary slug day. Really, I wouldn't want to live like this. Sure, some technology is nice to have. Like having a button to close your trunk is great when you've got your hands full, but why can't you ALSO close it the old-fashioned way when you put whatever IN the trunk? Know what I mean? That's what this is getting at. Dystopian sci-fi 101.

It's truly magnificent how this film can tell a story while hardly using words. It gets the point across: Technology is a good thing, but also a bad thing. Consumerism is a bad thing. Corporations are evil, and only care about their bottom line. Ppl r dum. I'm repeating myself a lot. You get the point. I get the message. I agree with the message. I don't fall victim to those things. I am smart with my money.

Thinking EVE is being tortured by a diagnostic procedure, WALL-E inadvertently releases a bunch of faulty robots onto the airship. This was a triumph. In what was a corporate scheme, the cleaning robot puts the plant in a pod that he programs to go kablooie, but WALL-E recovers it and survives the boom with a fire extinguisher. Okay then. He returns the plant to EVE - there's a lot of affection between these two, even in the vacuum of space. WALL-E's space dance is noticed by Mary and John, two humans he'd previously encountered, who... actually connect socially instead of using robotic screen devices or whatever. I must inquire... how do people on the Axiom procreate? Brave New World type shit? ORGY PORGY FORD AND FUN, KISS THE GIRLS AND MAKE THEM ONE...

Okay, now that that tangent's done, the "Auto" robot (the pre-Siri Apple voice, because Steve Jobs was evil) reveals itself to be the villain, trying to control the lemmings for its own satisfaction. The recordings of a LIVE PRESIDENT show the story of Earth's end - and Auto is immediately challenged by the Captain, who wants to freaking live. Surviving is only part of life. There's no point of being sentient if that's all you are - you exist, but are suspended in the universe, serving no purpose. During the scuffle in the garbage chute, WALL-E and EVE are officially introduced to MO, the cleaning robot who had painstakingly been cleaning up WALL-E's tracks before the Captain had him cleaned. Lots of fun stuff in the subsequent confrontations, namely with the defective robots taking out the drones, KNOWING that WALL-E and EVE are the good guys.

The Captain fakes Auto out by pretending he has the plant using a hologram of EVE carrying it and does battle, accidentally causing the ship to go into emergency mode and all the blobs of blubber to be evacuated centrally. Their chairs are all destroyed, so Auto's control over them is gone even if he still has the ship. The people watch the Captain get up as if it were a movie and do battle with the evil robot overlord, turning him off. The people suddenly learn to walk again as EVE mourns the death of WALL-E, crushed by the plant detector... and the Axiom hits light-speed, warping to what is left of Earth.

EVE returns to WALL-E's home, trying to revive him with the spare parts he's collected from his deceased colleagues. WALL-E comes back to life, with his solar recharge boosting... but he lacks the sentience he used to have. EVE tries to remind him of this, failing time after time... until she surprisingly kisses him. This... because robots... seems to restore WALL-E's last backup, stored inside EVE's memory. They hold hands and embrace, then presumably cyber. Earth is slowly restored by people doing actual work, living off the land, and taking care of each other.

Great movie. While it's practically the same movie as The Spirits Within, this had more plot and societal commentary. Both are visual masterpieces, but this one had a better story and that's the most important thing. I'd say Spirits Within had better characters because that wasn't a focal point of WALL-E. But it didn't need to be and succeeded in spite of that. Because I can't see myself returning to this one on a frequent basis, it's not going to get a gold, but it's still a 5/5.

@MetalmindStats I'll move your nomination to Up, which now has 3 votes so that'll be happening in the next few days for sure. Haven't had one hit three votes until now!