WALL-E

Robots Need Love Too

By RUSSELL BRESLOW

del.ico.us | digg it! | reddit!

print | email | 0 Comments

It seems the suits at Disney gave Andrew Stanton plenty of freedom for his newest project, WALL-E. His previous writing and directorial venture was Finding Nemo, which brought in a cool $850 million worldwide and is the highest grossing Pixar film ever. Stanton used that freedom and did something rare for a Disney movie; the first 20 minutes have virtually no words.

WALL-E, which is short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth Class (Wall-E sounds better than Wall-EC), is a lonely little robot that someone forgot to turn off after all the humans bailed earth to live in a giant spaceship. Earth is a desolate and polluted landscape 700 years in the future, and WALL-E, alongside his pet cockroach, spends his days collecting and compacting trash. As a hobby WALL-E accumulates relics to occupy his time, all of which just happen to be from the last 50 years of American culture. A Rubik's Cube, a spork, an iPod, even a betamax copy of Hello, Dolly!, which he watches in awe as he learns what love is. Everything changes when a sexy lil' robot named Eve comes to earth to look for plant life. Our futuristic garbage man instantly falls in love and may finally have someone to share his collection of junk with.

The plot seems emblematic of a typical Disney movie, but Stanton (who concocted the story with Peter Docter) tells this story exceptionally well. You can't believe that such a bleak outlook for human life on earth can be so entertaining and visually appealing. Ben Burtt, who created R2-D2's "voice," composes the sound design, and his work more than compensates for the lack of dialogue. WALL-E should be another huge success for Disney and Pixar, that is, as long as audiences are patient enough to sit through a feature-length silent film.

WALL-E

RATED | G

NOW SHOWING | AMC LOEWS BOSTON COMMON, REGAL FENWAY STADIUM, FRESH POND, SHOWCASE CINEMAS REVERE, AMC CHESTNUT HILL