Wall-E

WALL·E: Film, 2008  Studio: Disney/Pixar Director: Andrew Stanton Run time: 98 minutes.

Plot: WALL-E is a robot who roams the earth as the only “creature” left (with the exception of one cockroach companion) after the earth can no longer support human life.  WALL-E gets up every morning and does what he was programed to do - collect and compress trash that has accumulated on the Earth’s surface.  Every once in awhile  he brings back some interesting piece of trash that he adds to his collection which includes a working video screen and old movies. One day the calm of WALL-E’s world is shattered by the landing of a giant spaceship out of which comes EVE, a modern robot sent back to Earth to determine if it can support life again.  WALL-E shares a small growing plant with EVE who is programmed to recognize this as a sign of life, stores it, and shuts down.  WALL-E is confused by EVE’s lack of response and when the spaceship returns for EVE, he goes with her. They arrive at a giant space station that is now home to all of the humans who evacuated earth. The humans are shuttled around on hovering chairs, watch video screens and are all overweight and out of shape.  The evil company issues a computer command to abort the plan to return to earth, but WALL-E, the captain and EVE all lead the humans in a mutiny against the company and it’s evil robots.  Will Earth ever be inhabited by humans again? What happens to the sole living plant?  Will WALL-E and EVE live happily ever after?

Review/Personal thoughts:  This is a great animated film!  Once again I am reminded of how difficult it is for me to place an upper age limit on the interest level of tween material because I, as an adult, love this film. The film has very few spoken words in the first half of the film, but there is no doubt about the communications and “feelings” that are taking place. Themes explored include; love, environmentalism, technology, life, longing, triumph, relationships and personal growth.  Highly recommended by this reviewer.

Rated: G

Interest Level: Ages 5 and up

Awards:  Academy Awards, Oscar, Best Animated Feature Film of the Year, 2009