Movie Review 6: WALL.E – Tin Man with a heart

Title: WALL.E

Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes

Director: Andrew Stanton

Genre: Animation, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Comedy

Humans left Earth in a spaceship called Axiom while they left “Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class” (WALL.E) to clean up the Earth before they return. For centuries, WALL.E has routinely clean up the Earth while the humans live an extravagant and comfortable life on board of Axiom. The humans would return when there is a sign of new life on Earth. Thus, probes called “Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator” (EVE) are dispatched to Earth in search of new life. As chance had it, WALL.E found a plant hidden under a fridge and passed it to EVE. WALL.E had fallen in love with EVE and followed her back to AXIOM… and there, they found a new adventure awaits them.

This fine work by Pixar outstripped any of its previous works. It is by far the best animation that I have ever watched. The plot is simple but engaging, actions aplenty and humors are around every corner. Graphics-wise, it is stunning without too much emphasis on unnecessary stuff. And WALL.E is reeeeaaalllllyyyy CUTE and ADORABLE. Those “watery” eyes would disarm every children and females alike. And oh, the dance between WALL.E and EVA was really mesmerizing.

For those who did not know this, the film is mainly a voiceless movie. Well, the humans would still speak like any normal human beings, but the main characters (mainly the robots) usually utter only a single word at a time and off-key too. The sound made by WALL.E is produced by Ben Burtt, a sound engineer who made the sound of light sabers and heavy breathing of Darth Vader too. However, this doesn’t stop the movie from being an enjoyable one. The actions done by the robots to replace what they were saying were obvious and easy to see, thus, one should not have any difficulty in understanding what they are trying to say. Hey, as they said, a pictures speaks a thousand words :P.

The movie had me laughing all the time. I am usually able to keep my composure in comedy movies… only the best could have forced me to laugh out loud and WALL.E is one of such movies. Of course, it was so funny all the time that when it came to a supposedly heart-wrenching moment of the film, I felt nothing. Well, it is difficult to feel pity to a robot who actually managed to look cute and funny even when they die… ooops… spoiler :P. Just don’t think too much about some bizarre stuff and enjoy the movie… I mean, this movie is set in 2815… what do you know about the wonders of technology at that time? :P.

For those who like to be ‘fashionably’ late for movies, they should be punctual for this movie. There is a short film at the beginning which has nothing to do with WALL.E. At first, I thought I had gone into the wrong cinema hall. However, this short animated film is hilarious. It is also a voiceless short film and while the graphics are not as stunning as WALL.E, its plot and storyline will have you rolling on the cinema floor laughing uncontrollably. Of course, I cannot be too sure if this short film is available everytime one watches WALL.E, but I think it is a part of the movie handed out by Pixar.

A lot of reviewers have been anticipating this movie since “The Kung-Fu Panda” was extremely nice and they would like to know if Dreamworks would finally win in animation movie after being in a losing streak for several years. Sadly, I would have to say that Pixar has my vote for this year. While the Kung-Fu Panda is funny and good, it pales in comparison to the masterful work of WALL.E! WALL.E is definitely the perfect choice for both adults and children alike.

Observation: I still don’t know how the cockroach survived even when it was grinded over by WALL.E several times

Bottomline: A legendary epic!

Bamboo Ranking: 4.5 / 5.0