WALL-E (2008)
If you didn't see WALL-E or it isn't fresh in your mind, you don’t even know what you are missing. This is an enchanting film. It was one of the year's best when it came out and still resonates just as strongly years later.
Set in the far future, Earth has become a literal dump. Garbage is piled sky high and humanity abandoned the planet centuries ago. On the surface, the only sign of life isn’t alive at all. A tiny robot named WALL-E who has been cleaning up the surface for who knows how long. When a probe comes to determine if the planet has become habitable again, WALL-E is immediately smitten by the robotic EVE.
If you needed more proof of Andrew Stanton and Pixar studios' title as expert filmmakers, this is it. In 2009, District 9 made us sympathize with creepy bugs. One year prior, Wall-E made us believe in a genuine, deep romance between two robots… without using any dialogue. This movie is about more than this relationship, but I want to address it first. Although we are following two mechanical objects, WALL-E and EVE are true, three-dimensional, living, breathing characters. WALL-E is delightfully eccentric. "He" likes music, dancing (well, what a legless droid can pass for dancing), collecting, and is fiercely loyal. There are so many laugh-out-loud moments as the little machine takes a break from his regular duties to sift through humanity’s garbage (often being fascinated by mundane things and tossing away precious objects like they were nothing). You fall in love with the little guy. When he happens upon a new robot, excitement fills your every pore. Will EVE respond with affection? She seems awfully trigger-happy to be a love interest. How will her mission objective impact the story?
This film is more than romantic sequences and big laughs. It’s also a great adventure. There's plenty of tension as our heroes find themselves in unexpected peril - tension made thicker and more nerve-wracking because the characters are so memorable and endearing. It’s also a smart science fiction film that serves as a cautionary tale (the best science fiction stories often do). All of these elements are expertly integrated to feel organic, accessible, and genuinely moving. While Illumination relied on cartoonish villains that even the most “evil” corporate fat cats would recognize as ridiculous, WALL-E uses subtlety and proves a thousand times more effective - even without dialogue.
There's nothing not to like about WALL-E. It has learned from the very best silent films to cut out all the unnecessary dialogue. Instead, it uses its characters' performances, the visuals, and its imagination to say so much more. Its poignant drama, thrills, and laughs give it universal appeal. Even the end credits are spectacular. (On Blu-ray, July 3, 2015)
