In spite of being a robot designed to clean-up a planet earth devastated by waste and evacuated of human beings over seven hundred years ago, Wall-E can appreciate a good tune. Indeed, Wall-E is a hopeless romantic with a cockroach for a pet. Like many of us, he is also a constant collector of junk. He loves old toys, silverware, lightbulbs, and finds the box holding a diamond ring much more intriguing than the ring within.
During the first part of the Pixar animated film Wall-E we follow Wall-E's daily routine of compacting trash into cubes, stacking and arranging the cubes into tall structures, and accumulating objects which attract him along the way in his plastic lunchbox.
In the evenings he returns to his protective shelter where he plugs in his glittering mini-lights, unloads his booty onto a revolving storage shelf, organizing it very particularly by category. He feeds his cockroach a twinkie. Then he transfers his precious tape of the movie "Hello Dolly," into his monitor contraption and listens to "Get Out Your Sunday Shoes," and "It Only Takes A Moment," with a rapt intensity to rival any lover of movie musicals. Wall-E wants to dance. Wall-E wants to fall in love. Wall-E knows how to keep himself busy and content in spite of living alone on a planet ruined by the very beings who created him.
I took my daughter to see Wall-E twice, and I'm looking forward to more viewing opportunities. Well, I have to admit, I own most of Pixar's animated creations because I'm like most parents with children my daughter's age or younger. While the kids memorize the one-liners, I memorize the soundtracks. Most of Pixar's animated films are lovely. But Wall-E goes above and beyond. The sparsity of human dialogue is refreshing. The "green" message is timely and very well-delivered. The contrast of the human world with the machine world invites us to contemplate a variety of rather frightening "what ifs." I was enamored of the relative absence of the violence factor, the nonexistence of sexual inuendo, and the lack of "evil must be avenged" morality.
In contrast I can think of a dozen Disney animated films rife with the above where I have left the theatre feeling manipulated, outraged at the inaccurate portrayal of real historic events, and totally frustrated with the predictable plot packaging. Yes, we live in a commercial world. But Disney doesn't seem to mind offending the typical movie-goer with its blatant profiteering and pandering to the success formula.
Of course the folks at Pixar exist in the same capitalist bubble as Disney. But innovation and a desire to impart something with more depth and lasting meaning seem to be an important part of their creative process. It's definitely part of the spinal column of the movie Wall-E.
If you want to go to a simple, beautifully crafted and innocently touching film, go see Wall-E. You don't have to be a kid or a parent or even a tree-hugger to leave the theater feeling positive and wanting to make a parasol to dance under with a piece of garbage.
