WALL-E Masterpiece from Pixar Studios

Cover of Wall-E (Single-Disc Edition)

WALL-E, does not seem to be the name of a cute visionary robot who is the only working robot on a devastated, barren earth full of mechanical debris. With the history of so many super hit animated movies, Pixar was bound to deliver another master piece to maintain their high profile of producing great animated movies and they did it with shining colors.

WALL-E which stands for Waste Allocator Load Lifter – Earth Class, pretty long name for a cute small robot that abbreviates  beautifully as WALL-E and really sounds charming from EVE, the female heroine robot( yes, she is the heroine in this movie). WALL-E is probably the first robot whose got a heart and a heart lover EVE.

The film starts with the scenes where WALL-E is cleaning up the trash and is the only working robot left on earth. The humans have left the unhabitable toxicated planet earth on a spaceship habitat  AXIOM created by Buy N Large corporation( who also created WALL-E). WALL-E wakes up everyday with the orchestral bells of Macintosh(Pixar paid tribute to its old founder Steve Jobs) and performs his duty with an amazing human touch. He does not trash everything that comes his way rather builds a treasure of his own containing a plastic dinosaur, light bulb, small seedling saved in an old boot. He concludes his day watching old video tape of Hello Dolly which shows his taste for music and dance, another humanly characteristic.

His lonely life changes dramtically with the arrival of futuristic probe robot, EVE, who is sent by Axiom to scan earth for any signs of habitual life instantly wins WALL-E’s heart. EVE and WALL-E become friends gradually and their courtship is brilliantly done without dialogues and words, only with the help of beeps and chirps which is remarkable achievement of sound directors. To impress beautiful EVE who is as beautiful and sleek as iPhone(according to NY Times), WALL-E presents her the seedling in the boot. EVE stores the seedling inside her body,sends a return message to ship and goes into hibernation due to her automated  system. WALL-E does not abide her status and does everything to bring her back to life even going on a date with her to reactivate it. WALL-E clings to the ship that takes EVE back to space.

On the Axiom, humans have become extremely obese and suffered great bone loss after living in microgravity and relying entirely on ship’s automated system. The ship is controlled less by captain and mostly by the autopilot, AUTO. Captain learns that if EVE has brought a plant from earth then they can travel back to Earth as it has become habitable again but the plant is missing when EVE is opened which results in her dispatch to repair ward. WALL-E mistakenly takes it for torture on EVE and accidently releases malfunctioning robots. EVE gets angry and discovers the missing plant while attempting to send WALL-E back to earth. WALL-E manages to escape with the plant and EVE gives him an electric KISS before a overjoyed spacewalk around the Axiom.

The captain reviews EVE’s visual records and get convinced that humans need to return back to Earth. EVE also falls in love with WALL-E after watching her own visuals where WALL-E was lovingly taking care of her and cutely trying to saving her from harsh environment out of his humanly robotic love. AUTO electrocutes WALL-E and send him to a garbage store with EVE and declares to captain that it wont let Captain to activate the holo-detector.

EVE struggles with the help of malfunctioning robots and succeeds in placing the plant in holo-detector which activates the ship back to Earth. On reaching the Earth and fixing WALL-E, EVE gets hearts on finding that WALLE-E has lost his memory. EVE gives him a farewell kiss which dramatically brings his memory back and they reunite in humanly robotic way. Various forms of Arts are shown at the end of the film including Egyptian hieroglyphics, Grecian urns, Da Vinci sketches and paintings of Vincent Van Gogh۔

Its a true and unique story between two robots that teaches to stick to the love no matter how bleak and gloomy the situation seems. It gives an environmental message in a very subtle and beautiful way without a taunting and authoritarian style.

Andrew Stranton,  who won Oscar in 2004 for Finding Nemo has achieved unimaginable heights with this master stroke of animation blended with elusive love.

Reviews

This film has approval rating of 96% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and score of 94 on metacritic.

 

The first 40 minutes or so, in which barely any dialogue is lspoken, and almost no human figures appear, is a cinematic poem of such wit and beauty that its darker implications may take a while to sink in.       New York Times

The Hollywood Reporter declared that WALL-E surpassed the achievements of Pixar's previous eight features and probably their most original film to date. It had the "heart, soul, spirit and romance" of the best silent films.

Once again, the Pixar wizards have pushed the animation envelope in unexpected directions and come up with a winner. Wondrously inventive, funny and poignant, WALL*E is part sci-fi adventure, part cautionary fable, part satire and part love story, which may be the best and most improbable part of all.   Newsweek

 

Awards and Nominations

WALL-E won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing at the 81st Academy Awards.  ( Wikipedia)

from the Boston Society of Film Critics (tied with Slumdog Millionaire), the Chicago Film Critics Association,the Central Ohio Film Critics awards, the Online Film Critics Society, and most notably the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, where it became the first animated feature to win the prestigious award

TIME ranks WALL-E #1 in "Best Movies of the Decade"

It won all three awards it was nominated for by the Visual Effects Society: Best Animation, Best Character Animation (for WALL-E and EVE in the truck) and Best Effects in the Animated Motion Picture categories

It won Best Animated Feature Film at the 66th Golden Globe Awards, 81st Academy Awards and the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2008

(Source WALL-E Awards on Wikipedia )