Movie Review--Wall-E

When I am visiting my family, which includes my 5-year-old niece and 8-year-old nephew, I sometimes see movies I wouldn't otherwise see. Wall-E was one I probably wouldn't have thought of seeing on my own, but the kids wanted to see it. When I heard it was about robots, I hoped it would be a short movie.

However, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, the main characters are robots, but the movie is clever and engaging, for adults as well as kids.

We first meet Wall-E, a solar-powered robot, several hundred years into the future. He is back on planet Earth, apparently by himself, cleaning up garbage. Since he doesn't speak at first, the viewer learns what is going on indirectly. A stray newspaper indicates that the Earth is covered with garbage, and indeed Wall-E is surrounded by garbage to clean up. Skyscrapers around him are actually constructed out of garbage. He has a big storage area where he retires at night which has electricity and is festooned with Christmas tree lights. He watches old movies on TV, and at one point we see an old advertisement, from which we learn that all the people on earth went aboard a giant spaceship while the garbage was being cleaned up.

Wall-E's world changes dramatically one day when a spaceship lands and dispatches another robot named Eve. Wall-E is instantly smitten and tries to impress her by showing her his few treasures. The tiny green plant he found one day and and transplanted into an old shoe gets the biggest reaction. Eve takes the plant and both of them end up aboard the spaceship Axiom, where they find many extremely overweight and lazy humans who are used to having everything done for them, waiting to one day be able to go home again. Wall-E and Eve get caught up in a plot regarding the fate of the plant and the people aboard the spaceship.

The story is just so clever that it is difficult to do it justice in describing it. Much of the story of the robots is told through their actions rather than dialog. It's a science fiction story with a message, and one that is important for adults to see as well as children.