To Bathe in Filmic Waters

WALL·E | Andrew Stanton, 2008

In this day and age where theatrical releases are commonly referred to as ‘international events’, it baffles me that the staggered release is still so widely implemented. Pixar, just like their parent company Disney have always made their money in the hot summer months. A time when kids are experiencing a waning need to be entertained, and their parents are looking for the perfect way to fulfil this. It makes little sense then that it has taken almost half a year since the American release of Pixar’s latest – WALL·E – for the film to make its way to Italy and one of Europe’s bigger capital cities. Still, as a dedicated fan of the studio I faithfully took to my local multiplex on a cold mid-week evening in mid-October, happy enough that there were few others around to distract me. To begin this review with bitterness would be an injustice however, because Pixar’s new hero is powered by entirely the opposite. WALL·E is a rusty waste-collecting robot deployed on earth to help with the “great cleanup” almost 700 years previous, employed by a large corporation as Earth was evacuated amid fears that its mounting level of garbage had become too much. Our little robotic friend has faithfully stuck to his task, building towers of trash to rival the empty landscape’s derelict skyscrapers. His day consists of a routine built around function and inspired by curiosity, a routine that is brought to a crashing halt by the appearance of another robot named EVE. WALL·E quickly becomes fascinated by this new introduction to his lonely World, and it is this fascination that opens the door for an incredible interstellar adventure.

While with Disney’s films the idea of ‘love’ was never far away, Pixar have always had trouble grasping and implementing this concept. Indeed, the closest they have come was in 2003 with their aquatic adventure Finding Nemo, a film that showcases a Father’s love for his son and remains my favourite of theirs. Neither Finding Nemo, WALL·E, nor any of the other Pixar films have tackled and portrayed romance in the way Lady and the Tramp or Robin Hood did, but this latest effort has a certain warmth to it that surely evokes the Disney classics of old. It is a warmth that inspires a certain degree of surprise considering exactly how it has been created. This is a film, we must remember, thats main protagonist is a non-speaking robot, a film that uses very little dialogue. Despite the innocence of its quirky protagonist, Pixar do go out of their way to present a number of not-so-subtle political and social messages throughout the film, least not the big, brash corporation to which WALL·E was born. When we finally do encounter humans they are obese, boneless and disabled. Moulded by centuries of consumer living. While I find it admirable that Pixar feel the need to bring such important issues as obesity to the attention of America’s collective conscience, here it just distracts from what the film is really about. WALL·E is about wonder, about innocence – about a little fellow whose inconceivable journey opens the eyes of an entire race and allows them to experience innocence once again. Not only is this Pixar’s most accomplished film to date, it is also undoubtedly their most ambitious.

Our Rating: