Movie Review | Wall-E

Here’s what I don’t understand. Cinemas in Jordan are absolutely convinced that any movie that does not contain real people is automatically a children film and thus they show them only during the day and early afternoon. You will never see a film like Kung Fu Panda or Wall-E, both, which, with all due respect to the kids, I feel are designed for adult audiences and not their young versions. Yet, the latest you can watch it is at 7pm. Who the heck goes to the cinema at 7pm?!

Anyways. Now that that rant is over. Wall-E is probably one of the best animated features I have ever seen in my life. For once you don’t have to be taken aback by your favorite on-screen persona doing a voice in 3D; it’s just robots, so the dialog is pretty slimmed down to beeps and electronica. What you get instead is an enjoyable story about a lonely garbage-smashing robot named Wall-E who is all alone on the planet Earth, and then one day, gets a chance to leave and even fall in love. A strange concept to explain in words, but a wonderful thing to see unfold on the silver screen. The film is about many things. It is about how dependent we are on electronics and robotics, and how that future may not be so bright. It’s about how distracted we can be by these same conveniences that we forget about fundamental human interaction. And yeah, to an extent, it’s also about the environment and will want to make you plant a tree when you leave the theater.

The animation is absolutely breathtaking, or in other words, as we have grown to expect from the creative geniuses at Pixar. The story was actually conceived even before Toy Story was ever made, yet, I think it has arrived at the best possible time. We’re probably even more dependent on electronics than we were a decade ago. The movie features some stellar directing from Andrew Stanton, who is responsible for Pixar’s greatest works over the past decade, including Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc. The audience is really taken for a ride through outer-space and the realism of a garbage-ridden planet Earth is just incredible.

With little dialog all throughout, what fills its place and really stands out is the soundtrack. Thomas Newman pulls off some amazing orchestra-driven music that I’ve never heard the likes of in an animated feature, and it’s enough to really get you listening and inspired.

Wall-E is easily one of my favorite animated characters of all time. He is original and unique, and probably defines my generation more than anything else I’ve seen on the big screen. It’s a family film, but I think it has too much heart to be missed by adults.