CINEMA: Wall-E

Time to reach out and give those wonderful people at Pixar a hug, for in Wall-E they have extended the reach of the animated feature to young and old, furry animal lovers and sci fi buffs, and each and every person in between. Forget this film is about an abandoned robot living on a devastated Earth where he picks up the trash, for more than anything else, Wall-E is a love story, a simple little romance that will melt your heart.

Once humans have ruined the eplanet with all their trash and waste, they don’t hang around to clean up. Instead they head off into space to find somewhere else to pollute while leaving behind Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth-Class robots (Wall-E for short) to do the dirty work for them. The centuries pass, the humans forget how to use their legs, and the robots break down until only one Wall-E is left.

Yes, he’s lonely, but he’s also a dedicated worker, and with his faithful pet cockroach at his side, he keeps sifting through the rubbish looking for treasures such as Rubik’s Cubes, flowerpots and a much-played tape of Hello, Dolly!. But then, one day he hits the motherlode; he finds a green shoot on the barren land. This turns out to be his extra-special lucky day because his discovery brings a sophisticated search-robot called EVE to earth and Wall-E is immediately smitten.

From hereonin the enchantment just takes over as Wall-E tries to impress EVE with his ‘treasures’ (like every sensible woman she fails to be impressed) and show her the wonders of his world, while she’s in a hurry to get the evidence that life has returned back to Earth to the waiting humans. The action then moves to the mother spaceship and Wall-E embarks on all sorts of adventures in order to win the heart of his ladylove.

This is movie-making and storytelling of superlative quality – it’s not soppy and cutesy, nor is it knowing and snide. Instead we get a hero who is exactly that – heroic – even though he does resemble a battered can on caterpillar tracks. But he’s honourable and brave and even rather silly in his besotted state. Meanwhile, the sleek EVE starts out as an old-fashioned damsel in distress, only to show her mettle (and a knack for emergency robot repair) when needed.

With a supporting cast of misfit robots and waddling humans who are too fat to actually walk, this is a film that has a little bit of something for everyone of every age, and works on so many levels (you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll go all gooey) you may want to return to the cinema immediately after the first viewing to watch all that magic over again.      Dee Pilgrim