Film Reviews

WALL-E

• Rating:
• Director: Andrew Stanton
• Starring: (voices of) Ben Burtt, Sigourney Weaver, Kathy Najimy, Paul Eiding
• Details: USA / 97mins / (G)

Wall-E's message is the flip side to Kung Fu Panda's: where as the Dreamworks vehicle suggests that obesity is okay as long as you're comfortable with it, their Pixar rivals say that that obesity, along with consumerism and corporate greed, could end civilisation as we know it. Fair play, Pixar, who manage to throw the importance of the environment and love into the mix too. Earth has been so overrun by garbage and trash, the planet's population are forced to take a vacation on a resort spaceship, run by the corporation Buy 'N Large, while menial robots scoot around tidying the place up. Over time, however, Wall E is the last robot still working and it's a lonely existence; his only company being a cockroach and a copy of the musical Hello Dolly. Into this scenario pops Eve, a pod-shaped droid with one directive: find evidence of photosynthesis so humans can return to Earth. Wall-E falls in love and follows Eve back to the spaceship where they uncover a conspiracy. Elements of Short Circuit, The Black Hole, ET, 2001 and even Robinson Crusoe are evident in this ambitious little number. The animation from the get-go is fantastic with director Stanton (Finding Nemo, A Bug's Life) arguably directing the first epic animation, trimming back on dialogue (the usual roll call of celebrity voices do not clog up the proceedings, although Weaver is predictably wasted as she is totally unrecognisable as the ship's computer) and letting the visuals do the talking. Where Wall-E lets itself down is the last half hour, which is basically an extended chase sequence that outstays its welcome. The animation, so arresting when it was just about robots, dips when humans enter the fray, while Stanton doesn't have a climax worthy of what has gone before. Still though, it's worth an hour and a half of your day.

Review by Gavin Burke