Pixar's Wall-e

While this blog was started as a means of supporting the CBS Show Jericho, and then after its cancellation the first time a blog to support the efforts of the fans to save Jericho, it has now become a blog for many media shows I like. Today I want to tell you about the movie Wall-e, I hope you have had a chance to see it in the movies but in case you have not and are wondering if it is a worth while item for a Christmas Present ... read this ~

I am not one to instantly take to a 'kids' movie, my kids are getting older and are not so easy impressed as they once were with such movies as The Lion King, Aladdin and other movies. There are a few exceptions to this with my kids who are really now young adults, Finding Nemo was really great, Robots was very good and now we can add Wall-e to that list.

I was instantly struck by the graphics as were the kids, because these kids today actually work in graphics everyday while doing web site construction on the web. They know their stuff, believe me. And a few minutes into Wall-e and you are struck by the colors and details they portray.

The movie starts with a small robot, Wall-e * which stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class* who is still doing his job of cleaning up the mess that we humans have left centuries before. At first you think the towers you are seeing are remnants of buildings in the city but you quickly realize that those 'towers' are made up of all the garbage that people left on the planet. You come to see that the reason there are no humans on the planet is because they all left , they ruined Earth. It is a not so subtle message but one that makes you think.

One day while Wall-e whose job it is to gather up the garbage and make them into small squares which he stacks into the towers , he finds a large container that he cuts open and inside he finds a small seedling. Wall-e seems to realize it is special and he digs it out of its ground carefully and places it inside an old boot he had found. He takes this treasure back to his home.
Later a visitor comes to the planet. A small robot which is called EVE. Eve is on earth as a fact finder , searching for signs of life.

At first EVA is not so taken with our little Wall-e and they share some funny adventures. A dust storm soon comes and Wall-e must take EVA with him back to his home which is filled with so many trinkets of past human lives, a Rubik's cube, lights for a Christmas Tree and his treasure, a beaten copy of Hello Dolly that he loves to watch and sing to. Then Wall-e shows Eve his other treasure , the seedling and she scans it. This is her directive, to find life. When her systems recognize that it has accomplished its task it shuts Eve down to await a ship to retrieve her.

Poor Wall-e does not know this and spends a day trying desperately to wake Eve up, going through some funny but also sad adventures with Eve along the way. Finally he realizes she is not going to wake up and he tries to go back to his work, gathering up the refuse of past civilization.

The ship does come back for Eve and as it is scooping Eve up, Wall-e is racing to get to her, but when he sees she has been placed in side the ship he jumps onto the ship.

From here you get to see Wall-es adventure into space, and then aboard the Ship Axiom where after 700 years humans have become sloth like animals who never walk or move. They just go through the motions of a life attached to a Twitter like hologram projection right in front of their faces ( even though the people they are talking to is in the hover chair right next to them!)
That part made me think of all the time I spend on the net, using text based programs to chat, and surf the web.... yikes. And in this span of 700 years some of the changes in humans are scary.... massive loss of bone for one thing.

I will leave the rest of this review to you, I suggest you rent a copy or buy it if you have kids. You will love this movie , its a love story with a truly happy ending for both the robots and the humans. There are great adventures, many laughs and some things to think about as well.

Wall-e has great art work, many things that will give you occasions to actually talk with your kids about what is going on with our planet and how we can help.It's just really nice to have a movie that you can sit down with the whole family and watch. If you want to order it online or just want to check out the fantastic website that goes with Wall-e you just have to click on the widget below!

I hope you enjoy the movie as we did!