Wall-E -

The middle ground

Neither brilliant nor terrible Wall-E certainly seems to have pushed peoples buttons. The Americans didn't 'get it' & a lot of people here seem upset that it dared to have some sort of agenda other than providing 2 hours of peace & quiet from the nippers during the summer hols.
The story is very simple, mankinds ruined Earth & has moved off into space until things improve. The last working robot whose job is to tidy up meets a robot sent by the humans to see if things have improved. They end up on the spaceship where all the,(now totally chairbound & useless), humans are & between them engineer a return to Earth.
There is much to admire here. The animation is nothing new but continues Pixar's quality approach to the genre & there is much to admire. While not much laugh out loud happens there is a lot of gentle humour. The robot of the title is rather sweet & while the relationship between him & the newcomer can get a bit sickly it still has charm.
The message is a little heavy handed but having just returned from 5 weeks in the USA I'm afraid that a subtle message would be a complete waste of time,(the 'bot's name resembling the US's largest store is no accident),. Americans don't do subtlety & are certainly choosing to ignore the environment.
Should a cartoon be the place for an environmental message? Why not? Nobody complains about the constant bombardment of 'why can't we all just be friends' & 'we all need family' messages carried by just about every other cartoon so whats the problem here?
On the other hand I can see the point of those who feel that their children were bored. I went with my wife & youngest daughter & they were bored too! The problem I feel is that because of the need to make as much money as possible this had to be aimed at kids whereas it would have probably have been far more successful aiming more for adults & making that clear in the trailers.
Nevertheless while not Pixars finest this was still enjoyable & was perhaps a first bold step away from the 'children only' approach to cartoons that has dominated for so long.
It's not hard to see both the pro & anti viewpoints as all having merit in the reviews. If you haven't seen Wall-E yet then try to approach with an open mind. Expect something slower than you're used to & a strong green message & you should find much to enjoy. If you don't normally like cartoons then who knows this may change your mind.
If you have children then perhaps a rental 1st may help avoid disappointment.
The future of film making is turning towards animation whether we like it or not. It is quicker & way cheaper,(no actors or sets!),. At some point someone had to look to change direction & do something bold. This is not a full hearted attempt to turn everything around in animation but it is a big step in that direction & the fact that it has come from the worlds largest animation company should be enough to make us all sit up, take notice & anticipate many changes in the not too distant future.

Life changing film!

This film is more than film. Not only is it a heart-warming tear jerking spectacle, it's also an important commentary on the way the world is going. From the technology obsessed humans, the only reality to come out of it is a robot, with feelings. Wall E is the ultra cute lonely robot who has been cleaning up the humans mess on earth for over seven hundred years. The junk he has filtered through and his VHS of 'Hello Dolly' has made a lasting impression on his hardware, he wants to be loved. EVE, Wall E's future love is sent from the humans to scan earth for life, in the process she and Wall E meet and their journey of love takes off.
This film is not only the best Pixar animations film both visually it's one of the most important films of the century, which will be loved and studied for many years to come.

The 9th wonder of the Pixar World

Quite simply the ninth wonder of the Pixar world, a decent amount of funny moments, simple but effective story that contains everything to make it a watchable film. Im going to watch this film again at the cinema. HIGHLY RECOMMED

What A Loada Love - Exceptional

In Pixar's latest creation, humans have left earth and one robot is left to clean it up, and one day, another robot, EVE, is sent to earth to look for life forms, and Wall-E instantly falls in love.

This has to be, with hardly a shadow of a doubt, Pixar's most loveable creation, a true romantic Sci-Fi tale about loneliness and love, which will have you reaching for your tissues towards the end, and have you giggling with laughter throughout.

Though Pixar have created many masterpieces including Toy Story, Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo, Wall-E is certainly the most loveable, if not quite the funniest. The whole concept of being alone in the universe, with no one around and just yourself for company is a very delicate human emotion that the mast majority of people out there will have felt at one point in their lives, and to have it symbolized through a small and cute robot justifies the emotion beautifully, and makes the film sad, as well as heart warming.

The majority of modern day films have viewers gasping at the special effects, and though brilliant, take a back seat to the plot and the whole ideology of love.

The plot is consistent, with physical humour encoded, creating the light-hearted effect, the ideology of love and loneliness beautifully emphasised by Andrew Stanton's direction, which has to be the best direction ever used in any animation.

How many animations start with a bird's eye view, looking down at a character, far away from the central focus of the camera? The direction is so diverse, so different and always achieves the necessary effects that it is everything that you could ever want.

The direction also has great use of the symbols of humanity in the film such as Rubik cubes and light bulbs, and ironically the robots are more humane than the humans.

Wall-E and Eve are a great pairing and are so interesting to watch and the jokes and fun that the two can create for the audience is amazing, and the growth of their love and friendship is well used and has anything you, and the whole family could ever want from a film, and is a symbol of what loneliness and love, are really like.

9.5/10

Possibly the best animated childrens film made to date!

Quite possibly the best childrens animated film to date. The space scenes are absolutely amazing, so much so that it is difficult to believe you are looking at computer generated graphics. From an adult perspective I found it interesting how the storyline suggested that, in the future, humans reliance on robots and technology will lead to widespread laziness and obesity... Interesting......