Quartile rating: 8.5/10 · 5 ratings
What if mankind had to leave Earth and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off? After hundreds of years doing what he was built for, WALL•E discovers a new purpose in life when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL•E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet's future, and races back to space to report to the humans. Meanwhile, WALL•E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets into motion one of the most imaginative adventures ever brought to the big screen.
WALL·E is a singular achievement in animation and science fiction filmmaking. Its opening act — nearly wordless, achingly lonely, and visually poetic — stands as some of the most distinctive and emotionally resonant filmmaking Pixar has ever produced. Roger Deakins served as visual consultant, and the cinematography shows it: the desolate Earth sequences and the vast, gorgeous space vistas are genuinely exceptional, earning a 4. Novelty is equally high — the film's willingness to open with a half-hour of nearly silent pantomime storytelling in a blockbuster animated feature is genuinely audacious and one-of-a-kind. The plot, while emotionally affecting, does lose some momentum once the action shifts to the Axiom — the satire of consumer culture becomes somewhat blunt and the human characters remain thinly sketched, keeping it at a 3. The voice and sound design do enormous work in place of traditional acting, earning a respectable 3 rather than a 4 given the limited human cast. The ending is warm and satisfying but slightly conventional for such a daring film — the romance resolves neatly and the during/after-credits sequences are charming but the finale doesn't quite match the audacity of the opening, landing at a 3.