June 27th, 2008
Rated G
Andrew Stanton (dir.)
Ben Burtt as WALL•E / M-O (voice)
Elissa Knight as Eve (voice)
Jeff Garlin as Captain (voice)
Fred Willard as Shelby Forthright, BnL CEO
MacInTalk as Auto (voice)
John Ratzenberger as John (voice)
Kathy Najimy as Mary (voice)
Sigourney Weaver as Ship's Computer (voice)
Our reviews below:
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WALL•E Review By John C.
**** (out of 4)
Beautiful. Mesmerizing. Thrilling. Exciting. Absolutely incredible. Wall•e is truly amazing. Having said all this I still have not even begun to describe this movie, because no matter what words you use you will still have to see it to believe it. If you have seen the trailers you still don’t know just how good it is. Go see it. Now. The movie starts on Earth in the year 2815 AD, with a single Waste Allocation Load-Lifter Earth class robot (WALL•E) still going through piles of trash that the humans left behind when they all left some 700 years ago to find a better life up in space. He is extremely lonely, his only friend is a cockroach and is home is an old truck filled with old knick-knacks that have intrigued him, including a Rubiks cube, an ipod, a spork, and a bunch of lighters. But his prized possession is a tape of Hello, Dolly! which he watches everyday and is enchanted by the sight of two people holding hands. Until one day a space ship lands and out comes EVE, a sleek, new probe-bot who’s directive is to find a sign of something, anything that would let the humans return to Earth. Wall•e falls in love with her, and no sooner then she arrived, she is whisked back into space. Wall•e follows her and sets into motion a sci-fi action- adventure that is also funny and touching, causing everyone to rethink their life and realize the point of actually living, not just existing. This should not only go for best animated feature come Oscar time, it should also go for best picture. It truly is that amazing.
Presto review by John C.
**** (out of 4)
A new Pixar feature means a new Pixar short. This time we get the hilarious Presto, about a magician (Presto) and his rabbit (Alec) who always seems to have a carrot just out of reach, which leads to really funny Looney Tunes style results.
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WALL•E Review By Erin V.
**** (out of 4)
Before the movie began there was a new PIXAR short film called ‘Presto’, about a magician and his rabbit. It is a very funny and entertaining short, with the humour being similar to a Bugs Bunny cartoon. This being said, like the movie, I give it four stars. Now on to the movie review.
WALL•E stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth class, and he is the title character in PIXAR’s newest masterpiece. WALL•E begins with some of the most beautiful animated scenes that I have ever seen. They top most live action films in terms of cinematography. The camera work is absolutely amazing on this film, even though the camera used is actually a computer. The geniuses at PIXAR keep pushing what CGI can do, and we are the ones rewarded.
The movie opens brilliantly with ‘Put On Your Sunday Clothes’, from Hello Dolly, WALL•E’s favorite, and probably only movie. WALL•E, as his name suggests, is cleaning up the Earth after it has become covered in trash. He has been doing this for over 700 years, while humanity stays in a giant spaceship called the AXIOM. While WALL•E is doing what he always does, something changes. The AXIOM sends down a smaller ship with a probe droid called EVE, whose name is also an acronym. Like WALL•E’s name, her’s describes her, [classified], directive.
Eventually her space ship sends her back to the AXIOM as she has completed her task. WALL•E, can’t bear to see her leave, as he has fallen in love, so he hitches a ride on her spaceship and ends up on the AXIOM himself. There he sees what humanity has become - dependent only on technology. He meets other robots, and the story picks up speed. Very much a contrast from the gentle opening, which was one of my favorite parts of the movie.
I won’t say much more, as I don’t want to spoil the movie. What I will say though, is that, compared to the opening which has very earthy undertones, the scenes on the AXIOM are really artificially coloured. It appears that the filmmakers really want you to see how fake the world that humanity is living in, really is. It shows that for the most part, the most human characters on the ship are the robots.
The beginning is powerful, the middle is eye-opening, and the ending is amazingly emotional. The music is amazing and moves the story along really well, especially at the beginning and end.
I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I found it to be a beautiful love story, [who thought that robots could portray love so well?]. This is definitely one of the best films I have seen this year. Even the credits are artistically amazing. [Be sure to stay until the film company logos have flashed on the screen, and the screen goes black]. I look forward to seeing more from PIXAR - the company of which I have enjoyed every one of their films.
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WALL•E Review By Nicole
**** (out of 4)
Before WALL•E they played a short film called Presto. Presto is a hilarious short film about an adorable little bunny, named Alec who is trying to get a carrot from a magician. In true Loony Toons fashion, Alec tries numerous times to try to get the carrot. Make sure you don’t miss it! But now about WALL•E.
WALL•E is a powerful, yet touching tale of a robot, who is the sole mobile thing left on the planet, [except for his pet cockroach]. He roves around the parched, uninhabited and smoggy planet Earth, cleaning up the trash left by us.
When he meets EVE, a sleek female robot, he is in love and follows her back into space. He then encounters the Axiom, filled with humans, who are now huge ungainly creatures who hover on chairs and ignore one another, instead being more interested in consumerism. Through a series of adventures, WALL•E and EVE teach humanity that with simple love and caring as opposed to lazy self-centeredness, that humanity can save the Earth.
The score and plot line are amazing and very emotional, as are the visuals, [right down to the end credits]. The most realistic parts of the movie are the scenes with only the robots, and the scenes with the people of the near future [who are actually live actors on a screen]. Contrast this with the people on the Axiom, who are brainwashed cartoon people in a brightly coloured, ‘Buy ‘n’ Large’ world of advertisement and over consumerism. This is a powerful technique, which moves the viewer from a sense of reality, to a sense of something artificial. [Which raises the question, “Is this what we want to become?”]
This movie is a love story, a social comment piece, and a parable all rolled into one. Some of my favorite parts were the romance between WALL•E and EVE. Their love was so real, that I even cried at times. This movie is terrifying, yet exhilarating, funny and innocent, sad at times, yet heart warming, this movie will not leave you unchanged. ___________________________________________________
WALL•E Review By Maureen
**** (out of 4)
What a treat getting to see WALL•E opening weekend. I’d been looking forward to seeing this movie for weeks and I was not disappointed. This had to have been one of the most charming and heartwarming movies I’ve ever seen. The gentle growing bond between WALL•E and EVE brought tears to my eyes near the end. The overall message that having a hand to hold changes everything was touching.
This was not by any means a sappy, sentimental movie. The scenes of a devastated earth were dark and probably scary for little ones. Yet they were offset by WALL•E’s wonderful quirkiness and charm. WALL•E is a delight to watch in every scene. I especially appreciated the music and lack of dialogue at the beginning of the movie.
The pre-Axiom part of the movie which focuses on WALL•E and EVE was the best part of the movie for me. I enjoyed the mix of visuals and music. It was a very different experience from other animated films. It drew me into the story and kept me there through the whole thing.
I found the contrasting scenes on board the Axiom with the humans a bit of a let down for me. But the exciting action towards the end with WALL•E and EVE had me rooting for the pair and the entire human race. This movie, right down to the artistic end credits is wonderful. Go see this movie and if you can, hold someone’s hand.
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WALL•E Review By Tony
**** (out of 4)
Once again the folks at Pixar have come up with a completely original premise. On a world evacuated for seven centuries, Wall-e is the last cleanup robot left, faithfully compacting and stacking waste into skyscrapers by day and resting at night in a trailer with his pet cockroach and Hello Dolly videotape. Wall-e’s behaviour is very human, though his movements are actually feasible with current robot technology, unlike the windshield eyes and grill lips in Cars. The planet is visited by a scout robot whose name Eve, like Wall-e’s, is an acronym. She is white and egg-shaped, with internal blue lights for eyes and appendages that appear & disappear as needed, so, unlike Wall-e, she could only exist today in the virtual realm. Wall-e stows away on the craft that returns her to the mother ship, where successive generations of human survivors have replaced bone mass with fat in lives led in constant repose on moving cots provided with all the food and personalized entertainment they want. I won’t spoil the plot by giving away any more.
Each Pixar film takes several years to produce, with obsessive attention to detail, so that, as for all good films, successive viewings always reveal something new and delightful. Wall-e maintains this tradition brilliantly, being accessible to all ages with as many layers of interpretation as they can handle, and delivering its messages with a light touch rather than a heavy hand. My only cavil is that it moved a bit too quickly in spots for me to keep up, but I look forward all the more to seeing it again.
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Consensus: A must see Summer movie for anyone. Definitely Oscar worthy in multiple categories. **** (out of 4)
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