Film Review: Wall-E

Directed by veteran Andrew Stanton, ‘Wall-E’ is the latest release by Pixar Animation Studios. I’ve grown up watching and loving Pixar films and, after the sheer brilliance of Ratatouille, I was embarrassingly excited before seeing Wall-E. What can I say, my inner child probably isn’t as “inner” as it should be.

The film follows Wall-E, a small robot working alone on a polluted and deserted Earth. After cleaning the planet alone for hundreds of years, Wall-E has developed a childish curiosity, and a longing for affection. So when the sleek, modern EVE drops out of orbit, a love story between the two sparks. After discovering plants on the surface of the Earth, EVE leaves the planet, with a smitten Wall-E in pursuit. It’s the most basic concept in the world, but Pixar have pulled it off magnificently, and it’s resulted in a story that’s not only surprisingly unique, but completely adorable.

Something which originally surprised me about the film was the apparent lack of dialogue, but I have to say it worked brilliantly in Wall-E. All the emotion is captured so beautifully in the animations of the characters, that anything more than the basic dialogue in the film would have probably worked against the animation, and it might not have been so easy to connect to the characters.

With Pixar films you expect great work with animation and CGI, but with Wall-E they’ve out done themselves. Seriously, this is one of the best looking films I’ve seen in my entire life, and some of the sequences are genuinely incredible. Parts of it felt so real, that I was genuinely debating in my head whether it was animated or not. Whether it’s simply Wall-E rummaging through dirt, or dipping his hand into a comet trail as he drifts through space, it’s incredible to watch and genuinely beautiful. It’s weird saying that the film feels alive, considering it’s almost completely CGI and about typically inanimate objects, but it does, which is a massive achievement even by Pixar’s standards.

Pixar music is usually fantastic, there’s a reason most of their films have been awarded an Oscar nomination for their musical scores. Wall-E is no different, the music score is almost perfect. The songs themselves are excellent, and never felt out of place with the animation on screen, with the animation and music in perfect harmony.

I don’t think I need to say that Wall-E is a brilliant film, but I’m going to. Over and over. Wall-E does everything right, and I honestly can’t find a single flaw with it. Yes, Wall-E is aimed at kids like every other Pixar film, but it’s so damn adorable and beautiful that I didn’t care. Perfectly balancing the comedy with the love story, Wall-E is one of the best films I’ve seen in years.

5/5

See the trailer here.