Ignore the haters. The best movie of the year, and maybe Pixar's best ever Let's start with this: This movie made me care about a rolling trash compactor. Out of all the Pixar characters over the years, I've never felt a closer connection than I did with Wall-E. Just a simple, loyal, dutiful little 'bot and I was with him every step of the way. The emotional ties were every bit as real and moving as Jessie's "When she loved me" song in TS2, or Mr. & Mrs. Incredible fighting to save their family.
One of the greatest tributes I have to this movie is that it kept a theater of young children ENTHRALLED. They followed everything, and paid rapt attention. Even thru the credits!
This may also be the purest sci-fi film to hit the screen in ages. By all rights, it shouldn't work. Can you imagine the pitch session: "Yeah, our hero is an electronic garbage man on a desolate, abandoned Earth, and there's almost no dialog." If it wasn't Pixar, this movie would have never seen the light of day. But it did, and it's magic.
And do ignore the clones screaming about "thinly disguised environmental propaganda." "Wall-E" is like all good fairy tales: a story that teaches us something about the angels (loyalty, sacrifice, love) and devils (gluttony, apathy) of our nature.
In some aspects, Wall-E reminded me of Spirited Away. A slow-moving tale at times, but appropriately so. A family film to make you sit back and say, yeah, there's something more important than gag-a-minute writing, and bodily function humor. As others have said, this is the family film as art.
Wall-E brought tears to these 44-year-old male eyes. And it made me laugh uproariously. Somewhere, Charlie Chaplin is smiling, because The Little Tramp has been reincarnated, and now he's solar-powered.
Pixar has gone nine-for-nine. And just for chuckles, PRESTO, the short that precedes Wall-E, just might be the out-and-out funniest thing Pixar has ever made.
Wall-E is brilliant. If you're not moved by it, check your basement. There's probably a large pod there right now.