Phillip K. Dick asked if androids dreamed of electronic sheep and this film questions whether a machine could have a soul. The answer is yes - if you spend 700 years watching Hello, Dolly! Pixar continues their excellent track record with this fantastic film that has a lot of heart – even if it is a mechanical one.
WALL-E (Ben Burtt) is the last of his kind. Earth became so polluted that the Buy ‘n’ Large Corporation, who controlled just about everything in the future, put mankind on luxury starliners, catering to their every whim, and launched them into space until the planet would be clean again.
Unfortunately, things didn’t exactly work out. The little WALL-E robots were supposed to finish the job in five years. To put it mildly, the little bots were not able to accomplish the task. WALL-E is the last of his kind as the other robots have all broken down. His company on the planet is a cockroach that feasts on the other thing that has an indeterminate shelf life – the Twinkie.
WALL-E passes the time watching a worn videotape of “Hello, Dolly!” when he’s not crushing debris into more manageable square shapes and stacking them into skyscraper sized piles (he’s been doing this for quite some time). One day while WALL-E is going through his routine he comes across a small plant growing in the soil. He takes his back to his trailer where he stores all the treasures he finds in the debris.
A rocket ship lands and a robot called EVE (Elissa Knight) is deposited on the dirty planet and begins to scan about. WALL-E shyly tries to approach her, but she’s equipped with a laser cannon and isn’t afraid to use it. He finally does get her attention, but she’s more interested in scanning around in trying to complete her directive.
He shows her his collected treasures, but it’s when he shows her the small plant that her scanner does off and she shuts down. WALL-E protects EVE and attempts to hold her hand like he’s seen in the video, but when the rocket ship returns and takes her away he stows away to protect her and the real adventure begins.
Pixar continues their fantastic batting average with this excellent film. WALL-E is a wonderful creature that proves that you don’t have to have an enormous amount of lines to act. WALL-E may be an inanimate object but 700 years of crushing trash into little blocks and watching “Hello, Dolly!” have caused something special to grow inside the little bot.
He appears to have more kindness and wonder than any of his human counterparts that have trashed and then abandoned the planet. Speaking of humans, this is the first Pixar film to actually feature the creatures as Fred Willard has a field day playing the CEO of the Buy ‘n’ Large Corporation.
The rest of humanity is blissfully unaware of the state of Earth as they cruise around in their spaceships and have every need met. Perhaps too much so as they’re grown into obese blobs that float around on their hoverchairs. Since all their needs are met by every manner of robot then mankind has lost the ability to do for themselves.
WALL-E who is in pursuit of EVE rattles the fat and happy humans and makes them realize what they’ve been missing. It’s said that an animated film must rely on its sound effects since they all have to be crafted from scratch.
WALL-E excels in its sound design and I’d expect that you’d see an Oscar nomination on the horizon. After all Pixar made a star out of a lamp. It may even be presented as a contender for best picture. I’d say that WALL-E is well deserving of the honor.
WALL-E is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.
Disc one features a commentary from director Andrew Stanton. Next is the 5 minute short Presto about a magician and his hungry rabbit that played before WALL-E’s theatrical showings. The new 7 minute short BURN-E is about another bot that shows what was going on with him during the film.
The 18-minute “Animation Sound Design” shows how sound designer Ben Burtt created all the sounds for the film. There are also 9 minutes of deleted scenes with option commentary by Stanton and a 50 second sneak peak at “WALL-E’s Tour of the Universe.” Disc two is divided into Humans (for film fans) and Robots (for the family). There is a collection of behind-the-scene featurettes for the Humans. The 14-minute “Imperfect Lens” looks at how they created the look of the film.
The 8-minute “Captain’s Log” looks at the evolution of the Captain character and the story changes that happened because of it (it was supposed to be aliens not humans in the early story sessions). The 10-minute “Notes on a Score” looks at the music. The 5-minute “Life of a Shot” looks at the evolution of one shot of the film. The 5-minute “Robo-Everything” looks at robot design and the 7-minute “WALL-E and EVE” details those two characters.
Next are 9 minutes of “BnL Shorts” that explores more of the mega-corporation/government/our everything. There are also 12 more deleted scenes, in rougher form, with an optional commentary by Stanton. The real jewel of the disc is the 88-minute “The Pixar Story” about the company. It’s a fantastic documentary by Leslie Iwerks, the granddaughter of legendary Disney animator Ub Iwerks, and well worth the cost of the disc.
The Robots section features 5 minutes of WALL-E shorts entitled “Treasures and Trinkets” that I guess aired on the Disney channel. You also get the Bot Files about the robots and a “Lots of Bots” interactive storybook.
The third disc is a digital copy of the film that you can download to your PC or portable device. The packaging is eco-friendly and you’ll either love it or hate it. I didn’t like it at first, but it’s sorta grown on me.
WALL-E is a fantastic film and would well deserve a nod for best picture. The realization of a character that really doesn’t have too much dialogue is one that is truly fascinating to behold. Only the geniuses at Pixar would attempt it and they succeed beyond all measures.
I just want to know where I can get one of those hover chairs and meals you can eat with a straw. The three-disc set features a plethora of special features and an excellent documentary about the studio that can seemingly not make a bad film.
Wall-E (Three-Disc Special Edition) is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a Nov. 24th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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