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Cinema Thoughts

WALL-E is another landmark film for Pixar

After seeing WALL-E at the weekend I have to once again salute the geniuses at Pixar for creating another extraordinary animated film.

WALL-E eyes

Set in a dystopian future circa 2815, it is about a waste disposal robot named WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) who meets another robot named EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) and gets involved in an unlikely romance, as well as the future of the human race.

Directed by Andrew Stanton, it is probably the most visually impressive work Pixar have yet committed to film (and that is saying a lot) but at the same time it also resonates emotionally as a suprisingly touching love story.

Robots haven’t been this endearing since Silent Running and the two central characters are joy to watch – the boxy old school charm of WALL-E contrasting beautifully with the cool, sleek beauty of EVE.

Although I would never thought I would ever compare a Pixar movie to There Will Be Blood – both have startling opening sequences with little or no dialogue.

One of the clever aspects of the film is the casting of sound designer Ben Burtt as the central character – for those unfamilar with his work he was the pioneering sound editor on the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films.

Along with the animators, Burtt has helped create a character who is extremely expressive without using conventional language.

The same is true for EVE, so it is even more impressive that the filmmakers have managed to craft a compelling relationship between them.

The visual landcaspes are equally impressive, full of rich detail and nods to other sci-fi films.

I’ll review it in full in couple of weeks on the podcast, but for the time being this is another glorious home run for the Pixar team.

WALL-E is out now in the US and in the UK on 11th July

> Official site for WALL-E
> Read reviews for WALL-E at Metacritic (it is currently at 93 which is a very impressive score for a mainstream film)
> Find out more about Pixar at Wikipedia