Review of WALL·E (2008) by Ben L — 24 Mar 2017

By the late 00´s, audiences associated the name Pixar with fun, memorable and quality animated films that satisfy both children and adults. But what if Pixar decided to try to create a film a little more ambitious? Something with social commentary, an homage to some of the most beloved films ever made and mixing heavy religious themes. The result of this ambitious experiment is now known as the beloved sci-fi film "Wall-E".

By 2805, Earth is now a planet filled with piles of garbage and deserted cities, humanity has abandoned their native planet as it wasn't capable of sustaining life anymore. In this hollow Earth, the only resident it has is a small robot designed to be a trash compactor, named "Wall-E". Despite being a robot, Wall-E is curious and constantly looks into the sky hoping to end his loneliness but he is unaware that his desire will soon become a reality.

By this point, "Wall-E" is constantly call "Pixar´s greatest film" and "one of the best Sci-fi films of the 00´s" and I have to say, I only agree with one of those statements. "Wall-E" counts with gorgeous animations that goes from a desolated wasteland to a sci-fi utopia, the designs of our two protagonist are clever, the two leads are extremely memorable, it serves as Pixar´s homage to various sci-fi films (most notably "2001 A Space Odyssey"), the story is a pretty clever and an expertly made mixture of Robinson Crusoe and religion with the sci-fi genre; a surprising social criticism (obesity, brand loyalism, contamination, technological advancement, commercialism, corporatism, etc.), the sound effects completely stand out because they are insanely creative and original, the slapstick comedy almost completely works, it has Pixar´s greatest love story, and Pixar´s sentimental trademark is stronger than many of their previous films. With all that being said, "Wall-E" suffers from a couple of problems, the first is focus. The film is so concern in making the ecological themes and criticism of modern society that the story loses focus, I don't know if this is supposed to be a comedy with some social commentary in it or a drama/social criticism with some comedy. The second problem is pacing, the first half of the film is this beautiful silent sci-fi film that sets the mixes the characters and the environment flawlessly, but the second half is more focused on the environment than in the characters or story.

"Wall-E" is a beautiful animated feature that has some perfectly executed social criticism in it but sadly the story is overlooked by that. For me it is not one of Pixar´s greatest films, but it is undeniably one of the best sci-fi films of the new millennium so far and a great film that lacks a little focus.