WALL-E

WALL-E, despite it's slick presentation and robo-centric story, is a movie from a bygone era. At first glance, it seems like old hat for Pixar, who have made a industry and a genre out of giving a voice to things that don't get one (mostly animals and toys). But to judge this movie's style off of a past efforts is to do yourself an enormous disservice. Unlike Toy Story, WALL-E (mostly) works within the confines of the world they've created, mainly, that menial robots are not usually programmed to talk or reason at the level of an adult. So, instead of piping Tom Hanks' voice in for a robot, they instead create the character through inspired and (for CGI) unprecedented acting. WALL-E, in addition to being essentially silent, is cute, precocious, innocent, inquisitive, and a real sweetheart. There's a not-so-subtle resemblance to Charlie Chaplin in WALL-E's mannerisms. In short, Pixar has done the unthinkable-- they've made a robo-"Tramp".

Top to bottom, the film just oozes with Chaplin. WALL-E is prone to the same kind of accidents, gets himself into the same kind of trouble, and falls in love with the same ease and adorable authenticity that were the hallmarks of Chaplin's tramp. Even WALL-E's interaction with the cockroach are reminiscent of scenes from Chaplin's legendarily sweet film "The Kid."

What's truly impressive is that all this is able to be done through computer animation and that it doesn't feel at all forced. The Pixar design team has outdone themselves in this film, particularly with our protagonist. His movements, in particular his 'eyes' have the same skittish, innocent tone as The Tramp. Even when he pops a cube of compressed garbage out from his chest (a trick not even Chaplin could pull off), he hops and sputters in such a way that you wonder if they somehow hooked up one of those motion capture suits to Charlie's ghost.

But as any appreciator of silent-era comedy can tell you, the films were made in a very different era of hollywood-- most of Chaplin's work is under 90 minutes (WALL-E wisely clocks in at just under 100 minutes), and the films simply don't match the careful planning and structure of modern hollywood movies. Great as they are, silent films are for a different style of movie-going. Luckily, WALL-E avoids this particular silent film convention with a pretty decent b-story.

The backdrop for our little robo-love story is a politically-topical, hard-to-argue-with vision of the future, where pollution has gotten so bad that mankind has been forced off the planet and into luxury space-ships, where they become detached from what's really important in life. Without spoiling too much, WALL-E, not that it is his intention, teaches humans about the value of life and love as contrasted with their boring, sedentary lifestyle. This story, while a little preachy for a $180 million fluff film, has a good message at it's heart-- it's hard to get too mad at a film that preaches environmental responsibility these days-- and is integrated extremely well into the main robo-love story, as the film's big set-peices advance both plots equally. Jeff Garlin chips in with a very nice bit of voice-acting as the ship's captain, walking that fine line between cartoonish enthusiasm and silliness like an old pro.

I'm not usually a big fan of "Family Films", but anyone who thinks that this movie is for kids has never spent a night laughing through "The Gold Rush" or "Modern Times." Like those Chaplin masterpieces, WALL-E is a small, sweet story presented in contrast with the grandest possible scale the filmmakers could conjure up at the time. Of course, the unlimited possibilities of CGI mean that writer/director Andrew Stanton has no limits imposed on him-- think Chaplin doing jokes about spaceships almost landing on top of him, and you've got the key element for this film.

In that sense, the film may signal the arrival of a new age of CGI-- one where acting and characterization of CGI characters have evolved so much that they're able to write a love letter to one of cinema's greatest giants, and have it feel like a love-letter rather than a rip-off. WALL-E is a film from a bygone era, with modern principles and construction. A solid, funny, sweet film for The Tramp in all of us. If this film doesn't illicit at least one "awww" from you, check your pulse-- you may be the robot.

side note: One thing, and this is very minor, that weirded me out a little was the voice acting for EVE. It was mostly fine, but every once in a while she would take a tone with WALL-E that sounded more matronly than lover-ly. Just a handful of lines, but it was rather creepy, given WALL-E's romantic infatuation.

SCORES:
WALL-E: 10/10 (if CGI actors could be nominated for Oscars, this would at least garner a nomination, and I'm not even remotely kidding)
EVE: 8/10
Jeff Garlin: 8/10
Writing: 7.5/10 (loses a few points for preachiness, predictability)
Directing: 7/10 (while very crisp, the film lacks the 'wow' factor of other CGI/Pixar efforts)
OVERALL (not an average): 8.5/10