6. WALL-E (written by Justin Matchick)

Release Date: June 27th, 2008

Voice Talents: Jeff Garlin, Kathy Najimy, Sigourney Weaver

Director: Andrew Stanton

First Time I Saw It: I had been anticipating WALL-E for months, ever since seeing the first teaser trailer and being instantly drawn to the design of the main character and the high-concept nature of the film. I went to watch it the first weekend it came out and was completely engrossed with its character design, themes of environmental conservation and loneliness, and surprisingly bleak outlook for humanity’s future. As is usual when Pixar is performing at their best, the film was full of hilarious moments as well as some heavy emotional scenes, and I’m not ashamed I was driven to the verge of tears more than once during the film.

Its Impact on the Pixar Brand: With the opening third of the film being almost completely without dialogue, Pixar took a great risk in hoping that audiences would respond to this uncharacteristically quiet film with the same enthusiasm as their earlier, more conventionally plotted films. Luckily, WALL-E had a huge opening weekend and many championed the film’s opening act as a major shift from usual Hollywood fare and a superb example of visual storytelling. Pixar had been redefining what we could expect from animated family films for more than a decade when WALL-E came out, but now they had shown that they could deliver something that dealt with surprisingly complex ideas beautifully through visuals and storytelling, giving way to the deeper themes of aging and growing up seen in Up and Toy Story 3.

Why I Love It: In very frank terms, WALL-E might just be the cutest character created in the history of animation. With large, camera-like eyes and short, stubby arms, Pixar animated him in a way that allowed for full expression through body language and minimal noise, making him an instantly lovable and easy to relate to character that is still fully grounded as a robot.

The film’s second and third acts taking place on a space ship filled with the morbidly obese remnants of humanity is among the most biting satire that Pixar has done to date, but it really is the first act where the film shines though as the best of Pixar. Taking cues from early silent cinema and the films of Stanley Kubrick, they introduced and entire generation to the idea of powerful visual storytelling. Pixar conveyed a multitude to plot developments and emotions without having to rely on any amount of expository dialogue.

Best Moment: After the far more advanced robot EVE comes to Earth and befriends WALL-E, he shows her his massive collection of oddities and unique items he’s found in the garbage while trying to clean up the Earth. This sequence not only shows the growing connection between the two, but highlights Wall-E’s naive yet inquisitive nature and his earnest love of the things he has found in the wasteland of Earth. WALL-E, this adorable little robot-that-could who is trying the impossible task of making the Earth inhabitable once again for humanity, has found treasures in the simple things that we once took to be garbage and with which we ruined the Earth by disposing of it. WALL-E is not just the last robot working on Earth, he’s also become the last bit of humanity left on the desolate planet.

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