WALL-E

 

I watched this film only in Disney Channel. Right away I loved it. It has been shown several times but I couldn’t keep myself from watching it whenever I catch it on TV. “WALL-E” is an animated science fiction film. It is certainly very funny, as well as heart-breaking. Here is its story.....

The film takes place in the year 2805, seven hundred years after mass consumerism on Earth. In an attempt to resolve the situation, humanity had been evacuated into space on fully automated starliners. Left behind was an army of trash compactor robots called "WALL-E" to clean the planet. After five years, however, the plan failed when the planet was deemed too toxic to sustain life, forcing humanity to remain in space. Only one WALL-E unit remains active on Earth and has developed sentience, as shown by his habit of collecting various knickknacks from the mountains of trash.

One day, WALL-E discovers a seedling plant growing among the trash and brings it to his home inside a truck. Later, a spaceship lands and deploys EVE, an advanced probe robot sent from the starliner Axiom with the directive of searching for signs of plant life on Earth. WALL-E immediately falls in love with the initially cold and hostile EVE, who gradually softens and befriends him. When WALL-E brings EVE to his home and shows her the plant he found, her primary programming overrides her personality; she automatically stores it inside herself and shuts down. EVE's ship later returns to collect her, with WALL-E desperately clinging to its hull as it takes off into space.

On the Axiom, it becomes apparent that the ship's human passengers have become morbidly obese after centuries of living in microgravity and relying on the ship's automated systems. The captain himself does little, leaving control of the ship to its robotic autopilot, Auto. WALL-E follows EVE to the bridge of the ship where the captain learns that by scanning EVE's plant sample with the ship's holo-detector as a sign of Earth being habitable again, the ship will make a hyperjump to Earth and allow its passengers to recolonize the planet. However, Auto secretly has the plant stolen as part of a final directive given to keep humanity in space when life on Earth was wrongly deemed unsustainable seven hundred years ago.

With the plant now missing, EVE is considered defective and taken to the robot repair ward along with WALL-E for inspection. Mistaking EVE's inspection for torture, WALL-E breaks free and tries to save her.

The plant is brought to the captain, who surveys EVE's recordings of the devastated Earth and realizes humanity must return to restore their home. Unable to reconcile his directive with the captain's epiphany, Auto stages a mutiny and tasers WALL-E while he tries to protect the plant. Realizing the only parts capable of repairing WALL-E are in his truck on Earth, EVE brings him and the plant to the holo-detector to activate the ship's hyperjump back to Earth, rallying the help of the malfunctioning robots on the ship. The captain opens the holo-detector while trying to wrestle control of the Axiom from Auto, who closes it on WALL-E and crushes him as he tries to hold it open. The captain deactivates Auto and EVE places the plant in the holo-detector, releasing WALL-E and sending the ship back to Earth.

EVE brings WALL-E's body back to his home where she successfully repairs and reactivates him. WALL-E and EVE happily reunite and join the humans and robots in restoring Earth's environment.

“WALL-E”, though an animated film, reaches out to most audience. The theme is universal. Unlike others which only serve to entertain, this movie has deep meaning, symbolic, and relatable.

“WALL-E” is such a big wonder for me. The film has almost no dialogs all throughout since WALL-E and the other robots are not designed to “talk”; yet, the messages are successfully conveyed to the audience. The “emotions” of the robots are effectively portrayed; their simple gestures are clear enough. I particularly remember WALL-E’ loneliness in Earth and his compassion to his pet cockroach, his love for EVE, and his heroism for the humanity. WALL-E being the old and dirty robot and EVE being the highly advanced one have a relationship similar to poor-boy-rich-girl love story.

Accordingly, the film resembles many Biblical figures and episodes. WALL-E is Adam with EVE as Eve. The starliner Axiom is the Noah’s Ark, and the EVE is the dove sent to explore the barren Earth and came back with a plant (in a shoe!).

As a whole, the movie is very original for me, imaginative, exciting though boring at times, and most importantly, is something we can learn from. “WALL-E” has instantly become a classic movie and WALL-E the robot a lovable and memorable character.

Amazingly, “WALL-E” is one of the top-grossing films in recent history. It has positive reviews and great ratings. In fact, it ranked first in Times’ “Best Movies of the Decade”. Many critics as well named it as one of the most romantic films as it depicts love between two robots in an extraordinary way. Moreover, it received numerous awards including the coveted Golden Globe and the Academy. It may be a silent movie, yet it has spoken enough to gain overall approval. Including mine. LOL!