Netflixed: WALL-E

“Wall-E (Widescreen Single-Disc Edition)” (Andrew Stanton)

WALL-E, on the other hand, I liked a hell of a lot. WALL-E stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth-class, which kind of gives you an overview of the plot.

In a futuristic world, human beings have destroyed Earth and evacuated the planet, leaving the cleanup to an army of robots they’ve programmed to do their dirty work. Due to a mishap, the dutiful WALL-E is the only one left. But with the arrival of a female probe named EVE, the monotony of WALL-E’s existence is broken — and he experiences love for the first time. Andrew Stanton directs this Pixar tale (nominated for a Best Animated Feature Golden Globe) with a sci-fi twist. [Netflix: WALL-E]

Amazingly long sequences of the film have no human dialogue – if Pixar wasn’t an established hit maker, there’s no way a studio mogul would allow this aberration to the Hollywood method. Plenty of Apple computer references, start-up sounds, iPods, etc. too. Great fun.

Oh, included on the DVD was a short documentary about the sound designer, fascinating stuff. So much behind-the-scenes wizardry, nearly all of it done with analog methods originated from the original Disney team from the 1940s.

On the no-dialogue point, A. O. Scott wrote:

The first 40 minutes or so of “Wall-E” — in which barely any dialogue is spoken, and almost no human figures appear on screen — is a cinematic poem of such wit and beauty that its darker implications may take a while to sink in. The scene is an intricately rendered city, bristling with skyscrapers but bereft of any inhabitants apart from a battered, industrious robot and his loyal cockroach sidekick. Hazy, dust-filtered sunlight illuminates a landscape of eerie, post-apocalyptic silence. This is a world without people, you might say without animation, though it teems with evidence of past life.

We’ve grown accustomed to expecting surprises from Pixar, but “Wall-E” surely breaks new ground. It gives us a G-rated, computer-generated cartoon vision of our own potential extinction.

[From Movie Review – WALL-E – In a World Left Silent, One Heart Beeps – NYTimes.com]

Highly recommended.