WALL-E

And Pixar goes 9 for 9! WALL-E is a futuristic tale of Earth, overtaken by trash and pollution, abandoned by humans and inhabited by one little robot, WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth class) whose job is to clean up. As WallE goes through his mundane life of picking up garbage, he's developed a personality and a hope of love and companionship. When a hi-tech, life-searching robot named EVE shows up, he thinks he's found what he's looking for.

WALL-E is quite frankly an amazing film. The very idea of this movie; a love story on a wasted, ugly Earth, the main characters are robots that don't speak English and most of the movie will be without dialogue, you'd think it's crazy, but Pixar nails it. There is so much heart to the story. So much emotion and like-ability come from WallE, yet he doesn't speak English and has limited range of expression, but through the animation they convey so much. It's almost like Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin, conveying emotion and telling a story without words. You feel so much sympathy for WallE and that's all realized through story, animation and sound. The look of the film is beautiful. The scenes of a futuristic, wasted Earth are a little spooky but at the same time an amazing piece of art. Something also must be said of the sound work by Ben Burtt, the man who created sounds for Star Wars and many other films. The sounds that each robot make, especially WallE, do an almost perfect job of communicating what they're feeling.

This isn't your typical Pixar film as it doesn't have the bright colors in the sets and characters, which may make it a little less marketable to kids, and there are a few little slow points that they might get a little antsy in, but overall it's another amazing work of art by the masters of computer animation. Not my favorite that Pixar has done, but everything they do is still head and shoulders above the rest, this is a lock for best animated film of the year.

Oh and as always, Pixar has an animated short before the film. This one is called "Presto". The story of a magician and his rabbit, and their battle for a carrot and the perfect show. It's really funny and very well done. Another achievment for Pixar. They're unbelievable.

**** out of 4