WALL-E

From the studio who brought us movies such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Monsters, Inc. comes WALL-E, the loveable, awkward, quirky robot. Originally, my hopes weren't very high for this film. From the previews, I wondered if the entire movie would take place with these two robots on a deserted earth and would consist of no spoken words except for "Waaaaaall-E?" for the entire hour and a half. Besides him being the most adorable thing I've ever seen, I wasn't sure how it would be as a movie. It pleasantly surprised me.

The movie takes place on a garbage-filled, uninhabited Earth as the robot WALL-E meticulously works on cleaning it, one pile of garbage at a time. He is the only functional robot of his kind left until he is joined by a newer, sleeker robot named Eve with whom he is immediately smitten. Because of the dismal conditions on Earth, all of the humans have been permanently moved to a luxury vehicle in space owned by some giant mega-corporation in which they ride around in motorized seats and eat food in the form of shakes. They are all obese from lack of exercise and poor nutrition, and their legs are no longer even able to hold them from lack of use. It is up to WALL-E and Eve to ensure that the humans come back to Earth and restore the planet.

The thing that most amazed me about the movie is that it managed to be appealing to both children and adults. It was extremely clever, with subtle humor, satire, and subliminal critiques about the society in which we live. It serves as a lens to see the direction in which we are headed if we don't rethink the way we live and see the world. Besides that, I haven't laughed that hard in a movie theater since Shrek 2.