WALL-E

Director: Andrew Stanton

Stars: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard

Year: 2008

Rating: G

Truth be known, it's like Pixar can do no wrong (well, hardly) - and this touching, heartwarming comedy/love story about a "Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth-Class" (WALL-E) who finds love and saves the world is most definitely one of their best.

The film opens on an earth completely destroyed by pollution and waste. Unlivable for over 700 years, the planet's last inhabitant is a small robot (Wall-E) who, among others, was left behind all those years ago, to begin the task of cleaning up the planet. In those years, Wall-E has adopted some very human habits, and - along with his pal, a hyperactive cockroach - he's okay with his life and job, collecting the occasional odd souvenir from a world long gone, or playing his VHS tape of Hello, Dolly to watch what things like singing and dancing and even falling in love used to be like.

Then, one hot and windy day, Wall-E's life changes when he meets EVE - an Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator sent down occasionally from the mother ship Axiom (a huge, city-like spaceship way out in space, that the human race has been living on since abandoning earth) to seek out any signs of renewed life on the planet. Short, rusty and dusty, old-school Wall-E is immediately smitten by the sleek, sophisticated beauty that is Eve, and after an initial not-so-great start, the two become fast friends and Wall-E takes her back to his place to show her his collection and let her listen to his music.

It's there that Eve finds a small children's boot, in which Wall-E has place a tiny green plant that he's found on one of his clean-up routes. The plant, thriving in its soil, is the one sign of survival on the desolate planet - and Eve's prime directive takes over; she immediately takes the plant and is quickly swooped up again by a ship sent from Axiom to retrieve her, so that she can get the sign of life to the Axiom captain and let the human race know it's okay to come back to Earth at last - that the planet can finally sustain life again.

And now completely smitten by Eve, Wall-E's determined to follow her - to rescue her, if you will - before soon learning that it's actually the human race (now a sluggish, overweight population totally relying on robots and automation to live) that's truly in danger of not surviving.

This film works on so many levels. As a love story, you couldn't ask for a more heartfelt, sympathetic character than Wall-E. With virtually no dialogue - Wall-E doesn't even utter a word for nearly the first half-hour of the film - through his actions and gestures and expressive eyes, the little-robot-that-could manages to charm you and capture your heart in no time. His love for Eve is innocent, sweet, and you'll be rooting for him from word one.

As a comedy, the film's also pure genius - from poor Wall-E's attempts to keep track of where Eve is on Axiom, to his unintentional role as leader of a group of rebel misfit robots out to live for who they are. Both kids and adults will laugh at the action and humor here.

And even as an economic message about what we're doing to our planet - and what it could become - the film manages to get its message through without every being preachy or even dour; in fact, it even gives hope that maybe even humans can eventually learn, adapt, and survive.

This is a brilliant, touching, heartwarming and unforgettable film - quite possibly Pixar's best, and an amazing achievement that will easily be a front-runner, come Oscar season. THIS is what moviemaking is all about - a film as easy to fall in love with as the title character behind it. ****1/2 - Reel Awesome-Reel Must-See