The Wandering Fox Reviews: WALL.E

Written by The Wandering Fox

Greetings mates, I’m back and I’m here with another positive blog entry to talk about. And as you can see, its about the cute robot WALL.E and his adventure in restoring Earth to how it once was. I haven’t seen this film for a long time, and I mean a long time. Think it was almost what, 2010 I last watched the film? I liked it then, then while chilling out, I thought I’d watch it again. Having watched it again after all this time, it hits differently, and I mean it in a good way. So, lets sit back and I’ll lead you on this review which I hope leaves you feeling well happy.

Story

As we all know, WALL.E is the last working unit of his many brothers, his mission to clean up the Earth with all its garbage contents scattered about, until one day he finds a green plant, and meets EVE who has come back to look for any organic life on Earth, which leads to WALL.E flying into space and begins changing the lives of robots and humans on the Axiom.

Honestly, the story is just perfect, it gives us so many different themes in one plot which is basic and simple. Loneliness and desire for that certain someone in your life, stuck in a continuous loop blinded from the real world, kindness overcoming darkness, treasuring life in any shape or form, learning of your past, its so perfectly done.

For the movie’s story, it handles going small to big in scale quite well, we begin with WALL.E and his cockroach Hal on the garbage filled Earth doing their daily routine and the traits WALL.E has, collecting souvenirs, caring for Hal, his interest in human art from centuries long gone, you get this understanding of WALL.E with little dialogue, he’s a bit of a nerd if you think about it, collecting these things which many would think is garbage, loving musicals and a big romantic fan. I can relate to that last part, love stories about romance. And what’s great is that WALL.E as a whole has become a treasured classic as treasured as his Hello, Dolly movie he is keeping in check.

Once EVE arrives you get this feeling of something bigger going on. Now that I’m older, I noticed EVE began flying around and having fun with herself after the shuttle left, doing a few scans of the ground until it left, you easily get this sense of EVE’s character through visual alone, a hard working robot who doesn’t mind having a bit of fun and wanting timeout. I also liked how we get to have her think of WALL.E while he’s following her, she’s thinking “He’s such a klutz” and isn’t bothered by him. WALL.E is also smart enough to approach Eve more politely as he gets to know her after she gets angry from being magnetised, and the little dialogue shared between them was well done in establishing how both begin to understand each other, WALL.E not trying to pressure EVE in revealing her own directive and EVE being curious about him and his collections.

With this being a visual movie, you get little hints of things which come into play later, like WALL.E showing EVE how he can fix himself which comes in handy a lot later, thus helping you see EVE is learning from her experience with him.

After we get to the Axiom, you get an even better understanding of the darker tone of the movie with how we meet M.O, following the guidelines of what to do, afraid of coming off those guidelines because he’s been so use to doing it, making a difference in his own programming from following the guidelines to clean, to choosing to clean of his choice. Meeting the humans and their lifestyle is even more darker once you watch it as a adult, they are confined to their chairs, talking through a screen to their friends, blinded from what they’re seeing in real life. Them being like babies give you this sense of them still infantile and once they begin looking beyond the screen, touching the environment around them, face to face talking, gives you this feeling of these characters really breaking free to live from the standard lifestyle of the cold, bland looking Axiom. As we learn, a few robots who are seemingly “defective” are also confined away from other robots, yet they, including a few others WALL.E encounters, begin to free themselves and do what they wish to do. As we learn, these “defective” robots weren’t going to hurt any humans or other robots, they were good guys who are happy to help.

It's well done with how they were going darker before WALL.E was injured by AUTO, for once he is injured you know the movie is going fully dark. I only realised now the giant robots in the garbage disposal are giant versions of WALL.E, and them gazing over him is honestly symbolic, watching their relative in a way trying to live. The climax was brilliantly well done as you find this “world” the passengers live in is in a struggle between two “gods”, the cold and cruel AUTO and the good and passionate Captain McCrea, the Axiom is off balance, humanity is struggling, and all it takes is one man to stand up. What a amazing scene.

Back on Earth you feel that all WALL.E did amounted to his life lost, you fear EVE last saw her love being crushed and there was no bringing him back. Yet with one little kiss, you get the happy ending you wanted from this, WALL.E finally getting to hold hands with EVE and begin a new life with her, with M.O and the other robots as their friends, and help humanity get better.

I did know EVE was the one to be injured and I’m glad they changed that because it honestly would’ve made her al helpless and reliant on WALL.E, and the humans being kept as human instead of being blobs helped us connect with them even more.

I did know EVE was the one to be injured and I’m glad they changed that because it honestly would’ve made her al helpless and reliant on WALL.E, and the humans being kept as human instead of being blobs helped us connect with them even more edits, I’m wandering did they get their own ship and were being cared for? But aside from those, I thought the movie was perfectly well made.

With those, I can move on with the characters. There's only four I feel I can talk about, and they are.

WALL.E

Cute, funny, brave, nerdy, and friendly, WALL.E is the kind of guy you’d actually wish was real. Hard working, but also having little quirks with his collection of things, and a lover of media, you feel WALL.E is well and truly his own character. I also like how, in a way, Wall.e is a simple guy, he’s a guy working for a corporation who don’t give a crap or gave up, its a thankless, lonely job, yet he goes home and has a chance to relax and enjoy the simple life he’s got, but being lonely can make one want that kind of romantic partner. WALL.E is also responsible given how he looks after Hal and often tells him to sit and wait. Or how he looked after EVE while she was waiting for her shuttle to return, alike to that of a man taking care of his wife after she went into a coma. I think what made it sci sweet was how WALL.E treated EVE like a person, not as a tool, which makes you think of how she was treated before, to have someone take so much care of you and treat you with love, its no wonder WALL.E became so treasured by Eve.

What's interesting is WALL.E actually has a laser on him and is a strong robot, yet he doesn’t resort to fighting, he could’ve shot Auto but he cared for the plant more. He could have easily tried trapping Auto in his crusher and crush him, but WALL.E thought instead to keep the plant safe. Then there’s how he was kind to Mary, asking her to move as he could be with EVE. He could’ve moved her aside himself but he didn’t, he was being kind.

Given WALL.E is a simple guy, I found it interesting how a simple guy, not aware of how big things are, began changing those around him, like M.O, or the robot outside the captain’s office helping him wave, and how him bringing Mary out of the holo chat made her love the world even more.

Even as he was dying, WALL.E prioritised EVE’s directive over his own desire, as well as being helpful in gathering the “defective” robots to help,, and how he finally talked to M.O, hoping to make another friend as he was dying, making it obvious he didn’t care about himself that much now, he wanted to make everything okay. You feel WALL.E earned his happiness at the end and you can't help but feel so happy he got all he wanted.

EVE

Elegant, badass, sweet and heroic, EVE is quite the tough girl but what makes her different from “tough girls” we commonly have these days is she has a heart, she’s sweet, has a cute side with how she sheepishly tries covering up the damage she did to the whisk, is actually afraid of things like the dust clouds, doesn’t mind asking for help, either from WALL.E, M.O. or humans and robots.

EVE’s character is done quite well, like that of a woman doing her job in front of her boss but once she’s got some freedom, she likes to have fun, flying around. Her watching the recordings she made while asleep has EVE feel like she’s seen as more than a tool to scout, WALL.E treated her with respect, making her comfy, making her feel as if she was worth it. I think she needed it after being called “defective”, you can tell it really hurt her, for her to find out WALL.E treated her with all the love he had, it made her feel like she was truly someone.

You honestly feel for EVE once we get to the climax. She’s a tough girl, can fight, but all she can do is cradle WALL.E after he’s been crushed, then after she fixes him, you feel she’s lost him, the utter heart-breaking moment as she sings and kisses him goodbye has you afraid she’s lost. Her utter relief at him coming back is the biggest smile you’ll get.

The end credits reveal WALL.E and EVE lived on for a incredibly long time, so its nice to know they were still together after such a movie.

AUTO

Yeah, I’ll admit, watching it again it was hard to discern AUTO from other A.I. which turn evil, and with it a common thing in media nowadays it was hard. However, I like how he’s actually voiced by a A.I, and the moments he is desperate or confused is still an empty, cold tone. As I mentioned, he’s basically a god fighting the other god, he is the god of the Axiom, he runs just about everything, keeping Captain McCrea in the dark about the message the Axiom received 700 years ago, steering the ship as he can. AUTO is also a bit uncertain in terms of what he’s doing, is he following orders as he’s programmed to, or is he afraid he’ll be turned off if humanity is returned to Earth? It's hard in figuring out, I think that's what makes him quite a good villain, you don’t know anything with him.

Captain McCrea

He’s good. His character arc is honestly so wondrous to watch. You get a hint early on he’s annoyed with living life in a loop, and his growing love for Earth with all he’s learning of it is a lovely thing to watch, he’s learning about his home. After he learns its in trouble, he wants to go back, to make the world humanity’s home. He has the best line in the movie.

“I don’t want to survive! I want to live!”

Gosh that quote got me.

His fight with AUTO is so good to watch, more so once he stands up and turns AUTO off, it's a truly inspiring moment, for all humans stand up and follow him after this.

It was so great watching him teaching the kids how to plant, you know he was so happy bringing humanity back.

Other

For other things I can praise this movie for, its how it did live action and animation really well, you have live action actors in the holograms, and it doesn’t look jarring or strange. What's more is how the story truly is a modern classic, and a love letter to all things cinema, you have music, action, space, humanity, robots, cartoon animation, live action, CGI, and romance. What a movie to bring all this in.

Well, everyone, that's my review of WALL.E. If you ever want to find a couple which fills you with joy, I think you can easily turn to WALL.E and EVE.