Editorial Reviews
Product Description Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 11/18/2008 Run time: 98 minutes Rating: G
Amazon.com Pixar genius reigns in this funny romantic comedy, which stars a robot who says absolutely nothing for a full 25 minutes yet somehow completely transfixes and endears himself to the audience within the first few minutes of the film. As the last robot left on earth, Wall-E (voiced by Ben Burtt) is one small robot--with a big, big heart--who holds the future of earth and mankind squarely in the palm of his metal hand. He's outlasted all the "Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class" robots that were assigned some 700 years ago to clean up the environmental mess that man made of earth while man vacationed aboard the luxury spaceship Axiom. Wall-E has dutifully gone about his job compacting trash, the extreme solitude broken only by his pet cockroach, but he's developed some oddly human habits and ideas. When the Axiom sends its regularly scheduled robotic EVE probe (Elissa Knight) to earth, Wall-E is instantly smitten and proceeds to try to impress EVE with his collection of human memorabilia. EVE's directive compels her to bring Wall-E's newly collected plant sprout to the captain of the Axiom and Wall-E follows in hot pursuit. Suddenly, the human world is turned upside down and the Captain (Jeff Garlin) joins forces with Wall-E and a cast of other misfit robots to lead the now lethargic people back home to earth. Wall-E is a great family film with the most impressive aspect being the depth of emotion conveyed by a simple robot--a machine typically considered devoid of emotion, but made so absolutely touching by the magic of Pixar animation. Also well-worth admiring are the sweeping views from space, the creative yet disturbing vision of what strange luxuries a future space vacation might offer, and the innovative use of trash in a future cityscape. Underneath the slapstick comedy and touching love story is a poignant message about the folly of human greed and its potential effects on earth and the entire human race. Wall-E is preceded in theaters by the comical short Presto in which a magician's rabbit, unfed one too many times takes his revenge against the egotistical magician. (Ages 3 and older) --Tami Horiuchi>
Stills from Wall-E (Click for larger image)
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Customer Reviews Read 19 more reviews... Audio dropout in very first second of movie... January 2, 2009 slodaybreak (San Luis Obispo, CA United States) 0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Depending on how your system is set up, the audio is cut off in the very first second of the Blu-Ray version of the movie....How do you screw up the first second of a movie and release it?...And somehow know how to put your pants on in the morning? It's so irritating it's not even funny.....
Awesome Pciture - kind of a weak movie though December 30, 2008 13 Ways And Counting (Omaha, Ne) 0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is my first Blu-Ray movie and I have to say the picture quality was outstanding my 52 inch Toshiba LCD. A visual masterpiece if there ever was one. However, the movie itself is lame. Not my cup of tea. My fiance loved it though. Definetly a kids movie but if you're new to Blu-Ray and want to see the best picture available do yourself a favor and buy this. This movie is a technical showcase - the move itself has little substance if any to be had.
Great Movie - Possibly a Bad disc December 30, 2008 C. Knight (Santa Clara, CA USA) 1 out of 2 found this review helpful
My kids love the movie and it is great. The only problem is that it seems to freeze for a few seconds on one of the scenes in space. I think the disc might be bad as it is a brand new Sony BDP-S550 player. Have seen other reports of this. Maybe the movie has too much DRM.
Wonderful use of Blu-Ray December 26, 2008 dcJohn (Bethesda, MD United States) 0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was the first Blu-Ray disc I purchased, and it set a high bar for others to follow. The image quality is phenomenal, and it absolutely pays off in letting you notice the incredible details that Pixar put into this film. The additional content is also terrific. The Director's commentary includes thumbnails of the early artwork in the film's development. While the Director's commentary gives you the broad backstory and ideas behind the film, there's also a second commentary track, done Mystery Theater 3000 style, that points out all sorts of details and easter eggs in the movie that I'd missed. Wall-E is a fantastic film, and this Blu Ray edition helped me appreciate the movie even more.
Pixar continues to raise the bar of what you can do with CGI December 25, 2008 Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) 1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Every time I see a Pixar film I tacitly assume that they have taken CGI about as far as it can go. Then with their next film they prove me wrong. (Unfortunately, with some of their upcoming films about to go 3D, I think they will -- as someone who wears glasses I have never been able to enjoy a 3D film -- the disposable spectacles are simply not made with glasses wearers in mind, and unless they come up with a solution for guys like me many of us will be unable to enjoy them.) I find it absolutely astonishing that WALL-E is getting so many one, two, three, and four-star ratings. Come on folks! What else would a film need to do to be worthy of five stars? I think the film critics are getting it right on this one. The film is consistently being named as one of the top two or three movies of 2008, regardless of genre. The debate is centered not on whether it is the top animated movie of 2008, but whether it will be nominated in the Best Picture or Best Animated Film category at the Oscars. If it is nominated for Best Picture, it would stand a very good chance of winning the Oscar. The great thing about Pixar is that they keep stretching the limits of what is possible in CGI. Although trickle down doesn't work in economics, it does work in CGI. As Pixar developed programs with deeper and richer texturing and layering, new CGI programs are developed for special effects corporations doing work for TV series and movies. The reason we see such stunning special effects on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA is because of cutting edge work being done by Pixar and others. If you want to gauge just how far CGI has come, try looking at the CGI in BABYLON 5 Season One or SPACE: ABOVE AND BEYOND, both from the early nineties, and Season 3 of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. The heavily pixilated images of B5 have given way to the richly textured and infinitely more complex images of BSG. And it is only going to get better in the future. As great as WALL-E is, the short film about a magician and his uncooperative bunny Alex is even better. PRESTO is one of the best comic shorts ever made, right up there with Chuck Jones's great Donald Duck epic "Duck Amuck" or his Bugs Bunny classic "What's Opera, Doc?" I haven't seen such comic invention in anything since the peak of the greatest Warner Brothers cartoons. As to whether this is a movie for adults or kids, I have to add that in my limited experience with kids' opinions, they don't have much of a problem with it. It seems to be more adults thinking that kids won't like it than kids actually disliking it. I think the way to look at it is that the filmmakers made a movie that they would like to see. I think it is a stunning masterpiece. And a refreshing break from the pabulum that so many animated films are.
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