WALL-E - G

WALL-E - G

The story

Earth, 2775. Humans long ago abandoned their trash-filled planet for sedentary life aboard Axiom, a luxury space ship. Only robot WALL-E (voice of Ben Burtt) and his pet cockroach move on the planet. WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth Class), a boxy robotic compactor, stacks neat cubes of trash higher than skyscrapers. Off the job, he adds to his collection of odd objects - plastic forks and spoons, light bulbs, Rubik's Cubes, a bra, jewelry box and small plant growing in an old shoe. A video tape of "Hello, Dolly" - he stores it in a pop-up toaster - gives him great pleasure, especially scenes of humans singing, dancing and holding hands. WALL-E is lonely. He longs to sing, dance and hold hands with someone. EVE (voice of Elissa Knight) arrives on a space probe. A blue-eyed oval robot (Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), she's curvaceous and dangerous. EVE shoots a laser gun with deadly accuracy. WALL-E learns to love her from a distance.

Will WALL-E and EVE get together? What will EVE do with WALL-E's plant? When will humans get off their duffs and clean up the planet? See this wonderful animated film to find out. See it now. Stop reading.

Actors

Ben Burtt (also the film's excellent sound designer) and Elissa Knight provide voices for lonely WALL-E and elusive EVE. Despite their severely limited vocabulary, WALL-E and EVE communicate growing affection for each other. You'll love them. Other actors voice human characters on space ship Axiom. John Ratzenberger and Kathy Najimy are John and Mary, humans who awake to their potential thanks to robots WALL-E and EVE. Jeff Garlin is Axiom's captain. He finds courage to confront AUTO (Sigourney Weaver), the ship's autocratic computer. Fred Willard is a hoot as Shelby Forthright, CEO of Buy ‘n Large, corporate owner of everything.

Other comments

"WALL-E" is brilliant - a treat for the entire family. Kids and adults will love computer-animated WALL-E, whose big goggle eyes, skinny neck and boxy body suggest a pint-sized E.T. He moves on tractor treads. EVE flies gracefully and fast and looks like a high-tech egg. Production designer Ralph Eggleston and his team have skillfully created dusty vistas of trash piled incredibly high. They're bleak and beautiful, as are their visions of outer space.

Director Andrew Stanton and Jim Capobianco wrote the smart story and script. It's an ecological fable, full of clever visual jokes and references to other sci-fi films - "2001," "E.T," "Star Wars," "Blade Runner" and "Alien." Mostly, the story's a cautionary tale in which corporate giant Buy ‘n Large offers humans an escape from responsibility. "Too much garbage in your face? There's plenty of space out in space!" Axiom's captain announces the movie's moral when, speaking of our planet, he says, "You just need someone to look after you." Rated G. 103 minutes.

Final words

Go see "WALL-E,"

See it today,

Take the kids and granny -

You'll all shout "Hurray!"