It's been a rough summer for movies so far. But it's getting better, thanks to a little cartoon robot named WALL-E.
It really shouldn't be a surprise to see another Pixar-perfect product assembled with precision by the world's top animation studio. Pixar/Disney takes the computer-animated visual delights to new heights -- but that's the only thing predictable about this movie, which takes more and bigger chances than all but a handful of recent Oscar nominees.
Chances like setting what's ostensibly a kids' cartoon in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and having virtually no dialogue for the first two reels. WALL-E can say his own name, beep and toot, but not much else. Yes, this is a cartoon robot who does most of his acting with his eyes, hands and caterpillar-tracked robot body, conveying fear, loneliness and joy largely without talking. It's also a love story between two robots.
Somehow, there's not a dull second in this movie.
WALL-E is a diligent, resourceful, yet sad little robot left behind on a future Earth to clean up the mess left by the long-gone human race, the last of his kind. Yet, every day, WALL-E -- or Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth Class -- dutifully scoops up trash, compacts it into a block, and stacks it -- creating a vast necropolis of trash-skyscrapers rising to the smoggy brown skies. His best friend is a cockroach, and he loves show tunes and collecting interesting leftover detritus from the human age.
Then a spaceship arrives, bearing a mysterious gleaming white hovering robot named EVE. Sent to probe the Earth for life, EVE has the balletic grace and power of a next-generation robot, but begins to exhibit her own quirky personality. WALL-E, a total romantic who watches "Hello Dolly" on an endless loop, is smitten.
Little does he know, he'll have to follow her to the literal ends of the Earth, and beyond.
There's a gentle satire at work here. The ubiquitous logo and holographic ads (starring Fred Willard as CEO) for Buy-N-Large are the only signs of humanity left on an overconsumed, tuckered-out Earth. But this is mostly played for laughs.
With so little dialogue, "WALL-E" relies to a large extent on physical humor, practically a lost art. It's not Buster Keaton, but WALL-E's constant pratfalls, overreactions and clever problem-solving are so compelling that you hardly notice that he doesn't say much.
• In wide release
Robot evolution
"WALL-E" is an exceptionally original animated film, but if you think the little robot looks familiar, you're not alone. His shape and personality seem like a lovestruck combination of a few fairly well-known 'bots.
Johnny 5, from "Short Circuit": On the surface, WALL-E looks most like that playful, mischievous icon of '80s matinees, Johnny 5, down to the caterpillar tracks and camera-like eyes. But Johnny 5 was an experimental military robot with fearsome capabilities -- more like WALL-E's love interest, EVE -- while WALL-E is timid and fairly harmless.
R2D2, from the "Star Wars" trilogy: The ultimate sidekick, R2 had a ton of personality for, basically, a trash can with legs. He had a surprising amount of emotional range for a robot that can only beep and whir, and seems to be the starting point for WALL-E's personality. Curiously, R2's voice comes from a baby's gurgling sounds run through a primitive '70s-era synthesizer.
Huey, Dewey and Louie from "Silent Running": These three robotic bio-dome forest rangers from the seminal 1972 sci-fi flick "Silent Running" are likely the indirect ancestors of most non-evil robots-with-personalities in movies ever since. They're just faceless machines with stubby little legs, but they become important characters in the movie.
The other robots in "WALL-E" also have their film ancestors:
ASIMO: EVE, the advanced probe from outer space in "WALL-E," looks a little like Honda's gleaming white prototype humanoid, ASIMO, the robot that walks steadily on two legs. Both feature a gleaming white exterior and shiny black faceplate, though EVE's gravity-resistant hovering power exists only as a twinkle in a science-fiction writer's eye, at the moment.
HAL 9000 from "2001: A Space Odyssey": Not to give things away, but in the second half of "WALL-E," our hero comes into contact with a certain, all-powerful robot controlling a spaceship, whose most visible presence is a glowing red, all-seeing eye. Any resemblance to Stanley Kubrick's famous, treacherous artificial intelligence in "2001" is purely intentional.
Additional Information:
'WALL-E'
Rated G 
(out of four)
