‘Wall-E’ a robot with a heart made of metal

Wall-E Starring Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin Directed by Andrew Stanton Walt… Wall-E Starring Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin Directed by Andrew Stanton Walt Disney Pictures B+

Disney Pixar’s newest movie, “Wall-E,” opened in theaters last Friday to eager audiences of both kids and adults. While “Wall-E” might be entertaining for adults and older kids, it might have missed its younger audience by a bit – some of the themes and actions are too subtle for kids, leaving them restless halfway through the movie. One kid in the theater even yelled, “I don’t want to see the ‘Wall-E’ movie anymore.”

“Wall-E” tells the story of the last surviving robot on earth, whose job it is to clean up the overwhelmingly huge mess left behind by humans before they blasted into space on an endless cruise.

Unlike all the other broken-down, trash-compacting robots, Wall-E survived by acquiring the glitch of a curious and fun personality. Like most Pixar protagonists, Wall-E is an endearing and lovable character with his quirky, clumsy, sweet and undeniably adorable individuality.

His various quirks include collecting and organizing random garbage, befriending a cockroach and watching “Hello, Dolly!” on repeat. His simple, happy and slightly lonely existence along with his curiosity about the garbage-filled world around him makes it impossible not to laugh when he inevitably puts himself into some ridiculous situations and uses odd and innovative ways to get himself out of trouble.

But all his quirks and odd habits are put aside when he meets EVE. The two characters’ various differences, in both technological advancement and personality, keep their interactions cute and fun. While EVE is on a mission to return to the humans’ space colony, Wall-E just wants to hold hands and is willing to follow EVE across the universe to do so.

While the concept of robot love and the chemistry between Wall-E and EVE is fun and entertaining, their robotic romance and the entire movie suffers from their lack of dialogue, which is replaced with beeps, facial expressions and simple word repetition. The repetition of EVE wailing “Wall-E!” and Wall-E replying with “EVE!” gets tiresome after a while.

Pixar’s movies are known for their witty repertoire of jokes for both adults and children, but “Wall-E” breaks from the antics of “Finding Nemo” and “Toy Story” and instead focuses less on verbal jokes, favoring simpler humor. The change isn’t necessarily for better or for worse, just different that what moviegoers might expect.

Unlike other Pixar movies, underneath the guise of robot love and futuristic space travel lays a blatant and timely social commentary about the problems humans are creating for themselves. The obvious environmental message of the abandoned and bleak trash-covered earth makes the beginning of the movie eerie and desolate. The brown, garbage-filled streets, which have been covered in posters for Buy n Large – the Wal-Mart of the future – for 700 years, are clearly meant to depict the wreckage of an excessively consumer-driven culture.

On top of the environmental messages, when Wall-E and EVE return to the humans who have been on a 700 year space cruise (sponsored by Buy n Large, of course), generations of people have grown to be so fat and lazy that they can’t even walk around the ship – they float around in robotic chairs with TV screens in front of their faces, sipping liquefied french fries and pizza because chewing would just be too much effort.

With the obese humans rolling around the ship in a near-catatonic state and the ship’s computer trying to ambush them, the odds are against Wall-E and EVE, but like any good children’s movie, the outcome is always happy.

Though Pixar might have taken a new direction with the movie and the themes might be a bit deep for kids, “Wall-E” is entertaining and offers spectacular visuals of space, futuristic space stations and a ruined earth. The animation is by far the best Pixar has shown us yet.

Wall-E is a bit different, but overall it’s a solidly entertaining movie.