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WALL•E (G)
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This came out in 2008, but I didn't see it until 2017. The DVD has a couple of Pixar shorts: Presto, which played before the movie in theaters, and a new one called BURN-E, which is based on a very minor character from this movie.

So... the movie is set about 800 years in the future. Humankind had left Earth 700 years before the movie starts, so that was a century in our future. Anyway, there's a little robot called WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth-Class), whose job is to compact trash. He seems to be the only robot left in working condition on the planet, and in all the centuries since humans left, he's made a bunch of mountainous stacks of trash cubes. But he also collects remnants of human civilization. And he watches the movie "Hello, Dolly!" from which he apparently learned the concept of love. So, naturally, he's lonely (aside from a pet cockroach). Then one day, a spaceship lands nearby, and leaves behind a robot named EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), before immediately taking off again. WALL-E begins timidly following her around (and his timidity is quite warranted, considering her skills with a laser blaster). It takes awhile, but eventually she warms up to him a bit, and he shows her his collection of junk. That happens to include a small plant he'd recently found, and when EVE sees that, it triggers her operational directive, which is to search for vegetation. Well, I don't want to reveal any more details of what happens on Earth. But after awhile, the ship returns, picks up EVE, and WALL-E follows, clinging to the hull as it returns to the mothership, Axiom, which is where what's left of humanity lives.

And... I guess I really don't want to spoil anything that happens on the Axiom. So I'll just say, the movie has a lot of really amusing moments, a lot of sweetness, a lot of drama, and adventure. And WALL-E and EVE are kind of amazingly good characters, considering they barely speak at all, other than to say each other's names. But they're both very emotive, despite their limited vocabulary. (I particularly like it whenever EVE is annoyed at WALL-E, which is a lot.) Anyway, there are a lot of emotional twists in the story, before arriving at a predictably happy ending. Other than that, I don't know what to say, except that it's worth watching to the end of the closing credits, for a cute variation on the usual Pixar logo.

For an interesting take on the movie, there's an episode of the webseries Pop Culture Detective Agency you should check out.


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