by Ginger Voight

Created on: July 05, 2008   Last Updated: March 28, 2010

Pixar took some risks with 2008's "Wall-E". They set the stage as a dusty, dirty landscape devoid of color or activity. They went spent significant time during a setup that had nothing in particular geared for the shorter attention spans of its core audience. They also stripped the two lead characters of any real dialogue - and more, they created a story around robots, taking what would have been a typical Pixar short into a feature.

Unlike "Cars", where clever dialogue voiced by popular movie stars endeared the audience to machine based characters, "Wall-E" depends on human-like behavior to make Wall-E and Eve sympathetic characters the audience can root for, delegating its bigger named stars into supporting characters who make up mere bit parts in the background.

Judging by the $63 million dollar opening weekend, however, one can hardly argue that Pixar, indeed, succeeded.

"Wall-E" is the story of a solitary robot whose mission on planet Earth is to clean up the mess that mankind has left behind, while the humans tool around in outer space on a luxury space ship - a sort of "Eutopia" where all their needs are met.

Isolated and alone, hard-working Wall-E toils away, compacting the trash into manageable piles, while storing some of the more interesting artifacts for himself.

For you see Wall-E is enchanted by humans and all their discarded belongings. He takes his trusty cooler to work each day and as he cleans, his personality is forged by the relics of times long past. Even though the movie is set several hundreds of years into the future, the music and the movies used to show the "Eutopian" life we had on earth is decidedly nostaglic of a more idealistic time.

As we are introduced to Wall-E and his routine, the filmmakers take their time to introduce us to Wall-E and his unique personality. Perhaps too long. The dirty, gritty landscape might lose a few of the younger viewers as they wait for something to "happen". Happen it does, eventually, when his lonely world is turned on its ear by an intruder with quick guns and no patience.

Eve fascinates Wall-E and he does everything he can to get close to her and communicate with her. Both are delighted when they can find some common ground despite their language barrier. Wall-E becomes infatuated with this strange creature, and is pleased to present to her a gift that inadvertently shuts her down.

Her space ship returns to take her from her new friend, along with her very special gift - which ultimately was her

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