A Truly Renaissance Robot

I recently sat and watched the movie Wall*E with my young nieces after they begged and pleaded to be able to do so.  They however, watched maybe 5 minutes of the movie and were off to other things.  I thought the movie was cute but far from all the praise it has received… even being mentioned as a contender for best picture of the year.

The Disney/Pixar film has similarities to Short Circuit.  The star of the show bears an uncanny resemblance to Number “Johnny” Five.  Wall*E seems to be one of the last remaining, functional objects left on Earth as the planet has been deemed uninhabitable because of the trash content.  He is left on Earth as a trash collector.  However, everything he finds is not discarded.  The robot collects a treasure trove of trinkets to add to his collection.  A Rubik’s Cube, a fish plaque that sings “Dont Worry, Be Happy,”  The most memorable trinket is a VCR that includes a tape of Hello Dolly and always placed at the scene featuring Michael Crawford as Cornelius singing “It Only Takes a Moment.”  Wall*E’s only companion is a cute(?) unnamed cockroach.

But what became of the humans inhabiting the planet?  A sleek, attractive robot named Eva is sent to Earth in order to find any sign of life.  When Wall-E finds a small plant, Eva’s directive is complete and she blasts off to the large spaceship full of human descendants from 700 years in the past.  The human’s are rather robust, lazy people who have to do nothing as robots have become the ultimate servants. Humans do not even need to walk anywhere.  They are transported by motorized recliners. When Eva returns, the robots on board the ship become jealous and mutiny against the human captain and will not allow the ship to return to Earth.  That’s the plot in a nutshell… enough to make those who have never seen it determine if it is for them.

Pixar’s animation continues to be cutting edge and the movie was cute but I don’t think it deserves all the attention it has garnered.[poll id=”7″]

Jamy Shaffer