"Wall-E"

During our fun, busy weekend (post to follow), Josh & I were able to see "Wall-E," which we'd been excited to see for probably a year now.

As huge Pixar fans, we could not wait for the next installment from this ingenious company. And we were not disappointed.

For those who don't know, here's the basic plot (no spoilers!):

After humans have basically destroyed Earth by covering it in garbage, the Buy N Large company (responsible for the majority of the garbage!) creates a ship, the Axiom, to take all humans off the planet to travel in space for 5 years. During that time, Buy N Large builds Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth-Class robots (hence Wall-E) to clean up all the waste.

700 years later, our main Wall-E is the only one still rolling and while he continues to clean up the garbage, he has also grown a personality of his own - collecting random finds (a spork - he doesn't know whether to file it with his forks or spoons, videos, lightbulbs, the box from an engagement ring, parts from other Wall-Es, etc.) and storing them in his "home." Aside from a cute little cockroach pet (you think it's gross at first, but if you were able to overlook the cleaning rats in Ratatouille, this is nothing), Wall-E is all alone on this deserted planet and craves a hand to hold.

That is until a spaceship arrives, leaving in its wake another robot - an Extraterrestrial Vegetation E valuator, or EVE. After following her around, Wall-E saves EVE from a sandstorm, introducing her to his collection. The 2 become friendly and start to fall for each other, until Wall-E shows EVE his newest find - a seedling. EVE immediately grabs the plant and shuts down, with only a blinking green plant icon to let us, the viewers, realize what she was there for. Wall-E, however, has no idea and continues to fawn over her - bringing her outside for solar rejuvenation, protecting her from rain and sandstorms, etc.

After a while, the spaceship comes back and takes EVE. Wall-E, afraid he is losing his love, grabs onto the ship to save her. After a journey through space, the ship docks at the Axiom, where Wall-E wreacks havoc on the ships' super-programmed, to-the-T robots. Once on the ship, we get our first view of the humans (not counting the previous non-animated/CGed cameo of Buy N Large CEO Shelby Forthright (played by the always hilarious Fred Willard) and they are fat and lazy. Never walking - always floating on hover chairs - they have their faces permanently in flat screen TVs and their mouths on the straw of cup.

I don't want to give away anything else, so this is where I'll stop with my explanation. Basically, what follows is Wall-E's adventurous and disruptive visit on the ship.

While "Wall-E" is not my favorite Pixar movie, it's definitely worth the money. And the message about consumerism and waste is perfect. It's scary because although the movie is futuristic and far-fetched, it's not TOO far-fetched. I really felt that what happened in the movie could happen to Earth in real life.