‘WALL•E’ provides great entertainment

When I first saw a trailer for Pixar’s “WALL•E,” I knew two things: I wanted to see the movie, and my 7- and 5-year-old nephews would want to see it as well.

A month before the movie was set to open, I asked my nephews about it — and was treated to vocal impersonations of the trash-collecting robot. It was clear to me then when I went to review the movie, I had to include them in the experience.

After all, “WALL•E” is a kids’ movie.

And it is a special one at that. It’s an animated feature picking up a 95 percent fresh rating at rottentomatoes.com, which is an amazing rating for any film.

“WALL•E” not only delivers as a kids’ film, which will keep the little ones entertained, but also delivers social commentary for the adults who have been pestered into watching yet another animated feature.

Don’t expect much in the way of dialogue in this film — after all, the love story is centered around two robots, one a trash collector who has been trapped on Earth for 700 years, and a space probe sent to look for organic life.

Do expect to see how emotion can be conveyed by voice inflection and body language, as that’s really about all these characters have to work with.

But it works, and very well. I was amazed at how with so little dialogue, Pixar managed to keep my 5-year old nephew on the edge of his seat and interested.

He laughed, as did his 7-year-old brother, at the visual jokes, which were reminiscent of Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplain.

Both cheered for the captain of the Axiom during his battle with “Auto” as he tried to help guide people back to Earth — an Earth no one aboard the now 700-year-old ship had ever seen.

Therein lies the social commentary for us adults, and not-so-subtle lessons I hope kids pick up on.

The first is why all those people were on the Axiom in the first place — humans had spoiled Earth. WALL•E was created, along with thousands of other WALL•Es, to clean up the trash that had overflowed from landfills and left the planet as one big garbage dump. After 700 years of trying to clean up the place, there’s only one WALL•E left.

Our own excess and inability to effectively deal with it forced us off the planet, destined to float through space for hundreds of years waiting for the clean-up effort of Earth to make the place livable again.

But we weren’t done yet. We were not content with trashing the planet. We had to trash ourselves as well.

On the Axiom, humans have transformed into pieces of blubber. Hovering lounge chairs with video screens make it so we don’t have to walk anywhere. After generations of lives where we don’t do any physical activity and eat all our meals in the form of milkshakes, humans are just large tubs of lard.

So while this is a kids’ movie, filled with hope and fun, it also carries a dark side — but not so dark that it takes away from the fun of the movie.

From me it gets a big thumbs up, worth every penny I paid to see it. It also got raves on the drive home from the boys — including a “I want to see ‘WALL•E 2’ as soon as it comes” from the 7-year old of the crew.

It is easily one of the best efforts from Pixar yet — and the last film made as the result of a brain-storming session years ago.

Chad Frey is the education reporter and assistant Web master at The Newton Kansan.