Wall-E

Centuries ago, Earth was completely inundated by rubbish. Its inhabitants were forced to evacuate the planet by space ship and seek refuge in a space station. In their rush to leave, they forgot something, a trash compacting robot named Wall-E who takes his job very seriously. Since the great exodus, Wall-E has continued cleaning up the debris the humans left behind, compacting it into neat, stackable cubes. As he goes about his daily rounds, he saves a few items of interest and takes them home with him where they are proudly displayed on revolving shelves.

Wall-E’s only pal is a cockroach who tails him like a dog as he goes about his clean-up routine. So lonely is Wall-E that he spends hours watching old VCR tapes saved from the trash. One day, his whole existence changed when a ship lands and an egg-shaped robot named EVE pops out. Her mission soon becomes obvious to Wall-E, but by then he is thoroughly smitten and must travel through time and space to catch-up with the girl robot of his dreams. In doing so, he might just save the world.
Director/ writer Andrew Stanton drew on the techniques of silent films and he manages to interpret emotions without using any dialogue. Ask anyone who has seen the film to tell you the story and they will not hesitate, yet most of it is told without using any words.
Note: Sigourney Weaver does a wonderful job as the ship’s voice.

Mary K. Morgan is a member of the St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association.