*credit to Rotten Tomatoes*Yesterday I went to see Pixar's latest CG romp, Wall-E. I had no desire to watch the film at first, fond memories of Finding Nemo and Ratatouille still embedded in my brain, their awesomeness not to be touched by some...robot...with a funny voice. But the buzz got the best of me and I found myself at the theater at 10 am in an audience filled with kids and old people. The verdict?
I absolutely LOVED this movie. With a great story and clever execution, I haven't had this much fun as an audience member in a long time. While Wall-E is a cautionary tale about the effects of global warming and mankind's ability to destroy all of its resources (to the point where we all become huge computer graphic tubs of lard in outer space sitting in automated chairs that give us food in a cup), the most endearing message of the film came from one of mankind's oldest master narratives: Love Conquers All.
The film gets a little help from the musical "Hello, Dolly!" to get its point across about the merits of finding love. From the initial credit sequence, we understand that Wall-E is a professed lover of musical theater. And he has a penchant for Barbara Streisand. One of the numbers in the musical that becomes a thread throughout the entire film is "It Only Takes a Moment" sung by Michael Crawford and Marianne McAndrew. The scene details a lovestruck Cornelius who croons about how his life changed when he moved out of Yonkers and fell in love with the lovely hat-maker Irene in just a "moment". Wall-E watches this scene numerous times in his make-shift home, particularly the moment where Cornelius and Irene finally touch via hand holding. It is this instant of pressing need for (human) contact that makes Wall-E not just a robot, but an actual person capable of emotional desire. When he finally meets the sleek and chic Eve, it is love at first sight for Wall-E. The film is at its best when depicting the theme of love through these two main characters. Adding to the intensity of their romance is the fact that for 95% of the movie, their names are all they can communicate to each other through words. I couldn't help but relate Wall-E's pained cry of "Ev-uh!" to Marlon Brando's heartwrenching shouting of "Stella!" from A Streetcar Named Desire. The characters' frequent attempts at successful connection are not at all circuitous, but rather provide a solid framework for the narrative as a whole. And it made me tear up a little, particularly when Eve realizes that Wall-E loves her through reviewing her own security footage.
In "It Only Takes a Moment," Cornelius wonders, "Isn't the world for wonderful things?" The film directly deals with this issue, in reminding us of the beauty of life, living, and most of all love. For me, Wall-E is inevitably a tale of what lengths we are able to go to for such things.
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