Every time I drop a leftover hamburger wrapper, an empty french fry container, Styrofoam cup and the accompanying paper place mat in the garbage can in my local mall food court, I feel guilty.
Ever wonder where the trash goes?
Oh sure, some landfill somewhere, but with the U.S. population reaching 300 million and the world's population projected to reach 7 billion by 2012, landfill planning could be the next sexy booming industry in the near future.
Well, writer and director Andrew Stanton looked 800 years into the future and pinned Earth's hope of solving its cataclysmic environmental problems on a humble little trash compactor in the animated feature "WALL-E."
This film is a masterpiece and a beautiful symphony of storytelling.
I loved this film.
Stanton pens a vision of the planet that's not too pleasant as a white cloudy haze sits in the sky, abandoned cities and shopping centers hint at a forgotten civilization, and garbage lays everywhere.
And with the human race gone from the planet for 700 years, WALL-E — Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class — works on his own, compacting the mountains of trash into neatly-shaped skyscrapers one small block at a time.
Think Egyptian pyramids, only the buildings are made out of litter and debris.
But while working on this monumental task, his curious nature keeps him occupied by finding value in the junk left behind.
He collects a Rubik's cube, cigarette lighters and an iPod and watches an old copy of the film "Hello, Dolly!," which he loves.
With no one to keep him company except his pet cockroach, WALL-E is alone and yearns for companionship.
His prayers for a friend are answered when Eve, a sophisticated robot who can fly around at a lighting pace and packs a wallop with a nasty laser gun, shows up on Earth for a mission.
With the human race sitting on a cruise ship in outer space hoping to someday come home to their uninhabitable planet, Eve's mission is pretty important.
This is where the material in "WALL-E" elevates above your standard animated feature.
Stanton addresses larger issues of mass consumption and corporate influences on the general populace in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.
But the film doesn't feel preachy and successfully strikes a harmonious balance between adventure and a surprisingly sweet love story between two robots.
And when a moviegoer roots for two robots to fall in love, the filmmakers have done something right.
Small children, however, probably won't understand the film's sweeping themes and will get antsy when hardly any dialogue is spoken during first half of the picture.
But the lack of a wordy back-and-forth struck a chord with me with reminders of "Fantasia" and "2001: A Space Odyssey" dancing in my head.
Influences aside, this film stands on its own, and its lovable lead will surely become a classic animated character.
In the end, the visually spectacular and thoughtful "WALL-E" fascinates, entertains and tugs at our emotional strings and will most likely end up in my top 10 films of 2008.
♆♆♆♆♆ out of ♆♆♆♆♆
Reach the reporter at: jeffrey.mitchell@asu.edu.
