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PCR #431 (Vol. 9, No. 26) This edition is for the week of June 23--29, 2008.

This Week's PCR
Movie Review
"WALL-E"

Movie review by:
Michael A. Smith

Movies are rated 0 to 4 stars

theater seats


MOVIE REVIEW
"WALL-E"  by Mike Smith
RETRORAMA
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SPORTS TALK
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Carlin .... Famous Monsters Battle .... ....  by Matt Drinnenberg
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These Guys Are Good! .... Speaking Of Music .... The Greatest Now .... According To George .... .... .... .... .... And The Oscar For 1991 Should Have Gone To...  by Mike Smith
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Starring: The voices of: Ben Burtt, John Ratzenberger and Sigourney Weaver
Directed by: Andrew Stanton
Rated: G
Running Time: 1 hour 30 mins




The year is 2700. Earth as we knew it has been deserted for the past 600 years, the overrun of trash and pollution forcing people to head to the stars, or as the corporate CEO of the company moving people to space relates in his commercial, “the final Fun-tier.” Making his way through the empty city, accompanied only by his tape of music from “Hello Dolly,” WALL-E maintains the ground as well as he can, scooping up trash and compacting it into small cubes, which he uses to construct buildings. This Waste Allocation Load Lifter -- Earth-Class. Is the only one still operating, often finding old counterparts and stripping them of usable parts. One day, the tiny machine is visited by a probe, calling itself Eve (voice of Elissa Knight). He falls for Eve, as only one robot can for another, but soon notices a change when Eve retrieves a small plant. Soon the two robots find themselves surrounded by a world they have never encountered before,

As the latest offering from the people at Pixar, “Wall-E” is nothing short of magical visually. The story, one of taking responsibility for our planet, is preachy but doesn’t hit you over the head. Well, not too much. As with all other Pixar films, “Wall-E” is beautifully rendered, the outstanding computer generated images seemingly placed on screen by hand. As most of the film is without dialogue, it falls to multiple Oscar winner Ben Burtt, who was first recognized more then 30 years ago for his work on “Star Wars,” to give a voice to WALL-E, and his contributions are brilliant. Pixar regular John Ratzenberger keeps his streak alive by providing his voice to one of the characters and it’s a nice touch to have “Alien’s” Sigourney Weaver voice the ship’s computer.

If there is any fault with the film, it is that it runs too long. Children who may enjoy the cute robots may also find the voiceless action a bit boring, though the little ones at the screening I attended didn’t seem to mind.

On a scale of zero to four stars I give “WALL-E”




 


This week's movie review of "WALL-E" is ©2008 by Michael A. Smith.  All graphics this page are creations of Nolan B. Canova, ©2008, all rights reserved. All contents of "Nolan's Pop Culture Review" are ©2008 by Nolan B. Canova.