Dir. Andrew Stanton
Writ. Andrew Stanton, Pete Doctor, Jim Reardon
Act. Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight

Between Ratatouille and its latest, Wall-E, Pixar appears to be back on top of the family motion picture genre with another heart-warming exciting tale.

"Wall-E" is about a trash removal robot who has survived on Earth 700 years after the planet has been evacuated from waste overgrowth. Humans have taken to space to live on a series of barges, the lead of which named the Axiom.

Having spent 700 years as the only animated object on Earth, besides a friendly cockroach, Wall-E learns about affect between two souls thorough a found copy of the musical "Hello Dolly."

Soon, Buy N Large, existence's ruling corporation of everything, operated by robots, sends a probe to Earth, named Eva, to find evidence that photosynthetic life can survive there once again, signifying humans can now go home.

Wall-E falls for Eva and follows her back to the Axiom where the story and conflicts really take off.

This picture was absolutely adorable. I expected nothing less from Pixar. Pixar has never made a BAD movie. Although I'll say "Cars" was their most disappointing effort. "Ratatouille" repaired their storytelling reputation in my mind, and "Wall-E" follows suit.

The plot takes its time without getting slow to show Wall-E's life on Earth, develop the relationship between him and Eva, and follow their adventures and conflicts together back on the Axiom.

I also enjoyed how we had several characters to cheer for, many of who got to have their own moments of heroism, for example, when Cpt. McRea stands for the first time to fight Auto, the ships mutinous auto-navigation system.

It was also great to see how much emotion and plot points the film could convey without having any speaking characters except for a couple of humans.

I love Wall-E's inner motivation. Yes, he had feelings for Eva and fairly fast-why not, being 700 years alone-but his biggest goal was to have a moment to hold hands with her like he saw during a duet in "Hello Dolly." Like I said...adorable.

As for the animation, hello, it's Pixar. It's the benchmark for all other animated production companies and has been since "Toy Story." There were parts of this picture that looked far more real than anything computer generated in this year's "The Incredible Hulk."

The only flag I have to throw on the story is-Brian will like that I used a football reference just then, we are shown several space barges launching from Earth while the Operation: Clean Up begins. But once, we're in space, the Axiom is the only barge we follow. What about the other barges? Are they still in space? Do they come home automatically too? What gives? That's my only problem with the movie.

Overall, I can't recommend this feature enough. Adults, go late if you want to avoid the kids, but there's hardly any dialogue, so there's not very many lines to miss if the kiddies are being too loud.,br>

I also say see this one in the theaters where the animation really gets to shine.

Although I haven't gotten to see a whole lot of them, I would have to say "Wall-E" is the best picture of the year thus far.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?