The final credits of Wall-E reimagine the history and progress of the human race improved by the cooperation of robots. This breathtaking outro takes in most of art history for good measure. If it were any other film you might say it was cheek. But this, Pixar’s latest and greatest work to date, is a genuine flipping masterpiece.
An insignificant drone and the last of his kind, WALL-E – or Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth-Class to be precise – is left to sweep up the uninhabitable mess that was once our planet. With earth’s former inhabitants in exile, Wall-E is left to amuse himself with a pet cockroach and a battered VHS copy of Hello Dolly until, one day, a sleek robotic probe named EVE shows up in search of life. Part-machine, part-feminist icon, as the film progresses EVE does the rescuing while Wall-E does the beautifully pitched broad comedy.
If you were forced to nitpick with, say, a gun to your head, you might concede that the second half of the film, though superb in every respect, doesn’t quite reach the dizzying heights of the opening act. Humans battling a HAL minded computer system in space may make for a grand denouement, but the automatons in love are infinitely more charming. Finally, you suspect, CG animation has found its true calling – anthropomorphizing metal men, and indeed, metal women.
Still, how do Pixar do it? Just when you imagine it’ll be a long while before they make anything as beautiful as Ratatouille, they appear to jump forward into their own technological singularity.
As a mechanical marvel, Wall-E may owe more to E.T than Gort and the great androids of old. But we certainly won’t be calling “Klaatu barada nikto” on this adorable little fellow