Wall-E

Wall-E

Director:   Andrew Stanton

Cast:

  1. Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight,
  2. Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard,
  3. MacInTalk, John Ratzenberger,
  4. Kathy Najimy, Sigourney Weaver,
  5. Lori Alan, Bob Bergen

WALL-E (stylized with an interpunct as WALL·E) is a 2008 American computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed and co-written by Andrew Stanton, produced by Jim Morris, and co-written by Jim Reardon. It stars the voices of Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy and Sigourney Weaver, and was the overall ninth feature film produced by the company. It follows a solitary trash compactor robot on a future, uninhabitable, deserted Earth, left to clean up garbage. However, he is visited by a probe sent by the starship Axiom, a robot called EVE, with whom he falls in love and pursues across the galaxy.

After directing Finding Nemo, Stanton felt Pixar had created believable simulations of underwater physics and was willing to direct a film set largely in space. WALL-E has minimal dialogue in its early sequences; many of the characters do not have voices, but instead communicate with body language and robotic sounds designed by Burtt. The film criticizes consumerism, corporatism, nostalgia, waste management, human environmental impact and concerns, obesity, and global catastrophic risk. It is also Pixar's first animated film with segments featuring live-action characters. Following Pixar tradition, WALL-E was paired with a short film titled Presto for its theatrical release.

WALL-E was released in the United States on June 27, 2008. The film was an instant blockbuster, grossing $533.3 million worldwide over a $180 million budget, and winning the 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Long Form Dramatic Presentation, the final Nebula Award for Best Script, the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature with five nominations. It is considered by many fans and critics as the best film of 2008. The film also topped Time's list of the "Best Movies of the Decade", and in 2016 was voted 29th among 100 films considered the best of the 21st century by 117 film critics from around the world.[

In the 29th century, rampant consumerism and environmental neglect have turned Earth into a garbage-strewn wasteland. Humanity is nowhere to be found, having been evacuated by the megacorporation Buy-N-Large (BnL) on giant starliners seven centuries earlier. Of the robotic trash compactors left by BnL to clean up, only one remains: a Waste Allocation Load-Lifter (Earth Class), or WALL-E. One day, WALL-E's routine is broken by the arrival of an unmanned probe carrying an Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator or EVE, sent to scan the planet for plant life. WALL-E is smitten by the sleek, otherworldly robot, but she goes into standby when he shows her his most recent find: a living seedling. The probe returns to collect EVE and the plant, and with WALL-E clinging on, returns to its mothership, the starliner Axiom.

In the centuries since the Axiom left Earth, its passengers have degenerated into helpless corpulence due to laziness and microgravity, their every whim catered to by machines. Captain McCrea, used to sitting back while his robotic lieutenant AUTO flies the ship, is taken aback by a positive probe response, but learns that placing the plant in the ship's Holo-Detector will trigger a hyperjump back to Earth so humanity can begin recolonization. The plant proves to be missing from EVE's storage compartment though, and she blames WALL-E for its disappearance.

With the plant missing, EVE is deemed faulty and taken to Diagnostics. WALL-E proceeds to "free" her along with the other faulty robots, causing them to be designated rogue. Frustrated, EVE tries to send WALL-E home on an escape pod, but they are interrupted when AUTO's first mate GO-4 arrives and stows the stolen plant in a pod set to self-destruct. WALL-E saves the plant from being lost for good, and he and EVE reconcile, celebrating with a dance in space around the Axiom.

EVE brings the plant back to McCrea, who watches EVE's recordings of Earth and concludes that they have to go back. However, AUTO refuses, revealing his own secret no-return directive A113, issued after BnL concluded in 2110 that the planet could not be saved. When McCrea countermands this directive, AUTO mutinies, electrocuting WALL-E and shutting EVE down, and throwing them both down the garbage chute before confining the captain to his quarters. EVE automatically reboots herself and helps WALL-E bring the plant to the ship's Holo-Detector. AUTO crushes WALL-E in his attempt to stop the return protocol initializing, but McCrea deactivates him while EVE starts the hyperjump.

Arriving back on Earth, EVE repairs WALL-E, but finds that his memory has been reset and his personality is gone. Heartbroken, EVE gives WALL-E a farewell kiss, which sparks his memory and restores his original personality. WALL-E and EVE reunite as the humans and robots of the Axiom take their first steps on Earth. During the credits, humans and robots are shown learning to farm, fish, and build, turning the ravaged planet into a paradise. 1

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