Movie-A-Day #12: "Wall-E"

Yet another fine, fine film from the Pixar geniuses.

It's whimsical.

It looks beautiful. Perhaps even more, it sounds beautiful.

It's moving, even when there's no dialog, which is frequently the case. You will care about a cockroach before this film ends.

And it has a noble message which is -- just in case you were in a coma while watching -- "THE EARTH WILL BE A BAD PLACE TO LIVE IF WE KEEP MESSING IT UP!" and "OUR BODIES WILL BE A BAD PLACE TO LIVE IF WE KEEP MESSING THEM UP!"

Fortunately and despite my facetiousness, those are two highly worthwhile sentiments for a major motion picture to put forth and underline. Perhaps somewhere in the world's multiplexes this weekend was the child who, duly inspired, might grow up to save the planet and us along with it.

So, a good movie. But you don't need me to tell you that because it's got a 96-percent FRESH rating from Rottentomatoes, which means only 4-percent of all the registered critics in circulation didn't like it -- six versus 162. For example, Kyle Smith from KyleSmithOnline calls it "Too gloom-E" and Cinema Signals Jules Brenner says, "Cutes-E, but not enough gravit-E." Mm.

Eschewing nods to the title, Salon's Stephanie Zacharek (a damn good movie watcher who, alternately, either perfectly articulates my own opinions or leaves me wondering if we saw the same film) said, "The picture feels weirdly and disappointingly disjointed ... something that starts out as poetry and ends as product."

While I'm still positive on the subject of "Wall-E," I think she's onto something there.

So I have to drop just a couple of notions, and they are ....

1) I am 96-percent positive on "Wall-E" ... while he's on Earth, when the movie is wry and wistful, cautionary yet happily optimistic. Once our little Woody Allen-esque load lifter stows away to the starship Axiom ... it falls to more like 65-70-percent.

2) I would've found Wall-E's pining for Eve a lot more touching if the story had given us just a little more time between them, just a little more connection. They do start to form a bond before she's, er, called away, but they're not there yet. As it is ... Wall-E could conceivably be seen as a kind-hearted interstellar ... stalker, sorta? I think so. Yeah, a little. Take a drink every time he says, "Ev-a" and you won't make it to the end credits.

3) So we have the fictional retail behemoth Buy-N-Large, clearly patterned after Wal-Mart and big box stores like Best Buy. I find it charming that the good folks at a little mom-and-pop operation like Disney will warn us about the dangers of massive, omnipresent corporations and the wasteful folly of excessive consumerism.

I feel certain, too, that in about six or seven months time you will be well-notified of your ability to purchase the double disc "Wall-E" DVD at those very same retail chains for $18.88.

4) Over-eating and obesity is a huge, active issue. But as I watched the movie have laughs at the lazy, bloated passengers of the Axiom, I found myself worrying about the fat kids. Yep. There's no other way to say it, the fat kids. I worried about the big boys and girls in audience, too young to make their own nutritional decisions, who might think the movie was teasing or even bullying them. And I wondered if the movie's creators had considered that possibility and shrugged it off. And I worried that I might be navel gazing just a little too much.

5) The end was a cheat. It was lazy. Worst of all, it was dishonest. Those big guys ain't gonna grow no plants. As presented by the movie, they're not the right people and that ain't the right place. They are the hippies in "Easy Rider," and they will try to grow corn in sand.

6) Lastly: The opening scene -- Wall-E happily buzzing around a wasted city to the tune of Michael Crawford singing, "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" -- is one of my favorite scenes of the year. Absolutely.