Today’s Pixar selection is from a film that I would definitely call Speculative Fiction with WALL-E. I remember when this film came out, a popular tech blog did not consider it a kid’s film, but one of the greatest science-fiction films of all time.

I would agree with this. I personally believe this film has so many good points, the film is part love-story, part sci-fi epic, with a sprinkle of indie film on the side.

I remember seeing the trailers for the film, and they actually match the first thirty-or-so minutes of the film. The story begins in a world where all of humanity has left because the world is just too polluted. The plan was apparently to these robots clean up the world, but all but WALL-E have broken down. Seven-hundred years later, WALL-E is still on the job, but this robot has grown a great curiosity about humans. It collects the remains of humanity and seems to like some more than the others. It really likes the musical “Hello Dolly”.

The film is terrific because there is no dialogue when WALL-E is on Earth, and yet the viewer is never bored. WALL-E’s life takes a new direction when a probe from a spaceship called EVA comes to Earth, searching for vegetation. WALL-E has found a plant that grows in a shoe that plays a very important part in the story.

There are some that believe the story goes sour when WALL-E leaves Earth with EVA to deliver this plant to a massive starship, but I personally think the film gets better. It can be argued that most of mystery is gone from the film, and everything gets explained to the viewer instead of them figuring it out for themselves. Personally, I think a film can still work after the initial mystery is over, but it is up to the story to wrap itself up to a satisfying conclusion.

To me, the second act of the film on the giant spaceship is pretty cool, and there is a lot the viewer has to learn without much explanation. I love watching how the futuristic people are fat and float around on chairs and constantly online. If that isn’t the worst future that I have ever seen in a science fiction movie, I don’t know what is.

Speaking of darkness, this film, like Up, has some dark elements that kids won’t think about. For example, did the Earth really allow everyone to go on these spaceships? I can’t help but feel that some people were Left Behind, no relation to the film of the same name, but worse. Fortunately, all the corpses were rotted away after 700 years, so there isn’t any skeletons remaining.

Also, I think my wife figured out how WALL-E survived all these years. He was using parts off other dead robots. Yes, WALL-E is kind of a cannibal.

Many of criticized this film as being too environmental. I will have to admit that the film’s apocalyptic event is due to pollution, but this is more of a critique on humanity’s wastefulness. It is weird to see that in the future one corporation known as Buy N Large will rule the world and is essentially responsible for all this waste. If you look at it, I think it is a lesson that we all need to learn without being preachy over it.

I’m not really certain what the theme of WALL-E is, perhaps that humanity has something in it that is worth saving and can’t be explained. For this reason, I like WALL-E.