Wall-E

What can I say about Wall-E that hasn't already been said? We already know about the lack of dialogue, the amazing visual effects, and the political commentary of a sedentary life of ecological neglect. I watched it with my wife and my 18-month old toddler.

I loved the movie. Loved it. Loved the old-school shout outs to computer users everywhere, from the Mac boot-up sound of WALL-E to the iPod-esque design of EVE. Loved the wry comments on the future of civilization: roaches and Twinkies! Loved the very notion that it's possible to get too caught up in one's climb up the career ladder (EVE) or stuck in a rut (WALL-E), and that there are more important things like life and love. It's a worthy successor to The Incredibles and makes me forgive Pixar for Ratatouille.

My wife questioned why there were babies on the spaceship Axiom: If everyone is just staring into screens all the time, when do they ever have time to procreate? When two humans finally do look away from their screens, they seem genuinely surprised by their attraction to each other. Which implies they haven't been doing much interaction at all, begging the question: where do the babies come from? Yes, these are the conversations we have in our household.

My theory was that the babies were actually cloned. Keeping the babies fat and happy was a sort of Machiavellian torture by the robots, who needed servants to continue to function and keep the status quo. If you consider the long-reaching plans of robots that have been doing this for hundreds of years, Wall-E takes on a considerably sinister tone.

Or, ya know, maybe it's a cartoon and we shouldn't worry about it.

My toddler seemed to get bored about halfway through. Even the cool special effects could only retain his attention span for so long.

It wasn't until the next day, when we were at Home Depot, that we knew he was really paying attention. There was a washer/dryer combo displayed side-by-side on a sign. The doors to the appliances looked suspiciously the two eyes of WALL-E.

My son pointed and said a new word, "roh-BOT!"

So I'll put him down as enjoying the movie too.