WALL.E

Kids have all the best toys. It's a fact. While we fart about waiting nineteen hours to get an iPhone, and what's the fuckin' point in having one of those, the little nippers get to play with Real Ghostbuster figures, Gameboy Colors and Digipoke balls, or whatever the little brats are into these days. Thankfully when it comes to movies, they get the short end of tree amputations. Well would you rather watch Zombie Flesh Eaters or High School Musical? I know, one is one of the most horrific things ever committed to film, the other is Zombie Flesh Eaters (BOOM BOOM!). But when it comes to the films by Pixar the little 'uns seem to have come up trumps, and with WALL.E we may have the finest by the studio.

But before the lil' bastards can start jumping up and down and generally annoying the hell out out of everyone let's say that WALL.E is probably wasted on them. It's too dense, too clever, too artful for someone that young to fully appreciate. In typical fashion Pixar have presented to us a labour of love, packaged up as something for kids. So while they drink fizzy sugar water from their WALL.E beverage holder and point and gurgle at the cute little robot we can point and gurgle at some of the most sumptuous visuals ever to appear in movies, WALL.E and EVE dancing in space is one such moment of supreme, sublime beauty in a movie full of them. WALL.E himself, all Johnny 5 crossed with E.T., is a wonder of character design, at once featureless and yet totally expressive. When he looks up at the skies in wonderment or looks down and defeated by another EVE rejection you will find yourself actually saying out loud "awwwwww". If you in any way pride yourself as a macho studly Gristle McThornbody then it's probably best you avoid this, as your image will be shafted within the first five minutes. It's not all cutesy either. The vision of Earth 700 years from now when humanity has vacated leaving its waste behind is eerie and terrifying in its believability. The opening series of shots traveling through space, continuing through the debris of all those satellites surrounding our planet until we swoop over one of Earth's cities, realising after a few moments that the buildings are in fact piles of rubbish towering above the skyscrapers is breathtaking. As we then follow WALL.E through the place the realisation strikes that it looks like the city has been destroyed by aerial bombardment. Of course it hasn't, we've done this to our own hometown thanks to our neglect. It is this environmental message that underpins proceedings, but thankfully is never shoved down the viewer's throat.

When we get past the eye candy we can begin to appreciate the mastery involved in the scripting of WALL.E. Basically Pixar have always prided themselves on great stories to go along with the wonderful visuals, and WALL.E is no different. Underpinning the whole thing is a basic love story, normal guy who's a bit of a klutz falls for woman out of his league and tries to woo her. When she has to go away he decides to follow her to win her heart. It just so happens the two romantic leads are robots, and the going away involves returning from a desolate Earth to a spaceship that contains the remaining remnants of humanity, now too fat and stupid to do anything for themselves. What follows involves mutiny, robots that are locked up in an asylum and an landslide of tubbies, one of the funniest visual jokes in the whole movie. Add to all that some 2001: A Space Odyssey references, WALL.E's love of Hello Dolly! and the fact that the majority of the film features no dialogue and you've got one of the richest "kid's" films ever made.

In WALL.E Pixar have not only bested anything from the studio previously, but maybe everything else this year so far. It's not a stretch to say this could become known as one of the finest films ever made. The sheer imagination and beauty alone are something to behold, and in the titular robot we have one of the most charming lead characters to front a film. How Pixar are going to best this is beyond me, but the studio never ceases to amaze so who knows. It'll be interesting to see when the Oscar nominations are announced if WALL.E has to make do with the usual Best Animated Feature statue or if it gets to compete with the big boys like it deserves. But then it may not only be the kids that it's wasted on, but those on the Academy as well.