What can I say about Wall-E? I got to see it in the company of professional children animators again, so I felt cool by association. Especially when at dessert afterward, someone said “Everyone at this table can draw [really really ridiculously well]!” and I just had to convince myself that yes, doodles count… But then I felt floored. And I almost cried. It was simple and profound in all the right places.

Possible spoilers ahead as I recall my reactions to the yellow box of love:

• The opening is unlike any other animated opening I have ever seen it. It was so heavy. Almost foreboding. “Apocalyptic,” Bongo called it. It was such a departure from what I guess I have grown accustomed to in animated storytelling. It absolutely drew me in.
• I am in wonder that Pixar made a full house fall in love with a robot in five minutes. A robot! They took all the endearing qualities of childlike curiosity and puppy playfulness when they created Wall-E. Sporks! Rubik’s cubes!
• When they played “La Vie En Rose” I almost cried! I decided a long time ago that this song is going to be played at my wedding, so whenever I hear it, I get perklempt. But perklempt at machinery? I’m still in awe of that! I never knew I had the capabilities of such emotion!
• When Wall-E was being resuscitated? Dead silence and a collective, thick tension in the air.
• I love how this story transcended language barriers. Though some dialogue will have to be translated for international audiences, for the most part the story is universal. Dialogue between the robots is primarily their names: Wall-E, Eve, and Mo, and that simplicity in their characters makes them so easily lovable. Pixar did such a great job with the characters and perfectly choreographed gestures that I didn’t miss sentences.
• The whole anti-consumerist commentary seems to target American consumerist crowds, with blatant rips on Dubya. (Still not sure how I feel about Fred Willard playing a real life character in an animated feature. Too many confused memories of Happy Feet’s sudden turn of events with humans.) Even with the clear messaging directed at the U.S.A., though, I was pretty disappointed by the lack of diversity among the blobby humans. Yes, yes, I know, I bring up culture a lot – but if the Axiom is truly meant to be a microcosm of American society detached from earth, then where the fuck are the non-Whites and Blacks? I am resigned to believe that Wall-E, in all his faded yellow paint, is Asian.
• I love Eve’s design. She’s so Apple. Complete with Mac boot-up sounds. I love her clean-cut fingers, breaking apart only when she needs them. On another note, she reminds me of uber-modern sleek “play” things (MA/NSFW). I suppose that the future of all concept design is headed in that smooth, elliptical directive, though. (Yeah, I just connected that link and that product to an animated love story. I blog with reckless abandon.)
• It feels almost pointless to say the animation was amazing. Reach out and touch some robot? Absolutely.

Anyway, I loved it. Wall-E’s like your ideal dog, except with more humanistic behaviors in regards to romance. Absolutely adorable. I know we’re not supposed to turn into amoeba-like fatasses with toe-sized fingers, but I have a feeling the world is going to go batshit consumerist insane when the Ultimate Wall-E hits the stores. Yes, it does exist: