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As imaginative as Pixar Studios has proven to be over the past thirteen years and nine award winning films, Wall-E may be their most creative idea yet. With the premise of a lonely robot left alone on an overly polluted Earth abandoned for the past 700 years, the first act of the film is, by force of storyline, basically a silent movie. The homage to Buster Keaton and other silent film era comedians is obvious, but since the style is so long forgotten the sense of humor comes off fresh and exciting. Wall-E is the most overtly “for kids AND adults” film in Pixar’s lineup; perhaps the littlest of little ones will find the lack of dialogue boring, but on the other hand adults will enjoy the minimalist sense of humor. And on the other other hand, this lack of dialogue also makes the storyline eminently easy to understand in a primitive way. There’s no way to have Wall-E devote a lengthy monologue to exposition, so the film tells most of its tale in purely visual terms that work for audiences aged 3 to 93.

And once human (and thus speaking) characters enter the story, Pixar not only keeps the interest up, but slips in its most powerful moral message yet. Long a standard of the Disney film, the “life lesson” is usually heavy handed and somewhat repetitive. This also includes Pixar, who seem to focus on the banal ideals of “Family first” and “Be Yourself” in most of their films. But with the image of the impossibly overweight, blissfully chair prone society that has taken up residence in space after they ruined their home planet with over consumption, Pixar has blazed a bold new trail for the “moral” of their stories. Though recent interviews have suggested that the filmmakers didn’t intend to hammer home a lesson against the dangers of buying too much stuff and being too goddamn lazy, one assumes this is only lip service aimed at protecting the lucrative merchandising element of any Disney project. And no matter how strong the intention, the satirical message is clear.

Also adding to the film’s great success is Wall-E himself. More adorable and likeable then Buzz Lightyear, Nemo and Lightning McQueen put together, this Johnny 5 look-alike is already a classic character. His gentle innocence and hilarious clumsiness may not break any ground, but the little robot is undeniably endearing; he’ll surely sell a lot of toys, but more importantly he’s also a constantly entertaining character to watch. With a wacky batch of sidekick robots and an illogical robot love story, Pixar certainly sticks to elements of a tried and true formula - but these clichés serve more to endear us to the film than they do to turn us off from it. For anyone out there with kids, Wall-E is THE movie to see this summer, and for the rest of us it stands as yet another triumph for the talented folks at Pixar.

Grade: A

- Jeff Latta