Wall-E

So I am not usually one for animated films, they just don't usually appeal to me.  I don't go to a lot of movies anyway, so when I do I choose wisely and knowing me that often includes the latest indie film, long anticipated book adaptation, foreign film or must-see blockbuster like the upcoming Dark Knight.  However when I started seeing trailers for Disney/Pixar's latest project Wall-E, I knew I'd end up going to see it, which I did, by myself, on the 4th of July while my husband played video poker.  It was just wonderful, I really enjoyed it.  First off, Wall-E has to be the most endearingly quirky animated character of my lifetime.  He is the last robot on Earth and goes about his job of trash compacting while collecting odds and ends that he thinks look interesting or useful.  He has a pet cockroach and watches the movie Hello Dolly regularly.  He eventually comes across a live plant, some sort of sprout, and dutifully puts it in an old workboot and takes it back to his home for safekeeping.  This turns out to be the key to re-establishing human life on Earth, as a female droid named Eve (he calls her Eeeeeeva) discovers and reports back to the spaceship/cruiseship that has been home to all the humans for the past 700 years.  You see, humankind had created so much garbage that the planet could no longer sustain life and so they set off for space while the robots went about cleaning up our mess.  700 years later, Wall-E was the only one left and it looked like humans would never return home.  Lots of other stuff happened but I don't want to spoil the entire movie because I think everyone should just go see it!  The animation was incredible, just so realistic.  Even though animated movies are usually marketed as children's movies, this one had some very grown up messages.  We have to take care of our planet, or we might just lose it and be destined to spend our lives obese and oblivious on a spaceship not knowing the joy of summertime watermelon or the smell of leaves in the fall.  Oh, didn't I mention that this was the fate the humans in the movie had ended up with, prior to Wall-E's discovery of the plant?  Realistically speaking, we may actually be headed for a human-created Ice Age which could wipe out life as we know it.  But that's a post for another day.