WALL-E

From the film’s lonely, dusty beginning following our hero (the miniature “Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-class,” or WALL-E) as “he” rolls about, continuing to do his work on a desolate Earth that has been abandoned by the humans who have polluted it beyond livability, the visuals are rich and seamlessly believable. And when the action moves into space, as WALL-E pursues the “girl” robot EVE as she returns to the space-station housing the planet’s former residents, the visuals open up in poetic sequences that pay homage to 2001, A Space Odyssey. As the story unfolds, the main plot revolves around the simple idea that the planet needs to be taken care of … or else. But the real heart and fun is the subplot of WALL-E’s pursuit of the exotic EVE. She’s like the Apple MacBook Air to his Commodore 64, and all he wants is to hold her hand like the dancing, singing characters do in the VHS copy of Hello Dolly that he watched over and over.