Pixar's Biggest Gamble The animation wonder boys roll the dice on a demanding and delightful sci-fi robot romance

The dusty cityscape shows remnants of a civilization,an empty work, a createred warehouse mall,tattered billboards for coals and travel agencies,all bearing the logo of Buy-N-Large.Too much trash-earth covered reads an old headline,and we note that some of the skyscrapers are made of compacted trash cubes.The planet has become one huge junkyard,as if all humanity were a rock band that had made a shambles of hotal room,then just strolled out.The only remaining sign of organic life on Earth is that unkillable little bugger,a cockroach.


Among this urban detritus,something else is moving.It looks like another trash cube-but with binocular eyes,forklift plates for arms and Caterpillar tracks to navigate the rough terrain.The thing is called a waste allocation load lifter,Earth class and its job is to clean up the mess of consumerism run amok.It's also apparently the last of its kind still functioning.


Appreantly,because for its first 30 min,the new Pixar astonishment Wall.E has virtually no dialogue.Nor does it offer a Star Wars-like print crawl to inform viewers that this is Earth 800 years from now.The mechanical critter who is the film's hero can speak only in electronic grunts and sighs,or in one-word bursts,like a chatter R2D2.The movie's other main creature,a robot name eve,also can speak only a few words.Yet it's Pixar's big,bold belief that the mass audience will be astute enough to follow the visual clues and game enough to play along.So confident is the studio in its ability to charm audiences,it has made a futurist movie that's a lot like an old silent picture.