Bee Movie

This computer-animated film created by Jerry Seinfeld explores the secret life of bees.

The Plot (spoilers):

Young honeybee Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) and his friend Adam (Matthew Broderick) are graduating from college after three days of grade school, three days of high school, three days of college and a day off that Barry spent hitchhiking around the hive.

Barry B. Benson and his parents

After graduation, the bees are given a tour of the Honex Corporation, where they are expected to work as part of the honeymaking process, selecting a single job that they will do for the rest of their lives without a single day off. None of the bees have a problem with this idea, except for Barry, who is dismayed at the prospect of doing the same thing every day until he dies. Adam doesn’t understand.

Adam and Barry on the Honex tour

Barry and Adam see the specially-bred pollen jocks return from collecting nectar, and they accidently get sprinkled with pollen, which they use to impress female bees by claiming to be pollen jocks themselves. The real pollen jocks see this and intervene, challenging Adam and Barry to join them for a trip to a sunflower patch at 0900 in the morning.

The Pollen Jocks

The next day, Adam and Barry go to select their jobs, but Barry slips off to take the pollen jocks up on their offer so he can see outside the hive just once before picking his one job. Barry enjoys his flight outside the hive around New York City watching the pollen jocks collect nectar for honey and spread pollen to make more flowers.

Barry flies with the Pollen Jocks

When the pollen jocks mistake tennis balls for flowers, Barry gets stuck to one of the balls, which in the course of a game between a man and woman gets knocked out of the court. Barry ends up getting sucked inside a vehicle and terrorizing some humans before escaping through the sunroof. While he reflects on the excitement, it starts raining. Since bees can’t fly in the rain, Barry takes refuge in an apartment, and coincidentally the tennis players come in.

Barry gets stuck to a Tennis Ball

When the window is closed, Barry is trapped inside the apartment and the man, Ken (Patrick Warburton), tries to smash him, but the woman, a florist named Vanessa (Renée Zellweger), stops him, traps Barry under a glass and kindly puts him back outside.

Ken, Vanessa and Barry

Barry is impressed. He feels like he has to thank her for saving his life, so he breaks the bee law about not talking to humans and introduces himself, and after she gets over the shock of a talking bee, they hit it off and chat over coffee.

Barry introduces himself to Vanessa

Back in the hive, Barry tells Adam about his experience, and Adam tells Barry to “Think Bee.” Barry’s parents (Barry Levinson & Kathy Bates) don’t understand why Barry hasn’t picked a job yet. Barry fantasizes about Vanessa, and he goes to see her again. They hang out together and in a grocery store, Barry discovers honey for sale. It turns out bees have no idea humans use honey, and Barry considers it stealing.

Barry is upset when he finds honey in supermarkets

Barry investigates and hitches a ride on a truck to Honey Farms, where he meets a mosquito names Mooseblood (Chris Rock), who leaves when he sees a bloodmobile.

Barry and Mooseblood

At the farm, Barry sees bees in hundreds of artificial hives being pacified with nicotine smoke and having their honey harvested for humans.

Barry sees the full extent of Honey Farms

Barry goes on Bee Larry King (Larry King) to expose the honey farms to the bees and decides to sue the human race on behalf of the bees, with the help of Vanessa and Adam.

Barry on Bee Larry King

In the trial, the honey companies are represented by southern lawyer Layton T. Montgomery (John Goodman), who counters Barry’s cross-examination of Sting and Ray Liotta (as themselves) by using character assassination to discredit the bees and goads Adam into stinging him. Adam is seriously injured, and Montgomery plays up the pain of the sting to turn the jury against the bees.

Barry, Adam and Vanessa in court

Barry visits Adam in the hospital and sees humans smoking outside, which inspires him. Barry shows the jury the smoker gun the beekeepers use to pacify the bees, and Judge Bumbleton (Oprah Winfrey) rules in favor of the bees. Montgomery warns Barry that he’s gone against nature and will regret what he’s done.

Montgomery warns Barry about what he's done

All honey on Earth is returned to the bees, who now have so much honey none of them have to work and they just lay around doing nothing. Adam tells Barry that he was looking forward to making honey but now can’t. Even worse, Vanessa shows Barry that all the plants on Earth are dying because the bees aren’t working and spreading pollen anymore, and she’s had to close her flower shop. She’s leaving to go to the last Tournament of Roses in Pasadena, but Barry realizes they could use flowers from the tournament to pollinate the rest of the flowers.

Barry sees the results of his efforts

Vanessa and Barry steal a float and bring the flowers back to New York City on an airline flight, but bad weather en route causes a delay that the flowers won’t survive. Barry goes to talk to the pilots to convince them to hurry, but they panic when they see him and end up knocking themselves out. Barry and Vanessa try to land the plane themselves. The humans on the ground (including a flight controller voiced by Michael Richards) aren’t much help, but Barry gets help from his fellow bees: the pollen jocks, led by their commander (Rip Torn), carry the plane and the rest of the bees form a target for Barry to follow.

The bees land a plane

The bees land the plane safely, Barry is made a pollen jock and he and the pollen jocks take the pollen from the cut flowers to pollinate the city’s plants.

Barry becomes a pollen jock

Barry and the bees realize how important they are and go back to work. Barry works as both a pollen jock and as a legal advisor for other exploited animals in Vanessa’s shop, with his friend Mooseblood as a colleague.

Barry & Mooseblood; All he needed was the briefcase

My Review:

Bee Movie is a fun movie that is easily the equal of other computer-animated movies, and its unique creative talent gives it a distinctive tone. There have been other animated films about insects, but I think this one is the best. The voice cast is excellent and features some voices fans of Jerry Seinfeld’s TV-Series will recognize. The visuals are very good. The views of the city are impressive and the tennis balls in particular look very real. The movement of Vanessa’s hair is also quite good. There are details that aren’t quite up to the level of some competing computer-animated films, particularly the automobiles and plants, and everything looks too clean. The film’s plot is quite good. The plant die and recover very quickly, and the climax with bees carrying an airliner is a little ridiculous, but seeing as how this is a computer-animated film about bees that can talk to humans, the suspension of disbelief is already quite high. It is also nice that there is a little bit of educational value showing that bees pollinate flowers, though not all plants require bees for pollination as the movie suggests.

Bee Movie is an enjoyable film for the whole family.

I Am Legend

Will Smith stars as the last man in New York City in this cross between a sci-fi drama and a horror film.

The Plot: (Spoilers)

In an attempt to create a cure for cancer using a genetically-engineered measles virus, Dr. Alice Krippen (Emma Thompson, uncredited) unleashed a plague in 2009 that three years later left Army virologist Lieutenant Colonel Robert Neville (Will Smith) as apparently the only human being alive in New York City. He survives by hunting dear with his German Shepherd Samantha, a sniper rifle and a Shelby GT500, in competition with escaped lions from the zoo.

Dr. Neville & Sam

In his home he has installed steel window shutters to protect him at night, which he closes before it gets dark. At night he dreams of the winter night around Christmas when the President ordered a quarantine of the city and he sent his wife and daughter upstate while he stayed behind to try and stop the spread of the virus. Dr. Neville maintains a sophisticated lab in his basement and the next day (September 5, 2012) he continues his ongoing research on what appear to be large hairless rats. One of his potential cures shows promise for human testing. Dr. Neville and Sam go about their daily routine: at a video store populated by mannequins Neville borrows one DVD at a time in alphabetical order, he and Sam search apartment buildings for supplies and they go to the South Street Seaport, where in an automated radio broadcast Neville tells anyone who may be listening that he will be there every day at noon.

Neville and Sam sleep in the tub

Sam spots a deer and chases it into a darkened building, to Neville’s concern. He cautiously goes in after Sam, discovering that the building is populated by what the Krippen Virus has turned humans into: ferocious, hairless creatures that die in sunlight.

A human infected with the Krippen Virus

Neville and Sam escape the building, and Neville sets a snare trap and captures one of the infected humans, a female, for testing, but the potential cure is fatal to humans. Neville undoes the effect of the serum and resuscitates and locks up the test subject. In his journal, he reveals it is day 1001. He is immune to both the airborne and contact forms of the virus. Canines are immune to only the airborne form.

Dr. Neville works on his test subject

One day, Neville is trapped by the infected humans using one of the mannequins from outside the video store as a lure and using a similar trap to the one he used to catch his test subject. He manages to cut himself loose but stabs his leg with his knife when he falls. As the sun sets he and Sam are attacked by infected dogs and Sam is infected and Neville has to put her down and bury her.

Now completely alone and distraught, Neville sets a trap for the infected humans at the seaport, where he uses his light-equipped SUV to run over as many as possible. The infected humans overwhelm him and nearly kill him, but a bright light drives them off and the dazed and injured Neville is rescued by a woman. In a vehicle in a moment of consciousness, she asks Neville where he lives and he gives her his address but says to wait until dawn. He again dreams of the night he sent his wife and daughter out of the city, reliving the moment their helicopter was struck by another one, killing them.

In the morning, Neville wakes up on his couch with Shrek playing on his TV. He hears someone in his kitchen and finds the mysterious woman and a young boy having breakfast. The woman introduces herself as Anna (Alice Braga) and says the boy is Ethan (Charlie Tahan). It takes Neville a little time to adjust to their presence but he comes around. Anna came by boat from Sao Paulo, Brazil. She was originally one of 5 people immune to the virus, but the others were killed by the infected humans, which she calls “dark seekers.” She and Ethan were traveling to a colony of survivors in Vermont when they heard Neville’s radio broadcast. They went to the seaport and waited for him. Anna wants Neville to come with them to Vermont; it is too late in the day to get to Vermont before dark but they could make it the following day. Neville doesn’t believe the colony actually exists and insists that he has to stay to try to find a cure for the virus.

Anna and Ethan

Neville goes back to work in his lab and Anna checks on him. He is using ice to lower his test subject’s body temperature in the desperate hope that it will make the cure effective. That night, Neville and Anna again argue about going to Vermont. Anna believes she is being led by God to Vermont, and her finding Neville is part of God’s plan. Neville doesn’t believe there is anyone else left and gives her the statistics: starting with a population of 6 billion, the Krippen Virus’s 90% kill rate left 5.4 billion dead, and with only 1% immunity there were only 12 million healthy humans; the remaining 588 million became “dark seekers” who fed on the healthy humans.

Dr. Neville gives Anna the numbers

Neville hears a noise outside and discovers that the dark seekers have found them. Anna had brought him home just before dawn because his injuries were severe, so they were able to follow them. Neville has set up some defenses which stop some of the dark seekers but there are too many of them and some of them get into the house.

The Dark Seeker Alpha Male outside Dr. Neville's home

Neville battles a dark seeker through his home and gets Anna and Ethan to his lab, where they trap themselves behind the lab’s Plexiglas divider with the sedated test subject. The dark seekers have them trapped and the alpha male (Dash Mihok) tries to break through the Plexiglas. Anna and Neville discover that the cure is having an effect on the test subject. Neville takes a sample of the test subject’s blood which now contains the cure and gives it to Anna and shows her and Ethan an old coal chute where they can hide until dawn. He takes out a hand grenade from a drawer and sacrifices himself to kill the dark seekers in the lab.

Here's Johnny!

Anna and Ethan travel to Vermont and find the colony of survivors. They hand over the blood sample that contains the cure.

Anna and Ethan find the colony

A voiceover by Anna reveals the date of the previous night was September 9, 2012 and that they now have hope to save the rest of humanity.

Aerial view of the colony shown during Anna's voiceover

My Review:

I Am Legend starts with an interesting premise. The visuals of the desolate New York City are spectacular, and Will Smith gives an excellent performance, easily carrying the film alone with just a dog to play off of. His interactions with mannequins at the video store effectively show how lonely he is, and his performance when Neville sees one of the mannequins far out of place and considers it might be alive is a high point of the film. The dark seekers are the film’s weak spot. Once they are seen, it is obvious that the film is going to devolve into a horror film, and the most of the lead-up to that is tedious, and the battle with the dark seekers just isn’t satisfying. The end of the film isn’t really satisfying either. Will Smith’s character is dead, and I really didn’t care about the others, maybe because they came into the film so late. I’m not sure how helpful the cure would be, as I don’t see how a small group of survivors in Vermont are going to distribute it. I also don’t see how a simple wall kept the dark seekers out of the colony, as the dark seekers have no problem climbing. And with the bridges in New York City destroyed, and early visuals implying the tunnels are flooded, how did Anna and Ethan even get into the city to find Neville?

I Am Legend features strong performances and starts with an interesting premise that make it worth checking out, but its flaws keep it from achieving its potential.

Gone In 60 Seconds (1974)

H.B. Halicki’s independent film features one of the most famous car chases in movie history.

The Plot (spoilers)

While Maindrian Pace (H.B. “Toby” Halicki) of Chase Research is investigating an accident for an insurance company in which a semi truck struck a train, a used car dealer buys at auction a totaled 1973 Dodge Challenger, which finds its way to Pace’s auto shop, where it is stripped down. Pace and his crew strip the junked car for its serial numbers and anything else that would identify it, then go out and steal an undamaged 1973 Challenger that matches it and switch the serial numbers and other parts, and the undamaged car goes up for sale on the car lot.

Maindrian Pace (in the denim jacket) investigates the train derailment

Pace meets with an Argentinean named Vilas, who offers him $400,000, half up front, to steal 48 specific cars for him and have them all delivered to the dock by 5pm next Saturday. Pace and his associate Atlee Jackson (George Cole) start making plans. Pace has given each car on the list a woman’s name as a codename. Pace has a family wedding to go to in New York, and has Atlee start researching the list of cars, using the information they have access to as insurance investigators.

Pace and Atlee discuss the upcoming heist

Atlee calls Pace at the wedding reception, telling him that he doesn’t think they have enough time to get all the cars, but Pace tells him not to worry. Pace asks the groom, Eugene Chase (Jerry Daugirda), who is brother of Pace’s girlfriend Pumpkin (Marion Busia) and is a part owner in the family business along with Pumpkin and their brother Stanley (James McIntyre), to postpone his honeymoon to help them. Eugene reluctantly agrees.

Pace coerces Eugene to help

Arriving back in Los Angeles with Eugene, the crew steal a Rolls-Royce from the airport and spot “Eleanor,” a yellow 1973 Ford Mustang, which Pace’s brother Corliss (Ronald Halicki) tries to steal but the driver is still sitting in the car. After the team goes over the plan, and Pumpkin reminds Pace only to steal cars that are insured, they go to the race track and steal J.C. Agajanian’s Rolls-Royce from a car race. Pace has tracked down “Eleanor” and steals it out of the owner’s garage, but as he does so, the intoxicated owner is taking his dog outside and takes off after him in his second car. The owner attracts the attention of the police who pull him over and arrest him for drunk driving.

Someone's having a bad night

The owner explains that his Mustang was stolen and he was chasing it, so the police take him home, only to find the Mustang is in the garage where it belongs, so the police take him to jail. In the office, Eugene confronts Pace for returning the Mustang, and Pace says he realized the owner was an insurance adjuster who unfairly denied claims and Pace wanted to get even with him. The team easily steals the limos on the list by making fake reservations to various limo companies and funeral homes. They also have the opportunity to steal a DeTomaso Pantera, and another “Eleanor” Mustang.

Pace in disguise to steal a limo

Atlee tries to steal a Cadillac from the Hungry Tiger restaurant, but it’s the restaurant owner’s car and the restaurant’s namesake tiger is in the backseat and scares him off. Meanwhile the team steals several more of the cars on the list.

Now THAT'S a security system!

The 1973 Dodge Challenger from earlier in the movie was recognized by the insurance adjuster that handled the original claim on it by its vanity plate, and Chase Research was hired to investigate the used car lot. The lot brokered the Challenger to another used car dealer and Pace steals it with a tow truck, evading a security guard who gave chase, and takes it to a salvage yard and immediately has it shredded, so there would be no evidence for the investigation to follow.

"Jill" the Challenger meets her fate

Chase Research is also hired to investigate the theft of Parnelli Jones’ Big Oly Bronco, which actually Atlee stole the previous night, leading Pace to have to convincingly pretend to investigate a car he was responsible for stealing. Pace also notices another Eleanor pulling into the International Towers and keeps it in mind in case he ever needs another one.

Pace and Parnelli Jones discuss his stolen Big Oly Bronco

Atlee steals Lyle Waggoner’s Italia from a detailer across the street from CBS television city and the team steal other rare cars including a Stutz and a Manta during a test drive.

Leaving the Manta salesman on the side of the road

They steal a Cadillac Eldorado which they find to be stuffed with drugs worth about a million dollars. They narrowly avoid being caught with the drugs when one of Pace’s detective friends drops by. Eugene wants to sell the drugs, but Pace says they’ll talk about it in the morning. Early in the morning he takes the Cadillac into the middle of nowhere, soaks it is gasoline and burns it.

Burning a new Cadillac

The team has all 48 cars for the contract, but Pumpkin discovers that Eleanor wasn’t insured when the owner places an ad asking for it to be returned. Eugene storms it asking what happened to the Eldorado and when Pace tells him he burned it, Eugene gets angry with Pace for destroying a million dollars worth of drugs. Pace leaves to return Eleanor, saying he’s only doing it because he knows there’s another one in Long Beach at the International Towers.

Pace gets bad news about Eleanor

Pace goes to the warehouse to get the Eleanor he’s going to return, while Eugene places an anonymous call to the police tipping them off to stake out the International Towers.

Pace in disguise passing the Big Oly Bronco and the Stutz

Pace taking Eleanor back

A pair of officers in an unmarked car see Pace dropped off in disguise. Pace steals Eleanor from the underground garage but as he leaves the car alarm is triggered in view of the police. Pace stops to disconnect the alarm and the police get suspicious. Pace spots the unmarked police car and knows he’s in for a chase as he takes off.

Pace is about to take off with the new Eleanor

The police try to stop him, immediately colliding with Eleanor. As they police chase Eleanor around the International Towers, Hal McClain, a DJ for KFOX 1280 AM Radio, based at the International Towers, reports on the chase.

Eleanor vs Police early in the chase

Marked patrol cars join in the chase that includes sidewalks and a park and they surround Pace and Eleanor in the park and force them to stop. It seems like the pursuit has quickly come to an end as the police draw their guns. Pace sees an opening and escapes with Eleanor. As they flee Long Beach with the police in pursuit they and the police cause several accidents.

An particularly bad day for this convertible owner

Pace eventually gets on the Harbor Freeway toward Los Angeles and leads the police to a dusty construction area where he is briefly surrounded again but end up losing many of the police cars as they collide with one another before he gets back on the freeway.

Police Car Casualties Start Stacking Up

Racing along at over 80 miles per hour, Pace clips a Cadillac, causing him to lose control of Eleanor and spin out, knocking down a light pole. The police think that will stop him but it doesn’t and he keeps going, escaping up a nearby exit ramp. The police turn around on the freeway and go after him through the city of Carson, causing several accidents.

Eleanor takes out the light pole

The police try to set up a road block in front of a Datsun dealership, and Pace leads the chase through the dealership and others to Ronald Moran Cadillac where a police car damages several new Cadillacs domino-style and Pace leads the chase into the dealer’s service area, where he is nearly surrounded again but he manages to slip out once again.

A police car takes out a few new Cadillacs

Pace in unknowingly headed for a serious 4-car collision, unrelated to his chase, that is completely blocking the road ahead. By the time he sees it, it is too late to stop and he hits one of the wrecked cars which catapults Eleanor over the wreck and out of reach of the police. Amazingly, Eleanor is still drivable after this jump and Pace continues his escape.

Rough Landing

Pace spots another Eleanor pulling into an automatic car wash. He pulls in and has his wrecked Eleanor washed, then goes to the other end and tells the owner of the other Eleanor that he works for the car wash and they made a mistake and have to rewash the car. Pace drives off in the undamaged Eleanor, stops to change the license plates and takes off his disguise before making his getaway. Meanwhile, the DJ is visited by police detectives and discovers that he’s been unknowingly reporting on the theft of his own car.

Pace cons his way into a new Eleanor

The police spot the wrecked Eleanor at the car wash and arrest the car wash manager, who resembles Pace in his disguise. Pace gets through a police roadblock and escapes to freedom with an undamaged Eleanor.

The car wash manager takes the rap

My Review:

The entire point of Gone In 60 Seconds is to get to the huge car chase at the end, and there is never any doubt about that, considering the movie is presented by the “H.B. Halicki Mercantile Co. & Junk Yard” and stars “Eleanor.” The plot isn’t very deep, and the characters aren’t developed beyond what they need to be for the plot. Sometimes its difficult just to tell the characters apart, which is even more difficult due to the fact that they sometimes wear disguises. The acting, while not great, isn’t that bad, at least not by 1970s standards, though there isn’t a whole lot of acting to be done since most of the plot involves cars and little dialogue. The plot, while basic, is at least fairly logical and gives enough background into the operation to make it seem plausible. It wasn’t really necessary to make the characters more than common thieves, but Halicki went to the trouble. I like the idea that they run a mostly-legitimate insurance investigation firm to cover their tracks, and the movie explains how they swap wrecked cars with stolen ones. I find it a little hard to believe that they could work so closely with the police and not get caught, but I suppose their legitimate business keeps them from being suspected. The naming of the characters could have been better; it’s a little confusing having Maindrian PACE working at CHASE Research. It also doesn’t make sense for Pace to return the uninsured “Eleanor” before stealing another one.

The real point of the movie is the car chase, which is very good. Unusual for a Hollywood car chase, Eleanor is seriously damaged only seconds into the chase, and the damage keeps getting worse. Many, many other cars are destroyed in the process of the chase and there are some fake-outs, where you think the action might be over before it starts up again. The chase culminates with Eleanor making a spectacular 128-foot jump 30 feet in the air, which is shown in slow motion so the audience can appreciate it and then replayed at full speed. The final resolution where Pace gets away with an undamaged Eleanor is clever and enjoyable, even if it is unbelievably unlikely.

Gone in 60 Seconds is a great movie for anyone who likes movies about cars or car chases.

WALL-E

The computer-animated story of a robotic trash compactor alone on a deserted Earth is funny, touching and compelling.

The Plot:

WALL-E (voice of Ben Burtt) is a “Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth-class” robot on a deserted Earth, the last of what were once many built to clean up the overflowing trash on Earth while the people took a five-year cruise in outer space. With all his fellow robots having broken down, WALL-E alone continues his task of compacting trash into cubes and stacking them. Occasionally he finds objects he sees as having value, and he collects them in his “home,” a transport unit that once housed many of his kind.

WALL-E examines some of his new acquisitions

Some of what WALL-E considers valuable is odd: he once finds a jewelry box containing a diamond ring and throws the ring away but finds the box fascinating. WALL-E has a companion in a cockroach, and spends his free time watching movies he has found and listening to music he has recorded.

WALL-E watches a movie

One day WALL-E finds a small plant, perhaps the only one left on Earth, and takes it home. Outside his home, he sees a spot of red light that moves, and chases it, only to end up underneath a huge spaceship that lands on Earth.

The mysterious spaceship

The spaceship deposits a hovering white robot that begins scanning items on the ground, and then leaves. After the spaceship leaves, WALL-E watches from a hiding place as the new white robot takes off on a flight through the air. WALL-E accidently causes a small rock to hit the ground, startling the new robot, which produces a ray-gun weapon that blast a huge hole through the rock WALL-E was hiding behind. WALL-E was narrowly missed and he keeps hiding and the new robot continues its task.

The new robot

WALL-E keeps watching the new robot. His cockroach companion approaches the new robot, and after narrowly avoiding being shot, is accepted by the new robot. WALL-E is then discovered and shot at several times, before the new robot approaches him. The cockroach jumps from the new robot back to WALL-E. The new robot scans WALL-E and gets a negative result, so it continues scanning, and WALL-E follows, watching from a distance. WALL-E tries to impress the new robot, even going so far as to build a sculpture of it, to no avail.

The new robot gets frustrated, unable to find whatever it is looking for. Eventually, WALL-E works up the courage to approach it. It asks WALL-E in a somewhat-female voice (voice of Elissa Knight) “Directive?” and WALL-E demonstrates his ability to compact trash into cubes. WALL-E approximates the word “directive” himself, and the robot replies “classified.” The robot asks WALL-E “Name” and WALL-E manages to tell it. The new robot tells WALL-E its name is EVE and is amused at WALL-E’s attempts to speak.

WALL-E meets EVE

WALL-E notices a dangerous dust storm coming. WALL-E takes EVE back to his home to wait out the storm and shows her his collection.

EVE examines an eggbeater in WALL-E's collection

Unlike WALL-E, EVE is able to figure out some of WALL-E’s items: she can light up a light bulb, complete a Rubik’s cube, and operate a lighter, but she can’t quite grasp the idea when WALL-E tries to teach her to dance like the humans in his movies. WALL-E notices EVE’s interest in the humans in the movie, her having tried to scan the image on the screen, so he shows her the plant he found. EVE scans the plant and gets a positive result. She suddenly captures the plant inside her body and shuts down, emitting a signal.

EVE and WALL-E check out a lighter

WALL-E tries to get EVE to reactivate: he leaves her in the sun hoping it will recharge her (as he is solar powered), tries unsuccessfully to jumpstart her, and he takes her around the area on “dates” despite her being completely unresponsive. Eventually, he sadly goes back to work, leaving EVE in the sun.

EVE and WALL-E catch some rays

As WALL-E is working, he sees the spaceship return. He races toward it as it collects EVE and jumps on to it and clings to the outside as it launches into space and leaves Earth behind.

WALL-E sees Earth from space

WALL-E clings to the spaceship as it travels through the solar system, able to see EVE, who is still deactivated, through a window.

WALL-E during his trip

The spaceship rendezvous with a much larger ship that turns out to be the Axiom: one of the starliners that took humans off Earth for their five-year cruise. Robots service the ship and the EVE robots on it. WALL-E is encountered by one of the cleaning robots called M-O (voice of Ben Burtt).

WALL-E's tracks annoy M-O

A diminutive security robot and two steward robots come and take still-unpowered EVE away and WALL-E follows them through the ship, causing robot traffic problems and encountering humans for the first time. All the humans are overweight, spending all their time in hovering chairs to the point that they can’t even get back into the chair if they fall out, and having their every need and comfort provided by the robots. As WALL-E chases after EVE, he meets human passengers John (voice of John Ratzenberger) and Mary (voice of Kathy Najimy). Meanwhile M-O pursues WALL-E, cleaning up the tracks he left behind on the floor.

EVE is taken to the ship’s bridge, where a robot scans her and wakes the human captain, B. McCrea (voice of Jeff Garlin), who has slept in and first has to make the morning announcements for Day 244,642, the 700th anniversary of the beginning of their 5-year cruise.

Captain B. McCrae of the Axiom (with AUTO in the background)

The bridge robot, AUTO (voice of MacInTalk), reactivates EVE and presents her to Captain McCrea, saying that “Probe One” has come back positive. McCrea doesn’t know what to do, as a probe has never returned positive before, but fortunately there is a video introduction by former Buy N Large CEO Shelby Forthright (Fred Willard in live-action) that tells him that a positive probe means Earth can again support life and humans can now return (and reveals that EVE is an acronym for “Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator”), and presents an operation manual (which confuses the McCrea a little, as he’s never seen a book before). WALL-E gets EVE’s attention, and she tries to hide him. McCrea follows the manual, which guides the computer to open EVE, but the plant is gone, surprising everyone.

EVE is as surprised as anyone that the plant's missing

EVE suspects WALL-E of stealing the plant, but he doesn’t have it. McCrea and Auto decide it’s a false alarm and that EVE’s memory is defective, and McCrea has the security robot, GO-4, take EVE to the repair ward. EVE is led away, revealing WALL-E, who introduces himself to McCrea and shakes his hand, leaving dirt in his palm. McCrea says to have WALL-E cleaned. As WALL-E and a sulking EVE are taken to the repair ward, McCrea has the computer (voice of Sigourney Weaver) analyze the dirt WALL-E left in his hand, which leads him to begin learning about Earth.

Captain McCrae meets WALL-E as AUTO looks on

In the repair ward, EVE is taken for a diagnostic while WALL-E is put in a “cell” for malfunctioning robots, which surround him in other cells. WALL-E misinterprets EVE’s diagnostic as a dismantling and escapes his cell to rescue her. WALL-E sets off EVE’s weapon, which strikes a computer panel, deactivating the robot arms and releasing the malfunctioning robots, who carry WALL-E through the ship as a hero until they are stopped by steward robots, who identify WALL-E and EVE as “rogue robots.” EVE picks up WALL-E and flies him through the ship to an life pod to send him back to Earth, but WALL-E doesn’t want to leave her. GO-4 comes in and EVE and WALL-E hide. GO-4 places the plant in the life pod and starts the launch. WALL-E goes in to get the plant for EVE and is trapped inside as the life pod launches. EVE goes out an airlock after WALL-E, while in the life pod WALL-E discovers that the pod’s self-destruct system has been activated. EVE sees the life pod explode but WALL-E managed to escape just in time with a fire extinguisher, which he uses to propel himself back to EVE. WALL-E also reveals that he rescued the plant. EVE happily takes back the plant and hugs WALL-E.

EVE happily hugs WALL-E

WALL-E and EVE fly around outside the ship, dance-like, until WALL-E’s extinguisher is empty and they reenter the ship through an open airlock. Passengers John and Mary see WALL-E and EVE outside and meet each other.

Mary and John wave to WALL-E and EVE

EVE leaves WALL-E behind as she goes up the trash chute and delivers the plant to Captain McCrea to complete her directive. The excited McCrea wants to see what Earth is like and replay’s EVE’s memory, and he sees the desolate condition of Earth. A leaf falls from the plant, and McCrea realizes it needs water.

Captain McCrae sees his first live plant

Meanwhile, EVE’s memory replays WALL-E’s romantic movie and shows how WALL-E cared for her while she was deactivated, and EVE realizes her feelings for WALL-E. Meanwhile, WALL-E goes up the trash chute after EVE and McCrea decides they have to go back to Earth despite its condition. McCrea calls for AUTO, who tries to take the plant, saying they can’t go back to Earth. McCrea orders him to say why, and AUTO shows him a classified recording from Shelby Forthright that was sent to the Autopilots of all the ships, telling them that Earth had become unsustainable and ordered them never to return. McCrea protests, saying he’s the captain and that they are going back. AUTO calls GO-4, who takes the plant from McCrea. McCrea orders EVE to arrest GO-4, and EVE points her weapon at him and demands that he give her the plant.

EVE threatens GO-4

Instead of handing over the plant, GO-4 throws the plant into the trash chute. Just then, WALL-E emerges from the trash chute, having saved the plant without realizing it. WALL-E tries to protect the plant from AUTO, but AUTO shocks WALL-E causing him to fall down the trash chute with the plant. AUTO deactivates EVE and throws her down the trash chute as well, and confines McCrea to his quarters.

WALL-E saved the plant

EVE is reactivated by sentient computer mice in the trash hold, where WALL-A robots, giant versions of WALL-E, compact the trash into huge cubes before it is ejected out an airlock. A WALL-A robot compacts EVE in a cube, and she sees heavily-damaged WALL-E as part of another. Their stack of cubes is pushed into the airlock, and EVE frees herself and tried to free WALL-E.

A WALL-A robot

Just then M-O, who has tracked WALL-E through the ship by the tracks of dirt he left behind him, chases them into the airlock and jams the door, just as the trash is released. EVE holds on to WALL-E and fights against the escaping air to grab onto M-O. The WALL-A robots see this and close the airlock to save them.

EVE, carrying WALL-E, grabs onto M-O

WALL-E and M-O are formerly introduced as EVE searches the trash for a replacement for the circuit board that was damaged when Auto shocked WALL-E, but can’t find a suitable replacement.

M-O and WALL-E are formerly introduced

WALL-E conveys to EVE that there are replacement parts on Earth, and she, WALL-E and M-O round up the malfunctioning robots they freed earlier to fight off the steward robots and get the plant scanned by the ship’s holo-detector on the lido deck, while Captain McCrea fights AUTO to activate it, leading all the humans aboard to be brought to it to witness the event.

Captain McCrae fights AUTO

AUTO causes the ship to list to one side, causing everyone to slide to that side of the ship, and EVE has to protect humans from falling debris. AUTO tries to close the holo-detector, but WALL-E tries to hold it open, jamming it with his body but being damaged even more. Captain McCrea gets to his feet and attacks AUTO again, knocking open a panel to switch off AUTO, which he does and rights the ship. Humans and robots work together to get the plant to EVE and into the holo-detector, and the ship automatically sets a course back to Earth and lands in its old berth.

As the humans from the Axiom take their first steps onto Earth, EVE rushes WALL-E back to his home and rapidly repairs him with spare parts. But, when WALL-E is reactivated, he seems to remember nothing but his original programming and goes to work compacting trash into cubes and ignores his cockroach, his collection, his movie and EVE. EVE tries to get WALL-E to remember to no avail and, holding his hand, comes to the realization that the WALL-E she knew is gone.

EVE sadly realizes that WALL-E doesn't remember her

EVE sadly turns to leave, but her hand is caught on WALL-E’s. Slowly, WALL-E closes his hand around hers, and says her name. She says his, and suddenly WALL-E remembers.

The humans start farming and rebuilding, and WALL-E and EVE settle in WALL-E’s home.

The humans start farming

My Review:

Like all Disney/Pixar features, WALL-E is great fun suitable for all ages. The characters of WALL-E and EVE are surprisingly expressive, considering they are robots with a limited vocabulary: I think WALL-E can say only “WALL-E,” “EVE,” “Directive,” “M-O” and “Earth” and EVE can say the same plus “Name,” “Classified,” “Plant” and “No.” WALL-E’s voice is that of Sound Designer Ben Burtt (who also performs the voice of M-O) modified with a synthesizer, and EVE’s voice is that of Elissa Knight similarly modified. It is really through the computer animation and Ben Burtt’s sound effects that portray the characters however. Burtt did sound work for the Star Wars films, and there are some noticeable similarities sound-wise between WALL-E and the Star Wars films. Interestingly, the voice of AUTO is that of MacInTalk, Apple’s voice simulator, and thus that character is even more computer-generated than most. There is some more traditional voice acting is performed by Jeff Garlin, Sigourney Weaver, Kathy Najimy and Pixar regular John Ratzenburger, and all do well. WALL-E also features a little live action acting depicting recorded messages from the past featuring Buy N Large CEO Shelby Forthwright, played by an entertaining Fred Willard as 50/50 president/salesman. The film is visually stunning, especially in the design and movements of the robots, and the backgrounds of space and the ruined cities on Earth. As with other Pixar films, the computer-generated humans are the biggest weakness of the film, and the use of live-action scenes makes it more noticeable than usual. There is a fairly significant plot hole in the film: AUTO basically runs the entire ship and has orders that humans can never return to Earth, which is follows so strictly it tries to destroy the plant, yet EVE probes were still being sent to Earth to search for signs of life, presumably by AUTO. It doesn’t make sense for AUTO to keep sending EVE probes to search for signs of life AUTO doesn’t expect or even want to find, or does AUTO follow its orders so blindly that it has to keep sending the EVE probes just because it is an order? Another minor plot issue is that there doesn’t seem to be an opportunity for the plant to be stolen from EVE, unless it was while the captain was waking up. The film never makes clear when the plant was stolen, and it can almost seem like there was never an opportunity for the plant to disappear. And wasn’t there a faster and easier way for GO-4 to destroy the plant rather than launching it into space in an escape pod rigged to self-destruct? From a science point of view, since the Axiom has its own gravity and there’s no “up” in space, AUTO causing the Axiom to list shouldn’t have had any effect on anyone inside. And, what was the point of those inflatable helmets when all the people were moved to the lido deck for the plant verification. The overall story and the high level of workmanship let the film overcome these issues, though. This is, after all, intended as a children’s movie that adults can also enjoy, so the plot can’t be too complex. I don’t have a problem with the fact that I could almost immediately tell EVE was searching for the plant, as kids might actually be surprised by that revelation. The film has funny moments, often incidents of physical comedy and other visual humor since the main characters have limited dialogue (though my favorite joke is Captain McCrea’s voiceprint: “Uhhh…”), but I found the dramatic elements of the story to be more compelling. The scene near the end of the film where EVE thinks WALL-E has lost all his memories (a good twist to what would otherwise be a very formulaic ending) is heartbreaking, which is all the more impressive since EVE’s emotions have to be portrayed entirely by the shape of her lighted eyes, her “body language” and her saying WALL-E’s name. There is a little social commentary in this film, in the condition of the Earth and the condition of the humans on the Axiom, but it is integral to the plot and I think it is subtle enough to go over kids’ heads.

All Pixar films are fun to watch, but WALL-E, with its high level of workmanship, creativity and emotional resonance is one of the best.