Top 250: WALL·E (2008)

What if mankind had to leave Earth, and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off? After hundreds of lonely years of doing what he was built for, WALL*E discovers a new purpose in life (besides collecting knick-knacks) when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL*E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet's future, and races back to space to report her findings to the humans (who have been eagerly awaiting word that it is safe to return home). Meanwhile, hilarity ensues as WALL*E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets an adventure into motion. Joining WALL*E on his journey across the universe is a cast of characters including a pet cockroach and a heroic team of malfunctioning misfit robots.

Trivia: The main character's name is actually an acronym, standing for Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth-Class. EVE stands for Extraterrestial Vegetation Evaluator and M-O stands for Microbe Obliterator. Most of the predominantly robot cast of characters (including WALL*E and M-O) are voiced by Ben Burtt through mechanical sounds of his creation. The film contains numerous references to Apple computers: -when WALL-E is fully charged by the sun, he makes the same "boot up" sound that Apple computers have made since the earliest Macintosh system -WALL-E watches his favorite movie every night on the screen of an iPod -The villainous Autopilot's voice is provided by Apple's text-to-speech system, MacinTalk -EVE's sleek design as an evolution of WALL-E's parallels the sleek iMac design having evolved from the boxy, beige Apple IIe. Steve Jobs, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Apple Computer, was CEO of Pixar until its acquisition by Disney in 2005, and as a shareholder and member of the Disney Board of Directors is still actively involved with the company. WALL*E collects numerous objects from the 60's-80's including a VCR tape of Hello, Dolly! (featured prominently in the film), a Rubik's Cube, and even an Atari 2600 with the game Pong. Despite the film taking place over 800 years after these objects were created, all the objects are still in working condition. The name of the ship that the humans are living on is "The Axiom." In logic and math, an axiom is something unquestionable or taken for granted. Director Andrew Stanton explained why he used excerpts from Hello, Dolly! in an interview: "When I got to 'Hello, Dolly!' and I played 'Put On Your Sunday Clothes,' and that first phrase 'Out there...' came out, it just fit musically... I finally realized, 'You know what, this song is about two guys that are just so naïve, they've never left a small town, and they just wanna go out in the big city for one night and kiss a girl. That's my main character.' And then my co-writer, Jim Reardon, said, 'You know what, he could actually discover an old tape in the trash, and that's how he got inspired by it, and it's a great way to show that he's got a romantic slant.' So we started looking at the movie, and when I found the other song, 'It Only Takes A Moment,' and saw the two lovers holding hands, I realized 'That's a perfect way for my main character to express the phrase 'I love you' without being able to say it.'"

I am sure that if you know me at all you know that I am a huge PIXAR fan so WALL*E was a very highly anticipated release for me. They just have a talent for telling a compelling story. From the very beginning you feel a friendship with this lonely little robot left alone on Earth for 700 years. His personality is quirky, his house is endearing and he has a cockroach as a friend, how cool is that. Then EVE shows up and you can sense the feelings that WALL*E has for her from the start. By the way, if you have never heard of Ben Burtt, I will bet you anything that you have heard his work. Ben Burtt is a sound designer, but not only that, he is an Oscar award winning sound desginer that is responsible for among many other things, the voices and sounds for the aliens and droids of Star Wars, the rumbling sound of the gigantic boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the sound of the lightsabers.