Even for Pixar, a company that thrives on new frontiers, WALL-E is a gutsy next move. It's the first dystopian parable that's actually ecstatic fun. It's also the closest Pixar has come to making a full-length silent movie.
The choice of hero is audacious: a beeping, whirring Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth class, or WALL-E. For long, unbroken, startlingly seductive stretches, we see him navigate an abandoned American city all by himself. (He does have a pet cockroach.) Thanks to him, towering ziggurats made of trash compacted into cubes have sprouted up among malls and skyscrapers.
WALL-E at baltimoresun.com/walle
