• the217
• Movies + TV
• The Pixel Powerhouse of Kids Cinema is Back

WALL-E

Buzz says:   MPAA Rating: G
Current Showtimes: No showtimes available

Related Venues

Beverly Cinemas »
Address: 910 Meijer Drive Champaign, IL 61822
Phone: (217) 359-4995
Show on map

Savoy 16 Theater »
Address: 232 W. Burwash Ave. Savoy, IL 61874
Phone: (217) 355-3456
Show on map

Maybe it’s me, but the words, “From Pixar, the studio who brought you Finding Nemo,” are not something to celebrate. Those words are a harbinger of doom that instantly sends me into a brain-mush delirium, where hours later some loved one invariably finds me cradled in a fetal position babbling something about “happy talking fish.” My traumatic experiences with the people at Pixar aside, I happened to watch a trailer for their newest creation, Wall-E and was (amazingly) instantly hooked on the little guy. His big, expressive eyes and silly curiosity look cute and almost irritatingly likeable ... like Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump or Big.

I admire the studio if only because they take chances and try something different each time out. Superheroes, sea life, toys, monsters in the closet, and now robots and aliens. This company tries so hard to make everything accessible to children that they even had a hit with rats in the kitchen. They’re the new gold standard in children’s movie entertainment, and for good reason. They practically always feature the story around some small outcast who wants to find his way in the big world and kids will always be able to relate to that kind of story. It also helps that through gleeful ignorance of the meanness of the adult world and sheer plucky determination, they succeed anyway when they stick with their kind, innocence after being told to grow up.

Wall-E appears to follow the same vein except that he’s a robot on a mission to clean up earth and he gets to travel to outer space. Why? we don’t know — but at least it’ll probably be fun to find out. And I guess that’s why as long as there is a child in the world, whether it be inside a grumpy old man or a spunky six-year-old who wants to believe in the happy endings, Pixar will never lose its appeal.