When I rented Wall-e, I thought I was in for a light hearted movie about a cute little robot. Good wholesome, brainless Disney-PIXAR fun. What I didn’t expect was a movie that focused on Americans and our increasing problems with laziness, wastefulness, and obesity. It paints the picture of a world overflowing with trash, where we’ve created robots to basically do everything for us. Humans are fat little orbs who chat on computers and never really look at one another. In their own little hover bubbles, they suck down liquid cupcakes and lead a boring existence in space, because Earth has been turned into a giant trash heap.
If you’re at home on social security disability because you’ve gotten too fat to get out of your computer chair, then this movie is a wake up call for you. I was amazed by the amount of depth in this little cartoon movie. Of course it was still cutesy and fun, with a love story about two robots, and adorable sound effects from the little robot with the big heart. Still, it had amazing insight for an animated movie, and really hits home considering our current habits as a wasteful, lazy, and drastically overweight population. I think a lot can be learned from the overall message of this movie. Plus, it was just fun to watch!

This movie completely took me by surprise. I thought it might be a little bit funny, in that quirky, British humor sort of way. But I didn’t expect such a feel good movie, complete with a soundtrack and score that made me want to run out and download it. I think Ricky Gervais was perfect for the  role of Bertram Pincus, the completely antisocial jerk, who is still loveable.

The movie is a story about a dentist who seems to be slightly OCD, who dislikes people in general. He’s the kind of guy who won’t hold a door, and presses the close door button on the elevator rather than share it with someone. He’s brash, he doesn’t seem to understand social rules at all (he tells a woman how much her present cost, just so she’d know it was expensive) and he makes horrible jokes that he laughs at himself.

After an accident in which he technically dies for a few minutes during a colonoscopy, before being revived again, he is left with a strange side effect. He can see ghosts.  They all want something from him, and want his help with their unfinished business. I won’t tell you the details, but I’m sure you can guess that through these ghosts, our socially retarded Bertram starts to develop some people skills.

I am planning on buying this DVD, because it’s the kind of film you can watch over and over again. It’s a perfect stay at home date night movie.