WALL-E: A trash picker to treasure

In theaters

WALL-E, directed by Andrew Stanton, written by Stanton and Jim Reardon, 103 minutes, rated G.

The last time Disney and Pixar teamed up for a movie, it was in the Academy Award-winning “Ratatouille,” a film that followed one determined, loveable little rat named Remy, who may have been raised to eat trash, poor thing, but who nevertheless dreamed big of becoming a master chef and full-on gourmand.

Now, in their latest effort, trash still enters into the equation, this time in a much larger but no less satisfying way. The result is a terrific film, one that lifts the bar for computer animation – literally and figuratively – high into the universe.

Director Andrew Stanton based his movie on a script he co-wrote with Jim Reardon. The film is set hundreds of years in the future with Earth now burnt to a near crisp and overcome by mountains of trash piled as high as the tallest skyscrapers.

There, working diligently at ground level, is WALL-E, the adorable robot with sloping cameras for eyes and a clunky body whose job it is to package all the waste we humans left behind before fleeing the planet when it no longer could sustain us.

As for the human race, the outlook is grim. We’re depicted as fat, lazy creatures with giant bellies and almost zero bone mass. We’re like huge, bumbling infants, all grasping for foodstuffs and comfort while looking dazed and confused aboard the Axiom, a giant space ship that roams the heavens, presumably until Earth is once again inhabitable.

With only a cockroach for companionship, WALL-E’s loneliness is as palpable as the dire situation facing Earth. In his downtime, he collects things. He likes his Rubik’s Cube. He watches “Hello, Dolly!” on an old television set and responds to the romance playing out onscreen, which only deepens his isolation.

When he unexpectedly is visited by EVE, a sleek, hot (and hot-tempered) robot sent to Earth to find signs of life in vegetation, what he sees in her is the love of his life. He would follow her anywhere, which proves to be a problem when he gifts to EVE a plant he found growing in an old shoe.

Since EVE is programmed to immediately return any sort of plant life to the Axiom for study, off she goes, with Wall-E tagging along for an adventure that consumes the rest of the movie. Though the twists and turns that ensue won’t be revealed here, it is safe to say this: While aboard the Axiom, which is owned by an evil corporate giant reminiscent of Wal-Mart, echoes of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001” abound with the movie not only becoming about man against machine, but also machine against machine.

With its gorgeous, detailed animation backing a script so spare in dialogue, you watch in admiration at how well the story is told, “WALL-E” is a triumph for the creative minds coming out of one of Hollywood’s brightest think-tanks. The movie is exciting, it’s poignant, it’s prescient, and it has a vision for the future steeped in problems troubling our planet now.

You might want to just hand Disney and Pixar the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature now. While it could happen, it’s difficult to imagine a better, more impressive animated film will be released this year.

Grade: A

On DVD

DRILLBIT TAYLOR, directed by Stephen Brill, written by Kristofor Brown and Seth Rogen, 102 minutes, rated PG-13.

Stephen Brill’s “Drillbit Taylor” knows a few things about bullies, most of which we already know – all of which bear repeating. The movie understands that for the most part, the average bully is a weak little miscreant whose fists and tough talk, when pressed into a corner by the real thing, pack the punch of a feather. On the other hand, it also knows that some are so sociopathic that drastic measures must be taken to get them under control.

Witness what happens to bespectacled Wade (Nate Hartley), heavy-set Ryan (Troy Gentile) and stunted Emmit (David Dorfman) when they are targeted by the bully Filkins (Alex Frost) during their first days at high school. For no reason other than the fact that these kids aren’t conventionally hip, Filkins makes it his mission to make their lives miserable.

To protect themselves, they hire bodyguard Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson), who initially is here to scam the kids out of their allowances until he predictably softens and decides to help them fight for themselves. The problem is that he isn’t exactly adept at teaching anyone how to fight, which leads to all sorts of complication best left for the screen.

The movie shares much in common with Judd Apatow’s “Superbad,” Apatow produced “Taylor,” which mirrors Apatow’s “Knocked Up” in that it also stars his real-life wife Leslie Mann. Here, Mann is an English teacher who develops a crush on Drillbit when he infiltrates the school as a substitute teacher. Mann is one of the best comic actresses working, but here, she’s sorely underused.

Fortunately, the same can’t be said for Hartley, Dorfman and the very likable Gentile, who rise above the so-so material and make it a lot funnier than it might have been otherwise. Wilson comes through with exactly the sort of safe performance you expect.

Grade: B-

WeekinRewind.com is the site for Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s blog, video podcasts, iTunes portal and archive of hundreds of movie reviews. Smith’s reviews appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.