WALL-E

Packed up the family and went to see WALL-E on Sunday. I'm not sure I was struck agog by it as the vast majority of critics have been (it's got something like a 96% positive rating over at Rotten Tomatoes), but it was very good and quite moving in spots. It owes an AWFUL lot to E.T., though: that took it down a peg or two in my book. On the plus side, it's wonderfully subversive: how many other movies can tell its (adult) audience "Hey, you're fat pigs that are trashing the earth and only exist to buy stuff at Wal-Mart!" And it's interesting to see how the kids reacted to this potential future.

The CGI was top-notch, as is to be expected at this point for a Pixar film. Loved the persistent nods to Apple, too: the iPod video and the Mac startup sound play an important part, and "Macintalk" got a credit for the voice of Otto.

As a very few people know, I love movies that start out with little to no dialog (e.g.: 2001, Once Upon a Time in the West), so that alone makes me partial to WALL-E. Not sure it's my favorite Pixar film but it's up there.