Wall-E is a lonely robot left on Earth with a difficult directive—it’s his job to clean up the mess! It was supposed to take five years to clean up the polluted planet, but seven hundred have passed and Earth is still a wasteland of trash heaps, collapsed skyscrapers and abandoned highways. Meanwhile, mankind lives on the Axiom, a fully automated space ship that caters to their every whim. The original plan was to wait for Earth’s toxicity levels to lower enough to sustain life again, but after 700 years of relying on the Axiom, mankind seems less interested in returning to Earth and more interested in sucking back the latest liquefied fastfood.

Solo Mission

All this time, WALL-E has been working alone to clean up the mess, with no friends save a resilient cockroach. WALL-E amuses himself collecting human bric-a-brac like paddle balls, sporks and empty engagement ring boxes, but after repeat viewings of an old VHS copy of the classic movie-musical, Hello Dolly!, WALL-E starts to crave companionship.

Digital Love

When EVE, the probe robot, is deployed on Earth to search for life, WALL-E is instantly smitten. He tries to court the sleek, egg-shaped robot, but the blaster-happy EVE is focused on her directive and ignores WALL-E until much later when he saves her from a dangerous dust storm. Soon after, the probe ship returns to collect EVE and WALL-E stows aboard, following his crush into space and onto the Axiom where the two robots must find a way to remind humanity of the injured planet it left behind.

DVD Special Features

WALL-E comes with 2 discs of bonus features including two hilarious new shorts, BURN-E—a new robot adventure, and Presto—a cute vignette about a magician and his disgruntled rabbit. The DVDs are crammed full with lots of deleted scenes, “Making Of” featurettes, and fun, interactive games like the Lots of Bots Storybook.

The Bottom Line

WALL-E is a smart, touching movie about love and connection, and the importance of sustaining the planet—and I’m not kidding when I say those expressive binocular eyes will break your heart. Your prime directive should be seeing this movie!

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