Official Movies Trailer: Wall-E (Three-Disc Special Edition + Digital Copy and BD Live) [Blu-ray]

Wall-E (Three-Disc Special Edition + Digital Copy and BD Live) [Blu-ray] Review

Wall-E,Disney's high grossing entry of 2008(released June/08),is a delightful look at our future(2805) whose protagonist just happens to be a little robotic trash compactor.On the surface it would seem to be something with only slight potential,but the magical folks at Pixar transform this seemingly mundane bot into something with feelings,something with dedication to his job and his charge(a cockroach!),endless determination and whose life we get caught up in and come to care about in short order.It is quite marvelous how it all unfolds.
The story takes place in 2805 and Earth is a deserted wasteland...waste,being the operative word.The entire population has long left earth(over a quarter of a million days ago!)and now lives on a huge spaceship;the Axiom.People,due largely to bone loss,no longer walk but fly around on hover chairs with their every whim and need catered to by a myriad of different bots.Every so many years the ship sends out probes to Earth to determine whether life has returned so THEY may return.
This is where our little rolling trash compactor by the name of Wall-E comes in.He lives in an old shipping-like container filled with many odds and ends he has collected over many years.He,along with his now non-functioning brethren,were left behind to clean up the Earth of all its' trash which forced the population to leave in the first place.He is still hard at it with a little cockroach for a companion when one of the Axioms life probes lands nearby.The ship comes and goes leaving behind a probe drone;think an egg with sleek wings!While the probe flits here and there seeking a sign of life Wall-E watches and falls in love.The probe isn't exactly discreet in its' search and is quick on the draw,disintegrating more than one object in its' way.This doesn't deter our love struck Wall-E however.When the probe(called Eve) finds life it shuts down,sends out an automatic beacon and is later picked up by the mother craft.Wall-E follows his lady love into space and back to the Axiom.
At the Axiom Eve delivers her precious cargo to the Captain but there is a conspiracy afoot.It seems an old message from the president relaying a message about Earth at one point being uninhabitable has been interpreted by the bots,who literally control just about every aspect of life aboard the ship now,as a directive to NEVER return.So they try and destroy the evidence.Between a love struck Wall-E trying to help his lady love and a now newly invigorated ships Captain who realizes they must go back,they eventually quash the robotic uprising and put the Axiom on a heading for Earth.
The story runs on many levels with its' obvious love story,its good against evil plot and a clear environmental message of how we must protect the Earth.The animation is visibly striking,rich in detail and life like;especially in scenes showing the vast wasteland that has become our planet.
Technically the film has been transferred beautifully and is in its original widescreen a/r.Extras abound in this three disc set and they include:A Digital copy,The Pixar Story,Deleted scenes,some "hilarious moments" from the movie,a look at the Buy N Large Corp,"Lots of Bots"which includes games,several making of featurettes,a close look at Wall-E's friends,two animated shorts:"Burn-E" and the theatrical short which accompanied the movie when first run,"Presto",audio commentary by the director,a tour of the universe by Wall-E and the sounds of Wall-E.It's an extra packed edition to be sure.
I do have one complaint about this three disc set however.The discs come in cardboard pull out sections;the left pull out has one disc in it(#1) and the right pull out has the other two discs,feathered over one another.When I saw this and started pulling them out to examine them I thought"Oh boy,here we go.I can see them all being scratched or scuffed".But I was pleasantly surprised to find they were fine.However taking them in and out(especially the 2nd and 3rd ones)I think will eventually cause scuffs.So for my own peace of mind I elected to put them into a separate double holding DVD snap case.This is positively awful thinking on Disney's part to be so cavalier in how they package these things.Of course it's more money for them if you have to get new ones.So beware my friends.
In conclusion this 3 DVD set of the Disney/Pixar 2008 smash Wall-E is a crowd pleaser from start to finish.The characters we see are fascinating to the nth degree and the plot moves at a good and steady pace.The animation by Pixar is top notch all the way through and is startlingly real especially in its' portrayal of Earth in the future.In this 3-disc set beware of the bad packaging that these discs are put into.If you can overcome this hurdle,sit back and relax and enjoy another wonderful adventure from the imaginative folks at Pixar studios.

Wall-E (Three-Disc Special Edition + Digital Copy and BD Live) [Blu-ray] Overview

The highly acclaimed director of Finding Nemo and the creative storytellers behind Cars and Ratatouille transport you to a galaxy not so far away for a new cosmic comedy adventure about a determined robot named Wall-E. After hundreds of lonely years of doing what he was built for, the curious and lovable Wall-E discovers a new purpose in life when he meets a sleek search robot named Eve. Join them and a hilarious cast of characters on a fantastic journey across the universe. Transport yourself to a fascinating new world with Disney-Pixar's latest adventure, now even more astonishing on DVD and loaded with bonus features, including the exclusive animated short film Burn-E. Wall-E is a film your family will want to enjoy over and over again.

Wall-E (Three-Disc Special Edition + Digital Copy and BD Live) [Blu-ray] Specifications

Pixar genius reigns in this funny romantic comedy, which stars a robot who says absolutely nothing for a full 25 minutes yet somehow completely transfixes and endears himself to the audience within the first few minutes of the film. As the last robot left on earth, Wall-E (voiced by Ben Burtt) is one small robot--with a big, big heart--who holds the future of earth and mankind squarely in the palm of his metal hand. He's outlasted all the "Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class" robots that were assigned some 700 years ago to clean up the environmental mess that man made of earth while man vacationed aboard the luxury spaceship Axiom. Wall-E has dutifully gone about his job compacting trash, the extreme solitude broken only by his pet cockroach, but he's developed some oddly human habits and ideas. When the Axiom sends its regularly scheduled robotic EVE probe (Elissa Knight) to earth, Wall-E is instantly smitten and proceeds to try to impress EVE with his collection of human memorabilia. EVE's directive compels her to bring Wall-E's newly collected plant sprout to the captain of the Axiom and Wall-E follows in hot pursuit. Suddenly, the human world is turned upside down and the Captain (Jeff Garlin) joins forces with Wall-E and a cast of other misfit robots to lead the now lethargic people back home to earth. Wall-E is a great family film with the most impressive aspect being the depth of emotion conveyed by a simple robot--a machine typically considered devoid of emotion, but made so absolutely touching by the magic of Pixar animation. Also well-worth admiring are the sweeping views from space, the creative yet disturbing vision of what strange luxuries a future space vacation might offer, and the innovative use of trash in a future cityscape. Underneath the slapstick comedy and touching love story is a poignant message about the folly of human greed and its potential effects on earth and the entire human race. Wall-E is preceded in theaters by the comical short Presto in which a magician's rabbit, unfed one too many times takes his revenge against the egotistical magician. (Ages 3 and older) --Tami Horiuchi>

Stills from Wall-E (Click for larger image)