Wall-E

YES.

If Wall-E isn't perfect, it's only because it's a little too long. Other than that, this is the best Pixar movie since The Incredibles. The whole movie looks and sounds beautiful and as far as that is concerned, this is the best Pixar movie... ever. If you're looking for pure entertainment value, Pixar has done better.

Wall-E is, at it's core, a simple love story. The love story is integrated very well into the "save the earth. save mankind" science-fiction portion of the movie, but the main plot is the relationship between Wall-E and Eve. The director and animators do a phenomenal job showing the relationship between the two, especially with their limitations. "What limitations," you ask? Well, I'll tell you. For the first half hour of the movie the only three words spoken by any character are "Wall-E", "Eve", and "directive". Even with the minimal amount of dialogue, thanks to the extraordinary animation, you can really sense the curiosity, loneliness, and longing. The beginning of this movie seems more like a work of art than a family friendly adventure story.

As for the Sci-fi "sub"-plot... the state of mankind in this movie is hysterical and sad at the same time, and unfortunately, seemingly inevitable. I can't imagine Wal-mart or Target being too keen on marketing this movie since it seems to be blaming them for the collapse of mankind in the not too distant future.

Thomas Newman composed the score again. His first time back to Pixar since Finding Nemo. The only reason I bring that up is because there are two scenes in the movie where if you close your eyes and try to just listen to the score, you might think you're watching Star Wars IV.

So now I have to make a decision... is Wall-E the best movie of the year? I'm leaning towards yes, but the current #1 movie is putting up a strong fight. I'm gonna have to think about it a little bit more, but the fact that I need to make that decision at all says quite a bit about this movie. Even if it loses, it's still the 2nd best movie of 2008 (so far).