WALL-E

I saw WALL-E last night for the first time -- I know, I know, always late to the show -- and I have to say that it is one of the best films that has ever been made, not necessarily the best, but definitely in the top ten. WALL-E manages to capture and present the magic that is cinema. Little touches, like Pong and the Macintosh boot sound, were humorous and endearing.

However what sold me on the movie, and what captivated me, was the movie's implicit dissection of what makes us human, as opposed to intelligent automatons -- it is an argument with two different prongs. On the one hand there is the romance between WALL-E and EVE. And on the other there is the effect that WALL-E has on the humans aboard the AXIOM space ship. It is a subtle and deft treatment of an ages old philosophical question, with an answer that is both illuminating and humanistic. It also lends the movie a greater heft than other Pixar fares, such as the incredibly entertaining Ratatouille or The Incredibles.