Wall-E

W-aste A-llocation L-oad L-ifter E-arth-Class or Wall-E as he is fondly referred to in this Disney / Pixar animated feature. With the Earth in ruins after the human race has destroyed the planet. Robots are cleaning up the Earth by smashing the trash into garbage cubes and Wall-E finds solace in collecting various items that he plucks from the piles of waste. In doing this, we learn of his likes and hobbies and gives him a personality that is very endearing. Wall-E's only friend is a cockroach until a space ship lands one day and emerges from it is a search robot named EVE. Wall-E is smitten from the very beginning, and EVE realizes that Wall-E has stumbled onto the answer to the Earths revival. EVE must return home which is a huge space ship that has become the place where the human race currently lives. Aboard the ship, we learn quickly how technology has taken over and everyone aboard has gotten lazy and is extremely over weight. When the captain learns of the chance for a return to Earth, some of the robots do not want to allow this to happen and chaos and mischief ensues. With the action that the robots go through, it makes for a fun ride to see if Wall-E and EVE can succeed in their attempt to return to Earth.

In this feature, there are underlying moral lessons about becoming complacent as individuals and as a society. There are also environmental issues to be learned as well as how important friendships can be. Children can follow along easily as there isn't heavy dialogue and can be entertained by the adventure that EVE and Wall-E find themselves in as they try to return to Earth.

The Blu-ray version is nothing short of spectacular visually. The audio track in DTS-HD envelopes you in the surround sound and mechanical noises that really bring life to the robots and their environment.

In the menu, you can go through some set ups for the video and audio to maximize the quality to be seen and heard as theatrically intended.

There are plenty of bonus features, which will keep you occupied for quite awhile including a game. You can also learn about how they chose sounds to bring the animation to life.

Bonus Features:

Disc 1:

• * (HD) Presto: Animated short
• * Burn-E: -- Short feature
• * Burn-E with boards -- PiP of story reel version of Burn-E
• * Maximize your home theater setup option

Disc 2:

• * (HD) WALL-E's Treasure and trinkets
• * (HD) Lots of bots storybook: Narrated by Kathy Najimy
• * Axiom arcade game
  1. EVE bot blaster
  2. WALL-E's dodge and dock
  3. M-O's mop up madness
  4. Burn-E's break through.
• * (HD) Sneek peek: WALL-E's tour of the universe
• * (HD) Bot files
• * (HD) 4 Deleted scenes with optional introduction by Andrew Stanton
• * (HD) Behind the scenes:
  1. The imperfect lens: creating the look of WALL-E
  2. Animation sound design: building worlds from the sound up
  3. Captains log: The evolution of humans
  4. Notes on the score
  5. Life of a shot: Deconstructing the Pixar process
  6. Robo everything
  7. WALL-E & EVE
• * (HD) BnL shorts
  1. Captaining the Axiom
  2. Operation cleanup
  3. Meet the BnL bots
• * (HD) 3D set fly throughs
• * Gallery
• * (HD) Worldwide trailers
• * (HD) The Pixar story: A documentary by Leslie Iwerks
• * BD-Live features:
  1. Movie chat
  2. Movie mail
  3. Movie challenge
  4. Disney movie rewards live

Wall-E is definitely geared towards a younger crowd and while it was visually spectacular, I don't think it delivered as well as a Fining Nemo with it's character development and story or the action and entertainment of Kung Fu Panda. It is worth adding to your collection, but I think they could have eased up on the life lessons and concentrated more on the comedy and action.