Wall-E (with guest commentary by movie hostess Grandma Pat) ***1/2

James: *** I thought it was exactly three (stars.)I liked it when he (Wall-e)was separate from the sun but in outer space and he got more power. I liked it when Wall-e was chasing toward Eva. And I liked him racing and racing all the way until he found Eva. I liked it when the rocketship landed and poor Wall-e got all hot and burning orange, but he wasn't on fire. And he was like (shaking gesture) when he was rising from the rocks. It was funny when Wall-e ran over his cockroach by accident. I gave it three stars instead of five because I only liked a little bit of the parts. I liked Bolt better. Wall-E was better than The Black Stallion. I wish when Wall-e ran over his cockroach by accident his cockroach would die, but it didn't in the movie.

Jupiter: ***** (Google stars)

Grandma Pat: ***We watched Wall-E the morning of the dryer disaster and after going to the zoo which involved several hours of driving. It's possible that Grandma napped occasionally through this movie. But it was cute. I thought Wall-e was cute.

Mama: ***The beginning of this movie, which establishes Wall-e's world is lovely. The post-apocalyptic landscape, with towers of compacted trash on an earth abandoned of all life, is fascinating in all of its small details. Wall-e is a sweet character at peace with the immensity of his own longing, until Eve arrives. His pursuit of her, regardless of her self-protective (and destructive) nature is so sweet. You really root for them. I've seen this movie several times, on the big screen (interupted by a two-year old's conviction that she needed to go to the bathroom every fifteen minutes) and on DVD after a stiff White Russian, so I think it's possible I haven't yet seen all of this movie, but I suspect when Wall-E gets to the human mothership things aren't as interesting. The animation at the beginning of the movie is amazing, but the humans, as doughy, baby-like creatures are over-indulged, visually disturbing and hard to connect to. The ending is sweet though, and I can't blame anyone but myself if I dozed off a little in the middle. I do suspect though, that the movie doesn't completely live up to its early promise. I did love the closing credits, establishing Wall-e in a mythic tradition. It worked on a different level than the narrative and I thought it was very moving.