Robot tale "WALL-E" another Pixar masterpiece

By Kirk Honeycutt LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - This is getting to sound like a broken record: Pixar Animation Studios has just topped itself. Again. In "WALL-E," following the sublime culinary slapstick of "Ratatouille," Pixar and director-writer Andrew Stanton -- officially the studio's ninth employee way back when -- have spun a whimsical sci-fi fantasy about robots 800 years into the future that has all the heart, soul, spirit and romance of the very best silent movies 60 years ago. Well, you don't expect robots to talk, do you? While the soundtrack is full of clanking noises, explosions, music and even dance numbers, there is little dialogue as such to get this story told. Stanton and his animation team punch across their terrific (and ecologically sound!) story by inventing a visual and aural language with which... [read full story]