26 January 2009 - 11:20WALL-E Deserves Oscar’s Best Picture

Awards season is upon us and I have one special film for your consideration…

Fast forward a few hundred years into the future. What would life on Earth look like? Actually, there would be no life on our dear planet, or so goes the premise of Pixar/Walt Disney Picture’s inventive film WALL-E.

One lone robot roams the desolate Earth, compacting and stacking piles of trash left by wasteful humans and the mighty multi-national Buy ‘N Large corporation. Incredibly, the first 30 minutes of the film features no dialogue, as we follow WALL-E going about his daily routine in a wasteland.

Yes, WALL-E is a cautionary tale about mass consumption and greed, but it is also a story about following your heart and overcoming great adversity. (WALL-E may also be the best date movie of the year…)

The film makes environmental problems relevant and accessible to a wide audience in a way that serious enviro-documentaries like An Inconvenient Truth and The 11^th Hour could not. The charming leading robot speaks to the shy and hard-working soul who seeks companionship and a meaningful existence. WALL-E just wants to live in harmony with all living things in the universe.

The film just picked up a Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature and has been nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Animated Feature and Best Original Screenplay. The nod for screenplay hints at the Academy’s strong appreciation of the film, but the fact that it didn’t get shortlisted for Best Picture annoys me.

Since the Oscars instituted the Best Animated Feature category in 2001, no animated film has been nominated in the night’s biggest category. Even though the Academy claims a film can get the nod in both, many believe (including me) that psychology keeps voters from counting a film twice at the expense of another fine film.

What do you think?