For The Old Mole July 14 2008, we review WALL-E, the latest
Pixar animation, also brought to us by Disney.   The title
character is a lonely trash compactor, a Waste Allocation Load
Lifter—Earth-class—the last operating robot on a desolate planet
Earth, with mountains of garbage to compact—and to collect. In
the 700 years since humans left, our solar-powered hero has
developed a personality and a fondness for human detritus,
including an old tape of the musical Hello, Dolly!, which he
watches over & over.  His isolation ends when another robot
shows up—EVE is an Earth Vegetation Evaluator, sleek and
powerful.  Her directive is to seek plant life, and when she
finds some, she goes into hibernation until she’s picked up by
her space shuttle.  WALL-E  protects her from the weather while
she’s in stasis and follows her back to the enormous cruise
liner the Axiom, where humans have been getting fatter and
lazier for the last 700 years.   The plant life is supposed to
be a signal that it’s now safe to return to ear