Very fun, surprisingly bleak for a children's movie, but not dark enough to alienate children or parents- and at the same time sweet just to the brink of being cloying. Wall-E is another gold star for Pixar, alongside my personal favorites Ratatouille and The Incredibles. Also in a moment of boldness, the movie manages to slip in an opinion about the mind-body problem of philosophy. (highlight text for spoiler)
Wall-E, in a an interesting moment, subtly posits that our 'selves' are not emergent properties of our brains, but rather something else (you'd expect this from a fantasy movie, but here they are pointed enough about it to show that they actually considered the problem and took a stance. Wall-E has his 'motherboard' replaced and with it momentarily loses his personality, only to have it suddenly 're-inhabit' his body a moment later. Just because. If you weren't thinking hard about it you'd miss the implication of that.
If you don't want to read the spoiler, just suffice to say that since researchers have left the 'brain as a complex computer' model behind, the only way you can have a conscious robot with it's own personality is if you take a dualist view of the issue, which Wall-E does without saying a word. OK, I'm having a bit of fun. Regardless, best emoting CG pair of binoculars on a toaster movie ever.
