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Andrew Stanton’s latest feature may not satisfy those who don’t think animation should engage their minds. Still, Stanton’s previous film, Finding Nemo, became Pixar’s highest grosser, tinged with melancholy as it was. Palpably depressing, this new film opens 800 years in the future during a 40-minute-long, nearly wordless stretch that introduces WALL•E (beeps courtesy of Ben Burtt), a mobile trash compactor with treads for legs, binoculars for eyes, and the comic inquisitiveness of E.T. Cue the arrival of the sleek white form of EVE (Elissa Knight), a vegetation-seeking probe droid. One gaze from her soulful blue LEDs and it’s love. Their adventures rocket them into space, as they confront the gelatinous remnants of a human society driven to near extinction by rabid consumerism. Can Earth be reclaimed? The answer’s a hopeful one (more Spielberg, less Kubrick), perfectly in toon (ahem) with the tale of a rickety old PC who wins the heart of a Mac. 103 minutes | Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Chestnut Hill + West Newton + Suburbs
