Science Fiction, Children's Film, Romantic Comedy

When WALL-E Met EVE

WALL-E is a mishmash of genres as if WALL-E himself grabbed 2001: A Space Odyssey, Finding Nemo, and When Harry Met Sally and squished them together in one big cube.

The outside layer is the sci-fi layer. We have robots, space travel, a futuristic vision of Earth, all the hallmarks of classic science fiction from Total Recall to The Fifth Element. But it's also a kids' movie at heart, with colorful characters, some slapstick comedy, and the way it softens the blow of the whole "Earth is completely dead" thing. A WALL-E prequel about the fall of Earth would be a horror movie.

But WALL-E's gooey center is the romantic comedy aspect. All the ingredients are here: clumsy, oafish-but-good-natured male meets slick and sassy shapely female (see: basically any sitcom husband/wife duo since the beginning of time, even The Flintstones). A comedy of errors leads these two, who would never interact otherwise, to get together… but once they're together they're almost inseparable. It ends, like Disney's classic fairy tales, happily ever after.