Existential awe and wonder before the sublime are not common notes in a Hollywood cartoon, but Andrew Stanton’s WALL-E defies expectations and easy categorization: a post-apocalyptic slapstick comedy; a lyrical sci-fi love story and a savage Swiftian satire. Incipit vita nova, Dante wrote upon glimpsing Beatrice: “Here begins the new life.” EVE is WALL-E’s Beatrice, shattering the narrow world in which this Little Tramp-like robot’s quest for self-discovery has been carried out, sweeping him into a larger universe from which no return is thinkable.
—Steven D. Greydanus
Arts & Faith Lists:
2014 Top 25 Divine Comedies — #14