100 Greatest Movie Characters: 70

"Eeeeeeev-uhhhh"

70. WALL-E
WALL-E

Remember how I said Pixar was like a factory of beauty? Meet their finest product.

In a wasteland of a future, robots are charged with cleaning up the mess humans made until they come back (waiting for a sign of vegetation, you see). Of all the robots,(presumably) only one has lasted. A member from the line of WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth class) models who developed sentience and emotion, particularly a curiosity and fascination with interesting junk he picks up in his job (including lightbulbs, records, and piggy banks). His greatest preoccupation, however, is the musical "Hello Dolly!," which is one of his only traces of human knowledge. Well, it was his greatest preoccupation. That is, until EVE came along.

A sleek white, egg-shaped robot sent from the Axiom Starliner designed to search for a trace of vegetation on the planet, WALL-E falls in love with EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) from the first time he lays his binocular eyes on her. EVE, initially focused on her directive, warms up to the sweet trash compactor after a couple of goofy little interactions and even begins to develop feelings herself. Introducing her to a small plant he found causes EVE to shut off and procure a distress call to the ship that dropped her off. Waiting for the ship, WALL-E keeps her safe, protecting her from storms and such.

The amazing thing about WALL-E is that, as a robot, he is designed for nothing more than to compact trash, and while he accepts his lot in life he retains an optimism, an air of hope. Hope that everything in his adventure goes right. That hope allows him to keep pressing on in his mission even when he gets crushed. That hope is love, his desire to impress the love of his life, his desire to have another robot feel how he feels. WALL-E is by far the sweetest, most innocent character on this list. And I love him for it.

Defining moment: uuuuuugggghhhhh where to start in moments I love with WALL-E, I could use:

• His attempts to woo EVE, scored to Louis Armstrong's cover of "La Vie En Rose"
• The silly montage of his job as he discovers new junk (like a bra and an electronic car key)
• His protection of EVE after she shuts down
• His initial meeting with the obsessive compulsive M-O
• When he gets damaged and tells EVE to continue her directive instead of taking care of him
• His weakened frame holding up the holo-detector causing his body to jam and get crushed

I could use any of those amazing moments (yes, most of which make me cry), but my single favorite moment is around the beginning, as he's watching "Hello Dolly!" and sees how two characters fall in love and hold hands, he brings his own little shovel hands together to see how it's done. It's a beautiful little moment that, after all his antics a couple of minutes earlier, shows his compassion, his curiosity of life. Most of all, it shows his loneliness and his desire to have someone else feel like he feels.

Pixar made me cry over a robot. And not just once, but multiple times