6) Wall-E
In an ordinary world, robots like Wall-E and EVE would never end up together. He is a clunky, blue-collar worker with binocular eyes and a dead-end job compacting waste into small cubes. She is a sleek and refined machine who can fly, beep and whirr, with access to state-of-the art intelligence. The analog robot and the digital droid are an offbeat pairing, but the opposites do attract. They create one of modern cinema’s most indelible screen couples, even if they are animated, not human and communicate almost entirely through sound effects.
The nervous rhythms of their first encounter is so rich because it reminds us of our own demeanor when we meet someone new and unexpected. A first date introduces us to someone who we can grow to love and appreciate, even if the first impression isn’t exactly what we expect. (Remember, EVE almost incinerates Wall-E at her first glance.)
Wall-E is also a stellar date movie because even couples who think that they have outgrown Disney’s semantics may get easily misty-eyed as the two machines conjoining their hands as they replicate a moment from a classic movie musical. Not only is the film poignant, but it also has some penetrating points about the dismal road that our planet has ahead. It works as both a romance and a message film, without pandering to the lovesick or liberal. Andrew Stanton’s terrific film is not just a joy of storytelling, filled with astonishing animation, but a futuristic tale told with a classic romantic’s state of mind.