For Future Classics this round, Nicole chose the 2008 film, WALL-E. Pixar pulled off two major feats with this movie: making mountains of garbage look beautiful, and making audiences empathize with a mobile trash compactor within a few minutes of the opening music. We picked through topics such as the influence of past sci-fi characters like E.T. and R2-D2, homage paid to major classic movies, and the old chestnut of what it means to be human and the question of if humanity is even necessary for a character to be multi-dimensional.

Next week is Around the World! Brett's pick? Robert Rodriguez's 'El Mariachi.'

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