1. Very Little Dialogue – the almost complete lack of dialogue (unless you count beeps and the occasional “Wallllleeeeee”) allows you to focus on what’s going on. You pick up on the stunning scenery and the characters’ little quirks. You actually enjoy watching the movie rather than hearing it.

2. The Environment – A theme that hopefully isn’t subtle for adults, but may not be picked up for kids, is that the Earth is headed for a fate similar to the one in the movie. If we don’t do something soon to save our planet, the garbage and pollution will force us to take to the stars as well. This is a clever way to ingrain this message in kids.

3. Health – Similar to the environmental overtones, the movie shows the humans who survived as fat and lazy. Adults should pick up on the similarity to the nation’s obesity problems, but hopefully kids pick up on the fact that when you don’t do anything you become fat, lazy, and powerless.

4. Eve – WALL-E’s love interest Eve was designed by none other than Apple’s own Jonathon Ive – designer of the iPod. Who doesn’t love a movie where Apple products are sleek, sexy, and user-friendly?

5. Easter Eggs – Before you go, check out this post on WALL-E’s Easter Eggs – hidden facts or pictures in the movie. This way you turn the movie into a game as you try and find all the easter eggs.

6. Adult Humor – And by “adult humor” I mean the non-dirty above-your-kids-head way. It used to be that Disney movies were all about the kids. But as competition for kids movies has heated up (read: Shrek) Disney has been adding little bits of “adult” humor into their movies. There were at least a few times during the movie when one of the girls turned to me and asked, “what are you laughing at dad?”

If I was going to recommend one movie to see this year so far… it would be WALL-E.