At first, I thought I was just crazy thinking Eve looked like an R-rated iPod. I noticed some Apple in-jokes in the film, but distrusted my view of the shiny white robot with an itchy trigger finger and a love of flora. But the New York Times states that the design of Eve was meant to invoke the famous Apple product that makes it so easy to pick pockets on the NYC subway. "A call from [director Andrew] Stanton to [Steve] Jobs in 2005 resulted in Johnny Ive, Apple's behind-the-scenes design guru, driving across the San Francisco Bay to Pixar's converted warehouse headquarters to spend a day consulting on the Eve prototype. Stanton said that it was a 'lovefest' with Ive, but that the notoriously tight-lipped design wizard offered few specific modifications." [Wait -- Apple's design guru is named Johnny Ive? Is that after Johnny Five, the Short Circuit robot that WALL-E looks exactly like? Maybe that's why he was so tight-lipped... - Zach]

Even though I'm a hater of all things Apple, (I root for the PC on those "Hullo, I'm a Mac" commercials), I must commend WALL-E for its clever use of product shout-outs. They've turned an annoying, snobby and selfish human toy into a sleek, sexy and expressive instrument of death! When Eve is threatened, she blows shit up with her uber-gun, rattling the theater's speakers in the process. Imagine if your iPod blew your ass up because it didn't like the music you loaded into it! "You're gonna put the Cool as Ice soundtrack in me? Nuh-unh! KA-BLAM!!!" I'd love it! This would be the perfect remake of The Happening! Hollywood, call me!

I can dream. In the meantime, I confess my unhealthy love of the Eve robot, and want one of my own. You can keep WALL-E. I don't know if it's from my growing up in the 'hood, but the last thing I want is a dirty robot in my house, especially one that has roaches.