WALL-E Sends Mixed Messages

  •  June 30, 2008

Greg Pollowitz:

I saw WALL-E with my five year old on Saturday night. It was like a 90-minute lecture on the dangers of over consumption, big corporations, and the destruction of the environment. All this from mega-company Disney, who wants us to buy WALL-E kitsch for our kids that are manufactured in China at environment-destroying factories and packed in plastic that will take hundreds of year to biodegrade in our landfills.

As for me, I’m just tired of being preached to. Yes, I get that pollution isn’t a good thing. But I don’t think we’re on the edge of a global armageddon, and I don’t think that being anti-big business is the solution.

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  • http://www.chaosinmotion.com/blog William Woody

    Oh, for God’s sake, it’s a friggin’ parable: anyone with warp technology and all the power to run all those devices could just beam the trash into space.

    The core of the story is the last robot on Earth finds love and adventure: covering the planet in trash is simply the MacGuffin which drives the story.

  • Elvis Doolittle

    Ironically, the theatre I saw Wall-E at with Jr. handed out commemorative watches…………..with non-replaceable batteries. I guess Pixar is just trying to turn fantasy into reality!

  • deadrody

    Two things – 1) the movie is actually from PIXAR, just distributed by Disney, and 2) I agree with Paul that despite the message, the movie was great.

    Disney just reaps the rewards of the great film and it’s majestic merchandising, they don’t do much creatively.

  • Paul

    While I agree there was definitely a “message” behind Wall-E, it doesn’t change the fact that it was a pretty great movie. I don’t think “we have to take care of the earth or we will ruin it” is a new idea or an offensive one. It didn’t hit any political hot buttons, that was pretty much its point in a nutshell. Not to mention the great story of a little robot who falls in love and “saves the world.”

    I find it sad when politics must be over-read into even cute kids’ movies.

  • Ken

    I just saw this movie tonight with my wife. I wasn’t sure what to expect since some had told me it had a liberal slant. However, I didn’t really see it so much. Aside from being a bit anti-corporation, most of the themes were pretty universal for both sides of the aisle. Normally if a movie is “preachy” the whole thing is ruined for me. Wasn’t the case with Wall-E. The animation is breath-taking and the story decent; I highly recommend it for children and animation dorks (like myself).

  • Pilgrim

    I saw it over the weekend. Whether the creators knew it or not, they also sent another message.

    The humans in it had been on a ship for 700 years. They had all grown hugley fat and complacent because the government supplied their evey need. The didn’t even have to move from their hovering comfy chairs. Just clap your hands and a little government robot showed up with whatever you wanted.

    Mixed messages, all right, whether intentional or not.

    All that being said, it’s a FUN movie, better than Finding Nemo. Very creative a visually amazing.

    Not a waste of time or money.

    That’s one of the things about having kids or grandkids – you can go see stuff like this and not look like you’re nuts.

  • http://magyartruth.blogspot.com/ Chief RZ

    Sparkie. Just why did you did up Christians in this thread? My point was that he seemed to have at least some balance in his view of the world, unlike certain other people. I saw some previews. This is an attempt at brainwashing little children as early as age 2 or 3 of the “manmade or created or caused” global warming of which does not exits. A hoax. No basis whatsoever.

  • http://magyartruth.blogspot.com/ Chief RZ

    George Carlin did three great clips on how the environmental waccos are “out to lunch” — and we think a plastic bag is going to destroy the earth!!!

  • http://www.fileitunder.com/ Rob B.

    I saw it with my two boys last night. Yeah, it has a message in it but they don’t beat your ass with it like the movie “Happy Feet.” Ontop of that, my kids came out of it asking questions and all i had to do is point out things that we all agree with like “Littering is bad”,”Love is good” and that “you need to be willing to take some risks and do some work to do the right thing because when you don’t it costs the people around you.”

    It was a pretty good film. I liked it.

  • dannyboy

    They had all grown hugley fat and complacent because the government supplied their evey need.

    Actually, the corporation supplies their every need. That should please Republicans.

    I sometimes cook with a little hugley fat.

  • Pomerdorgrad

    A rave review at Lileks. And the clip he sends you too is pretty great.

  • dannyboy

    chief

    This is an attempt at brainwashing little children as early as age 2 or 3

    i maintain that Christianity is an analogue.

    You know, it’s amazing that the same folks who have been claiming that gays recruit have no problem with religious indoctrination. I guess they think that if they can’t shove their opinions down another person’s throat, nobody can.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/sparkiearbuckle sayanything-81

    chief

    This is an attempt at brainwashing little children as early as age 2 or 3

    i maintain that Christianity is an analogue.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/sparkiearbuckle sayanything-81

    George Carlin did three great clips on how the environmental waccos are “out to lunch”

    George Carlin did umpteen great clips on how the Christian wackos are ‘out to lunch’.

    I don’t think that being anti-big business is the solution

    If gas prices keep going up, there will be fewer options. Wallmart won’t be storing anything ‘on the highways’. And products from China will be more expensive than one made by grandma down the street.

    It’ll be a local business renaissance.

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