Wall-E

I received the movie Wall-E for Christmas.

We watched it Saturday night.

The movie is, on the surface, a story about a robotic trash compactor that falls in love with another robot when it visits from space. He follows her back to her ship. After some adventures, romance ensues.

However, this movie is full of messages.

There is the "humans are polluting the earth and making it unfit for habitation" message.

And the "humans do nothing but stuff their faces and sit on their fat asses" message."

Also the "corporations are taking over the world and they aren't doing a very good job of taking care of much of anything" message.

And "the smallest person (or robot, in this case) can make a difference" message.

The movie's premise is that B&L Corporation has taken over everything. The world becomes so polluted thanks to the consumer culture that there is nothing left to do but build space ships and leave robot trash compactors to take care of the planet. The idea was to be gone for five years, at which point the place would be cleaned up and inhabitable again.

That didn't happen, and mankind roams around in space for 700 years hoping the planet will repair itself, I guess. The ship's captain sends out probes to earth every now and again hoping for signs of plant life, even though everyone has forgotten what a plant is.

Wall-E is one of the last working robot trash compactors, if not the last one. Eve comes from space; she's a probe looking for a plant.

Wall-E has developed into more than a robot. He likes to watch Hello Dolly and collect stuff, including parts with which to repair himself. I suppose 700 years could do that to a trash compactor.

This movie received good reviews and made Pixar a lot of money.

I couldn't get past all of the "messages" to enjoy the film. I generally like apocalyptic movies - some of my favorites are Waterworld, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, The Postman, etc., and some of my favorite books (1984; Alas, Babylon) deal with the topic.

But humanity was portrayed in such a ghastly manner that I really didn't care if they came back to earth or not. Nor did I care much about Wall-E. I know I was supposed to but I didn't, mostly, I think, because the messages about the world and humanity so overshadowed the little robot that I could hardly see him for the larger back story.

I don't disagree with any of the main messages of the film, but I was dismayed that those messages took center stage. I felt like I was being beaten over the head with them.

Maybe I need to watch it again because I must have missed something crucial to the film since it received such good reviews. Perhaps I shall blame it on my cold.


*In the commentary section on Wikepedia, linked to above, there are notes about others who took issue with the film, many for different reasons than what I've cited.*