Time Immortal

greg writes in with a few comments concerning my review of Pixar’s latest hit, Wall-E.

Thanks for your hard work on this, Kenneth. We’re using Wall*E as one of our “God on Film” movies at Jacob’s Well in Minneapolis. Your thoughts are helpful.

One thing that our creative team picked out was how similar the people in their hover chairs watching their holographic screens beside each other was to us sitting in our reclining, overstuffed movie seats in the theatre. Is Pixar saying, This is you! Be careful, even this great movie can be part of the problem if you don’t reach over and touch the hand of the person next to you, or talk about this afterward.

I also think the concept of responsibility is even bigger than you touch on in your commentary. The problem arose not only because of greed and laziness, but because of a lack of responsibility represented in their leaving the planet and having someone (thing) else take care of the problem for them. The problem was resolved not by having earth cleaned up, but by humanity returning to face the mess they’d made.

Thanks again!

I’ve heard the criticism/comment made in a few different quarters regarding the portrayal of humans in Wall-E, and have heard more than a few people attempt to classify it as a kind of cheap-shot, on Pixar’s part, against the audience. Barb Nicolosi felt that way about the movie. Personally, I don’t buy it for a moment, and I find that I can’t top Rod Dreher’s response to those who raise this issue: “It will be a good day when it becomes possible to criticize the excesses of American consumerism without being pilloried from the Right for being some kind of America-hating lib symp. Why on earth is it considered “liberal” to point out that gluttony is sinful, and that evil lurks in the hearts of men? Is the Bible liberal? Come on!”

No, Wall-E isn’t an attempt to insult or criticize the audience…but neither does it shy away from an important discussion: that of consequences. The generation is speeding itself toward just such an end. A recent article I read mentioned that upwards of 65% of Americans can now classified as being “overweight” or “obese” — a consequence of laziness (whether the laziness of a sedentary lifestyle or the laziness of never bothering to cook something fresh for oneself and one’s family). Wall-E is about taking responsibility, and about consequences of actions. As surely as Wall-E’s (here talking about the robot “him”self) experiments with a fire extinguisher in zero-gee are a handy illustration of action and reaction, the movie as a whole deals with actions and the outcomes thereof.

It’s not a cheap shot at the audience, in other words, although it is a caution sign. I do agree, however, that Wall-E is the sort of movie which could, and perhaps should, be followed up with some discussion; as can be seen, its messages are often subtle, and easily misunderstood.