Leave it to that potently professional combination of Pixar and Disney to tell, in wonderful, enjoyable fashion the tale of a cute little, lonely solar-powered futuristic robot, to make tons of points about today’s society, the dangers we face (rampant consumerism, trashing our planet, etc.) and to do so with many references to the classic movies of the past, from Poseidon Adventure to 2001’s Hal to… well, let’s just say it all goes so swimmingly that I tried to applaud. Just darn few joined me.
A friend who was anxiously looking forward to the movie told me she felt a bit let down about the none-too-subtle save-the-planet messages. But truly, the saga of Wall-E (they sent full-size replicas to the theaters, as shown above) and his love of Eve is a throwback in every good sense of the word to the best movies of the past. (It features a whole lot of 1969’s “Hello Dolly,” which makes nobody’s best of lists but makes for a convenient touchstone.)
And the movie literally toys with the issue I and many others discuss and ponder all the time – will technology save us, or kill us? You could say that in this movie, it does both, sort of.
I mean, it takes one super-flabby starship captain with backbone to buck the company (Buy N’ Large, BNL apparently supplants the world’s governments – and Fred Willard is the presidential CEO! Classic! And the Bare Naked Ladies have those initials, too) HAL-ish autopilot and get those fellow flabby never-walk folks back to Earth, where mankind must clean up the trash, start planting and start all over again. In a sense, it’s teamwork of man and machine that saves the day – and I happen to think that’s a pretty neat point to make, and pretty darn rare.
But the question then arises – if all that were to happen, if we were to survive despite ourselves, would mankind make the same mistakes again? We are who we are, and even if we learn one very painful lesson over centuries as refugees, it seems we can stumble into a whole bunch of others once back home, all too easily – it’s what we do best. 😉
So this movie works on many levels – a love story, a fable, just a fun time. I’m sure some mega-conservatives will call it brainwashing of our children. Balderdash and poppycock. (Oh, and if you have the option, be sure to see it at Regal’s DLP screen, as we did Ratatouille – my eyes don’t like 3-D at all, but this technology makes everything so vivid and bright, it’s like Dolby for the eyes – wowzers!)
All this plot-reflecting will make more sense once you’ve seen the movie, which I, BARN-E (Biological Animated Rushed Nerd-Energetic) highly recommends.
Leave it to Barney 
My husband and I took our 4 year old to see it on Saturday morning and my husband thought it was “cute”, and my daughter and I thought it to be boring. After an hour of the movie our daughter said she didn’t like it and wanted to leave. I agreed with her but my husband was to into the movie and wanted to see the end. For a movie that is only 1 hour and 37 minutes, I felt like we were there for 3 hours and couldn’t wait to leave. But I am willing to give it another try. Maybe after it comes out on DVD.
Oh, and Barney, the mega-conservative comment, ouch! That type of comment can be used for some liberals also. I know liberal people that refuse for their kids to watch The Little Mermaid because it promotes child disobedience. It’s a movie for goodness sake.
Well, isn’t that interesting? I surely wasn’t bored, but I can understand it flying over a 4-year-old’s head. I have no clue what a 4-year-old would find interesting these days. But you’ve got to admit, the ‘save the Earth’ fable is pretty strong in this one.
Well, the robots she liked, but overall the movie bored her. She still goes around the house saying “Wallll-E”.
The save the Earth issue was quite strong, but that didn’t bother me. I just felt like it wasn’t funny enough, like most Disney movies, and it just seemed to drag. The only time it was cool was when all the “Cuckoos” flew out of the cuckoo’s nest. That reminds me, I haven’t seen that movie in a long time. 😉
Have a wonderful rest of the day!
Hey Barney, first I really like the comments availability on the news site. Sorry I have to do this here, but I just noted that another news source ID’d a 16 year old who committed a crime. This was in regard to a bicycle crime. Why can’t KTVZ ID juveniles who commit crimes here? Perhaps holding then up to the community light would help slow the speed of crime by kids?
thanks for the time, Rick
Rick, it’s been a long-standing journalistic practice not to name juveniles arrested on lesser (below, say, Class B felony) crimes, though I’d have to dig to find out what the reason is beyond the added layer of confidentiality in the juvenile justice system, that they deserve another chance to turn their life around, etc.
Tell me, though, does holding ADULTS up to the community light help slow the speed of crime by adults? I doubt it. I’ve met some in the online community who actually think we shouldn’t make public who’s arrested on a crime, until they are convicted! Just imagine how tough that would be. Do they deserve it? Good questions, no easy answers.
Good day!,