WALL-E: a Movie Review

~WALL-E~

Setting: 2815 A.D.
Rated: G
Star Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

A couple weeks ago, my family and I watched the Pixar film WALL-E. I think we were a little skeptical about it at first, but when we had finished it, we all agreed that it was a surprisingly good movie, full of many twists and portrayals which reflect the present state of the masses in this age of entertainment and electronics.

The setting for this movie is over 800 years into the future. Garbage has basically covered the entire planet, and humans evacuate, living in giant spaceships which contained all the necessities for life. Originally, the plan was for humans to take a sort of vacation for a little bit, while specially designed robots cleaned up the trash and attempted to make earth inhabitable again. As it turns out, the clean up failed, earth remained void of life, and people continued to remain in space for hundreds of years.

By some mishap or other, the dutiful WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) is the only robot left on the earth. His existence is somewhat monotonous until one day a rocket from outerspace drops off EVE (Extra-Terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator). From then on come adventures which I will leave you to find out for yourself.

There was no objectionable material apart from one brief scene (which many children won't even pick up on, but you know your children better than I do), where Wall-e finds a piece of ladies' undergarments in the refuse he is cleaning up.

I read an article in World magazine in which director of WALL-E, Andrew Stanton (who also did Finding Nemo and professes to be a Christian), was being interviewed. He said that people were misunderstanding the film's purpose, saying it was a commentary on environmentalism or obesity. Stanton says that this was not the movie's purpose at all. It is about relationships. (Please read the whole article at www.Worldmag.com. It is extremely interesting and thought provoking. Search under Andrew Stanton.)

But I want to address the dominant theme of what humanity is becoming. When WALL-E visits the spaceship Axiom, what does he find? He finds humans in a sickening state of laziness, leisure, and ignorance. They have robots who do literally everything for them except sleeping and eating. It is disgusting. But the humans have sunk down so far that they don't even see it that way. They have become fat, slovenly, and unable to do anything for themselves. They don't even walk anymore! Instead, they have special robotic chairs that transport them wherever they wish to go. They eat meals in liquid form from cups like big babies. They have television screens which are in front of them literally all the time. They are so caught up in being entertained that they don't even notice the things going on around them.

How are we like that today? We live in an age where people don't want to think. They want to be entertained. People pathetically abuse electronic devices like TV's, iPods, video games, etc, etc. They have become lazy and ignorant, their minds dumbed down by so much thoughtless entertainment. I'll bet you if you approached the average American today and asked him when he last read a good book, he'd look at you as though you had come from Mars. Or if he had read a book, it was most likely something so dumbed down that he didn't need to think about what he was reading. Perhaps that's why books by authors like G.A. Henty, Daniel Defoe, or Jules Verne aren't read much anymore these days! People refuse to think! God gave us brains: we just need to actually use them!

Sadly, even many "Christians" have fallen into this pit. Many of them only open their Bibles once a week on Sunday, because throughout the rest of the week they just don't want to take the time to read God's word and think about what it says. Many so called 'church services' have become intent on entertaining people or catering to their whims and leisures, instead of discipling them.

There is one particularly disturbing scene in WALL-E, which reflects the dumbing down of people in this day and age. The captain is in the process of figuring out how to return to earth after EVE finds a little green plant growing among the refuse. One of the things given to him is a control manual in book form. When given this, the captain doesn't even know what it is! He can't even figure out how to open it!

Another point of this movie is that technology and things can never replace our needs for love, relationships and interaction between human beings. Stuff cannot replace those needs because they are essential to living the life God gave you.

I guess I'll wrap up by saying that if you do watch WALL-E (and I highly recommend you do so), then don't get stuck on the 'humans have destroyed earth' theme. Remember that this was not the intent of the film. If you focus on that too much, then you will miss all the other good stuff in WALL-E. Andrew Stanton said that he "was just using the circumstances of people abandoning Earth because its filled with garbage as a way to tell my story."

"The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful man shall be under tribute." Prov. 12:24

"He that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster." Prov. 18:9

"The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labor." Prov. 21:25

Persevero,

Scribe