Why Wall-E is Worthwhile
By Haley Swenson - Jul 2nd, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Usually when I tell someone how much I loved a recent Disney/Pixar release, I feel the need to explain that I only saw the movie because young family members of mine insisted I take them. But Wall-E is a film so packed with constructive social criticism I feel no shame in embracing it.
At first glance, there might appear be nothing particularly original about this story. It works pretty nicely as a piece of dystopic science fiction, a favorite genre of high school English classes across the nation, where Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 are standard. In these books, societies that have been touted as dream worlds end up being fatally flawed nightmares. While they’re great introductions to literary analysis, they also tend to produce citizens who are highly skeptical of any heightened social order. This skepticism in itself is usually a good thing, but sometimes it becomes a skepticism about all community and all big visions for better societies, instead of a pointed warning against tyranny.
And while Wall-E offers some nice lessons about the evils of environmental degradation and over-privatization (in the futuristic world of Wall-E, everything is run by one giant corporation and there doesn’t appear to be any government at all), its conclusion–quite refreshingly–is not a promotion of hyper-social vigilantism, but one of hope for better societies in the future. Instead of shunning a flawed society and seeking solace in individualism, Wall-E and the silly humans he inadvertently awakens from a haze of gluttony and sloth seek solace in one another and in the hope that together they can build a society which won’t meet the same fate as the last one.
The light hopefulness of this “kids’” movie is a welcome–and surprisingly sophisticated–change of pace for an old and sometimes overly skeptical genre.
there’s talk of this movie being nominated in the best picture category and not just best animated
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:46 pm[...] and Androgynous Love Posted on July 3, 2008 by haley1018 I wrote a pretty glowing review of Wall-E over at Pushback, but I had a few more thoughts to add about the film. And that’s [...]
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:05 pm