Pixar’s Latest Message Lacks Subtlety
Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of avoiding the throngs of DC Comics faithful who waited in seemingly interminable lines to see The Dark Knight. Instead, my wife and I took in WALL•E. At first, I was skeptical; the main character is a robot that doesn’t speak…how is this movie going to be any good? I was completely uninterested and surprised at my apathy, having loved every prior Pixar offering. Upon seeing the final trailer, and reading a few early reviews, however, I decided to check it out.
The movie is cute, and heartwarming, and the beginning almost has a 2001 quality to it, with nearly no dialogue for the first 30 minutes of the movie. You’re not left feeling lost or bored, as the action is enough to move the story along. Once you get to the second half of the movie, however, there is plenty of dialogue and a message that hits you over the head with a tack hammer.
As a fan of Al Gore and the whole save-the-Earth thing, I’m kind of conflicted as to the message and its delivery. I’m glad to see that Pixar is taking a socially responsible stand, and trying to teach the youth of the world that we’re squandering our natural resources here on Earth. WALL•E is left alone on Earth to clean up the mess we made before we made our exit to pollute the rest of the galaxy.
It is undisputed fact that we’re getting fatter, lazier, and relying more on technology to make our lives easier. To see that on the screen in full animated glory, however, is sort of disturbing. I have no problem with the message of what changes are needed. I do think it could have been made a bit more subtle.
Final call on WALL•E: Enjoyable albeit preachy.
July 22nd, 2008 at
Oh fuck. Another anti-gore fanatic. Can’t we dream a little, people? Maybe we can’t make the earth cooler, but at least we can kill off smog. Who cares WHY we do it?
July 22nd, 2008 at
Sorry, but it’s pretty easy to hate Gore.
July 22nd, 2008 at
I read Scott piece to be generally more pro-Gore. I think it was more anti preaching.
July 22nd, 2008 at
I am definitely pro-Gore. I am a card-carrying liberal, and believe whole-heartedly that global warming is a phenomenon. Eric is definitely right about the anti-preaching, especially when it comes to kids.
July 23rd, 2008 at
Well personally I use cartoons and animation a lot in my responses to get my point across. I both liked WALL-E and thought it was a solid piece by Pixar. However, I think we could solve this supposed “global warming” quite easily:
via: http://www.transbuddha.com/mediaHolder.php?id=2071
As for Al Gore…Need I say more?
July 23rd, 2008 at
Who doesn’t love a little manbearpig every now and again!
July 23rd, 2008 at
Our attempt to solve these natural problems will lead to bigger problems. No monkeys with three asses, please.
July 23rd, 2008 at
Josh brings up a good point. Not that I want to raise it in an article about Wall*e, but seems like as good a time as any.
My brother was in town this weekend. We spent a lot of time chatting. We also spent a lot of time drinking, but I digress.
My brother has a mechanical engineering degree and currently works for a defense contractor designing rockets. It’s a pretty cool gig and he seems to know what’s he’s doing.
We got talking about renewable energy. Mrs. Hazard brought up the T. Boone Pickens wind farmin’ as a good idea. We’re both from Texas and if there’s one thing that state has a lot of, it’s wind. It also has a lot of fire ants, but again, I digress.
My brother said, wait, hold on there, not so fast. As he describes it, the Earth and its various ecosystems are a delicate balance. It’s hard to know what the full downstream impact of our actions are, until perhaps its too late. In the present example, Adam reminded us that we are taking energy out of the wind. This is energy that was previously going to something. Perhaps it was pollinating grasses and trees. Perhaps it was dispersing insects, or perhaps it was creating enough wind sheer to disaude some hurricanes from making landfall.
In other words, we don’t know what we are monkeying with here.
Something to think about, that’s all I’m saying.