The Environmental Subtext

Well the family just came from Disney’s Wall-e. We expected a cute little love story about an animated robot …More than what we had expected.

The movie opens to a fly-over of a ravaged earth, devoid of organic life. A collage of various power sources, wind turbines, nuclear, coal, and natural gas, all rendered moot in the wake of a consumer culture that “litter-ally” laid waste to the planet under the strain of a throw away society. Solar energy however, is alive and well in the future… The President is actually the CEO of a jumbo discount store constantly promising easy solutions and desirable products. Humanity is fat and lazy, detached from their surroundings experiencing life through their computer screens and jumbo smoothies.

I found it an interesting inference that solving the energy crisis will not save our quality of life or our planet, only escaping our material culture and reconnecting with our environment (where ever it is) will. The pivotal moment being when humanity breaks from conventions of past generations and takes control for itself… Heavy digs for a kid flick… Pixar’s partnership with Apple makes several notable appearances, one in that Wall-e’s boot “bong” is the same as that of a Mac.

We enjoyed it, and our little one laughed out loud a lot. But for us adults Wall-e carried a depressing depiction of mankind as sheep, destined to hit rock bottom before awakening to their folley. Hollywood is definitely working on us and our kids with environmental messages. We last saw Horton Hears a Who, another film with heavy environmental subtext; villains protecting the status quo even in light of evidence to the contrary. We’re happy to see the trend. Perhaps it will bring the environmental message to a broader audience without incurring the resentment and defensiveness of direct discussion. But then again we all have a tendency to see what we want to see at the end of the day don’t we? ie., “The Liberal Media”.

Wall-e’s worth the ticket price, cute, well done, and thought provoking.