Wall E

[poliphilo]

Wall E looks a lot like Johnny 5 from Batteries Not Included who was- in his turn - a robotic rip-off Spielberg's E.T. As a character he's basically Charlie Chaplin with the grit taken out. I liked the first half hour- which made me think of City Lights- sad little person woos lady who is obviously out of his league- but once we get into space we're into one of those endless, slapstick chase sequences that all Pixar movies seem to have to have, followed by the death and resurrection scene that every fantasy movie since E.T. has had to have. Wall E looks great, but what passes for imagination is really the deft and inventive juggling of pre-existing tropes. I have seen it called "dystopian" but it's too sentimental for that- and the moral- consume less and go to the gym- is straight out of the analects of Mickey Mouse. 

Comments

[sommeilbienivre.livejournal.com]

An interesting take. Wall E made a big impression on me - probably because I gave Pixar the benefit of the doubt and assumed that they had good intentions. America needs to wake up to the fact that we are getting fatter, lazier, and more reliant on technology, and I hoped that a movie like Wall E could present that message in a clear and simple way to parents and children alike. Frankly, watching Wall E scared the crap out of me, because those huge cities filled with garbage don't at all seem like a remote possibility.

Another theme in the movie is the loneliness that Wall E feels, which resonated with me on a deep level. Wall E is left in a world of complete isolation - he's abandoned - and it seems like, in his clear sentience and in his emotional life, the only humanity left is an echo of self-hood that resides in machines. What does this say about our dependence on technology? Perhaps as we become more machine and less human, our machines will be left to become or seem more human. Wall E is lonely and in love because the humans don't know how to feel anymore.

I think America is in a moral crisis - mostly because people don't understand what "moral" means. I think we're going to turn to movies to find a kind of morality that is - while most likely somewhat pat and formulaic - accessible, understandable, and removed from the sticky issues of God. In other words, most of us have no idea what we believe, but maybe movies like Wall E can bridge the gap between questions of faith and self and issues of personal responsibility in a changing world.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I can believe a lot of bad things about humankind, but not that we'd give up as easily as "we" do in the film. I found it very hard to believe in the deserted, rusting cities and the blobby people.

Like most SF stories Wall E's morality is distinctly conservative. It deplores the way we live now- dependent on machines, consuming junk- without addressing why this is so or offering any real alternative- except (and this is why I call it conservative) a return to the values of an agrarian, square-dancing past.

[sovay]

I liked the first half hour- which made me think of City Lights- sad little person woos lady who is obviously out of his league-

If the entire film had been about the two robots, I think it would have been brilliant. There are very few mainstream stories with nonhuman protagonists; the world might have been a dystopia from our point of view, but not from theirs. Once humanity showed back up, the story became so much more conventional.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

A good point.

For Wall E the wasteland is full of marvellous treasure. I think my favourite moment is when he throws away the diamond ring and keeps the box.

[tinceiri.livejournal.com]

You've got amazing powers of analysis and metaphor.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you. You've just made my day.