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Commentary
GEN-X RISING: 'Wall•E' is not just a kid flick Andrew C. Thompson, Jul 24, 2008
Andrew C. Thompson
By Andrew C. Thompson UMR Columnist
Animated movies are typically not my forté. But when my wife insisted that we go see the new Pixar film Wall•E, I reluctantly agreed. What I witnessed for the next hour-and-a-half was nothing short of remarkable.
On the surface, the movie looks like a robot love story for children. But underneath lies one of the hardest-hitting social commentaries I’ve seen in years.
Wall•E weighs in on three current crises: environmental damage, technological addiction and conspicuous consumption. On one hand, it examines how these issues are putting our future in peril. But it also goes deeper to look at how all three combine to reveal a human race that has lost touch with any semblance of good stewardship.
As we watch the adventures of the movie’s little robot hero, we see him scooting around a decayed urban landscape in a vain attempt to clean up a world piled skyscraper-high with trash. He confronts vicious wind and rainstorms, which seem tied to the pollution that still colors the sky dark. The only animal left alive is (of course) a cockroach.
Stewardship of the environment is a hot topic these days, as individuals and corporations all seem to be making an effort to “go green.” In that sense, Wall•E’s depiction of an apocalyptic future strikes a chord of warning.
But stewardship shows up in different ways when the movie’s action turns to outer space, and we encounter people for the first time. The human race has long ago abandoned an uninhabitable Earth in favor of a luxury spaceship that resembles an interstellar “Love Boat.” After centuries of a lifestyle defined by constant consumption, all the people are morbidly obese. They spend their lives reclining on floating chaise lounges, slurping meals out of oversized styrofoam cups that are hand-delivered by robot servants.
Just as their ancestors abused the Earth to the point that it can no longer sustain life, these people seem to be doing the same thing to their own bodies. When one of them falls out of his chaise lounge, he must wait for a robot to lift him back into it.
It soon becomes clear that technology as well as consumption plays a role in the people’s obesity. As they float around ordering drinks, they constantly chat with one another through a high-tech version of Facebook. People are in close proximity, but their serious addiction to technology keeps them isolated. Their only personal interaction is with their robot servants.
Environmental degradation simply can’t be separated from our conspicuous consumption and our predilection for technological comforts. Wall•E shows that in spades.
Don’t fool yourself. This ain’t just a kid flick.
The economic and social crises that confront humans in Wall•E are present with us today. The decay of our environment is one of the greatest problems human society has ever faced. The “obesity epidemic” in this country is intimately tied to our out-of-control consumer culture. And whether it’s Facebook or an Xbox or an iPod, we find ourselves plugged into gadgets when we might be better served being plugged into real relationships, person-to-person.
Meanwhile, our sense of stewardship suffers. God said to us, “Fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Genesis 1:28). It is hard to think that by “have dominion,” God meant “wreak destruction.”
Human bodies that Scripture describes as “temples of the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:19) are surely meant for something holier than gluttony and sloth. And when Jesus says, “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34), it is difficult to imagine that he would think a Superpoke through Facebook is a sufficient expression of that love.
Sometimes even a kid flick has the ability to surprise. In the movie, the Wall•E robot is a mechanized trash compactor, designed to clean up an uninhabitable Earth. Let’s make sure we never get to that point.
Andrew C. Thompson
