Wall•E's environmental message

I have not seen any threads in Pixar Planet discussing the social and environmental messages that appear in Wall-E.

Although at the heart of Wall-E may be a love story of two robots from different generations, at the central back story of the film is a strong environmental message. The story tackles on humans’ consumerism habits and the mass destruction of the earth that follows it. We’ve seen the piles of trash caused by the wastefulness of mankind in the trailers as Wall-E cleans up the earth. We’ve heard about the “fat blobs” who sit in chairs and do nothing but watch virtual TV, play video games, and get spoon fed fast food. We’ve heard about BuyNLarge, the corporation that seems to control every single aspect of human civilization, including the government! Why else would humans be moving out of this dirty earth if it wasn’t for this mass consumerism that destructed it?

Wall-E covers topics that some may feel sensitive about. I’ve stumbled upon several sites claiming that Pixar is making fun of fat people and saying that fat people are the cause of the destruction of the world, but it really distresses me that these people have made that harsh connection, because I think Pixar has different motives from that.

I think Pixar is really trying to touch upon a sensitive subject that both you and I (skinny or fat) are guilty of: selfishness. They did it in The Incredibles and Ratatouille, with Syndrome and Skinner, and I think they’re doing it again but using a metaphor of human civilization. Possible Spoiler: [spoil]Wall-E is a curious robot who cares about the world around him, as that what he was programed to do. In the film, the people seem to have lost this curiosity and instead have resorted to the recliner and television set. They neglect the part of human nature that made us curious in the first place. Wall-E comes to save the day as he teaches human civilization what it really means to be human.[/spoil]

Yet it seems to me that Pixar is purposely avoiding discussion on the environmental message. If I remember correctly, in a recent interview with Andrew Stanton, when asked about the environmental message, he replied, “it is what it is” as if to avoid the question altogether. In the trailers, there is only one shot of a “fat blob” (Captain) and only a brief shot of all the “fat blobs” roaming around the Axiom ship. Though these “fat blobs” are not the cause of consumerism, they certainly must be a result of it! I guess we’ll have to see the film to see how much of the film is actually social and environmental commentary.

I know that the film has not come out yet, but as an environmentalist who does everything that he can to help planet earth, I cannot wait to see how Pixar handles Wall-E’s back story of the destruction of the environment. It is a story worth telling, and I’m glad that it’s Pixar covering such a hot theme in this day and age of the “green revolution.” People, especially children, need to be better educated on the consequences that each of their actions does on the earth.

Please post your thoughts on the social and environmental message here.

You make some very interesting points there, TheIncredible. I think it’s quite saddening that some people are viewing what Pixar has done in Wall-E as a jibe towards fat people, when it just represents their laziness and why they had to leave the Earth in the first place.

I guess the reason that the environmental message hasn’t been discussed much by Pixar is because they’re trying to avoid being viewed as preachers. For example, I think it was the film Happy Feet (but correct me if I’m wrong- I haven’t seen it myself), which many critics scalded for pushing the environmental message to the point that it almost overtook the film. People don’t want to watch a film in which some ‘save the world’ message is being shoved in their face, so Pixar are trying their best not to come across like that. Instead, they’re being more subtle, and because of that, we, as the audience, may appreciate the message more so.

Lizardgirl, it makes sense that Pixar doesn’t want people to think that they’re preaching, but if you take Happy Feet, so many people hated Happy Feet just because it preached humans the cause of a lot of the penguins’ problems. Now, I didn’t like Happy Feet as much as I probably should have for other reasons, but I think it’s just wrong to not like a movie for trying to teach good lessons! Maybe people could learn from what Happy Feet was trying to say?

And I completely agree with you with the overweight people issue!

Speaking of Happy Feet, am I the only one who wondered why the poor fish had no say in the matter of their existence? Oh sure, a seagull would be wrong to eat a baby penguin but have all the fish you want!

I hate that in order to get it across, you’d have to mention it somewhat, and people hate being reminded of something that can be saved if they all just work together … but they don’t do it.

As for Happy Feet, the ‘save the environment’ message was a bit much, and I’m one of those ‘save the environment’ people.

I think WALL-E might just come with an underlying, subtle message, and nothing more. Like they’re feeding people something they’re not aware of until either thinking hard about it later or watching the film a couple times.

TheIncredible- I see your point, but at the same time, people just don’t like being told what to do, even when it is entirely justified. For example, when a series of posters against knife crime were released around where I live, many people complained- not because they were against the message of the posters, but because they didn’t want to be constantly told what not to do.

It’s silly, but I can see why people get annoyed in these instances. Especially in the case of Happy Feet; you go to the cinema with your family to enjoy a fun film, not to be bombarded with ‘save the world’ messages, particularly if there’s the underlying feeling that the only reason the film makers have included these messages at all is just to gain popularity and appear more eco friendly.

Pixar are showing that they care about the Earth by running a subtle message through their newest film. It gives the audience a choice- they decide whether the film is all about the eco side of things, or is just a good, fun, family film. In this way, Pixar will gain many more supporters for Wall-E than whoever made Happy Feet did.

Lizardgirl, I really hope you’re right about Wall-E having more supporters than Happy Feet did and can’t wait to see how Pixar handles the environment in the film. I’ll admit: I picked up a copy of the Wall-E Junior Novelization and skimmed through it to gain more insight in Wall-E’s world, so I know a little bit about the plot, but I still don’t really know how it’s depicted in the film yet. If Pixar can handle topics (like Happy Feet’s) that people may not want thrown in their faces but say a good thing or two about what we can do to help the world we live in, then that’s one more genius credit for them!

I remember being concerned about the “green-ness” of the film, not because of the message per say, (it’s good to keep the earth clean!) but because I didn’t want it to over take the storyt. I hate it when movies sacrifice a good story for the sake of a message, when an animated film stops becoming a film and turns into “Cartoon All Stars to the Rescue” (bonus points to anyone who knows what this is ) Not because it’s bad to learn something good, but because spoon feeding ideas into your audience’s mouths is patronizing and really chops up the narrative.

However, I trust Pixar now, they have always been able to subtly give messages without making you feel stupid. Take for instance, in Finding Nemo, when they were in the bay… see how dirty and grimy it was compared to the rest of the ocean? You get the feeling that it was not taken care of that much, and it made you feel sad for the fish who had to live there (not to mention the fish getting caught it the net). Yet, they never bring this to your attention, no fish commenting on the dirty water, no close ups on trash (I’m looking at you Happy Feet). It was all there in subtext, the use of the lighting, the particles in the water, the rust, etc. they didn’t just, stop the narrative (once again, I’m looking at you Happy Feet!!) and say “HEY KIDS! POLLUTING IS WRONG!” They simply showed the way dirty water looked like. No one felt silly and dumb. They were going along with the story.

Pixar are masters of storytelling, unlike other animated movies, they can always make a good, heartwarming plot with a subtle, message that can be understood in different ways. That’s why Pixar appeals to so many different kinds of people methinks.

wow,  long time no post huh?

Haha, Googly-Bear, good example. Pixar does storytelling like no other!

Hmmm… I don’t think the central theme of this is the planet actually. I think there’s the obvious hint there, I mean, Earth is a dump man, but I think the theme here is love. Not romantic love, but just love. I think that the movie is more about us getting so much into our stuff that we forget that life is about loving others. That’s what I think it is from the promotional info I’ve heard. I could be wrong though.

I don’t think Pixar is trying to put emphasis on the humans being fat so much as they will emphasize consumerism. I did read the Pixar looked into spcae programs to learn that bones atrophy due to loss of gravity, so hopefully the film will say that’s why everyone’s a lazy couch potato, and not because they’re greedy pigs.

Actually, having read through this thread, I think the reason Andrew Stanton (and everyone else) aren’t commenting on the message is that it’s already really obvious, so it’s more refined and subtle to shut up, already.

To check out EX-ACT-LY what they think on a number of issues, the site BuynLarge.com (and thank you so much for posting the link!) is a repository of all that ails the modern world. Cash being done away with for sinister purposes? Check. The world controlled by a single super-corporation? Check…

…I find it interesting that the ‘quiet desperation’ is hinted at in this article about artificial robot mates (buynlarge.com/NewsCenter.html?storyId=27) in this passage: the tester states that one of the robot’s ‘bugs’ is that he "[s]ometimes cries at inappropriate times and bangs his head on the wall screaming, “Please kill me!”
…oh, wow, that’s just chilling. Another confirmation that it’s the robots who have the feelings in this strange new world. Darn, now I really can’t wait for the movie…

"

Yikes, that is creepy. O.o

Putmoneyinthypurse, you bring up a really good point that I haven’t really thought of before. The reason why I got so excited about WALL-E’s promotion is how much that fake buynlarge website really mocks any consumerism. It takes nasty materialistic goods and worships it as if they were gods. I laughed at the “Xanadou shopping pill” to help you stay awake so you can go shopping, the shopping mall turned into a city, and the buynlarge controlling al of government, I guess they’re clearly pointing out the underlying messae yet hiding the environmental commentary from the general public (I have never seen an ad for buynlarge.com except on these kind of fan message boards). The good thing is, if you want to see it, it’s there, and quite enjoyable to read and ponder.

Oh, and since I created this thread, I’d like to announce that I’m visiting Pixar tomorrow morning with the SF Chronicle when they interview Andrew Stanton. Since I didn’t want to make a scene on the message boards, I was going to wait until after I go to further the discussion. I’m excited and nervous at the same time. I was told to not to tell anybody, not take pictures, and not geek out there, but here I am, sharing it at the bottom of my post. Look for a new thread here really soon.

i really, really hope wall-e won’t be lecturing us about environmentalism, though i’m 99.9% it will. i hate in when producers put in their own veiws about current events in children’s movies. that just strikes me as taking advantage of young minds who believe anything they hear. not all children are like this, but a lot are. i would have liked happy feet SO much more if it did not do this. pixar been so good about this.

i agree that many of these things are important, and that they need to be discussed. yes, our world is becoming very material and shallow, but those should be brought up by adults and in adult movies. i’d feel more comfortable if children could just ask their parents about these issues, and the parents could decide to tell them or not (they’d have to, eventually). i do not believe that we are causing global warming (if it exists), i think it is just natural. happy feet, as i mentioned before, went into all this political hoopla about 3/4 the way into the movie, with a very dark tone and extremely opinionated scenes. in a movie about a dancing penguin! that ruined what could have been a very good movie for me. i hope pixar stays smart and avoids this.

wow, did i just sound, like, 40 years old n that post?

I absolutely loved the whole movie, even the message. Earth was made for Humanity. Excellent message. I loved it, you get the point…

So interesting to note that even though there is an anti-consumerism message Wall-E does a good deal of collecting of earth’s debris for his own collection. [spoil]I still laugh to myself when I think of the spork scene.[/spoil]

***Possible spoilers, I’m not really sure to be honest ***

I loved the message in Wall-E. It did not come off to me at all as a mock of obesity. It showed the path of earth’s future in a shockingly realistic view. I don’t care what your views on global warming and such are, but obesity is, for the most part, a physical result of our own over-indulgence-- which is something you can not deny.

I think that the depiction of obesity as the future gave the movie a new dimension of hope. People say all the time that the world has fallen too far into the depths of destruction and there is no hope for repairing the damage we have done. The humans in Wall-E were not, in the end, consumed by consumerism. They were just stuck on “auto-pilot”. Wall-E is a wake up call and [spoil]the people in Wall-E return to the trash-ridden earth not with disappointment or ignorance but with the desire to clean it up and make it the great place it had once been.[/spoil]

Wall-E gives me hope for saving the world.

It was actually a very good message in the movie. We seem to get more dependent on technology everyday and we have an overwhelming amount of trash… if we rely on machines to move around everywhere, then yes, obesity could very well be in our future.

But all in all, I liked the movie and the message is one we should all listen to. I think that Pixar meant to have it in there for a reason, and that reason was for all of us to see it, use it, and take it to heart as something to live by.

I liked the message about detaching yourself from your machinery to actually look around.

As I was going to the movie theater to see the sneak screening on Wed, I noted to my co-worker that I went to the theater a few days before to see ‘Incredible Hulk,’ and just then noticed that one building had had glass and balconies installed…The building had been there for some time and it had just truck me.

I was riding the El train on Friday morning to work, and it felt somewhat sad and scary that everyone is just so isolated-there must have been 50+ people crammed into that car, and almost no human interaction…I myself was not exemplt-was plugged into my ipod touch listening to Wall-e.