Interesting Plot Hole I noticed....

A long time ago, my mom and I saw this documentary on one of those learning channels (TLC, Discovery, Science? I don’t remember), that discusses the “what-if” scenario of all humans disappearing from the face of the earth (animals are still there). In it, while trash and chemicals were left over, plants started to grow on their own in under 10 years, with structures such as monuments and skyscrapers collapsing under their weight after like, 400-500 years, with the whole planet practically being overgrown by foliage.

However, in WALL-E, that’s not the case.

Technically, the earth should have regenerated itself within the time window of 700 years (especially with their being rain storms on the soil. The most probable cause I could think of is all the chemicals being released into the air somehow inhibiting the ability of the soil and rain to produce life (until the time when the film begins, of course). Maybe it’s even possible that some areas on Earth did regenerate themselves, and they never sent EVE probes there?

And now, I’ll let the members speak.

Wasn’t it supposed to be that the humans had polluted the world to such a ridiculous extent that they didn’t think it could fix itself? Way, way more than we’ve currently polluted it?

Villainess: Exactly! Had it not been to the level that BnL had gotten to, the earth could have regenerated itself sooner, making Operation: Re-Colonize proceed faster.

Plus, if you heven’t seen it already, there is a BnL short in the Special Editions of WALL-E that pretty much explains how it happened. There were machines made to burn down all the trash, and burning trash, especially synthetic, would definitely do a lot of damage, to the point that not even the rain storms would do much help to the dead soil.

But in the end, the earth did regenerate itself. It just took longer due to the effects of the chemical-polluted air.