OK, time for a bit of honestly: of the early Pixar films, when the studio was having its golden age, I don’t think I would have counted WALL-E as one of my favorites. Oh, it isn’t bad or anything. I just found the character less endearing, thinking the beauty of the animation outshined the story it was telling. Yeah, we all know the scene where the title character, flying through space, runs his hand through the rings of Saturn and lets is fly, showing awe and wonder for a character that doesn’t even really have a face aside from those big eyes of his. Great animation, for sure. Does it make for a great story?
Yeah, I changed my mind on that one.
At its core, WALL-E is a not-particularly-subtle environmental fable where a film put out by the biggest media conglomerate on the planet had something to say about mindless commercialism. Sometime in the 22nd century, the Earth became uninhabitable, and the corporation Buy n Large, led by their CEO (who is also apparently the President of Earth and is played by a flesh-and-blood Fred Willard), provided an ark of some kind to allow people to fly off to space for a five year journey while small compactor robots cleaned up the excessive garbage. But 700 years later, and the work isn’t done. In fact, only one of the robots is still working away, and that’s WALL-E. He spends his days scooping trash into his central chamber, crushing it into a cube, and then stacking the cubes on skyscraper-shaped towers that are larger than the actual abandoned skycrapers set next to them. He has a cutting laser for bigger pieces of trash, and his only friend is a cockroach. At nights, before he powers down, he plays a VHS tape of Hello, Dolly! Beyond that, he’s something of a packrat.
By the by, for the sake of simplicity, I will refer to WALL-E as a “he” only because his name is a traditional male name. It makes it a bit easier. Same with other robots with names to come.
Regardless, WALL-E actually looks like a robot that could be built right now. Even if he was constructed 100 years or so in the future, he looks like something that could actually function. Contrast that with his love interest EVE, an egg-shaped machine that comes down to check to plant life. WALL-E, who is presumably lonely, seems smitten with her, and when she finally stops shooting at him, the two do seem to bond.
OK, quick aside: is WALL-E looking for a friend or a love interest? I could see it going either way, but the general framing seems to be pushing more towards a romance. The way the two interact, despite the fact neither of them have much of a vocabulary–they can basically say each other’s names and that’s about it–they do hit many of the tropes of a romance, one where they dance, share a sunset, and WALL-E even has to protect EVE when he recognizes a sandstorm coming. WALL-E even shows her the sapling he found, and that’s where things kick into gear as WALL-E, in his efforts to bond with EVE, finds himself jetting off into space, a trip that will cause the small robot to more or less accidentally inspire people and robots on the ark to change for the better, including EVE, who spends a good portion of her dialogue snapping at WALL-E by saying his name in an angry tone.
And in some sort of reverse Disney move, it is a kiss from EVE that wakes WALL-E up at the end of the film.
So, my first thought was that, since this is a Disney/Pixar film about, among other things, the effects of pollution, that the film isn’t all that subtle. The ruin of the Earth wasn’t caused by human-cause climate change or a nuclear war. There’s just too much trash. The humans on the ark are all overweight blobs that never have a reason to stand up and spend a lot of time watching computer screens. WALL-E’s accidentally bumping into some makes them actually look around and notice thing–one running gag is that humans on the ark are often surprised that there are things to do beyond their constant buying of things off their computer screens–and the humans whose lives WALL-E seems to accidentally improve find their suits changing from blue to red until, by the film’s climax, all the humans are wearing red and working with the robots to bring themselves back to a homeworld they never visited before. “Thus Spake Zarathustra” plays when the captain of the ark actually stands up for arguably the first time in his life. It’s not subtle.
Except, well, it is. The obvious stuff is there, but the less obvious stuff also is. There’s a shot of a day care center on the ark where fat babies are taught their alphabet, with “B” being for “Buy and Large,” indoctrinating these kids with the company propaganda from the very beginning. Plus, if these people are still shopping, they theoretically have an income of some kind. It’s like the entire human race required Amazon to save them, but they continue to shop off Amazon. Furthermore, it looks like Willard’s CEO never left the Earth, so does that mean that only people who could afford to leave did so? And shouldn’t I be suspicious that the guy who runs the biggest retailer on the planet is also in charge of the government, such as I can see of it? So, commerce runs the planet and gets people to buy stuff that just ruining the planet?
Oh, and as gorgeous as the animation is, some of that beauty was showing how dirty the planet was, including a lot of useless satellites floating just outside the upper atmosphere of the planet. It was enough to make me think the autopilot was right to keep the humans out in space. The captain thinks pizza grows on trees. I know the closing credits suggests otherwise, but am I supposed to believe these people can actually grow crops now?
You know what? Maybe all that matters is WALL-E made a difference for a lot of people and found some happiness with EVE.
I think I can get behind that. WALL-E is just so darn adorable.
NEXT: WALL-E has to toil away in secret to save the world. Next time, I have something about the French Resistance who worked in secret for very different reasons. Be back soon for 1969’s Army of Shadows.
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