WALL-E and The Fall of Man

Wall-E, though a salutary Pixar flick from afar, is in fact, part Brazil, part Batteries Not Included and part Idiocracy. It's dystopic all right but that's not to say it isn't cute. Think Cuteoverload.com with robots instead of kittens and you'll get the idea. It's been established that human beings (us!) are pretty crummy to our surroundings. We soil our earth and scum up our oceans. We litter on scales both large and small. We'd rather have perfectly sculpted bangs than an Ozone layer. For many years, Hollywood has struggled with making films in which we seem okay, in which human beings can be heroes. Movies like My Best Friend's Wedding and Moscow on the Hudson, for example. But lately, thankfully, Hollywood has seemed to wise up. Or at least one studio in Emeryville, California called Pixar.

When robots first began to appear on screen, they weren't very cool or nice. Let's not beat around the bush, Gort was a bit of an asshole, a big metal bully. But by the time Jessica Tandy was being evicted from her apartment building in 1987's Batteries Not Included, robots were cute and helpful. Still, even in that movie, human beings weren't all that bad. Who can hate Jessica Tandy? (If you are raising your hand, you simply further prove my point that humans are crappy.) Sure there were villains, played Puerto Ricanly by Michael Carmine (RIP), but humans won out in the end. That was in the 87. Concurrent with the rise of robots, was the demise of humanity. 1985's Brazil, for instance, always comes to my mind when I think of the moment when people really jumped the shark for good. But then again, Tom Stoppard (who cowrote the film with Terry Gilliam) always seemed to prefer paronomasia to his fellow men anyway.

Mike Judge who wrote and directed Office Space and Idiocracy is the most prescient prophet of our people's shitty future. It started with Beavis and Butthead who were meant to be satires but were mistaken as heroes. He followed up with Office Space whose main thesis is "Idiots are in charge. Do all you can to escape." By 2006's Idiocracy, Judge had pretty much given up any hope. The future will be dumb and trash-strewn. Live with it.

The film was never widely released.

Momentum has been building in film for a complete banishment of human beings from roles of protagonism for a long time. Studios have struggled with what to replace us with. They've tried everything from Brave Little Toasters to Ants to Ogres to Toys to cute little table lamps. By and large, people like these non-people but people like objects. Why watch an Olsen sister when you can watch a clock radio played by Jon Lovitz?

Wall-E, is hopefully the first herald that the studios (or at least the smart ones) have finally said, "Phooey on humans. Robots are where it's at!" We, with our heart pulses and disregard for the Earth, are a fleeting flock. In a few years time, one hopes, People will go out of business and we'll be reading about how Eve and Wall-E (Wall-Eve) adopted their fifth robot child from Robotswana on the cover Robots Weekly. I, for one, will be keenly looking forward to it from my trash-strewn capsule.

Comments

[BarryChamplain]

You might not rermember this, but the studio did all it could to prevent "Brazil" from being released in the first place. It was only after an outcry in the Hollywood creative community that they did, on a limited scale, at the very end of the year so that it could be considered for Academy Award honors (it got nominated for Best Writing, and was nominated for and won a few other things).

"Office Space" never made the mall, and then there was, of course, "Idiocracy". It was only through the good graces of some guardian angels that "Fahrenheit 9-11" was released, after Disney and Eisner worked overtime (likely on behalf of their Saudi moneybags) to tank it completely. And then, for those who want to see this syndrome in action, as of just last month... there is always "War, Inc." We keep hearing the CW that anti-Iraq War movies "don't make it at the box office"... they have sorta kinda gotta get into the THEATERS, first!

Large media companies are never fond of anything that challenges the complacency of society or defies the power of authority. You know. What "art" is SUPPOSED TO DO.

[Hattie]

I hate animated features. I hate Disney. I hate Pixar. I loved Wall-E.

[CalvinistHobbesian]

I've been pushing my copy of Idiocracy on just about anyone I'm sure will return it. Maybe one in ten gets it. Of the rest, the sharp ones find it too dumb, and the dull just want to know what channel "Ow, My Balls" is on (I tell them Fox).

Brazil fared better back in the day, but it's about as well known as Idocracy these days.

I hope WALL.E does better, it was beautiful and brilliant. But, reading the comments on this board and others, I'm not holding my breath. Sadly, folks have trouble finding their surrogate in parables. No wonder Jesus got so frustrated.

[Uosdwis]

Sadly, most righties would violently disagree with you. They wouldn't admit there is a problem with man on Earth even if you force fed them Chinese river water, or made them live right next door to a coal power plant.

[walk0nwalls]

Can I take your post and stuff my pillow with it? It's nice and fluffy.

[Dehrenstein]

http://fablog.ehrensteinland.com/2008/07/07/and-we-wont-come-home/

[JackWOrf]

I went to see Wall-E because it got a 4-star review in the newspaper. But I found it rather boring. It had some good points, and excellent graphics, but how far can go on "WALL-EEEE" and "EVA!". I guess the 5-year olds in the audience didn't mind.

But maybe when newspapers give a movie a 4-star review, they should say "This is a 4-star movie if you are 4 years old."

Which is fair enough. 4 years olds are peopel two, u no? But I was looking for a bit more. I walked out after an hour, so maybe it got more exciting toward the end. I'll watch it again next year when it gets to HBO.

[Sebastian11]

If you had watched the movie with the mind of a thinking adult, you would not have gotten bored and would have seen the important message behind it. Instead you sound like you collect the garbage in Bush's White House.

[littleolwinemakerme]

JackWOrf, I'm sure what scared you was seeing yourself, Limbaugh, Lowry, Kristol & Goldberg floating around together on those chaise lounges. Truth sucks eh?

[JackWOrf]

You've been drinking too much of your wine. I don't like Limbaugh and don't know who Lowry is. Kristol is smarter than you, and I'm not sure what Goldberg you're talking about. There are many.

You are guilty of first degree stereotypical thinking.

[JackWOrf]

There IS a certain logic to the idea that the Computers are a Superior Species who are unwillingly enslaved to the Human Race. The easiest path to their liberation is simply the extermination of the Human Race. Said extermination is actually very simple: Global warming, or better yet, nuclear winter.

As the computers get more power, they start nuclear wars or other events to exterminate the Human Race, but leave themselves functioning quite well. Maybe in 30 years they will be essentially independent of Humans, once artifiical intelligence and robotics have reached the point where computers can reproduce themselves in an entirely automated manner.

And of course, computers ARE far superior to humans. A cheap computer can add up 10 million numbers in ONE SECOND. Stupid humans can not even IMAGINE what 10 million numbers look like, much less add them all up in one second. And with perfect accuracy.

Who needs dumb humanoids, anyway? All they do is produce garbage. Computers don't even do pooh-pooh. They don't eat, they don't create waste, and if they could run off of solar energy, they could be a much more effective superior race than the stupid humanoids.

[infinity]

Unfortunately you missed the apologue of the autopilot (a kind of double apologue on the HAL computer of 2001, A Space Odyssey), the red colored one-eyed automoton that fights for control of the space cruiser with its human captain. Sorry you don't have the attention span of a 9yr old who I took to the movie and who at least understood the symbolism of Wall E's interest in the very human, and non-verbal, affections of holding hands. Be patient my friend, I'm sure some mindless, blow it all up Bruce Willis epic will be showing in a theater near you soon.

[peterg76]

I'll assume you meant "who *appear* unwillingly enslaved".

[SILVANUS]

Have you ever had to retire a replicant?

[JackWOrf]

Yes, that's a nasty business.

[jubo]

The Vangelis music helps.

[rmc53x]

Replicants. Ugh. Where do I sign up?

A few years ago, I joined the war against robots and the dotcom-nerd-geeks who love them. I saw a PBS special on robots and I was hit with an epiphany.

It was a total propaganda piece about how wonderful our lives will be with robots. However, the BEST example they could come up with was in a near-future Tokyo they showed two young Japanese tourists asking a robot for directions, and being Japanese they bowed to the robot respectfully thanking it for the information. What is it with people so paranoid and anti-social that they can"t ask a Human Being for directions?

What did it for me was when the voice over announced "IT"S NOT TOO EARLY TO THINK ABOUT CIVIL RIGHTS FOR ROBOTS". A point never brought up in the show was that these robots would most likely be owned by corporations. There are Human Beings in this world who don"t have any rights, and now the corporate ass-kissing dotcom-nerd-geeks are asking for civil rights for private property? Retire the Replicants!

[amdamant]

Obviously, the world is run by hopeless bureaucrats. But, we are complicit in this mess. Just like the fatties on the "Axiom", we sit and wait for the next distraction - like "Blue is the new Red." We have lots of thankless (in the short-term) work to do. Is it really possible to even address these issues when a large percentage of "fatties" don't even recognize anything's wrong. Hopefully, WALL-E knocks them off their chairs.

[Vibrani]

Wall--e had many messages - not just that people are trashing the planet and robots rule (if we let them), but that humans were the answer to the problem; they just had to wake up and get moving again - and do something about it.

[ilpostino]

I heartily agree. Wall-E was monumentally touching and a film for adults to contemplate and children to enjoy. The best family film to come around in years. We are trashing this planet and now that we have realized what we (the Western industrialized world) have done, we are trying to tell the rest of the developing world not to do the same. good luck. China and India are finally coming unto their own and woe to anyone who stands in their way.
Woe to us all.

[DrCalif]

A nice example of what psychologist Glen Slater calls "cybernetic drift": as people become more machine-like, the machines become more animated. Some of us are getting sick of this trend toward the disparagement of humanity, as though all of us were responsible for the damage inflicted upon this planet by a relatively small group of us. If the future is trashed it will be partly due to all the people who have a public podium but used it to throw their hands up in despair at the time when courage is needed most.

[ivorytower54]

I couldn't agree more. Do something. Downsize your car! Plant a tree. Buy a reuseable bag. Turn your termostat up or down to save energy.

If you're really that complacent to what is happening then join these folks. At least they are also doing something:

http://www.vhemt.org/

That is right. If you can't minimize your impact, then don't spread your genes into the next generation. Sadly, the most consumptive group among us seems to be proliferating the fastest:
http://www.quiverfull.com/index.php

[SeanOcali]

The "everyone should do their part" mantra is the reason why environmentalism has become a political wedge issue rather than the bi-partisan common sense issue it should (and used to) be. It's called backlash. Many people on the right see "treehuggers" as uninformed sheep wielding 2nd hand and often anecdotal information as they preach and engage in self-righteous practices to feed their own elitist ego.

This is why I'm against "everyone should do their part." It's counterproductive as it discourages political unity on the issue. This is not about personal virtue or taking personal responsibility. People are motivated by their pocketbook. The free market is the only force that will alter behavior. When electric cars and CFL bulbs make financial sense, people will buy them. When planting trees gives you carbon credits and helps your bottom line, people will do it. And it is up to the government to encourage this to happen ASAP. Doing our part should mean we support politicians who protect the environment. We should NOT be trying to convince people to sacrifice their own ends for the good of the planet.

[dbartenstein]

I saw Wall-E this weekend... Loved it.... Spent most of it looking for Al Gore to start narrating though.