July
2008
Where’s God in Wall-E?
Is the environmental movement too fixated on terrorizing the public with apocalyptic scenarios? It’s a question one might hear from apologists for Big Oil and other political ostriches who will deny that human influence on climate change is a clear and present danger until Lower Manhattan is under water. On the other hand, it’s likely that some potential supporters of green political and lifestyle efforts are scared off by those who think describe environmental doomsdays in endless detail is the best and only means of mobilizing the masses.The record of feature films that focus on portraying such catastrophes is a mixed bag. An Inconvenient Truth clearly struck a chord with a fairly broad audience (while ultimately offering ways to minimize the coming dangers), while the big-budget fictional disaster film The Day After Tomorrow seems just a few years after its release to be more lurid than prophetic.
The new Pixar animated feature Wall-E takes a different yet in some ways wiser approach to revealing its version of environmental degradation. By providing a more gentle and at times humorous perspective on a world ravaged by pollution and emphasizing the human dimensions of its storytelling, Wall-E may win over new converts to the green movement by touching their hearts.
(A quick sidebar to those who have avoided seeing any of Pixar’s nine films because you believe animation is only for children: These are among the most intelligent, emotionally satisfying movies of the past 15 years - you are missing out on some delightful cinema.)
The “W” in Wall-E stands for “Waste”, which gives you an idea what the title character is - a trash compactor on wheels. Centuries before the narrative begins, Wall-E and his robot brethren were enlisted to dispose of epic mounds of garbage flooding the earth while humankind (aided and abetted by Buy N Large, a corporate/governmental entity that resembles Wal-Mart on steroids) took a vacation in space - and never came back. 700 years later, Wall-E (along with a cockroach sidekick) is the only thing moving on Earth and is still on the job, though he’s barely made a dent in all the junk.
We view what has become a bleak and silent Earth through the binocular-like eyes of Wall-E, whose reactions to his isolation, bumbling charm and endless persistence make him hugely endearing. Wall-E may be mechanical, but he grounds this movie in emotions that transform the aftermath of the earth’s seeming destruction from an incomprehensible nightmare into something we can fully imagine experiencing. Wall-E doesn’t just mindlessly package trash: seemingly in an effort to connect with something alive, the robot collects mementos from the Earth’s wreckage - everything from lawn gnomes to a videotape of “Hello Dolly” - that help inspire him to attempt epic feats.
Ultimately, Wall-E meets and immediately falls for the sleek flying robot Eve, who has come in search of signs of life on Earth. Wall-E and Eve’s relationship embodies the movie’s central theme: the transformative power of love. In other hands this romance might have seemed like an incongruous cliché, but writer/director Andrew Stanton makes the growth of Eve and Wall-E’s mutual caring and devotion seem genuine - and extrapolates from this relationship to suggest how our sense of connection to others can truly save the world.
No doubt this isn’t the most factually comprehensive ecological scenario, but there’s a lot to be said for how the filmmakers keep some details of the disaster abstract. What’s left unsaid about the movie’s world is still frightening when one has time to consider the ramifications. (For example, what happened to the people who couldn’t afford the space cruise?) A recent Los Angeles Times piece by Reed Johnson criticizes Wall-E for not providing a more harrowing, authentic account of what the ravaged environment would be like, but he misses the point that artists can make us feel and think far more evocatively by leaving some events to our imaginations instead of spelling them out.
At the same time, the movie doesn’t stint on portraying other details of this future world. The epic piles of trash, the freakish storms that plague the city Wall-E monitors, the diffused sunlight that makes Earth look like the recently received photos of Mars - these visual elements bring the world alive yet seem less incomprehensible than they would in a movie trying too hard to scare us.
And by allowing us to laugh, not just at some of Wall-E’s quirks and antics but at the insanity of a world inundated with garbage and surrounded by so many satellites that the Earth appears wrapped in barbed wire, the horrors of environmental disaster become more accessible - and perhaps more open for us to seek solutions.
So where is God in all this? The little plant Wall-E finds (which sets the rest of the plot in motion) is a sign of ultimate forgiveness - that no matter what we do to the Earth, creation keeps happening. One could argue that showing the planet continue to regenerate - no matter how we attempt to destroy it - will give anti-environmentalists false justification for demanding the continuation of the status quo (though numerous conservative critics have damned the film’s green sensibilities). But through its willingness to laugh at some of our flaws and to remind us that love is always there to help us not just do better but to perform miracles, Wall-E can inspire audiences to see that we all truly can make a difference - and that it’s not too late to make that difference.