Entrop-E

Wall-E: A Review

This post is my first attempt at reviewing a movie (from a biblical Christian standpoint, of course!). I don't think this will become common, I just really felt like Wall-E was a good enough movie to warrant telling people about it and it's themes. I've broken the review down into five subsections titled Entropy, Emotion, Environment, Eve, and Epilogue. Each of these sections discuss an important topic showcased in the movie.

Though the review below does not delve into the storyline of the movie, it does contain some minor spoilers. Read at your own risk.

Entropy

Entropy - a process of degradation or running down or a trend to disorder
From Merriam-Webster's Dictionary

No word describes the overall theme of the movie Wall-E better. The movie focuses on degradation - including the decay of earth, mankind, and innocence. This entropy observed throughout the well formulated movie can be bleak and even disturbing at times.

From the get go, we realize that the world as we know it has come to an end. The only living thing on the planet earth is a cockroach. To make matters worse, the earth is covered in trash that humans have left behind. Our hero is a small robot who is left to clean up this mess the best way he knows how - compacting it into cubes and stacking skyscraper-sized towers so high that they block the sun. If that's not bleak, I don't know what is.

Though things seem hopeless, the movie doesn't seem overly concerned with emotional manipulation. For the first 45 minutes, the movie presents Wall-E's story from a rather objective standpoint, as if we are watching a day in the life of earth's only (slightly) intelligent being through the eyes of a hidden camera. This is when the movie works best, and it's what has made Pixar a household name.

Emotion

Another thing which has helped Pixar build a wonderful reputation is the implementation of believable emotions in conventionally emotionless, thoughtless, and sometimes even repulsive beings. Viewers feel for toys in Toy Story, fish in Finding Nemo, Monsters in Monsters, Inc. and cars, of all things, in the movie Cars. Wall-E keeps up this trend, and, to tell the truth, takes it to another level. As a viewer, I felt even more for Wall-E than I have for most human characters in other films I have seen.

This leads us to the movie's strongest point - and it's biggest warning. I don't want to give too much away, but the last half of the movie shows the importance of personal interaction, as opposed to impersonal digital interaction. Though the movie focuses on a world where earth is falling apart, Wall-E's new found friend has disappeared, and mankind is basically doomed to an unpleasant fate, the most important message to be found here is a warning against becoming so self absorbed that we don't make and physical, vocal, or emotional contact with other human beings.

This message comes across in intriguingly simple ways. Wall-E is less concerned about appearances than he is about building personal relationships, one introduction at a time. The most satisfying parts of the movie involve Wall-E shaking hands with new found friends, waving to people and/or robots that he sees, and holding hands (well, claws really, if you want me to be technical) with another robot.

The most touching part of the movie is also the most disturbing: a robot, which was created by humans, shows more human emotion and feeling than any of the people in the movie. It brought to mind Numbers 22:21-35, where Balaam becomes so set in his ways that God uses a donkey to talk sense into him. This is exactly the role that Wall-E plays in his movie. The people are headed on a downward spiral toward completely emotionless communication and interaction, and Wall-E comes to make this evident.

Environment

It wouldn't be fair to discuss Wall-E without talking about what many think is the movie's main message: to take care of earth. I would argue that the main point is the one I stated above about personal contact, but there is most definitely a dire warning about taking care of what God has given us. There really isn't too much too say other than what is very obvious in the movie, but for the record, there is no finger pointing. Mankind in general is blamed for getting lazy and not treasuring the gift that he has been given.

The only theme which is not necessarily readily apparent is that of the fickleness of mankind's consumerist nature. All of the people are controlled by advertisements and peer pressure to be a part of the next big thing - this is illustrated by the many advertisements for silly-looking products which are still left on the deserted earth. In another scene, a billboard on the spaceship which humans now inhabit tells people to "try wearing blue [clothes] - it's the new red!" All of these humans readily change without even questioning the machine's authority. This fad-chasing nature of people, we are shown, is what caused the earth to be polluted with great amounts of trash.

Wall-E is different from the people, however, in that he realizes something is lacking in his life. His innocence keeps him from knowing how to fit in, and his behavior displays some of the movie's most intriguing philosophical statements about materialism. For example, when he is digging through a heap of trash, he happens upon a diamond ring in a felt case. He promptly plucks the ring out of the case and throws it away; he then inspects the ring case carefully, evidently awe-inspired. Though this part is played for laughs, it brings up a question: Are material things really that important just because humans place value on them?
These questions just keep coming, too. Would any humans be as enraptured as Wall-E is when he finds an old boot containing a plant? Or an old dinged up fire hydrant? Or would we just be searching for more diamonds?

Eve

When Wall-E's world is invaded by a shiny new reconnaissance robot, he doesn't know what to do. This robot is far from perfect - she represents mankind in that she is just as likely to destroy something as she is to look at it. The unlikely pairing of the little outdated robot who likes to watch and emulate the dancing in "Hello, Dolly!" and the trigger happy, sleek new robot is one of the best on-screen romances ever captured. Wall-E's dedication to Eve through thick and thin and the sacrifices he makes for her represent such Christlike love that it's almost hard to imagine that those involved in the movie didn't try to make this an allegory. The romance's climax and resolution also echo Biblical ideals. The writer of the story, Andrew Stanton, told Ted Baehr that the essence of the movie revolves around Jesus' statement in John 15:13 : "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

Epilogue

In conclusion, Wall-E can be considered a moving and thought-provoking movie. The movie has many useful messages to offer without being in-your-face or heavy-handed. Admittedly, it is hard to not feel a little bit compromised when you go pay good money to watch a movie that tells you not to fall prey to materialism and consumerism, but the storyline itself is worth the price of admission. Wait, I forgot - this is Pixar. The 5-minute short before the movie is worth that price :)