EarthFirst.com Movie Review Funtime: Wall-E’s Green Message Is Wrapped Up In a Great Flick

You might have been waiting to see Hancock or Wanted or some other action flick with exposed and then blown-up flesh, but you should take your cue from the preschool set and go see Wall-E.

Wall-E is the latest film from the folks at Pixar, those that brought you Toy Story and Nemo and Monsters, Inc. Pixar has certainly earned their reputation for smart stories and innovative animation. But WALL-E is something else altogether.

In many ways Wall-E is a small movie love story that breezes through its 103 minutes. That the lovers in this story are robots limits their range of motion and emotion somewhat, and it eliminates the need for backstory. There is only a little change in these characters – when the fembot protagonist comes around. We aren’t waiting for Wall-E to turn from playbot to settled down housebot. It’s just sweet.

But what makes Wall-E an Official EarthFirst Movie Selection is the subtle and not-so-subtle messaging that turns this kiddie film into a powerful critique of what’s wrong with America.

The core plot of Wall-E is that a giant corporation sold us so much stuff that we littered the Earth to the point where it became uninhabitable. All the people of Earth then boarded ships with the plan being that the big company would clean up while they were away. The people would then return to a nice fresh smelling Earth. In the film we come in 700 years later, while the people are still living on their space ships. So in the most fundamental way this is a film about how consumerism run amok will inevitably destroy the planet – a very EarthFirst idea.

The deeper messages are, however, more interesting. The giant corporation is called Buy N’ Large – or BNL for short. They get so big that the CEO of the company becomes the President. They are the government. Sound familiar?

Pixar has gone that extra mile with marketing and set up a BNL website so you can get an idea of how big this company got and how it moved into control of government and news. Check it out at http://www.buynlarge.com

When all of your needs are met, the next step is “convenience.” Convenience means having everything packaged to such a degree that you don’t have to work. Or walk. Or use a fork. In the dystopia of the BNL spaceship, all food is served in a cup that looks a lot like a 7-Eleven Big Gulp. People ride on levitating platforms and have a screen affixed 24/7 in front of their eyes. They have grown so obese they can barely walk. They literally don’t see what’s right in front of them. Sound familiar?

The most subversive idea in the movie is that all of the abundance has made the people stupid and allowed their so-called leaders to control them. Deep down they retain their values and have a pioneering spirit. They are not bad people. But with constant media entertainment provided by the giant corporation, they failed to notice the erosion of what they valued most in the world – their world. They gave up community and hard work and a meaningful life for video games and big gulps. Sound familiar?

As Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times in lamenting the current political discourse, “While the real-life grown-ups on TV were again rebooting Vietnam, the kids at “Wall-E” were in deep contemplation of a world in peril — and of the future that is theirs to make what they will of it. Compare any 10 minutes of the movie with 10 minutes of any cable-news channel, and you’ll soon be asking: Exactly who are the adults in our country and who are the cartoon characters?

I think we know the answer to that.

Michael Hoffman is President of EarthFirst.com and CEO of See3 Communications.

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