The Day the Future Stood Still
There is no way you can discount cute. Sure, you can rage against the machine when it comes to horrific or violent, but nothing can hold a candle up to cute. What to sell fabric softener? Get cute. What to sell pet chow? Get cute. Want to make quadrillions of dollars? Get really cute, my friend — and preferably with a robot.
I love the Pixar flicks. The talking toys and the neurotic fish and the houses that float up into the sky. They’re on the cutting edge of rendering technology and they can make practically any environment appealing and interactive. Deep space? No problem. Superhero families? No sweat.
Now, while I dig on most of their films, I have to say none of them really threw me for a loop like WALL-E. I think it was his big eyes or effective trilling. Or maybe it was the bigger picture. I mean, the film brought a lot to bear, more than most people tend to give it credit for.
The loss of the environment is one thing, but what about our loss of humanity? Sure, it’s corny, but it works. The humans of WALL-E’s future are bloated blobs of bio-plasm. They are carted about on their hover-chairs and fed fast food. They never interact with each other face-to-face, preferring the digital distance of video and voice technology. A warning? Yeah, but it’s not heavy-handed or moralistic.
We think we’re jaded enough to smirk knowingly at the flicks with talking animals and dinosaurs. We think we’ve got this whole animated movie thing in perspective. But this is where WALL-E sneaks in like the Greeks in the Horse. It’s precisely because you think you’ve got a handle of the film that you let it in. You process it quickly, and before you can scoff, you’re aching for the same connection the little robot is. That’s magical. That’s human. That’s robots.
Lay down the coin for a copy of WALL-E and watch your humanity reach the stars. Trust me, you need this — it will do you a world of good.
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