If You've Seen WALL-E, I'd Be Extremely Curious For Your Thoughts If You Haven't Already Shared Them.

If you've seen WALL-E, I'd be extremely curious for your thoughts if you haven't already shared them. Actually, I have a few movies I'd love your opinion on, but I'm not gonna keep ya all day. Thank you for your content! :)

I love WALL-E. It's a cool idea, that the whole movie is about what it means to be human, but from the perspective of a robot.

I think it's very straightforward, and there's not a lot of stuff to analyze, which is good! He's this robot that's "developed a personality" but what he's really becoming is human.

And the movie is saying that being human is liking things, taking risks, being vulnerable, and most importantly taking care of things. As in, caring for things that need you. Even if it means you don't survive or get to be as comfortable.

WALL-E preserves the stuff he has an interest in instead of junking it, but remember, he takes care of that little cockroach. He carefully organizes all his things. He fixes what's broken. That's what humans were placed on Earth to do: have dominion over it. Take care of it. Cultivate the land, order the animals.

And instead we use it all to make ourselves more comfortable.

Not WALL-E, though! And he teaches that to everybody else.

The only things I struggle with, with WALL-E, are the repeated "Directive" themes. Like, what you're made for isn't what you should be. You could say WALL-E is all about being what makes you happy.

I disagree with that. That worldview is no good. What makes you happy changes from moment to moment, and it usually comes at the expense of other people and what you, yourself, need to be good and healthy. But you could argue that that's how the humans in WALL-E got to be blobs in chairs that abandon their planet, so my beef with those themes aren't very strong.

You could just argue that the narrative is saying, WALL-E, who was created to put waste in its proper place, is still doing that. He's just doing it in a deeper, better, more correct way than all the other robots. He puts waste in its proper place, but by doing that, he also protects the things that are worthwhile and shouldn't be wasted.

And in that same train of thought, EVE is so focused on collecting and delivering the one sign of life that makes Earth worth living for--that's her directive. But it turns out, WALL-E is the one sign of life that makes Earth worth living for, because of the example he sets. That example of finding joy in hard work and protecting things that are worth protecting.

I also think, if WALL-E were released right now, in 2024, it would not be well-liked or accepted. Because people would get their feathers ruffled by the idea that we're all headed toward being blobs who can't see past our own comfort. And they'd accuse the movie of "body shaming," that kind of junk. Then again, the same people who are worried about that are also worried about that great big topic we call "the environment," and WALL-E cleverly set itself up to be championing "the environment," so maybe it would've shielded itself. Either way, I think the movie was very brave to say, "yeah, hey, we're super lazy and self-satisfying and obsessed with our own comfort, and this is the dystopia it could lead us to."

And MO is my favorite.

And love, too. Anyway. Yes, I love WALL-E! And hey! Ask me about any movies you want! I don't get that many of these questions, and I really like thinking them through and trying to verbalize them, so please do! And thank you for this question.