Wall-E AMV - Light Up The Sky

Wall-E is a Disney/Pixar movie that came out in 2008 and is set in the future. The target audience for this film is children because it is a cartoon with little violence. Although this film is a cartoon directed towards children the ideas behind it are valid for society today. The general concept is about a robot who is the last of many robots that were in charge of cleaning up planet earth. The earth was so polluted from all of the trash humans had accumulated they had to leave earth on a spaceship and live in space until the robots, or Wall-E's could clean it up and establish another livable ecosystem. The time humans had to spend in space turned out to be longer than anticipated and they all but forgot about the planet they once used to inhabit.
The first thing that I noticed was that the earth was completely empty and trashed. It didn't even look like earth. Children are probably too young to notice what really happened to the planet but the parents that bring their children must have noticed the message being portrayed by the film. For me there was a definite "shock value" right away just seeing the demolished landscape that was once thriving with energy and life. Also I think that this film was set up as a warning for what may happen if we don't change our ways but there was a feeling of hope because of one little robot, Wall-E.
The film's setting is in two parts earth and on a spaceship up in space. At first I thought that the earth was full of huge sky scrapers but when I took a closer look I realized that the sky scrapers I thought I saw were just giant towers of trash compacted by the robots. Wall-E was the closest thing to a human living there. Although he was a robot Disney/Pixar did a good job of illustrating his emotions. You could see that he had feelings and wanted to be as human as he could.
Because it is a film there are many pictorial elements that come into play that explain the situation and the severity. For example, in the clip above you can notice news paper articles on the ground depicting the world in crisis as well as all the Buy n Large company logos on everything.
The BnL corporation correlates well with large multi-national companies that we read about every day. While I was watching this film I looked very carefully at the signs and statements created by Buy n Large. Everything I saw was reassuring that they were making the world a better place for everyone and don't worry because "WE", BnL will protect you. As the film progressed I kept going back to the idea that they wanted everyone took look the other way. After looking at all the article from class I remembered the large companies such as GE that are always fighting to prove that they are making a difference and improving the world. Because of clever advertisements I think that many consumers believe that companies such is are doing good and turn the other cheek to negative stories about their environmental impact. This might be one of the reasons why the earth ended up un-inhabitable in the movie, society didn't question the impact large corporations have on the environment or the carbon foot print they leave behind.
The fact that there are no people in the first part of the movie makes a big statement about how scary this future is. I can't even imagine not being able to just go swimming in the lake by my house but with the privatization of water that might just be the reality. To me the film said that we screwed up beyond repair. With that said it reminded me of the diminishing water tables already being depleted and over extracted. Also the people that are in the movie are fat and lazy. They depend solely on the work of robots for simple tasks that I would never even consider not doing myself. The people in the future got around the space ship in hover chairs with television screens in front of them and if they happen to fall out of their chair they didn't even have to get back in the chair themselves, a robot would come and do it for them. This is not the world that I want to be a part of. I am all for making life a little bit easier but there has to be a point where I would loose respect for myself if I became useless. Thats what the people of the future were, useless. They became the robots. There was no interaction outside their own personal bubble. I was wondering how there was a human race still because there was no interpersonal communication. One man and a woman met just by accident because of Wall-E but what does the other 99% of the population do?
This film is significant in that it portrays a future not so out of the picture. Although it is a bit far fetched I could potentially see this happening in the near future if we keep diminishing our resources and keep infecting the very planet that sustains us.
I felt that the movie generates a sense of fear but it is accompanied by hope. Wall-E represents one person trying to make a difference. It has to start with one and as you see from the film he generates followers. Another robot, EVE, helps him get the plant to the spaceship and the captain fights back against the people that gave up. Those were the same people that promised safety and a solution to the worlds problems.
It's our job as the consumers to know what we are supporting by making our purchases. With out analyzing the positive and negative effects we are really living irrationally. We cannot be consumed by the glory of innovation. What is the point of innovation if we destroy the very world we inhabit. Many companies advertise how much easier life will be with the use of their products, but how easy will life be if we cannot sustain a livable ecosystem. I'm not saying that I don't impact the environment because I do. It's funny that watching a Disney movie really did make me think about the choices "we" as society make or don't make and the potential harmful impact that may occur from making these decisions.