In today's world, more and more awareness is being raised about pollution and waste. More and more gadgets and devices are being made to do things for us. Needless to say, the 1st world lifestyle of the human race is concerning and sometimes sad. Numerous films have been made that depict dystopian societies, which often come to be after man's corrupt and harmful ways lead to their destruction. Not much of this is seen as far as Disney goes. But in 2008, Disney-Pixar presented Wall-E.
Once upon a time, a small and curious robot named Wall-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-class) was the last of his kind on Earth. For the last 700 years, Wall-E has been doing what the humans made him for: Clearing garbage off the earth's surface. The earth has been abandoned, as life has not been sustainable due to pollution and built up waste. One day, a ship from space arrives, and leaves a robot called Eve (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator). As seen from her name, Eve is one of the robots periodically sent to earth to find plant life, proof that life is once again sustainable. As Eve searches for life, Wall-E falls in love. Eventually, Wall-E finds a plant growing inside of a dirt-filled boot. Upon seeing it, Eve takes the plant into a chamber in her body and shuts down while sending out a signal. A ship returns to pick up Eve, and Wall-E stows away. In outer space they arrive onboard the Axium, a colossal sized space cruise liner. Here, Wall-E encounters things he has never seen before, including a wide variety of robots, and humans. These humans live on hover chairs, are hardly mobile, and due to micro-gravity, have experienced some bone loss in their bodies. From here Eve and Wall-E embark on an adventure to present the plant, battle a rebellious autopilot, and convince the humans to return to earth. Can Eve and Wall-E be together? Will earth be recolonized, or will it be left a lifeless wasteland?
Artificial intelligence has been a fascinating subject for a long time, and is also depicted in many films. More often than not, artificial intelligence is considered dangerous. Robots could rebel violently, and complications could arise if they were to fall in love and have complex human feelings and ideas. In Wall-E however, the robots appears to be their own minority group in society, as if they were also human. When comparing Wall-E and Eve to our human characters, they seem more sincere and thoughtful. This makes their ability to think and feel all the more intriguing. This type of thought provocation is seldom seen in children and Disney movies.
Wall-E and the Axium were created by the same company: BnL, or Buy N Large. This company advertises itself as "Buy N Large, everything you need to be happy." The humans aboard the Axium live lives of pleasure and entertainment. They have never known work or physical exertion. Robots wait on their every need. Wall-E's future depiction of humanity is the sad extreme of how 1st world societies live today. Almost every human works for money. No one stops to think about what money is for: Gaining access to fine housing or materialistic and frivolous things of pleasure, as well as being able to live in comfort. When the captain of the Axium sees Eve's memory footage of earth, he's nearly horrified at the state of the planet. He decides right then and there that the time has come to return home. During the end credit of the movie, we see the humans walking and with the help of the robots, planting crops, restoring old buildings, and just enjoying the beauty of nature that is growing around them everyday. We can only assume that they, as well as Wall-E and Eve, are happier than they ever were in space, or alone on an abandoned planet.
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