Analysis of Wall-E

. For as little dialogue as there is in the film, Wall-E is an awesome movie which is evidenced by many of the awards it has won. Upon beginning to watch Wall-E, I did not expect an animated film to have such great meaning and address many of the societal issues it does in the film. The main issues Wall-E touches on are consumerism, technology, and environmental problems. The movie brings light to these issues by placing the setting in 2805 and showing the audience what these issues could be like hundreds of years down the road. Many of the readings we have done in class give reason to believe the Earth and civilization could become what it is in the movie Wall-E. The first societal problem brought to light in the film is environmental related issues. The first thing we see in the film are a bunch of stacks of garbage piles, sometimes bigger than skyscrapers. This undoubtedly ties into how we go about disposing of our garbage and sewage today. According to the article read in class called “Why Consumption Matters”, the average American in 1990 would throw out four to five pounds of garbage a day, while being responsible for 124 pounds of behind the scenes consumption. This behind the scenes consumption includes construction materials, fossil fuels, industrial materials, forest, and metals amongst others. We must also keep in mind that this is a 1990 figure, and that Americans consume significantly more in 2014. It is statistics like these that make it almost inevitable that we end up with skyscrapers of garbage like in Wall-E. Additionally, Hardin brings up a point worth noting in “The Tragedy of the Commons” with regard to population growth. Because the population is growing faster than it ever has before, not only are we consuming more but there are also so many more people alive in our current society. This makes the question of where we are going to put our waste of great importance and something that needs to be figured out sooner rather than later. If our society cannot figure this out we will have more areas like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the Gulf of Mexico dead zone, or huge skyscrapers of garbage on an uninhabitable planet as in Wall-E. Another societal issue worth discussing that was noticed while watching the film was the use of technology in consumer culture. I found it amusing the level to which the film used the idea that technology makes people lazy and dependent on it, especially when it improves. This is especially evident in the scene where John is knocked out of his hover-chair and is too out of shape to get back in the chair on his own. The hover-chair essentially allows John to never have to leave his chair and thus makes him severely out of shape. This could be viewed as similar to what kids growing up nowadays experience with video games. Why go outside to the park and run around in order to have fun when you could sit in the comfort of your own home and play video games against other people online? The fact that the movie shows all of the humans on the spaceship as obese really stresses this issue to the audience. One other aspect of technology that is criticized in this film is the fact that technology, often times, can disconnect people from nature. In the film this is seen when the Captain of the ship realizes what Earth is and becomes extremely intrigued and wants to learn more. The synthetic, easy, technology-filled life lived by those on the spaceship, including the Captain, allowed these humans to be disconnected from reality. Much of this disconnect from reality is caused by the lack of human interaction due to technology. This is shown in Wall-E when all of the humans seem to be in their own hover-chair world while watching a virtual screen at all times. The characters John and Mary show this perfectly when they meet after being diverted from their virtual screens. They seem to be confused and awkward upon meeting, probably because they do not know what it is like to have human interaction. Much of the same can be applied to people in today’s society who have little human interaction due to technology. Social media and the internet are major reasons why less human interaction has taken place, as shown in the video “Generation Like”. In my opinion I do not believe the film is calling out technology as a bad thing however it does bring some of the negative aspects of technology to the audience’s attention. The last social issue that Wall-E brings up that is worth discussing is consumer culture as a whole. One main theme I noticed with regard to consumer culture is how many things in Wall-E that people had were used just because the product or technology made their life that much easier. Whether it was the hover-chair, the consumption of a shake as a meal, the virtual screen on each hover-chair, or the significant use of robots, all of these things made the humans’ lives on the spaceship easier. Even the idea of the civilization in space itself makes humans lives easier by being able to dispose of the problems that were created on Earth and to continue their lives in a safe environment. This reminds us of the article “Introduction to McDonaldization” by George Ritzer, when it is discussed why McDonalds is so popular. Many of the advantages of McDonald’s make things easier on people, whether it’s the time, effort and/or money being saved. Pretty much all of the technology in the film as well as in the world today saves people either time, effort, or money. The iPhone is a great example of this in that on many occasions, having the internet and the use of other applications in the palm of your hand can save you time, effort, and/or money in a variety of ways. We as a consumer culture are much like the consumer culture exhibited in the film, if the product is going to make our lives easier we will find a way to consume that product.
These issues from the film that have been discussed in this paper truly go hand in hand. I believe that the creators of this film wanted to highlight the effects of consumerism and technology on our Earth’s environment as well as on our culture. Again, I do not believe the creators were negatively calling out technology or consumerism but rather bringing this change in our culture and the possible (and in my opinion probable) negative consequences to our attention. I believe the premise for this film, the destruction of human civilization on Earth, ties into the article “Can a Collapse of Global Civilization be Avoided?” by Paul and Anne Ehrlich. The issues of resource depletion, environmental change, and the increase in population growth amongst others discussed in the article are all issues that we as a civilization need to consider going forward. If we do not consider these issues, we may be destined for a space civilization similar to the civilization shown in Wall-E.

Word Count: 1,201

References

“Sustainable Consumption: Why Consumption Matters” by Betsy Taylor and Dave Tilford
“The Tragedy of the Commons” by Garrett Hardin “Introduction to McDonaldization” by George Ritzer
“Can a Collapse of Global Civilization be Avoided?” by Paul and Anne Ehrlich