WALL-E is a thrilling adventure, a terrifying vision of a dystopian future and an examination of humanity: a story in which the human race is destroyed, judged and saved by its own technology. The premise of this story is to have humanity leave Earth so that the things that we have made are the only remnants of our presence here, a brilliant scenario and possibly a logical conclusion to our society. What will the next inhabitants of Earth think about us based on the materials that we have created? This is the question that WALL-E explores as its robot hero sorts through humanity’s garbage and glimpses the society that has disappeared.
Since WALL-E’s function is to clean up the garbage, he is venturing outside of his job description by looking through all of this junk that humanity has left behind. Instead of smashing everything into blocks of trash, WALL-E keeps things that he likes for himself. This provides the film with some early comedic touches to lighten the mood of the dystopian vision, such as WALL-E’s encounters with a fire extinguisher and a bra. A particularly wonderful moment comes when he finds a box with a ring inside. The ring sparkles in the sunlight, but he tosses it aside and focuses instead on the hinge that opens and closes the small box.
WALL-E’S favorite item is an old VHS tape of the musical Hello Dolly (the thought of humanity being judged based on this movie is more than a little frightening). As he watches these strange images of humans dancing around, WALL-E reveals himself to be a romantic at heart and that after hundreds of years of mindlessly fulfilling his appointed task, he longs for contact with someone else (or as Bruce Springsteen put it, “a little of that human touch”).
At this point, the movie reveals that it is not just about what humanity makes, but what humanity does. WALL-E finds the greatest goodness and joy in movement and activity. When the robot EVE arrives on Earth, the first thing she does is soar through the air and fly across the landscape, providing the movie with some spectacular shots. And it doesn’t take EVE long to try to emulate the dancing in Hello Dolly (which unfortunately and hilariously sends WALL-E crashing into a wall). The most beautiful moment in the movie comes when WALL-E and EVE dance through outer space in a jaw-dropping ballet of light and movement while the Captain of the Axiom asks his computer to define dancing. The Captain has become fascinated with the idea of returning to Earth and is exploring all forms of human activity that have become lost in humanity’s sanctuary in space. Isn’t it interesting that when the Captain asks the computer to define Earth, the first images that appear are not of soil, but of humans using the soil?
Now the movie has arrived at humanity’s downfall when it is away from Earth: total lack of movement. On their spaceship, humans live in a world of immediate comforts as they constantly sit in floating beds. After generations of having every need instantly fulfilled, we have decided that we would rather just stay lying down if we don’t actually have to move. Humans eventually stop looking around, and this reaches the point where we don’t notice our environments (“I didn’t know we had a pool!”) or other people, which creates the unpleasant question of where these new generations of people are coming from. During the movie, we meet a few humans as WALL-E’s adventures interrupt their daily routines. As their floating beds experience some malfunctions, they start to look around and notice each other.
This later section of the movie is not as subtle and poetic as the first third and it leads to some rather heavy-handed dialogue (“I don’t want to survive. I want to live.”), but it provides the opportunity for some terrific action and comedy set pieces. WALL-E becomes a character not unlike Jacques Tati’s Mr. Hulot, a nearly wordless character who bumbles through a world of bizarre rules and technology. This section of the film also creates a chilling image of humanity’s future, one that is very likely to happen. The most chilling aspect of this image is that it doesn’t seem all that bad. Life would be very easy. Only when we think about this life does it become really unpleasant. Our reliance on technology could lead to an almost complete lack of freedom. How can we be free if we can’t move, if we can’t have control over what we do? How can we truly be alive if we have no connections to other people? It’s a connection to another being that saves WALL-E from being a mindless drone at the end of the film. I don’t know if the electric spark from EVE’s kiss could actually restore WALL-E’s memory, but it’s a great romantic moment in cinema.
