Pixar Animation Studios often tries new technology and new style with its work. The latest attempt is "WALL-E," a sentimental robot who falls in love with a more developed robot-girl on the surface of abandoned Earth. Even though the behavior of the clumsy robot-in-love is very entertaining, the real messages of the animation are to protect our environment and be aware of monopolies.
WALL-E Communicates Via Gestures
The animation relies on pictures and a great story line, and uses only a few words. The story begins in the 22nd Century after the human population evacuated Earth. Only machines and trash remain on the surface and all living creatures are gone, either relocated with spaceships or was killed due to civilization's pollution.
WALL-E is an older robot who was designed to collect trash and organize the trash cubes into trash piles, which he takes to the next level as he begins to build recognizable constructions mimicking skyscrapers. He does his job so well that looking at the city from a bird’s eye view, it is hard to tell which one is an old skyscraper and which one is just a pile of trash built by WALL-E.
WALL-E's Human Side
The trash constructions are not the only signs of WALL-E’s creativity and feelings. His packed rest area provides enough clues for the viewers to confirm WALL-E is more than just a machine. WALL-E not only collects random objects, but he listens to music and watches old video tapes of musicals while he learns the steps of the dance. Spending his time alone, only with a loyal cockroach as companion, WALL-E's behavior is everything but machine-like.
The lonely robot finds joy in carrying a cooler with him to every day's work to collect small objects that he uses as decoration or as spare parts to fix himself. When "Wall-E" meets the robot girl, EVE, the first thing he shows her is his collection of toys, light bulbs, Rubik cube and other miscellaneous objects. Surprisingly, after a while EVE also finds them entertaining and their relationship start building until WALL-E shows her the newly found object, a living plant.
Buy n Large
The turning point of the story is the realization of newly emerged life on Earth. By this time, all humans moved to space into large spaceships where they live their spoiled lives under the control of the megacorporation called Buy n Large. Buy n Large started out as a multinational corporation and turned into a monopoly completely controlling people’s lives on the spaceships. With time Buy n Large gained so much power that it now its ultimate goal is to preserve the status quo and to not let humans move back to Earth.
The animation serves as a warning to the viewers against continuous and reckless littering and damage to our environment, and cautions us to be aware of the growing powers of mega-corporations.
Trunkos Judit - Judit Trunkos is originally from Hungary and moved to the Unites States to obtain her undergraduate and graduate degrees in liberal arts. ...
