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Space: Where Robots and Milkshakes Are At

By Troy Doney

"Wall-E" takes place in the far future on an ecologically barren Earth, long since abandoned by humanity. The only denizens of the planet are a robot named Wall-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth-Class) and his friend, a cockroach that isn't disgusting.

Wall-E is a robot that was programmed to help liberate mankind from the trash choked planet, once one of many. Now, he's the last robot, tending to an endless task on the trash-ball Earth. It's one hell of a movie for the kids.

My inner child loved "Wall-E". The internal youngster griped about how slow the first chunk of the movie was, but was appeased by the comings and goings of an impossibly cute robot and his only friend, a cockroach that somehow wasn't disgusting. The kid within was overjoyed watching the climactic half of "Wall-E", as it was practically exploding with bright colors, weird noises, laughable scenarios and a pool. I'm glad that I'm not a young epileptic inside, that's for sure.

"Wall-E" is a fantastic movie to take the kids to; cute, energetic and almost over stimulating. But while "Wall-E" is a splendid movie for the kids, I don't think that they're the target audience for this movie.

Because "Wall-E" isn't what the previews make you think that it is. Wall-E looks like it is just an adorable robot box with eyes, tank treads and cute sounds on hyperactive adventures on a cruise ship fused with a spaceship and stuffed with a Wal-Mart.

That's entertaining and all, but Wally is more then an over caffeinated robot joy ride. It is also a semi-subtle satire, a criticism of the consumer civilization championed by corporations, cheap junk and cuisine (consisting of variations on chocolate and cheese). This computer generated Cave of Socrates is also a warning of the ecologically threatening potential that humanity has.

But don't let that scare you away.  This isn't a ham-fisted critique from the depths of a half-smart paranoid-reactionary that read half of "Animal Farm" and missed the point.  The message is secondary to the story, which makes it all just fine by me.  You'll only read into it as much as you want to, in the end.  There's still robots and stuff.

In "Wall-E", a mega-corporation has absorbed all aspects of humanity, from culture to government. The mega-corporation, Buy-N-Large, fouls up their de facto stewardship of the Earth with criminally apathetic environmental policies. Only when it was apparently too late did they begin to rehabilitate the planet, sending the population of Earth off in massive cruise-spaceships built to cater to their every whim and need.

Wall-E, the only active robot left, tends to his lonely vigil. Somewhere along the way, he developed a personality and consciousness, shown as he cultivates attachments to unusual debris he finds in the ruins, watches movies on VHS and keeps the aforementioned roach as a pet. Interestingly, Wall-E doesn't say much in the movie. Beyond emotive chirps and pokemon-esque recitations of his name, Wall-E tends to express himself through physical gesture and action. It's a visually compelling method of showing emotion, and its worth the price of admission at least. Many of the other non-humans of the film also express themselves this way, making the film addictive for your eyes.

Wall-E eventually gets company in the form of a EVA, a robot probe from absent mankind. EVA and Wall-E become friends in the wasteland, with Wall-E showing EVA the wonders of the ruined Earth.
EVA is suddenly recalled to the space-vacationing homo-sapiens, with Wall-E in tow. What follows is a fantastic and subtext laden adventure as Wall-E inadvertently changes and saves humanity from its own comfortable hubris.

It's when Wall-E gets to the Axiom, the main star-cruise ship repository of humanity, that the movie reaches top speed in terms of humor and energy. The Axiom is a disturbingly sleek, crystal clean ship somewhere between a supermarket, a hotel and a factory. Everybody follows preset paths to a virtual golf course, sunning by the unused pool and watching one of the omnipresent television screens. Everyone floats around in personal transport machines. Everyone wears identical jumpsuits that you can change the color of, for the illusion of individuality and change. Also, between gravitational atrophy, sedentary hedonism and a diet served mostly in blended liquid form, future man is a fleshy, globular being incapable of seeing past monitors affixed in front of them.

It's not a kind critique.

This is where "Wall-E" gets its most subversive, with the protagonist unwittingly introducing change and free will into vacationing humanity and robotkind. It was hilarious and almost awe-inspiring to watch a little robot break from its predetermined path to chase after the endlessly dirty Wall-E, or an Axiom human amazed at the universe around him that he was blind to, until Wall-E accidentally broke his monitor.

I stand by my statement that "Wall-E" is not aimed at children. This doesn't mean that they won't enjoy it; believe me, they will. There is a bit of subtext that may be overlooked by most kids, though.
I loved watching "Wall-E", and would watch it again, own it on DVD and even give it a good rating.

I give "Wall-E" five out of five frybreads.

Troy Doney, Fort Belknap Assiniboine, attended the University of Montana in Missoula and is a graduate of the Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism Institute. Last summer, Doney interned as a copy editor at the St. Cloud (Minn.) Times.