WALL • E

My wife and I finally watched the whole movie last night. We watched the first half over Thanksgiving with our nieces, and the first half again over Christmas in a crowded, not-paying-attention room because our nephew wanted to put it in.

I'm still in shock at how someone can put together a sci-fi, romantic comedy, kids' movie. Animated. A very, very impressive work.

One could contend that this movie is another propaganda piece by liberal wingnuts. I guess I don't have any defense against that thought. It did feel agenda-laden at the beginning for me, but it's an agenda that I'm very sensitive about. I abhor the consumptive habits in America, and it saddens me greatly that consumption is identified with freedom/the American dream. Consumption is being exported to people who are doing just fine without a consumer mentality. Or, worse yet, they're not doing fine because of bad government or bad resource usage, and they're still becoming consumers, because that gets them closer to America (they think). Point being, I don't think that giant trash heaps are unrealistic. I'd prefer to not find out if they're realistic, simply by being better stewards and a little more sensible about how we use resources.

SPOILER ALERT from here on: I'm also impressed with the theology in the movie. There's an interesting orders in creation thing going on. I know that this ancient idea has been used to oppress women and other races, but I think there's a general order: the Creator, all humans, then all creation, with humans lovingly stewarding the rest of creation and leading them in righteousness, justice, and peace. The point was really sharpened for me when the robots were shown explicitly subjugating humans in the fight between the captain and the autopilot. But the captain makes some explicit statements that this order is not right and the robots must submit to the humans.

I appreciated the captain's assertions that humans were made to till the soil to work for their food. In a simple movie clip, you have a fairly robust theology of work and a theology of creation wrapped together. There's the humorous bit where he says that you can grow pizza trees, but after 700 years in exile under anesthetizing robots, who wouldn't think there was a pizza tree? Also, I think this is a tree I would like to have.

It brought tears to my eyes to see the credits. In a fascinating choice, the filmmakers chose to put the point of the story (okay, only in my theological eyes) in the last minute or so of the movie and the credits. The initiative of the humans with the help of the robots brings about a restored Eden from the absolute barrenness of human-wrought destruction. To make it more explicitly biblical would have had Jesus as the captain who led the restoration of creation.

There's even an egalitarian moralization in the story of the robots. Why would EVE, apparently one of the most powerful robots, take a romantic interest in WALL • E, the oldest extant robot technology? Then they lead the charge (based on EVE's directive) to get the humans back to Earth, even though the viewer is saying, "No, don't do it! It's uninhabitable!" In a short time, with the robots help, Earth is once again inhabitable.

Another interesting point (with my warped point of view) is that one human can encourage the most excessive consumption and give up all hope for restoration. Another human, born in exile 700 years after the exile, can see the possibilities and lead humanity back to its appointed place as stewards and redeemers of the creation. It's a monodimensional point of attitude and positive thinking, but it's a good one, particularly when coupled with the idea of reclaiming humanity from consumerism.