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I recently had a chance to catch the movie WALL-E, and I must say, it's very good. Still, I couldn't quite shake the irony of a show with (I thought) a fairly implicit environmental message that also happens to have logos and pics emblazon on all sorts of wasteful possibly disposable ware (like on toys, presumably various product tie-ins, fast food?, etc).
In fact, there's an interesting bit on this very thought courtesy of an interview with one of the movie's directors (at the Globe and Mail - although note: I actually found this at a salon.com's review).
G&M: This film has a big ecological message -
Andrew Stanton: Actually, no.
G&M: No? The world of the future is overflowing with garbage.
AS: Yeah, well I did that for other reasons. I just went with logic. I had no eco thing to push. I had to have everybody leave Earth, because I wanted the last robot on Earth. And then I needed something very visual, that made him feel like he was the lowest on the totem pole, that wouldn't require any dialogue to understand it. Trash is very get-able. One, you don't have to explain it - people see too much of it and they get it. And then second, it has all those human artifacts in it, so it allowed him to show through actions that he's interested in humanity.
G&M: Inevitably, someone will point out that -
AS: Sure, that's fine! But I'm not going to stand there and go, "That's what I was trying to do."
G&M: But you're depicting a future world cluttered with junk, and meanwhile there will be tons of WALL-E-generated toys, lunch boxes, T-shirts and candy wrappers.
AS: Possibly. Possibly. [An awkward, fixed-look pause passes]. I was just trying to make the best film I could.
G&M: Um, okay.
Environment
Comments
After the movie was over with the theater I saw WALL-E at gave filmgoers a little cellophane packet containing a cheap WALL-E digital watch, three movie trading cards (for an upcoming film). As I looked at it I thought would have made a garbage cube about 1/2 inch across. It was all trash.
Thirty years ago the enviro message in this movie, implicit or otherwise, wouldn't have the same impact as it does today.
Any filmmaker should try to make the best film they could regardless of whether or not it has a "message". I think Andrew's logic by extension created a more powerful movie than if he'd been trying to beat us over the head with a message.
Posted by: CLM | July 22, 2008 11:09 AM