In the English language, there are these things called “loanwords” – words taken from other languages without the word being translated. The German word “Zeitgeist” is an example of a loanword. It’s a word that means “the spirit of the age”, or the intellectual and cultural climate of an era. When we’re talking our lovely decade, with the purveyance of our iPods, our glorious Web 2.0, and our Inconvenient Truths, some of the major ideas in our current zeitgeist must have to do with technology, the environment, connectivity and consumerism. Watching Pixar/Disney’s latest movie – Wall•E – I was utterly blown away by how a mainstream animation was able to talk about these big ideas beautifully and tap into our current zeitgeist.

The film tackles all these by being bold and making different choices. In movies like Finding Nemo, A Bug’s Life or last year’s Ratatouille, they open with happy green pastures; but in Wall•E, the movie opens with desolation. The opening scene looks like a mix between Hong Kong and a desert, with garbage cubes replacing the IFC building. It is a harsh and scary preview at our unchecked consumerism. And it is against this backdrop that we meet Wall•E. Wall•E is the last remaining clean-up robot on Earth, and he has somehow developed a personality. He’s curious but very lonely, constantly watching old human musicals when he returns home each night. Very soon, he meets up with EVE, a sleek life-seeking robot, and the audience is then presented with a quite mute, but expertly animated first half – contrasting and interplaying between the two characters.

As the film moves forward, Wall•E catches a ride with EVE and arrives at the human colony Axiom, and we are soon introduced to talking humans… except, in an audacious stroke of commentary, these futuristic humans are presented as fat blobs that are glued to their holographic robots. Sure, they have power and abundance, but their choices are illusions – they are shown to be slaves to their consumerism. They can choose to buy new and prettier clothes at any time, but the definition of “pretty” is defined in billboards. They see each other, but only via holographic screens.

There is no danger, no hunger, no boredom, and no loneliness – but yet it is inhuman. It is a different kind of hell.

I won’t dive further into the movie’s plot details, but by the end of the movie, Wall•E’s unintentionally throws a wrench (figuratively) into the Axiom and changes all of their lives. The Axiom’s residents witness the beauty and choices that they had given up, and they return to Earth to try to start a new life.

I think one thing that is so great about Wall•E was that it is an unabashedly “message” film. It does not hide the fact that it has a world view. It is unhinged in its delivery – but it never forgets about visual beauty and strong storytelling. It’s impressive at the macro level – by addressing big themes and showing that consumerism can dehumanize us (and visually, that having big fat blobs rolling around is kind of disgusting); but it is also poignant at the micro, personal level. Wall•E is an inferior robot to EVE in every way, yet he has perseverance, and has hope. He does not understand, nor bow to the system. He also has a unique skill that that the humans do not know – that when things break, you can repair it. When his goggles broke, he can replace them, and when his chips fry, you just plug in another logic board.

And in the end, isn’t that one way of resisting consumerism? In the face of buying new things as they break, throwing away when it’s no longer in fashion, we learn to appreciate inner beauty, and learn to repair. When we have hurt the Earth or other people in our relationships, we don’t simply throw them away. We take the long, difficult, non-conforming road, and we repair it.

Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be?

“It has less dialogue than a lot of our past films, but it’s still really fantastic. After all, the art of animation is about what the character does, not what it says. It all depends on how you tell the story, whether it has a lot of dialogue or not.” – John Lasserter (executive producer)

Show of hands, how many of you love movies by Pixar Animation Studios? Whether it is their characters, designs, visuals, technology, or layered screenplays, there is something in every Pixar film has enabled them to receive acclaim and box office numbers alike.

But with continued success, a creative group runs the risk of repeating itself. If you look at their past movies, you might notice some similarities: items being cutely personified, rescue missions, and stories about coming of age… Luckily, Pixar realized this, and on recent films such as The Incredibles and Ratatouille, they took the riskier approach, and explored new themes.

And they are going to try more new things this summer with WALL•E. For starters, its setting is darker: through rampant consumerism, Earth has been used up and has been abandoned by humans, and a robot (WALL•E) is left alone for 700 years to clean it up. But somehow, WALL•E has developed a personality and falls in love with a space drone.

Yes, consumerism, environmentalism, dystopian future, and learning to love – these are all big themes for Pixar. But perhaps even more surprising is the choice that WALL•E won’t contain much spoken dialogue. Instead, most of it will be told through animation and various robotic sound effects. In a way, this is different and jarring (can you imagine Toy Story without dialogue?), but the early trailers are captivating. WALL•E the robot is emotive and funny.

But while it sounds nice for a short film, can Pixar keep the audience engaged for an entire feature? Will the animation deliver? Will film audiences fall in love with this unconventional hero? We will find out on June 27.

Further reading:
Ain’t It Cool News – Interview with Andrew Stanton
Apple.com – WALL•E Trailers