Author: Wyatt Sanderman Day | Published: July 15th, 2009

    
Wall - E Attempts to Foster a Message I Pray it is Not lost in Translation

    Director and screenwriter Andrew Stanton used the aid of fellow writers: Jim Reardon and Pete Doctor to develop a story about a civilization on Earth, in the year 2110, that left their planet in complete destruction from the negative effects of a careless inhabitant - Man.

    The planet and its orbit was left as a pile of trash, so that these anti-stewards could seek a better life in a more habitable environment in outer space on the mammoth mother ship, The Axiom, where the climate and atmospheric control well suited for he gluttonous and slothful behavior of these pitiful examples of humankind. This civilization had metastasized into gluttonous carbon based life forms, with one primary directive - to consume. Add to their destructive behavior an incurious attitude toward life, and basically, The Axiom was a ship of dead souls oblivious toward redemption of any sort. By "Wall - E" estimates, it took just 700 years of living the existence of gluttony and sloth to turn these remnants of a true civilization into one of the embodiment of gelatinous mass.

    Sounds a bit heavy for an animated comedy? Obesity is heavy subject - no pun intended - and I didn't laugh that much. The problem is obese people, even animated ones, are not funny. The condition that compels them to be fat - the condition that gives humans the compulsion to consume copious quantities of food - is not funny.

    Once all the animated cogs fall into the proverbial thematic gear box, and the obese aliens, former humankind but hardly reminiscent of any semblance of vitality, return to terra forma they must rebuild the tragically littered and misspent Earth. One wonders, where will they will skills and the energy to complete any series of tasks to re-colonize Earth?

    "Wall - E" is a good little movie at 98 minutes of runtime for the young at heart and the computer graphics enthusiast, but left me wondering: Why all the buzz? "Wall - E" won the Oscar for Best Animated Film and received a number of Oscar nominations for awards not necessary germane to animation: Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

    "Wall - E" is probably a good film from a technical sense. It just did not necessarily have the story or the dialogue to keep me keenly interested. Robots talking to each other in their screechy diction did not particularly help me to consider the film of an endearing quality. However, regardless of my personal opinions, the picture does have a distinct feel of quality.

    Computer animation is an estimable talent: It's just not enough alone for me to a picture high marks. Maybe if I was just younger at heart, and didn't think so much.

    Rated G. Released on DVD November 18, 2008.

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