Thursday 4 December 2014
Central Themes of WALL-E
In WALL-E, technological advances have amputated humans from their natural environment through reliance upon artificial intelligence. This over-reliance has transformed the humans in the film into a lazy and mechanic society. The technological advances have destroyed the earth as corporations have covered it with garbage and abandoned it to cleaning robots such as WALL-E. As a result of these advances, humans have adapted the qualities of robots. In turn, WALL-E begins to show human characteristics and wants to return humans to their natural environment through his journey for love and nurture. Mankind's irresponsible use of technology, and failure to create the technology to correct the extensive damage done to earth, leads to exile and role reversal of humans and robots.
Laziness of Society with Technology
The over-reliance on technology by man has created a dysfunctional society in which simple tasks such as dialogue have been compromised. The humans in the film ride around on hovering chairs with immediate and constant access to video chats at their disposal. Aboard the massive luxury cruise ship, Axiom, people don’t interact with each other. Instead, they rely on technology and the directive of the autopilot to do practically all of their native capabilities. Technology undoubtedly makes life easier for humans, however an over-reliance on technology has created laziness amongst many. The narrative in the film is consistent with what we see today, as many choose to alienate themselves from society with technology.
As mentioned, the humans in WALL-E literally spend their lives roaming about on moving couches. Their lack of exercise and movement in general has rendered them to be overweight and seemingly boneless. They quite literally have no physical contact with each other as they would only talk to one another via a “holo-screen”. The humans do not appear to be enjoying life even though they seemingly have everything aboard the spacecraft. The movie depicts how consumerism and technology in the future have turned humans into ‘pieces of meat’, only acquiring knowledge from a screen. Aspects of human nature, such as intellect and general curiosity are being lost as we continue to amputate ourselves from reality.
As the Axiom evacuates humans to space, the Earth is left overwhelmed by trash due to mass consumerism. The humans live in luxury aboard Axiom, as they are constantly fed and entertained as it cruises through space. However it is not other humans waiting on them, it is robots. The message here is that we are quickly eliminating basic human interactions, and as the future depicts, our only interaction will be with technology.
Imaging life without computers, cell phones and high-speed internet is hardly plausible. This is reflective of the current generation whose use of cellular phones is highly documented. New advances in social media have further separated today’s teens from society. This has given rise to a generation of couch potatoes, where sitting in front of the television for hours is routine. Younger people would rather be on their phones all day than spending time building interpersonal relationships. Envisioning the future as it is depicted in WALL-E isn’t difficult as many believe that our current society is on it’s way to self destruction.
Humanity has to hold paramount the conservation of the planet rather than the misconception of consumerism. Older generations continuously preach about many of the important things in life that appear to have been forgotten. In the film, the advent of technology makes people lazy, unhappy, and obese. Whether it is sitting on the couch all day, or communicating with a screen, this laziness creates negative implications for others and the planet in general.
Expansion of Technology
In the film, the future is depicted as a bleak, barren landscape of garbage created by the mega development of humans. The advancement of technology has left the earth abandoned to WALL-E and other robots while humans have been forced from the planet. The humans are left helpless to the control of computers and preprogrammed actions. Eventually, the humans do take action, realizing their disconnect from reality.
The imagery at the beginning of the film invokes sorrow and guilt in the audience as they see what the world has become. The sun shining symbolizes a beacon of hope as Wall-E travels the streets of a new world. It acts as WALL-E’s source of power and is the only natural part of earth’s scenery that is left. The stacks of garbage and deserted buildings are the remnants of a human civilization that overly consumed. It highlights the destructive path that today’s society is taking in the depletion of earth’s resources.
The futuristic technology of the film shows the control of bureaucratic agencies in the form of AI over people. The arbitrary extension of power exerted over people through computers is reflected in the motherboard of the human’s spaceship. It automatically controls the daily life of the ship’s inhabitants and reduces them to helpless individuals. Essentially, the bureaucracy has expanded itself to encompass every aspect of their lives.
Along comes WALL-E to disrupt the flow and show people what it is to be free and self-dependant. His actions are performed out of care and pity as he sees the humans’ level of contentedness towards a technological lifestyle. The bombardment of advertisements and entertainment on the ship keep the people enslaved. Although their lives are much easier, they do not see the thoughtlessness in their world controlled by A.I. The connection to nature presented by Wall-E is what opens their eyes to the real world they are missing.
In the final scenes of WALL-E, the robot, Auto, prevents the captain of the ship from seeking salvation, instead declaring “on the Axiom, you will survive”. Through the notion of survival, the A.I. is controlling their existence and preventing them from returning to Earth. However, when the captain gets up and fights the machine, he takes control of his life and restores power to the humans. In doing so, they are seeking to restore the earth to its past glory rather than live as part of a bureaucratic machine.
Technology and its Creation of a “Dystopian Society"
Technology has created a “dystopian society” where humans essentially turn into robots and the robots exhibit human characteristics. Dystopia in WALL-E is depicted through imagery of the polluted state of Earth. In the absence of the human’s ability to use technology to correct their actions, the robots, namely WALL-E, use their developed human-like tendencies to bring humans back to reality. The humans on the Axiom are detached from nature and are living through the illusion of a utopia. The dystopian society depicted in WALL-E portrays an empty shell of society managed by artificial intelligence.
Dystopia in WALL-E is depicted through imagery of the arid state of Earth. The opening scene shows images of untouched stars and galaxies and then zooms in on Earth in its polluted state. This scene captures the viewer's attention through relating the current state of the world to a dystopian perception of Earth in the future. The preceding scenes relate to the viewers by showing dust storms and collapsed buildings which are signs of global warming and natural disasters. The extreme level of pollution is depicted through the toxic air and the piles of garbage that are taller than skyscrapers. In WALL-E’s task to clean up Earth, he developed human-like characteristics which later returned the humans to nature.
The solution to the unsustainable living conditions on Earth was to develop more sophisticated technology, which ironically further removes the humans from reality. The humans are the product of centuries of reliance on technology and exposure to unearthly conditions. WALL-E, on the other hand, portrays human-like characteristics such as love and curiosity, having angular and classic mechanical features. The humans in this film possess the realistic characteristics of robots, whereas the robots have actually developed realistic human qualities. WALL-E uses these qualities to create awareness of humans underlying attachment to nature. (Corrigan, 2004)
The humans in this film follow a set of absolute rules which make them completely unaware of their surroundings. This film is an in media res type in which the human characters have all been born into this “ideal” setting in which everything is automatic. The values that they hold are limited to the technology that they use. To keep the ship operating efficiently, all characters are required to obey the rules. Because this technology is convenient and all that they are conditioned to, the humans have become amputated from their surroundings and ignorant of nature.
The depiction of what Earth and society has become in WALL-E is portrayed in the viewer’s mind as comparable to modern day concerns. The dust storms are similar to frequent tornadoes and the extent of pollution is tantamount to our overflowing landfills. The human characters in this film begin with ignorance and are saved by the human-like attributes portrayed by the archaic robot, WALL-E. With technologies helping society with day to day tasks, humans are becoming detached from basic societal functions. The movie WALL-E effectively shows the feared dystopian society through visual and audible mediums.
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