Final Wall-E

The idea of 2012 has become a major genre in recent years. The Mayans predicted that the world would end in 2012, and this became a media frenzy.  In post apocalyptic fiction there has always, but as the predicted doomsday drew closer this genre exploded. As people began to question what they would do after the world ended, fiction began to give examples of people living in that world. Wall-E is a vision of a post apocalyptic future, but it is a very unique vision. While most texts show humans surviving on Earth, Wall-E shows a robot surviving, and eventually bringing the human race back. This text is one of the only texts that show humans not on the Earth after the apocalypse. The viewer has to wait thirty minutes before they can see a human. Wall-E still belongs to the genre however because it shows a post apocalyptic future. It is a warning to people of what the world can become if people do not change their ways. Wall-E  is brilliant also because it produces a bleak view of the future, but it allows all ages to watch it, so all ages have an image of what the world can become.

Wall-E is a film, which was released by Pixar Studios on June 27^th, 2008. Wall-E was distributed by The Walt Disney Company. It was produced by Lindsey Collins, John Lasseter, Gilliam Libbert, Jim Morris, and Thomas Porter. Andrew Stanton directed it based off of a story him and Pete Doctor developed, and Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon wrote the screenplay. ("Imdb," 2008)

The obvious genre of the film is a family film, which we all expect when the name Disney is attached. Disney has become it’s own genre in a way, but Wall-E is different. Wall-E is also belongs in a post-apocalyptic genre, because it gives the viewer a vision of the future with no life on Earth. This film is based around a love story, so it is a romance as well. Finally, this film makes a social statement, which has become a genre. This means Wall-E is a hybrid genre. Wall-E is a social post-apocalyptic love story.

Wall-E uses film and animation. This allows Wall-E to reach all ages. Not every viewer will get the statement this film makes, but it brings the message to a whole new audience. The message is to get people to think about where the world is going, and although some people may not take animation seriously, this is an example of animation being used to reach and affect all ages. Animated film is the perfect medium for Wall-E because it can reach all audiences, and spread its message.

Wall-E has a narrative. It has a series of elements put into order to create a narrative. The storyline of Wall-E is quite simple. Wall-E is the only robot on Earth who is lonely. He wants to find a friend and love, and he finally finds his love in Eve. When Eve is taken away from him Wall-E chases after her and it takes him to the place where humans are living now. He then gets Eve back while also teaching the humans that they need to return to Earth.

Wall-E follows Wall-E a lonely robot. He has a job of cleaning the trash on Earth in order to make it suitable for humans to return again. He collects things he found in the trash and because of a video he found he yearns for love. He thinks this comes one day when a new robot named Eve. Wall-E shows her everything about his life. Including a plant he found. Eve takes it and shuts down. Wall-E then becomes confused. Eventually a spaceship takes Eve away and Wall-E jumps on the spaceship. The spaceship takes them to a bigger spaceship where Wall-E chases after Eve. On this bigger spaceship there are a number of humans who are obese and lazy. They have chairs, which take them everywhere and do everything for them. Wall-E meets two humans who he distracts enough from their chairs for them to realize they have been brainwashed. Everything on the ship is supplied by Buy-n-Large. This is the company, which sent everyone into space. Throughout Wall-E’s time on the ship it becomes apparent that Buy-n-Large does not want the humans to return to Earth. The captain of the ship becomes infatuated with Earth, and realizes if he puts the plant in a slot then the ship can return to Earth. Unfortunately, the auto-pilot on the ship was told to stop this. The auto-pilot eventually shuts down Wall-E, locks away the captain, and hurts Eve. Eve realizes that the parts to fix Wall-E are on the truck, and does whatever she can to get to Earth. Eventually they get the plant to the slot and the ship travels back to Earth. Eve quickly flies to get the parts for Wall-E. Wall-E comes back online, but he returns to his default personality, and forgets Eve. Eve, extremely sad, gives Wall-E a kiss and this jolts Wall-E back to his old personality. They then begin to rebuild Earth with the humans.

The main character is Wall-E. Wall-E is a robot, which just wants to find love, when he finds it he will not accept losing it. He is kind hearted, has a one-track mind, curious, and loveable. Eve is a much sleeker robot. When we meet her she has no feelings. Her objective is the only thing on her mind. She is impatient, and only by meeting Wall-E does she gain feeling and the two grow together. John and Mary are two humans who Wall-E meets on the ship. They are oblivious otherwise and fun natured. And the captain just wants to get back to earth he becomes infatuated with it. Otherwise he was oblivious as well. The ratio from male to female is rather even actually. It is 3/2 in male/female. I think this is because Disney wanted the movie to appeal to anyone so they make the genders equal.

Wall-E would fit the stereotype of the, “hopeless romantic.” He has grown to learn about love through a film he watches, and he just wants that for himself. He feels lonely and he is just waiting for that one perfect girl to just come and walk in. When he gets there he will stop at nothing to keep her. There is also the archetype of the big corporation. This corporation says they are doing things for the small consumer, but in actuality they are making matters worse.

The creators are making a strong statement against mass waste. During the movie the Earth is a vast wasteland, and uninhabitable. The creators are saying that if we continue going the way we are going, this could be our future. We could be the obese who are willing to have everything handed to them. The creators never say that this is happening but by creating a bleak vision of the future they are using rhetoric.

The point of view is a third person. The viewer is never seeing the action through the eyes of the character, but separated from them. The viewer follows a number of characters starting with Wall-E, but then more characters become introduced. The viewer is then able to see the plot unfold without being in the character’s point of view.

Pixar is located in southern California and is distributed evenly male and female, which can be seen in its films. The majority of employees are Caucasian as well, but they are not known for discrimination. Pixar funded the project completely, while Disney dealt with the distribution. The ultimate goal of this text was to send a message while making money. Entertainment is exactly what’s being sold. This being Disney it feels as if the audience it is geared towards is kids, but I feel that this isn’t true. Any age can truly enjoy this film. Kids can enjoy it, but it includes a message kids may not understand.

This text is original. Obviously, there are some very safe elements including the love story, but it is spun in an original way. The way that the text is showing love and the end of the world, while making a social statement is very original.

Wall-E is a text, which challenge consumer culture. Consumer culture is a culture created in modern days where everything is based on consumption. Wang (2011) states, “Consumption meets the needs and desires of people as a matter of some instrumental value through use. Whether or not a product can suffice to meet needs and desires depends on whether or not it has value through use” (p. 294). In the capitalist society it is hard to escape advertising asking the people to take place in consumption. Wall-E fights this idea by presenting the viewer with the post apocalyptic genre. The viewer does not know why the world is like this at first, but knowing the genre there had to be a cause. The viewer does not realize this until later in the film, but the reason Earth has become post apocalyptic is consumer culture.

The film presents a fake company of Buy-N-Large. In the first few scenes, the viewer can see giant signs advertising Buy-N-Large surrounded by trash located everywhere. Every single ad is for Buy-N-Large in this post apocalyptic world. This creates a question in the viewer’s mind of where did all this trash come from. The fact that Buy-N-Large caused this becomes even more apparent, when the film moves to the spaceship and the viewer continues to see Buy-N-Large. It then becomes apparent that Buy-N-Large controls the spaceship and is in turn brainwashing all the humans who float around in chairs. This films uses rhetoric beautifully, because it gets the viewer to figure out Buy-N-Large and the large corporation caused the apocalypse, without stating it. The one point in the film, where it really shows this point, is when the captain of the ship learns about Earth. He begins to watch films about the natural beauty of Earth, and the viewer can see this. When the viewer juxtaposes these images with the images in the beginning, it becomes apparent that big companies and consumer culture destroyed the Earth.

This film poses many questions on the idea of consumerism. Among them are whether this is actually where the earth is headed, and whether humans can actually be brainwashed by a company so much that we believe everything the company says. In the film every single human puts every once of faith in this company, and have no problem doing that. This is a scary thought, and another form of rhetoric the film is using. Without blatantly saying it, the film states that if we continue our consumer ways, we may become obese and lazy one hundred percent dependent on the companies that made us that way.

A convention one can note about Wall-E is the branding. Almost every single item in the film has a brand.  The biggest and most obvious brand is Buy-N-Large. The Buy-N-Large logo can be seen on many items used in the film, particularly on the spaceship. But even the main character is a brand. Wall-E is the name of the main character, but it is also the name of that certain type of robot charged with cleaning up the Earth. If anyone saw Wall-E on Earth they would immediately know it was designed to clean up the Earth based completely on the branded name on the chest. This fact is making the statement that everything is beginning to have a brand attached, and brands have a preconceived image for everyone. As the world is becoming more and more consumer oriented, more and more things in everyday life are becoming branded.

Wall-E creates semiology with the Buy-N-Large logo. The Buy-N-Large logo is something plastered all over the film. Whenever the viewer sees this logo, the viewer sees the face of consumerism. This company is the villain in the film. The idea of consumerism then is seen in a villainous light, and the logo is a sign of evil. Even though this film speaks up against big companies the convention of the film itself is based around a big company. The Walt Disney Company is one of the biggest companies in the world, and they are distributing a film talking about the villainous big company.

This text is also a form of culture jamming.  To use culture jamming a text attacks consumer culture by re-creating consumer culture. Wall-E­ creates the ending of a consumer culture. The consumer culture takes place and the viewer enters the film after consumer culture has destroyed the Earth. In Sandlin and Milam’s (2008) opinion Wall-E is a way to, “critique and (re)form how culture is created and enhanced in our daily lives” (p. 323). Wall-E is doing this by showing the viewer where our planet could be headed if we continue our consumer culture identity. Wall-E obviously shows consumer culture in a negative way, but at the same time it shows how it is natural. On the ship all the humans were brainwashed by having an easy lifestyle. The big company provides everything for the humans, and it is natural for humans to accept this. Even though it is natural for humans to accept something easy, it may not be the best. Humans need to begin to fight the natural order of things and stop relying on consumer culture. Because it is natural for humans to accept the easy way, the humans do not realize they are being brainwashed, and they accept the fate the big company provides without questioning it. Why would humans question something, which seems flawless on the surface, but when one dives deeper it sees the problems clearly.

Wall-E says even more about politics when one dives deeper. Wall-E makes a statement on capitalism. Negru (2010) claims that consumerism is “The new ‘must’ accompanying the launch of capitalism in the modern times” (p. 127). This statement claims that consumerism and capitalism go together. If the whole planet is deserted in Wall-E one can assume that capitalism became a common thing across the globe. Capitalism needs consumerism and consumerism needs capitalism. If consumerism brought the apocalypse to the Earth, Capitalism had to only of been the beginning.

Though at first glance it may be hard to see, Wall-E provides an in depth look at the future, which could befall humans if they do not change. When one looks at Wall-E they may see a delightful family film at first, but if one takes the time to dive into the text one can see how the creators were able to create a dark vision of that everyone can enjoy.

Wall-E does this in many ways. The one major thing Wall-E does is play beautifully with rhetoric. This is one of the most beautifully animated movies, and this helps create the rhetoric. Through beautifully designed images and shots Wall-E is able to gat a point across without saying it. There are many images throughout the film, which convey an emotion, and make the viewer think a message without actually saying it.  Wall-E is does a beautiful thing by showing the audience instead of telling them.

Wall-E also does a beautiful job of playing with branding. By giving everything a brand in the film it is sending a message that everything in life is beginning to become branded. In a film where the main character is a brand it is hard for this to not be possible. This is an image of capitalism the text is showing. Capitalism and consumerism is beginning to run everyday life, and if humans do not do anything about it this is a future we could head to.

Wall-E is a perfect example of the 2012 genre because it provides a post- apocalyptic vision of the world. Even though in Wall-E the apocalypse takes place well after 2012, it shows the vast wasteland the Earth could become in the future. Wall-E is a very unique text in this genre however, because it is not a story of survival. Most films in this genre are about a group of people fighting for survival, but in Wall-E it shows a robot, not fighting for survival, but living its life. The humans in this film also are not fighting for survival. Surviving for them is actually extremely easy. This is more a film about a fight to get back to where humans are today, through starting over, rather then trying to outrun zombies or other examples of post apocalyptic fiction. Wall-E is also one of few post apocalyptic films, which can involve all audiences. Wall-E has a lot to say and if people give it a chance they can realize a lot about average life, and where humans might be headed.

References

Imdb. (2008, October). Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/

Long, P., & Wall, T. (2009). Media studies, texts, production and context. Essex, England: Prentice Hall.

Negru, T. (2010). Culture and Capitalism. Genealogy of Consumer Culture. Cultura: International Journal Of Philosphy Of Culture & Axiology

Sandlin, J.A., & Milam, J.L. (2008). “Mixing Pop (Culture) an Politics”: Cultural Resistance, Culture Jamming, and Anti-Consumption Activism as Critical Public Pedagogy. Curriculum Inquiry

Stanton, A. (Director) (2008). Wall-e [Web].

Wang, C. (2011). Consumer Culture and the Crisis of Identity. Journal Of Value Inquiry