Imagine a world where humans are overruled by technology, and nature was replaced with machines,
and evil corporate practices. In WALL-E that’s pretty much what you get. It’s a depressing world
that they live in. I mean, can you even call it a world? Humans have evolved to survive on
this luxurious cruise ship in outer space. Imagine living on a boat your whole life,
I’m almost certain it'll get repetitive after a while. I know for me personally, exploring,
and traveling to new, interesting locations gives me life. It’s great for my mental health,
and for my soul. To be fair, I guess the humans in this universe do have an excuse.
They don’t know that such a thing was possible 800 years ago. This ship, and everything about
it… that’s all these humans really know. They don’t know what a tree looks like, they don’t
know what animals sound like, hell, they don’t even know what Earth is. It’s not just their
mental health that is suffering here, but their physical health as well. They don’t exercise,
they’re all overweight, and nobody even uses a pool anymore. It's that sad. They’ve lost
their “essence.” Yet, despite all this luxury, they’re still not satisfied, and rightfully so.
As easy as it is to live a carefree lifestyle, deep down they know something is missing.
The captain is a special case considering he’s the only one
in the movie who actually sees that there is a pattern here that isn’t being talked about really.
He’s sick of “sitting around all the time.” His human nature is slowly,
but surely growing tired of this automatic lifestyle that he’s living. He doesn’t have
to lift a finger to do anything. When he’s given a book, he doesn’t even know how to open
it. It isn't until the end of this movie where he finally gets an opportunity to break out of this
predictable, rise and repeat formula. When drama, and adversity comes his way,
he’s the hero who fights his way to victory like a badass. To finally have an opportunity
to do something manually, on his own, without some machine doing it for him gives him great
satisfaction. His entire life was on autopilot, and now he finally gets a chance to live.
Speaking of autopilot, similar to how Google has taken over the web, imagine if Google was
literally Earth itself. The company, “Buy N Large” is like a girlfriend who takes good care of you,
but in actuality she’s manipulating and taking advantage of you.
This company doesn’t care about humans’ well-being,
hell, they don't care about their health, period. They just care about money, power, and control.
That motto is programmed into these peoples’ minds when they’re babies.
Literally no one is aware that the very home that they’re living in is actually evil.
WALL-E and EVE basically break the matrix, and reveal what this company’s true intentions are.
WALL-E is a big fan of the way Earth used to be over a thousand years ago. He keeps
historical items in his home, and cherishes these possessions as if it were his child. He’s
fascinated by watching old films, particularly romance related. Through watching these movies,
he learns about physical and emotional connection, and begins to notice how alone he is.
He resorts to befriending a cockroach in order to have some type of companion. Eve is that spark of
hope that his heart had been craving for for so long. I know this is a Disney movie, so you
can't really trust it all that much in regards to authentic romance, but anything that gives me
hope that successful, intimate relationships are still possible in 2022, is a movie worth
watching in my opinion. And how ironic is it that robots are the ones to save the world? They’re
also the ones who show these lifeless humans how to have meaningful connections with each other.
This movie ages very well. When you really think about it, it’s doing a pretty good job predicting
the future so far. Especially during the time we live in now where we’re told we need to keep a
specific distance from one another. That’s the way people live in this Universe as well. They
don’t even use a pool for crying out loud. If any physical contact is going to take place at all,
it’s going to happen through a virtual reality video game or something like that. That’s not to
say connection with other humans is “dead” per se, it’s just heavily relied on by technology,
more than ever before, and don’t get me wrong I’m not against technology.
It’s strange, but WALL-E isn’t a movie where I think about how screwed the future must be,
it’s actually a movie where I think more about how life was 1000 years ago. People who lived 1000
years ago would think we’re all so privileged to live the life that we live. That’s not to say our
problems aren’t valid, they are, but the stuff that we’re able to do today like travel from
country to country quickly with flying planes, interact with friends and family through the power
of the internet, and even something as simple as being able to deliver pizza to our homes,
it’s so easy to take these amazing advancements in technology for granted. 20 years ago,
you wouldn't even be able to watch this video. I think there is a difference between entitlement,
and just genuinely feeling like things aren’t right.
The way these humans live in this universe… This isn’t right.
WALL-E is a movie that makes you contemplate the following questions:
What can we learn from previous generations? What can we learn from future generations?
What if there is more to this life than what we are programmed to believe? We think all
we know is all there is, but what if life could be more spectacular than we could even imagine?
What if there still is a way we could connect with people on a deep level? What if we didn’t
have to rely on the same system we use every day to survive? What if we could break the system?
We always have that choice, and it’s the small things that add up. You can hug a tree and spend
some time in nature in general, you can go and talk to that person you find attractive,
you can give your body permission to move… to be free. When something doesn’t feel authentic,
we all have the power to say no, and do something about it.