Jessica
Klase
English
115
Professor
Rowley
22
October 2012
Wall-e:
Creating a new age for our children
The
many scenes of ecological devastation in Wall-e
that were created by human’s wastefulness have sparked many a discussion in
the families who have seen the movie about if they should expose their children
to these ideas or not. In the movie there are giant towers of trash that humans
left behind for their robots to clean up. The robots (collectively called
Wall-e) have stopped functioning, but one is still operating, although the rest
have shut down. Seeing the brown skies and landscape in the movie has even
shocked some people into inventing new systems to lessen their impact on the
environment by inventing the systems you see advertised like solar water
heating systems or bringing bags to the grocery store for their groceries. Seeing
the direction we are going is hard which is why some adults simply ignore what
is happening. We have seen movies with this environmental moral before, but
this time it is directed towards our children. The filmmakers seem to be
targeting our children as our “last hope”, this begs the question, how does
seeing movies with a “green” message affect our children? Our children now grow
up seeing this message everywhere, and will take their chance to stop our path
when they get older.
This
generation will be the first to grow up with this message in the popular media.
There have been documentaries about this issue before, but they are often from
fringe groups. For example, there are documentaries about people who have lived
for weeks in trees, such as Julia
Butterfly Hill, but most people have never heard of them. For the first
time even children are being focused on as a way to change. Many people may not
agree with doing this because they want their children to have their childhood,
not be scared that what they do every day, such as drive to school, could
eventually kill their planet. This is a valid point, but childhood is not what
it used to be. As said by Vivian C. Sobchack, “This new interest in violence
and its new formal treatment… satisfied an intensified cultural desire for
“close-up” knowledge about the material fragility of bodies…” (431). This is an
example of how childhood is changing, violence is in many more movies, and our
children do see it. Childhood is less sheltered than it used to be. This isn’t
always a bad thing, sometimes it opens up opportunities to teach our children. Wall-e takes advantage of the same
effect, but uses it to teaching our children about how we effect our
environment.
Wall-e aims
their message at children because, eventually, they will inherit the earth. As
their parents grow old and leave this life they will still be here, living
their daily lives. Wall-e teaches
children now because if they grow up with this message they will not forget it.
The movie delivers its message in a new way, as A. O. Scott admits in his
article “In a World Left Silent, One heart Beeps”, “Not that Wall-E is all gloom and doom. It is,
undoubtedly, an earnest (though far from simplistic) ecological parable”. This
message will stick with them, and for some it will inspire them. The goal is to
change their behavior so that they can make a difference. This concept is much
like what Christian families do to try and encourage their children to become
Christian themselves. Many church-going families have their children go to
“Sunday school” to learn about the bible and to have them grow up with the
Christian message. Wall-e uses the
same technique to try and save our planet.
Some companies may oppose this because those companies benefit
from harming our planet. Big oil companies certainly have a hand in the buildup
of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, and also have a reputation for using their
major influences in politics to their own ends. Many big oil companies have
extreme influences on our government by funding the campaigns of politicians
they want to win. This is common practice now, but our children could change
that. Changing the way our children think with mainstream media that has
messages like Wall-e could damage
their profits. By extension, Wall-e
could play a role in taking down big oil companies and other companies such as
logging companies. For the current American this might be unthinkable, most of
the population in America has a car. By changing childhood, Wall-e could even change the roll of
some of the largest companies in America.
Wall-e is a highly successful film, and
other films like it are sure to follow. The
Lorax (2012), which is about pollution and cutting down trees, shows that
this trend in film is likely to continue, it made $70,217,070 on its opening
weekend and was ranked first out of the films that came out on in the same
weekend. As a Disney/Pixar classic Wall-e
alone could affect the mindset of multiple generations of children. Many
different films with the same message could make this a common theme in
childhood. During childhood there normally aren’t many worries aside from the
occasional missed teddy-bear. Movies could change the generally accepted
purpose of childhood. Childhood could stop being a time where you develop in a
nurturing environment to when you are taught about the world in a hope to
change it, in this case learning to take care of the planet. This may not be an
obvious change, just as Wall-e is an
entertaining way to teach about how we effect our environment, but it could be
a big one. Most children’s films don’t have a message that will change how you live,
but a new trend could be arising, films for children with a higher purpose.
Movies are a wonderful way to teach children because they enjoy watching, but
what will we teach them next?
Over the years there have been film genres that have
affected the way we think before. David Denby says in the “Postmorbid Condition”
says, “They [the films] wouldn’t survive if they didn’t provide emotional
satisfaction to the people who make them and to the audiences who watch them.”
(425). This suggests that movies with a “green” message satisfy a need to find
a solution to the problem of our harsh impact on the world. In Wall-e the humans correct their mistake
by coming back from space to clean up the planet and to create a new lifestyle,
one that helps the planet rather than destroys it. This might be what we want
for our children, a way for them to live without the fear that one day their
actions will destroy the only known place that they can live. As adults the
general population is already making steps to make our day-to-day activities
safer for the world around us. We use hybrid cars, solar heating systems, and
green buildings to help is toward our goal, but we still aren’t there. The
popularity of this movie shows that on some level, we feel guilty because of
what we are doing to our planet.
One way this movie could help resolve our guilt is by
showing a solution. This will make the movie live on in our memories. In the
movie the children who come back to live on Earth are taught how to care for
it. As the end credits role there are scenes of children playing outside,
fishing, and planting. These scenes affect our children by giving them an
unwritten expectation that they should be doing this. Saving the planet is a
heavy weight to put on a child’s shoulders, but passing the solution to someone
else feels good to us. Children now grow up being taught that we are hurting
the planet, but may be confused because we are not stopping what we are doing.
To children we look like hypocrites because we show them a movie where trash
has overrun our planet, but we still make use of all of the resources that we
have and fill up our trash bags. Childhood is becoming much more complicated,
and will continue to be because of the popularity of these movies, but will
also put new responsibilities on our children.
Children are our future, our pride and our hope. What we
show them now will affect their whole lives. Environmental films make them into
our solution. Now they will grow up knowing that the path humanity is on could
destroy our whole planet. This makes life confusing because we aren’t doing all
we can to save it, in fact we aren’t doing a lot to save it. Wall-e could make childhood into a time
to learn about the problems Earth has and give them time to find answers to fix
them. The generation that is seeing these films now could grow up to change how
we live in order to better preserve the planet, and topple huge corporations
who benefit from the destruction of the planet, companies that happen to be
some of the most influential of our time. Wall-e
changes the mindset that because you are a child, you can’t change anything. Wall-e changes childhood into a force to
stop evils in the world, to enhance our world. The childhood of future
generations will change into a period to mold them into solutions that our
planet needs.
Works
cited
Maasik, Sonia, Solomon,
Jack. Signs of Life in the USA: Readings
on Popular Culture for
Writers.
Bedford/St. Martin's 2012, seventh edition. The
Postmorbid Condition
David
Denby
Maasik,
Sonia, Solomon, Jack. Signs of Life in
the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for
Writers. Bedford/St.
Martin's 2012, seventh edition. High School
Confidential: Notes
Teen Movies. Vivian
C. Sobchack
Scott,
A. O. "In a World Left Silent, One Heart Beeps." The New York Times
27 June 2008, Movie Review sec.: E1. Nytimes.com. 27 June 2008. Web. 29 Oct.
2012.
"Box
Office Mojo." Box Office Mojo. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2012.
<http://boxofficemojo.com/>.
