As a child, Wall-E was my favorite movie. I envied my father’s blue eyes, just because he shared them with Eve. However, entering preteenhood, I forgot about Wall-E. It became one of the few childhood obsessions I didn’t revisit for nostalgia’s sake. That is, until now.
I went into this movie expecting a typical happy-ending Disney story: the main or secondary character has a near-death experience at the end, fooling the audience, and a positive but hypocritical message behind the whole thing. I was both right and wrong. The number of social messages one could find in the story goes very far beyond pro-environmentalism: anti-consumerist, and even gender diversity were two of the big ones. Sure, some scenes and smaller plot details fit the Disney mold, as well as my expectations, but the entire plot and not-so-subtle subtleness I had missed as a kid took me aback. I guess little Dan had good taste.
1: Anti-consumerist
The first instance of anti-consumerism is really in one of the first scenes: you see it in the abandoned shopping malls with signs reading “Evacuation Sale!”. You see it in the unbiodegradable fast food wrappers and cups laying waste to the land. But, more glaringly, you see it aboard the Axium (yes, I remembered the ship name, somehow) as the camera slowly pans over the center of the ship, completely encompassed in advertisements, products, and an actual sign that reads “consume!”. The recurring presence of Buy n Large, a huge company advertised on anything (from cups to abandoned buildings back at home), is also blatantly anti-consumerist, as well as anti-capitalist. You see it when you really read the aforementioned advertisements from the camera-pan shot. “Buy. Shop. Live.”(*) “Eat Eat Eat” and simply “Buy” were some of the clearest.
2: Gender Diverse(?)
It is pretty clear to viewers that Wall-E is intended to come across as male, and Eve female. But, besides their voices (and the captain using she/her pronouns to refer to Eve) there’s no indication of this. Eve’s design is decidedly feminine and elegant compared to not only Wall-E’s but almost any other robot they wanted to come off as “looking like a girl”. Eve is shiny and slim, with no bulky head and no need to walk. Although these things are true, is it still possible for these (and I can't say this enough) robots to be beyond the gender binary? Obviously, the two say each other’s names a lot throughout the film (**). They avoid pronouns with each other, because the dialogue between them is basically just their names, with different inflections to show mood. Of course, they intended the viewers to receive this as straight and binary, but no audience member is mistaken about the robots love for each other. With very, very slim pronoun usage and no gendered terms used, isn’t it possible for this to have been a very gay story all along, and slip under the radar of unsuspecting 2008 cishets?
Hypocrisy
Finally, the more commonly known theme of environmentalism and the real-world environmental catastrophes Disney has caused. In one instance, Walt Disney Studios’ “vintage” air-conditioning machine had been leaking toxins into Burbank, California’s groundwater. Of course, no company is truly absolved of environmental incidences just as no human is. In this current world and current time, hypocrisy is the norm. That isn’t as to say it should be overlooked, but maybe ignored in this instance- the film’s many potential messages and morals are good.
* In a way, this message is reiterated when the captain, upon hearing of their possible return, argues with the AutoPilot and says “I don’t want to survive. I want to live!”
** Someone even made a compilation of every time they do so, and it’s over two minutes long
