Somebody at Pixar is clearly a serious fan of cinema. If you couldn’t tell from the road picture Cars, or the variety of buddy picture spins in Ratatouille, it’s going to be hard to miss the allusion, and indeed commentary, that is the Chaplin/Silent Film Wall-E.
Innocent Scamp Robot Wall-E Saves Earth Through Bumbling Misadventure
Editing that headline to apply to any Charlie Chaplin film is a simple matter of deleting “Robot,” and plugging something in for “Earth,” and there’s a good reason for that. True artists, it has been said, never stop being students of their love, and Pixar is unparalleled in today’s movie world as an example of that idea. Wall-E is a delightfully funny adventure for the audience this will move, but it is much more for those with deeper sensibilities. Much like the Shrek series, there is much that will bypass the younger set, even as they nevertheless enjoy every frame. Wall-E goes yet a step further, not only nodding to the adults who have to sit through a children’s movie, but also giving a nudge to cinephiles of every persuasion.
Sigourney Weaver, John Ratzenberger, and Kathy Najimy Lead Voice Talents
Wall-E is (apparently) the last working robot of a planetwide cleanup crew left behind on Earth after the world becomes too polluted to sustain life. The human race has fled the planet on a cruise ship, and has spent several generations turning into blobs that stare at screens every waking second. Wall-E bumbles along, enjoying the odd showtune, diligently going about his task, when a probe from the cruise ship returns in the hope of finding something growing. When misadventure rears its head, Wall-E finds himself aboard the ship desperate to save humans from the computer that now holds on too firmly to its commands. Worlds collide when routine becomes disrupted, and people discover that they have no idea what, or why, they are. In the end, it comes down to two robots demanding that there is a price too high to pay for comfort and security, and survival at all costs is the worst death sentence.
“I don’t want to survive. I want to live!”
It is perhaps no earth-shattering revelation to suggest that people, by and large, are just cows waddling (or floating on cushy recliners) their way through an existence made meaningless by the powers that control them in every conceivable way. It is perhaps even only a marginally interesting statement at this point. But, to do so in a way that is subtle even when glaring, and kind even when most caustic is interesting. Moreover, it is relevant. Relevant in a way misunderstood by fanatics chaining themselves to trees, who do not realize that they are only sitting in slightly different floating, cushy recliners.
So, it’s no accident, and it is a brilliant stroke, that this movie is delivered with its references to old musicals, and comes by way of a cute, Charlie Chaplin in robot form. It is also no accident that today’s audiences sit through thirty-odd minutes of silent movie, and love it in spite of themselves. There is much that looks good on paper about progress as a general scheme. Sure, you can tick off all the bad things that are (sort of) not around anymore, but somewhere along the line we threw the baby out with the bathwater (a statement alluded to in the film). It’s hard to miss something you never actually had, but I do. And, those who did have it will in all likelihood tell me how lucky I have it. It’s so much easier to survive now. It was certainly difficult in many ways to live in the Good Old Days, but at least you got to.
