Hope within trash

Through the years, Pixar has been known to release animated movies that center on family & friendship such as Finding Nemo, the Toy Story series, Monsters Inc, Ratatouille & Cars.

Their latest release, Wall-E, focuses on an issue that has been on the spotlight for more than a decade now--the environment. A similar venture came from another animated film - Fern Gully: the Last Rainforest way back 1992 where the rainforest was the setting for a climactic battle between man's machines and the forest's inhabitants. Wall-E's approach is a battle lost between man & the environment. A possibility that everyone is aware of but never really gives it much thought. Understandably, life has become far complicated, hectic & time-consuming that environmental issues take a backseat to other pressing everyday matters. Thus a wake up call, or at this point in time it's already a snooze alarm, is needed to get us moving to save our planet. Wall-E does a tremendous job in doing so.

With the human race living in space and the earth wasted, dusty & barren; Wall-E lives from day to day doing his job as a mini-trash compactor. It seems that he is the only unit left as there is no other unit moving about. He only has a cockroach as his companion. It is a well known fact in science that roaches are the only ones that can survive the Earth's varying & drastic change in living conditions. A human side is obviously present in Wall-E as he displays curiousity with some of the items he picks up from the trash pile, understands & even panics when a mechanical part needs replacing or repair, shows drowsiness when he starts the day, gets scared when a laser gun is fired on him & even gets parental when he asks his cockroach friend to stay put, haha! Wall-E shows so much more human aspects during the movie & is even a factor of suspense when his chip gets replaced and we are left guessing if he ever gets his personality back! For me, it is a symbol of each and everyone's uniqueness. How all of us are wrapped up in our everyday lives until we find that we have link in this world as a person of earth. That point came when Wall-E found the first green sprout to survive the harsh living conditions of a super polluted planet. A sign that Earth has hope.

Fast forward to the point where Wall-E arrives to the floating ship of Earth's remaining human race. There we see how technological progress can become a disadvantage to our lifestyle. It is apparent in the body shapes of the ship's inhabitants that they have become extremely lazy. All are rotund & obese & have become dependent on their personal hovercrafts. No one walks. Each hovercraft has a holographic, touchscreen monitor where you can make your calls & orders. The armrests have control pads to navigate your way. Think of it as an advanced model of the Lazy Boy, hehehe. It has speakers on the top part of the backrest, much like the seats in some of our internet cafes. The monitors are likened to our cellphones & televsion sets. Wonder toys that can connect to other people thru audio & video calls (much like what we have today), watch commercials & TV shopping ads (still what we have today) and TV shows. Present day instances are shown in the movie like when 2 people were talking on their hovercraft monitors yet they were actually side by side, haha! An ad pops up about a color that is the "in" thing & people start changing their outfits hue on the spot, sigh! Wall-E runs into one of them and the man gets thrown off of his hovercraft. Now, as expected he could not get himself to stand up. A very alarming thought... since all of them are in the same shape. Wall-E helps him back onto his hovercraft and does something that seemed surprisingly alien yet undeniably familiar for the guy--he introduces himself. Human interaction. Touch. That was missing on the ship as well. Another instance was when Wall-E unintentionally busted a girl's monitor. He gets to interact with her as well. But this time, gets her to see what she's been missing ever since she started using her hovercraft monitor. She starts to appreciate the buildings around her, the stars out on the deck, the swimming pool where people should be playing in and simple human interaction. All these simple pleasures, lost to them in exchange for the promptness that technology brings that doesn't teach us patience, the ever present connectivity that doesn't teach us how to miss face to face interaction with people, the easy transport that doesn't teach the importance of the use of our legs and ultimately our value for health. Nature & its natural beauty can be lost to us if we let our environment slip away. A message clearly sent by the movie.

Hope.

There is always that.

The difference lies in our believing in it.

Conflict arises when the captain believes the possibility of having another chance on earth while the ship's robots stop him & Wall-E in setting the ship's course back to Earth. The green sprout is the symbol of hope. Wall-E found it inside a dilapidated refrigerator at the foot of one of the trash piles on Earth. There is hope in everything. It can be found anywhere, even in the darkest places of our despair. The way Eve, the other robot, held the green sprout safely in her chamber; the way the captain fought for it; the way the people of the ship passed it hand to hand, working together, to get it into the ship's chamber to activate the auto pilot is exactly how we're supposed to handle hope. Not only in terms of how we're to save our environment but also in everything else. Just like when Wall-E found love in Eve and held on to that slim chance... held on to hope that she could like him back.

The movie touches on our environment issues. Reminds us of the beauty of human interaction. Calls on us to remember that there is hope in everything.

Believing in it is the key.

Wall-E did all that in under two hours and with little dialogue.

A universal message for us all.