Wall•E examines an artifact discarded by humans 700 years earlier. (AP Photo/Disney/Pixar Animation Studios)
Conservative critics blast Wall•E
By Eoin O'Carroll | 07.02.08
To some, the computer-animated science-fiction film, “Wall•E,” is a cautionary tale about consumption. But to others it’s left-wing, America-hating propaganda.
The film (which I saw on Sunday) is set 800 years in the future. The earth has been transformed into a giant toxic landfill, whose only remaining denizens are Wall•E, a solar-powered next-gen Roomba who spends his days compacting trash into bricks and stacking them into skyscrapers, and his cockroach friend.
The last humans left Earth 700 years earlier, where their descendants live on a huge interstellar cruise ship run by Buy n Large, a corporation-turned-government. The humans have evolved – if that’s the right word – into bloated couch potatoes whisked around by hover-chairs and endlessly distracted by video screens.
“[L]eftist propaganda about the evils of mankind,” is what the National Review’s Shannen Coffin calls it. “Nice to see that Disney and Pixar can make mega-millions off of telling us just how greedy, lazy, and destructive we all are. There’s no hope for mankind. Hand over your wallet.”
“It was like a 90-minute lecture on the dangers of overconsumption, big corporations, and the destruction of the environment,” wrote Greg Pollowitz, also of the National Review.
“At first there’s not much of an environmental message,” writes the conservative film critic who goes by the handle Dirty Harry. “The piles of garbage covering our planet come off as nothing more than a good idea to set up a cool alt-version of our world and the lead character. Unfortunately, this doesn’t last. The humans are introduced as meaty, lazy, chair-bound consumers who live in a world run by a large corporation. The message about our consumerism, sloth, and addiction to visual stimulus is eventually beaten like a drum.
“This may well be the fifth or sixth movie this year to depict our government as taken over by a corporation – as though that would be a bad thing.”
(I should note here that I actually think Harry is a pretty astute movie critic, corporativist politics notwithstanding.)
“[U]nless you want to pay good money to have your kids propagandized into a Marxist, Eco-Theological world view … stay far, far away from this one,” wrote a blogger at RedState. “Goebbels would be proud to know his tactics have reached all the way to California.”
And so on. To be sure, a few conservatives liked the film. Patrick J. Ford, writing for the The American Conservative, thought that the film reinforced some old-school conservative values:
The only evils of mankind portrayed are those that come about from losing touch with our own humanity. Staples of small-town conservative life such as the small farm, the ‘atomic family,’ and old-fashioned and wholesome entertainment like ‘Hello, Dolly,’ are looked upon by the suddenly awakened humans as beautiful and desirable. By steering conservative families away from WALL-E, these commentators are doing their readers a great disservice.
Many conservative commenters saw the film as hypocritical. It’s hard not to notice that the Buy n Large ship filled with overindulged consumers looks a lot like a certain theme park run by the studio that financed this film.
But where others saw hypocrisy, I saw subversiveness. After all, among all the garbage piled up on the earth, we see several discarded plastic toys from other Pixar films such as “Toy Story” and “Monsters, Inc.”
If you have any doubt about the sense of irony that the filmmakers wish to convey, be sure to check out the fictional Buy n Large website. It’s a spot-on satire, worth exploring at length.
I suspect that the flap over this movie won’t be the last. With a number of eco-thrillers in the pipeline, I bet we’ll be seeing a lot more outraged convervative critics.
[via ThinkProgress]
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2. Edward Sullivan | 07.03.08
I never cease to be amazed at how all those laissez-faire free-marketeers don’t really believe in a free market for ideas. Somewhere the spirit of TR weeps at what has become of the label ‘Conservative’. But as for the immediate case - I put it to Conservative critics that Wall-E is a reframing of the biblical story of The Ark - and if they wish to dispute that, let them consider a small, white flying explorer, the plant she found and Genesis 8:10 - 9:3
4. scott | 07.03.08
Wow, I didn’t think anyone could hate Wall-E. What I found hysterical (and sad) was that at least half the parents, and their kids, who I saw leaving the film looked a lot like the space-based humans of the movie.
I won’t make an argument for the message or science of Wall-E. It’s about as accurate as the science used in The Day After Tomorrow. I just loved it for the beautiful animation, the heartwarming and romantic story, and of course, Wall-E himself.
Want to talk about ironic? How about the free, rubber Wall-E wrist watch that my daughter got at the theater. It broke five minutes after the film, and is now sitting in our local landfill -where it will still be 800 years from now. . .or composing part of a garbage brick in a thousand foot trash tower. =P
5. Edward Sullivan | 07.04.08
And then there’s Paul Edwards, who on the conservative web community site Townhall.com, sees Wall-E as an ‘Indictment of Liberalism’:
“Some conservatives have written the film off as anti-capitalist propaganda. If the intent of capitalism is to cater to the basest instincts of the human heart, requiring us to indulge our every whim and desire, leading to a dependence on government, then I guess I, too, am an anti-capitalist. However, capitalism can only arrive at that end when all of the restraints of personal responsibility are removed. In this sense, WALL-E is a brilliant exposure of liberalism’s flaws.”
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulEdwards/2008/07/02/wall-es_indictment_of_liberalism
If only a polarized World could get past knee-jerk identification with ‘Wings’ and attacking paper tigers and demonizing straw men. More likely, tho’, we’ll see Wall-E viewed through various distorting lenses, rosy and darkly, and hijacked as a standard by zealots on all sides, ala the Simpson’s episode “The Father, The Son & The Holy Guest Star”
6. DG | 07.08.08
I believe the movie was supposed to a little Ironic. But if you put your thinking caps on (which the scepticals probably lost because al film critics do is watch movies)…it is clear what the message they are trying to convey. They are asking you not to ‘overindulge’! There has to be a balance. The message is clear that they want you to leave the theatre and think about doing something which brings you closer to nature. Tell me, if you want a couch potato to leave his couch, where will you send the message? In a bottle floating in the sea? But he never goes there! You show him the message on the TV! Unless you physically go there, knock them off the couch and show him the beautiful world outside (as was shoen in the movie)…
I saw the Buy n Large website - a great sattire!
I thought Americans liked Sarcasm!
7. HH | 07.08.08
I loved Wall-E. It’s a kids movie for goodness sakes! Get over the assumed meaning and just enjoy it. You don’t see people rehashing the meaning behind ET do you?! I was fascinated by the ability to feel compassion for a robot–very cute movie and I would recommend it to anyone with a brighter attitude and an open heart.
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1. Jody Sol | 07.02.08
Anyone who thinks the government would be better run by a corporation needs to take a economics course.
What an overbearing nimbus.
I hated wall*e by the bye. Too many plot-holes, inconsistencies, and cliche plot elements for my tastes.
Go watch CJ7 instead.