Wall-E, our new favourite liberal

Soo-Ryum Yang
Politics

For those who have not seen the latest Pixar movie, Wall-E, the film is a must-see. It is an ingenious, heart-warming story but also one that has a very serious message about our wasteful consumer habits.

The year is 2700 something, and Earth has turned into a wasteland due to some future Wal-mart-esque company that has taken over the world (it even runs the government... hmm, that's not hard to see) by promoting excessive consumerism and negligence for the environment. The situation has gotten so bad that Earth has become inhabitable, and the humans return to a nomadic life by living in a big Earth-simulating space ship.

Predictably, the tone of the movie is very dismal. The backdrop of Earth as lifeless, deserted toxic field, though animated, seems so real and so possible. Even for a G-rated movie, the message of conservation and environmental protection is undiluted and very much in your face. However, the message does not come across as confrotational, but more of as a motherly warning about the possiblity of a greenless Earth. Sure it stings, but the funny parts make up for it. Trust me.

On a sidenote, the movie pays tribute to many cultural icons, such as Apple (Wall-E watches a movie from an iPod) and 2001 Space Odyssey (Hal reincarnates into an evil, autopilot robot). It also pokes fun at Bush's "stay the course" stratgey as a similarly delusional president from the movie echoes the same words to claim that Earth is beyond repair and that the only way to surivive is to live in outer space.

In retrospect, the movie is so far the greenest film of the year. It will hopefully influence younger kids as they start to think about the need to protect the environment. For the adults, especially the more conservative audience, it will let them know that a movie can be funny, liberal and educational- all at the same time. In the end, the movie is more than a hybrid of Steve Jobs' elegance and Al Gore's inconvenient truth (pun definitely intended); it is a forceful tale that preaches to the next generation, that hugging trees is not only a cool thing, but the right thing to do.