'WALL-E's' weight problem
Posted: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 7:00 AM by Paige Newman
Filed Under:
Movies
A couple of weeks ago I went to see “WALL-E,” and was thoroughly delighted. Not only was it one of the sweeter love stories to hit theaters recently (I couldn’t even think of another one – what has happened to the romantic comedy, Hollywood?), it also gave a satirical look at the future with overweight people being carted around in floating barcoloungers while never looking away from their video monitors. Of course, this poked a bit of fun at audience members who sat passively watching the film with their large Cokes and tubs of buttered popcorn.
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But, leaving the theater, I started to think about the multitude of overweight kids (and parents) out there who would go to see “WALL-E.” Would those kids feel motivated to jump up from their computer games and head outside before the world went awry, or would they just feel bad about themselves for being the “worst case scenario” when it came to the human race? After all, one of the few “acceptable” prejudices does seem to be the one against overweight people. And thinking about it, I started to feel sort of bad for the kid who might have his or her already poor self-image reinforced. But maybe I’m being oversensitive.
None of this affected my view about the movie, which is still basically my cinematic highlight of this summer. And all the Oscar talk (of nominating this film for best picture instead of leaving it in the animated film ghetto) is gratifying, and, heck, I’d love to see it happen.
Of course, my objections about how weight is portrayed in the film have nothing on the right-wing response, which is, frankly, downright silly.
Shannen Coffin of the National Review wrote, “From the first moment of the film, my kids were bombarded with leftist propaganda about the evils of mankind.” And conservative pundit Glenn Beck wrote, “I looked at my wife and I said, it’s a frickin’ global warming movie, it is how we destroyed the Earth.”
For me, the film took a satirical look at what’s happening now (pollution, consumer glut, excessive waste) to its logical conclusion – one that might actually be a good one for families to talk about. But it never felt preachy. The overweight people on the “WALL-E” spaceship are never portrayed as malevolent; they’re downright nice. After all, the moral of the film is that you can change things — whether it be finding love or repopulating the Earth — if you take your head out of the sand (or your TV monitor) and try. What’s not to like about that?
