Wall-E, Obesity, Global Disaster, and Laziness (whose laziness is up to you to decide)

Jul 12, 2008 00:47

So I haven't seen Wall-E yet, though I would like to, as it seems a very cute movie. But I caught this slate article off the msn home page. It talks about the satirical value of the film. And they didn't start this, they picked it up from the critics and decided to comment. I thought that you might be interested in reading it...

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lurker2209 July 12 2008, 17:48:16 UTC
Yeah, I read that, but I don't think that critic watched the movie carefully. As some people pointed out, the montage of the history shows that the people who first escaped on the ships were average/normal weight, but as successive generations stayed in space and had nothing to do, they got fatter and fatter. I don't think the message is that fat people cause Armageddon, but that when you give up on the planet and controlling your own fate and succumb to a corporation's control, you become fat. The obesity isn't a cause of disaster, but the result of one. But that's just what I think based on reading stuff other people have said. I'm actually going to see it with a friend this afternoon so I let you know my direct impressions later.

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lurker2209 July 12 2008, 22:32:45 UTC
Ok, saw it. It was a really cute wonderful movie. The Wall-e and Eve characters are great and the storyline is really sweet.

As for the obesity thing, it is kind of played for laughs, but it seemed to me more about the helplessness and lack of concern for the world around them than just about making fun of a society of fat people. And once they decide to go to earth and rebuild, their pudginess doesn't stand in the way. I suppose if you were really sensitive about being overweight, it might make a person uncomfortable, but the movie certainly doesn't go out of its way to make overweight people feel bad about themselves.

And I still don't see any link between the obesity and the ecological disaster. All the people leaving on the ships in the ads and movie reels (the ones whose wastefulness presumably destroyed the earth) are of normal, healthy weights.

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riyirowe July 13 2008, 06:19:50 UTC
good to know...well, slate can't be right about everything, I suppose. ;-)

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