Pixar goes activist as much as Disney can

While aimed at children, Pixar movies tend to be entertaining for adults, as well, and two of my male co-workers came in raving about about WALL·E this past week. "Oh my gosh... freakin' ADORABLE!" Exciting babbling went on for at least twenty minutes combined, convincing me that, yes, this was a movie worth seeing. A sweet story about robots falling in love with stellar graphics? Sounds like perfect Friday afternoon entertainment for me and Kate, who's visiting this weekend.

WALL·E is an ordinary Disney movie for kids, right? Take a peak around the official site: corporate sponsors like BP and Rayovac, a Verizon Wireless WALL·E game for your phone, a gallery of screenshots, and a link to purchase tickets. College roomie Kate says she heard plastic WALL·E watches were distributed at some theatres on opening weekend, and a quick search online reveals a plethora of merchandise aimed at children, as well as older adoring fans: bed sheet sets, video games, even baking cups. Typically excessive.

However, Thursday Kate told me her not-so-favorite uncle accused WALL·E of an environmentalist message, something I hadn't realized was prominent from the previews alone. It turns out quite intense, with some asking if WALL·E could be a "stealth Michael Moore-style attack on America" and calling the film, "Marxist Philosophy and Environmental Theology." While Christianity Today insists, "it is absolutely not a political movie, no matter how hard a small faction of political bloggers might try to pin it as one," and Christian writer/director Andrew Staton exclaims, "The last thing I'm going to do is try to make a message movie!" somebody's got to be either lying or totally oblivious to believe such a thing.

Don't believe me? Check out the unadvertised BuyNLarge website, the pretend portal of the mega-company running the world (or shall I say, the universe), in the film. Besides an obscene privacy policy that pledges to use all information collected for corporate gain and other facts about the company, the site includes a news site (because BnL owns and controls everything, of course), some of its stories quite telling. Perhaps the most surprising, "Lost Student Found at BnL Business School" resides under the Education section and makes some pretty explicit comments about BnL silencing "political dissidents," a.k.a. those the would critique capitalism.

The movie presents itself a comic sci-fi adventure that at its core is a love story––and that much is true. However, it goes so far beyond that I don't actually know how Pixar convinced Disney to distribute it to theatres. Underneath the cute story comes a harsh critique of consumerism and big business, one that puts Disney itself to shame. The environment, the economy, individualism, authenticity, relationship––WALL·E takes a stand on a number of issues. If Pixar wants to play like these were all just coincidental themes that came about by how the "main storyline" was forming, that's fine. It could be true, and it certainly is more likely to allow the movie to reach viewers who otherwise might not watch and theatres that might not welcome. However, these themes are hard to miss.

The biggest question answered by the movie, though, was on an even grander scale: What does it mean to be human? WALL·E nails it on the head: Directing affairs on earth with compassion, justice, and responsibility and living in relationship with others. As I watched WALL·E at points, I thought I was reading a chapter from N.T. Wright's Surprised By Hope instead. "Sin, we note is not breaking arbitrary rules; rather the rules are the thumbnail sketches of different kinds of dehumanizing behavior," Tom tells us on page 180. In WALL·E, the residents of the space village of Axiom are completely dehumanized, ruled by forces that hold sway over our American culture today and threaten to do us in. It takes a few renegade robots to awaken humanity to their purpose, and in the end, earth is re-colonized—a sort of re-creation (minus, of course, an explicit Christ figure), in which people are finally free of the powers that enslaved them and can live as genuine human beings on the planet they were meant to take care of and enjoy together.

While it's saddening to see the film commercialized as any other Disney feature and to hear the filmmakers denying the depth of the film's heart (whether put there intentionally or by Spirit-led accident), WALL·E has become a new favorite. In fact, I cried constantly throughout about a quarter of the movie (a good chunk in the middle, a larger chunk at the end). I bawled my eyes out because here, in disguise as a cute kids' movie was one of the most powerful films I'd ever seen. The vastness of our brokenness overwhelmed me, and I longed with all my heart to see the kingdom of heaven on earth.