In the 935 class we talked about choosing a social issue and how it relates to its environment in the context of a film as the basis of our next paper. Professor Berry told us to practice this on Wall-e and the conclusion i came to was: That Wall-e is a film in which the writer (i don't know his name) speaks about the social issue of obesity, especially through the lens of dialogue. That is probably what my rough thesis statement would be... i am wondering what other people thought when put to the same task.
On a completely separate note did anyone watch this movie and just flashback to their childhood. I turned off all the lights in my dorm and watched with a bag of mini doughnuts and just totally freaked out. It's funny because i loved it when i first saw it and i still really like it but i saw some flaws in the plot line. anyway this has been the best homework of the year so far.
The theme I saw in the movie was the immense damage that was done to the environment, and this was portrayed using visual elements. The movie did a great job portraying this, especially in the opening scene. All you saw was a musty yellow atmosphere around Earth from space. Once the camera zoomed in on Earth, you saw piles and piles of trash everywhere. There was so much trash that it could be turned into skyscrapers. The movie Wall-E uses visual images to portray the irrevocable damage humans did to the Earth and how technology hinders our progression.
ReplyDeleteI was one of the few in the 9:35 class that hadn't seen Wall-E. It sounds childish to say this, but my mind was blown. That seems to happen almost every time I watch a Pixar movie, as there is always the playful dimension but also the shocking, in-your-face, thought-provoking dimension. Needless to say, Wall-E exhibited both.
ReplyDeleteIf I had to conjure-up a theme at this very moment, it would be something along the lines of:
In Wall-E, the director highlights the decline of human contact and emotion, which comes as a direct result of the environmental damage done to earth.
I analyzed the movie using a visual elements lens. One of the elements that immediately caught my eye was the director's portrayal of Wall-E's eyes. Amidst a mechanical, impersonal, and barren world, Wall-E's eyes serve as remnants of humanity: his eyes move just as yours and mine do.
Another visual element which exhibits the decline of human contact is the montage-like scene when the audience is introduced to Axiom: here, we see all of the ship's inhabitants floating around in chairs. One thing I noticed was that everyone was on their own paths, independent of all the others around them. Everyone fends for themselves, and no one ever stops and asks how the other is doing; you're on your own in this setting. This visual element once again contributed to the director's portrayal of the loss of human contact and relationships.
The way the individuals on the Axiom were portrayed (as big-boned, to say the least) also indicates a loss of contact with the physical environment. It seems that for seven hundred years, all that these people have been doing is hanging out--literally. The captain of the Axiom even regarded, "We have a jogging track?" Although this is an attempt at humor, it also exhibits the individuals' complete rejection of healthy living, which is in part affected by the fact that they do not live in a real, tangible world where they can walk, run, or roam freely.
Lastly, the element of physical contact--especially hand-to-hand contact--played a huge role with regards to re-establishing human interpersonal relationships. Last year in my psychology class, I learned that humans allow themselves to be touched depending on the amount of trust they have in the other person. Hand-holding indicates a high level of trust, and that is apparent several times throughout the film between Eve and Wall-E; although Eve is hesitant to trust Wall-E at first, she grows to trust him and even offers her hand by the end of the film. The hand-to-hand contact once again exhibits the restoration of lost interpersonal contact among humans.
Like Jon, I was struck by the social issue of obesity in this film. I think that the director and other workers on this film did a great job with creating an environment on the spaceship that highlighted the potential for leading an unhealthy lifestyle. The hover-chairs, readily available high-calorie drinks, and lack of exercise all stuck out to me as being red flags for adding excessive weight.
ReplyDeleteIf I were writing a paper on this movie I would write a thesis that sounded like: In the movie WALL-E, directed by Andrew Stanton, the social issue of obesity is highlighted by the visual elements of an enticing color-schemes and close ups.
I like this movie a lot more than I was expecting to, and I definitely think that watching 2001: A Space Odyssey first was the right call - this film had SO much overlap/copyright infringement possibly it isn't even funny. HAL and Autobot (I think is the name) both have the red eye and controlled voice during pressure.
I also agree that the theme from wall e that I came up with was the damage to the environment. Through the use of visual elements they were able to portray how humans trashed the earth so badly that they had to evacuate the earth and wait for earth to heal itself, in order for them to go back and recolinize. They built skyscrapers of garbage and there was dust in the air, and cars left in the street. But for the first time ever seeing the movie I really enjoyed it. Definatley was the best homework of the year.
ReplyDeleteWhile Wall-E has a ton of heart felt moments, different lenses create for different issues raised. Like mentioned above, the use of dialogue presents the issue behind obesity (at the rate we are going). To me, the issue of rapid technological advancement is freaky. Through the lens of dialogue and sound, the robots in Wall-E are displayed as subordinate, yet willing to deny orders. In addition to this, it seems some of the robots, cough Eve and Wall-E cough cough, are capable of free will and love. While this seems like a heart warming and fun concept, its that type of free-willing robot that draws parallels to HAL in 2001 A Space Odyssey. The movie implies that 700 years from now, as obesity increases with technological production, robots will be doing everything for us. Does this sound appealing overwhelming?
ReplyDeleteWall-E is awesome. I think that despite the fact that it is a "kids" movie it is also valuable to adult viewers. The most important theme, in my opinion, is by far laziness. Through visual elements like the obesity and idleness seen in the people aboard the spaceship, the audience realizes what could/what is happening to our world. Do we want a world where robots do everything for us, or do we want to keep progressing on our own accord? Also the image of heaps of trash and the destruction of our environment is very unsettling and provides the notion of re-use, re-duce, re-cycle. Overall I think that through visual elements this movie does an amazing job to point out the most common issues that have arisen in our society and how we can address them.
ReplyDeleteGreat posts everyone! I'm glad you all seem to really enjoy this assignment, because we'll be starting our library session on Monday with a brief brainstorm exactly what you are discussing in this post. We'll be using it as a way to help us figure out a research strategy. So... keep 'em coming, and be ready to make a list of these (and more, since I'm sure we'll think of them) on Monday.
ReplyDeleteAnd I will also admit that this movie always makes me get teary-eyed a little.
--tina
I also was one of the few people that had not seen this movie, and I totally loved it! On the surface, the story is adorable and the characters are so cute. But as you look deeper, there is a lot of social commentary in the film. One of the main issues the film deals with is pollution. The director highlights this problem through visual elements. The opening sequence is particularly powerful. We are "flying" over a ruined Earth, which allows the audience to see how widespread the damage to Earth is. The scene where WALL-E is making his little squares of garbage starts off as a close-up, and then pans out so that the audience can see how large the skyscrapers of garbage are, which is another very powerful image.
ReplyDeleteI also thought it was good that we watched 2001: A Space Odyssey before seeing this film. The movie was clearly heavily influenced by 2001. The "Autobot" character was clearly based on HAL. Its red eye was almost exactly like HAL's, and it tries to take over the ship in the same way that HAL does. After watching 2001, I see its influence in so many movies.
First off, WALL-E is a great movie and watching it for this assignment maybe me pick up on a lot of different things that I wouldn't normally notice. One of the main issues that the film focuses on is pollution. No matter what kind of technology our world comes up with we are still going to reside on this planet and we cannot take the earth for granted or it may end up looking like what the director depicts in the beginning of WALL-E. The part that really struck me in the beginning of the film is when WALL-E is going through all the trash and he finds the tiniest little green plant that is growing in the ground. He is so perplexed by this plant because it is something that he clearly has never seen before. The visual aspects in this scene as well as the sound help show that this plant is out of place and so foreign to WALL-E. This really is a powerful moment and makes you think what the world would be like if do not take care of it.
ReplyDeleteIn the 11:10 class on Wednesday, we came up with a very extensive list of social issues to help guide us in thinking about the essay we'll be writing, as well as this practice theme/thesis for Wall-E. In looking over my list, I came up with this working theme/thesis for the movie:
ReplyDeleteThe director of Wall-E, Andrew Stanton, uses visual elements on the Ledo Deck, such as primary colors, big, obstructive signs, and camera angles that depict the setting as overly glamorous and "larger-than-life" to convey the message that media manipulation, censorship, and product placement can and will dominate and control human actions.
I saw Wall-E once before but watched it more for enjoyment rather than looking at the cinematic choices and chosen music or moments of silence. The second time around I enjoyed it more than I had originally. I, like Amanda, could see tremendous similarities to 2001 - almost the entire movie. I kept seeing the little plant in the boot as the monolith - a mysterious, relatively unknown object that held great power. I loved the different reactions this plant received. Wall-E was amazed by it simply because it looked cool. Eve was programmed to retrieve the plant so she was incredibly excited to see it. The Captain was in awe by it and became so enthused with earth life, while Auto was angered by seeing it knowing that this one little plant could destroy all robots. But how could a robot be threatened? It's just a robot. Clearly Pixar personified the machines more then 2001, but the eerie connection is still there.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Would you want to live in the world the humans lived in up in their paradise spaceship?
I know everyone's favorite characters are Wall-E and Eve, but I can't help thinking how much I love the two humans who are exposed to the world around them and are filled with so much awe about what they've been missing for so long. Their raw reactions were so fun to watch.
Having the first part of the movie be without dialogue (minus some sounds made by Eve and Wall-E) was very powerful. I think dialogue represented power in this movie. On the barren earth at the beginning, a very little amount of talking occurs. However, once in the spaceship (a place of power), there is constant talking.
Question: What other lens' do you think could be connected to how much power the earth/spaceship have?
The movie's main theme explained how humans interact with the environment. In this case, Wall-E portrayed how we can negatively effect our environment. More specifically, the visuals and lack of dialogue in the movie did a great job focusing in on the immense amount of damage we can cause to our environment. What I found to be really interesting, was how when Wall-E found a plant, he cherished. Because he had never seen such a beautiful thing, he knew it must have held some great importance. And so, in that sense, we should take this message and care a little more about how we treat the environment. Another point shown in the movie is the importance of self reliance. The humans in the movie are extremely obese and can't even walk for themselves - let alone think. Therefore, it is important to realize that technology should not dictate the way we live our lives. In addition, I noticed some parallels to 2001. The most obvious was the autobot character who resembled Hal. There are important lessons to learn from this movie about ourselves and the world we live in. Overall, it did a great job conveying these themes and definitely brought me back to my childhood.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the issue of destruction to the environment seems to be a central theme. A thesis I would write is: In the movie Wall-E, the visual elements—specifically color and scope—accentuate the warning against environmental destruction.
ReplyDeleteThe root of the destruction is due to technological advancement and human desire. The ultimate result is the brownish, polluted landscape. The first real bright color we see is when Wall-E turns on his colorful lights, indicating his unique place in this dull setting. The contrasting and showing dull colors are intended to represent what the demise of humanity could look like if humans continue to pollute and develop dangerously.
Other aspects I would discuss are the broad and far-away shots of space and other landscapes. Space, in Wall-E, has more of a blue color than 2001, which was very black and dull. In this movie, space was to be seen as less mysterious than 2001. Additionally, when the captain asks to define Earth, pictures are exposed of natural environments such as a river, farms, fruits, vegetables, trees, and human activity. These are all elements that seem so foreign, as they’ve been accustomed to technology and dullness.
I had seen WALL-E before. so of course I was excited to find out that we had it for homework. Several people mentioned that obesity was an issue portrayed throughout the movie, however I believe that the writer intended to take it a step further, from obesity to overall awareness of the world we live in. I feel like one of the main themes is the result of a lack in responsibility and laziness. As seen with the WALL-E robots, earth’s environmentalist leaders decided to allow the world to be overcome with trash and waste, to the point that life almost perished. Not only did they refuse to take personal responsibility, but they put the task to technology, another theme that prevailed within WALL-E. The reliance on technology is seen with the captain and with the dependence of the mobile chairs. If I were to write a thesis statement on the movie it would go something like this:
ReplyDeleteWALL-E, although catered to a younger demographic, addresses issues that are prevalent to today’s society; Displayed through the visual elements such as a crowded frame, contrasting colors, and personification of robots, the negative results of technology are presented in order to establish a call to action for individuals to take responsibility for their actions and preserve the earth.
Lately, I have noticed a number of movies and television programs that were meant to be understood on two different levels. Naturally, it led me to contemplate why I had never realized this before, and came to the conclusion that the answer is probably as simple as the fact that I had never been obligated to. When I first saw Wall-E, it was barely a few years ago and all I remember taking away from it was that robots really can love each other. Nevertheless, now I realized that Wall-E has been so successful and enjoyable to watch because it is completely relevant to the culture we live in. I thought the director/ writers were clever in incorporating aspects of the modern American society that have become controversial topics, such as, human disregard for nature and obesity.
ReplyDeleteThe theme I would choose would probably be: In the animated film Wall-E, visual elements, such as the places/settings, are used to convey the detrimental effects of a convenience centered society. In this case the environment is the culture the humans of Wall-E have created in which they are constantly surrounded by expedient services, thus causing extreme dependency to become the norm. This message is supported by the different settings used that the humans are presumed to be responsible for. For instance, the murky, desolate earth in the beginning of the film was left in that condition because it was no longer an opportune place for the people. They had used it as much as they could and then moved on to a different setting; this new setting in the spaceship emphasizes the people’s new attitude and preferred way of life.
What really struck me was the very beginning of the movie. You just see WALLE going around compacting junk, and the colors are extremely monochromatic and the frame almost feels cluttered. The viewers feel the impact of the harm that has been done to the earth through the opening scene. Destruction of the environment was a huge theme throughout the movie, and I would argue that human obesity was a sub theme under damage to the environment: the human body is something that needs to be taken care of and nourished just like the earth, and humans completely disregard that fact. The writers of WALLE utilize color tone and framing in order to illustrate human destruction of the earths environment.
ReplyDeleteThe issue I saw was the environmental damage that the humans had done on earth. For me, this issue was portrayed through many aspects but a main one being the music and lack of dialogue. At the beginning of the movie when Wall-E is alone on earth, there is no dialogue and to the analytical mind. This lack of dialogue can be seen as a method the writers use to convey the damage the humans have done to the earth. We don’t need to have words. In fact, by not including words they may be trying to say that they too are at a loss of words. All we need is the tone setting music that is played in the background along with a few sound effects coming from the technology and we are given the freedom to fill in the unimaginable words ourselves to dictate how humans have destroyed the earth and the unspeakable damage they have done.
ReplyDeleteI have seen this movie (along with all the Pixar movies) multiple times so I felt very assured going into this assignment. However, I had never paid much attention to the music in Walle until I watched it this time around. The music in this music struck a chord with me because similar to the 2001: A Space Odyssey, it often didn't just complement a scene, but actually was the scene. The moment where Walle and Eve were dancing in space completely reminded me of 2001 and its waltz because both movies utilized the peaceful simplicity of space. Even though Earth had been nearly destroyed and overrun by humans and technology, that moment was an example of the opportunities that arise out of chaos. The storyline up until this moment had been busy and full of color but changed as Walle and Eve floated out into black nothingness. Without that music, the audience isn't able to experience the complete change of environment that Walle experiences.
ReplyDeleteI found a theme that results from the music in Walle is one of simple opportunities in the future arise out of complications from the past.
The assignment was the first time that I viewed Wall-E; had I watched it previously, however, I would not have realized that there were legitimate social issues that were displayed, such as our reliance on technology. Although not directly stated, the writers wanted the viewer to make the connection that we are dependent on machines for too many things; soon we too could be on a Jetson-like path where we rarely do anything for ourselves. Without control of our own environment, it is possible for us to destroy our planet in a similar way that was presented in the movie. When the mutiny occurred, there was the sense of helplessness, as well as the idea that humans had done this to themselves. This was cleverly worked into a children's movie, and I applaud Pixar for being able to satisfy both younger and older audiences with this film.
ReplyDeleteThere is an obvious message about environmental destruction in this movie. It is extremely shocking how the planet is portrayed with skyscrapers of garbage. What is more interesting is how Wall-E interacts with this hostile environment. Simple objects bring him pleasure, and he seems to have human like emotions. Therefore, an important theme in this movie is the personification of technology. This is emphasized with cinematic tools such as sound and music. The tone and tempo of the music match the mood of a scene, and also match the emotions of Wall-E. This is especially important because for a large part of the movie, there is no dialogue. So, the sounds and music are especially important to help convey emotion and plot.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I watched Wall-E, I viewed it as just a fun movie for kids. I wasn’t really paying attention to whether or not there were any social issues, but now that I’ve watched it again, I see that the entire film is based on social commentary. The writers are definitely criticizing the way we currently do things and showing the possible repercussions.
ReplyDeleteIf I had to choose one social issue, I would probably pick the obesity of humans. They became way too dependent on technology, which kept them from doing anything. This laziness and dependency lead to the widespread obesity. The director of Wall-E, Andrew Stanton, connects human obesity to environmental turmoil through the use of visual elements, like color choice and product placement.
I didn’t realize Wall-E conveyed such a plethora of social messages from obesity, the separation between human emotion and communication to the enormous, to the irreversible damage we have inflicted on the environment. I analyzed the movie using the visual lens. The beginning scene reflects the damage to the environment well with the pollution, smog, zoom in to the piles of trash that reached so high, and the mustard colored atmosphere. The colors are really dull and we can feel the level of toxicity—both environmental and relationship-wise.
ReplyDeleteHence, the film utilizes visual elements as harbingers about the future of the Earth, if our society continues at the rate we do with the pollution, technology, and lack of awareness.
The main message I got from watching WallE was one about the deleterious effects of lazy, selfish, careless human beings and the long term results that may come from our actions. While the spaceship scenario with the obese humans riding on gocarts with everything available to them at the touch of a button was very over dramaticized, it was an effective way of conveying the message that convenience and innovation for the sake of convenience can reverse progress in society. As for visuals, the contrast between the spaceship scenes and ones on earth were very powerful. The spaceship scenes were bright, flashy, fast moving, loud, and colorful whereas the ones on earth were quiet, dull-colored/tones, vast, empty, and sparse. The space scenes really reminded me of very modern cities like Hong Kong, Shanghai, Las Vegas, Macau, Tokyo, etc. in its flashy lights, fast paced movements, noises all around, anything you want available anywhere you go,and the hedonistic lifestyles that are lived during vacations/getaways there...It made the WallE spaceship seem relatable, which was scary.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of dialogue, there is not much script, especially between WallE and Eva. At first I was a little annoyed at the complete silence in the beginning of the movie, but later (like in 2001), I think WallE and Eva's lack of word-dialogue helped to give significance to their emotions. Whereas in the space scenes everythnig was loud and obnoxious and the humans did speak in English, it didn't hold any more significance or importance than the silence that existed on earth. I think it was a message about how people have forgotten what it's like to value things like silence and words and nature. Instead people are too preoccupied with constant entertainment, constantly seeking something to fill the silence.
Originally I thought the film was going to be about the destruction of our planet, but I noticed so many more social issues while watching the film. The obesity as a result of human dependency on technology struck me the most while watching. I noticed the emphasis the director put on this through all humans lack of movement and their food in a cup idea. All of these aspects, combined with not having to work for anything, lead to the humans dependency and eventual bone loss as they stated in the movie. I loved the captains response, "We have a jogging track." I also found it interesting the extent of the lack of human connection as a result of the technology, which leads me to wonder if the babies are genetically engineered.
ReplyDeleteThe film conveys the negative affects of humans dependency on technology while on the Axium through the use of visual affects.
I really like what Helen said about the use of color in the movie. I feel like color is incredibly important to all films, but especially Pixar movies because they are trying to appeal to a younger audience and get their message across in a clear concise manner, and I believe children find color to be very telling.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how Aparna brought up all the social issues she saw. Did anyone else see any others?
Wall-E has many visual elements which depict the culture of the movie. Among the most powerful, cities made of garbage blocks, miles of piles of trash, obese people video chatting and never speaking face to face or moving from their seats, dark color choices when on earth, and a lack of being able to see the blue sky. Since all of these problems are an extreme version of the ones in our world, it makes it easy to see how this may actually happen to the world one day if we continue to let technology take over. The music in the move was also very typical. There were heroic sounds when something heroic was happening, sad songs when something sad was happening, and panicked music with something nerve wrecking was happening. The dialogue in this movie was probably the most interesting lens. The humans never spoke to each other unless through their video chat program. A powerful scene was when two obese humans recognized Wall-E and accidentally spoke face to face. It seemed so new to them. It is scary to think that this is what facebook and video chat are doing to us. The face to face dialogue in the movie was between two robots, or a robot and a human.
ReplyDeleteWall-E uses familiar settings to those we have today to show the realities of technology destroying the world.
WALL-E was incredibly thought provoking. I had seen it before but I had never really payed attention to the elements of the film individually. The character development between EVE and WALL-E was impressive considering the scant amount of dialogue between them. The repetitiveness of "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" from the musical Hello Dolly seemed like the last echoes of humanity that somehow managed to give WALL-E an idea of how human emotions were demonstrated and how to deal with them. It was interesting to see WALL-E as a very static, yet entertaining character that changed the world one interaction at a time. The visual aspects of the movie seemed to flow naturally and demonstrated the nature of WALL-E, EVE, and the other characters. The dramatic use of the camera, subtle use of music and simplistic dialogue left many layers of meaning to the entire film. I was also surprised at how many references there were to 2001: A Space Odyssey. I definitely enjoyed the movie more this time than the last time that I saw it.
ReplyDeleteCorrigan's interpretation of the "shot" and "editing" both contribute to the plot of 2001 A Space Odyssey. The primary shot obviously being the seamless transfer from bone to spacecraft. Yes, this is dissimilar to Corrigan's cowboy example but it is edited to give a similar feeling. The change is meant to create a parallel. In Creation, the shots switch from sane, disgruntled Darwin to the imaginative Darwin who continually thinks he sees his deceased daughter. The purpose was to fix the viewer into the mind of Darwin and almost make yourself feel a little bit loco. Camera angles in specific shots in each film also play a role in how the scene is meant to be interpreted. For example, in Creation, Darwin is seen from a high angle (crane angle) in his water treatment to simulate, what felt to me, several things like falling water and grief pouring down.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, factors pour in like music, sound, word choice, etc. In 2001 A Space Odyssey, the best example of that is when the second monolith was touched by those taking pictures with it. A screeching ear piercing terrible noise was made and a switch was made to the next, what seemed unrelated but was very related, scene. Music played a large part in Creation by reflecting the mood Darwin would be in. When upset about his family, slow music with depressing undertones would play. For scenes where he is studying vigorously, fast paced up beat music would play.