I have two preschoolers. We generally try to stay away from electronic media, as a family, whenever possible. Well, that’s not totally accurate. The kids enjoy the online educational games made available for free and our Friday nights are generally reserved for a kid-friendly movie. We never use it as a babysitter, any programming viewed by our children is also viewed along with at least one adult. We discuss the movies, we learn from their messages and we compare and contrast to the real, nonfiction world.
Most of the movies we select teach messages of sharing and caring and true love and fighting for what is right. There’s a clear good character and a clear evil character or force. They are stories of overcoming the odds and of good triumphing over evil.
I must say, the socio-political addict that I tend to be has found quite a favorite in the Disney-Pixar imaginings in Wall-E. [Eventual spoiler alert!]
Wall-E is about an adorable little robot whose job it is to package garbage into little cubes. The humans have produced so much garbage that the planet is no longer sustainable for human life. The only company left on the whole planet, Buy ‘N Large, decides it makes more sense to allow their “customers” (the human population) to go on a space luxury cruise until the planet is again clean enough for human habitation.
The movie is fraught with symbolism and almost hauntingly appropriate for our current times.
There is the obvious environmental message that overproduction and over consumption will ruin our environment.
There’s the economic message that we are, as a society, so consumed by the almighty dollar that as long as something is advertised the right way, we will listen and we will buy.
There’s the political message that, one day, there will be a corporation so big that it will engulf all others and dictate everything we do as a society, and we might just be lazy enough to listen. On the space cruise, 700 years later, everyone rides in a hover round. Robots attend to every need, including the education of the children, the morning shave, the climate control, even the brushing of teeth. Humans don’t even eat solid food anymore, all meals are served in cups. It has gotten to the point, where the bone mass has decreased so much that people cannot pick themselves up when they fall.
Along comes Wall-E’s eventual gal, Eva, who finds, despite the dictatorial message being preached to the masses, that life finally is, once again, sustainable on Earth. The establishment, fights come hell or high water to make sure that no one finds out, but the robots fight back. In this fight, the humans learn they are capable of so much more than simply what Buy ’N Large has been telling them. They, quite literally, learn to stand on their own feet again.
As is typical with preschoolers, we have viewed this movie about 50 times since we discovered it and every time the messages within the story blow my mind. First of all, cause it’s a Disney flick, which as I said earlier, typically talks about princess and contains a nice, radio friendly song and has an obvious good character and an obvious evil character. This movie has a LOT more grey area. As a grown up, I would consider the easy enemy to be Buy ’N Large, the corporation that tells the humans that they should just give up doing everything for themselves and let Buy ‘N Large take care of them. What’s so bad about that, you ask? They sat back and became completely dependent on their governing force, which was indeed, the Big Corporation because it was EASY. It was EASY to let Buy ‘N Large provide everything for them. It was EASY to let them dictate the clothes they should wear, the food they should, ahem, drink, the time of day it was, whether or not they could splash in the pool.
It would have been harder for the humans to fight the good fight for their independence by not buying products exclusively from Buy ‘N Large when there were still alternatives. It would have been harder for the humans to re-purpose their garbage and choose products that were not disposable and weren’t composed of toxic chemicals. It would have been harder for the humans to tell Buy ‘N Large, “No, we will stay here, in our home and help clean it!” It would have been harder for the humans to do the research on their own and think for themselves. Pretty big message for a for a cute little kids’ movie.
Most of the movies we select teach messages of sharing and caring and true love and fighting for what is right. There’s a clear good character and a clear evil character or force. They are stories of overcoming the odds and of good triumphing over evil.
I must say, the socio-political addict that I tend to be has found quite a favorite in the Disney-Pixar imaginings in Wall-E. [Eventual spoiler alert!]
Wall-E is about an adorable little robot whose job it is to package garbage into little cubes. The humans have produced so much garbage that the planet is no longer sustainable for human life. The only company left on the whole planet, Buy ‘N Large, decides it makes more sense to allow their “customers” (the human population) to go on a space luxury cruise until the planet is again clean enough for human habitation.
The movie is fraught with symbolism and almost hauntingly appropriate for our current times.
There is the obvious environmental message that overproduction and over consumption will ruin our environment.
There’s the economic message that we are, as a society, so consumed by the almighty dollar that as long as something is advertised the right way, we will listen and we will buy.
There’s the political message that, one day, there will be a corporation so big that it will engulf all others and dictate everything we do as a society, and we might just be lazy enough to listen. On the space cruise, 700 years later, everyone rides in a hover round. Robots attend to every need, including the education of the children, the morning shave, the climate control, even the brushing of teeth. Humans don’t even eat solid food anymore, all meals are served in cups. It has gotten to the point, where the bone mass has decreased so much that people cannot pick themselves up when they fall.
Along comes Wall-E’s eventual gal, Eva, who finds, despite the dictatorial message being preached to the masses, that life finally is, once again, sustainable on Earth. The establishment, fights come hell or high water to make sure that no one finds out, but the robots fight back. In this fight, the humans learn they are capable of so much more than simply what Buy ’N Large has been telling them. They, quite literally, learn to stand on their own feet again.
As is typical with preschoolers, we have viewed this movie about 50 times since we discovered it and every time the messages within the story blow my mind. First of all, cause it’s a Disney flick, which as I said earlier, typically talks about princess and contains a nice, radio friendly song and has an obvious good character and an obvious evil character. This movie has a LOT more grey area. As a grown up, I would consider the easy enemy to be Buy ’N Large, the corporation that tells the humans that they should just give up doing everything for themselves and let Buy ‘N Large take care of them. What’s so bad about that, you ask? They sat back and became completely dependent on their governing force, which was indeed, the Big Corporation because it was EASY. It was EASY to let Buy ‘N Large provide everything for them. It was EASY to let them dictate the clothes they should wear, the food they should, ahem, drink, the time of day it was, whether or not they could splash in the pool.
It would have been harder for the humans to fight the good fight for their independence by not buying products exclusively from Buy ‘N Large when there were still alternatives. It would have been harder for the humans to re-purpose their garbage and choose products that were not disposable and weren’t composed of toxic chemicals. It would have been harder for the humans to tell Buy ‘N Large, “No, we will stay here, in our home and help clean it!” It would have been harder for the humans to do the research on their own and think for themselves. Pretty big message for a for a cute little kids’ movie.
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