WALL-E: Funny Or Offensive?
So, I listen to this Disney podcast called Magical Definition (hey, I enjoy Disneyland) and they were talking about an upcoming Pixar movie called WALL-E; perhaps you’ve seen the previews for it? It looks super cute.
Jim Hill talked about the test screenings for WALL-E on the podcast, and he also mentions it on his blog (bolding mine):
Well, “WALL-E” has had several test screenings over the past six months. And while audiences have supposedly fallen in love with the movie’s title character, they have also reportedly raised some concerns about this new Andrew Stanton film. Which allegedly has been described ” … as the darkest motion picture that Pixar has ever produced.”
Among the issues that these test audiences have supposedly cited are “WALL-E” ‘s depressing settings (i.e. The first act of this film is set on Earth 700 years from now, where — thanks to humanity’s wasteful ways — our planet is now basically one big trash heap floating in space) as well as the picture’s depiction of people (i.e. In the future, mankind has grown so slothful that everyone weighs 500 pounds and has lost the ability to walk on their own. Which is why we all make use of these devices that look like floating barcaloungers).
On the podcast, Jim says “to certain audience segments, that’s not satirical and funny and light, that’s kind of offensive.” So, I can’t decide. Is it mocking the “obesity epidemic” or is it mocking obese people? And if they’re still tweaking the movie, how can they fix it?
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Actually, the reason the humans are 500lb blobs is because their bones have deteriorated. In space, according to NASA, your bones start to deteriorate, and as these humans have been up there so long, the have no bones left.
I find it offensive. It conflates fatness with overconsumption, a lack of personal or environmental regard, and poor health.
I previously blogged about the film and next to the Dan Savage debacle and oddly, the Brazilian yogurt ads, it was the next highest-viewed post, I think. There are lots of Pixar loyalists who concoct some pretty creative reasons as to how and why the film doesn’t portray fat people in a negative light. I even had someone with an IP traced back to Pixar comment on it.
So, Thomas, does the film actually take the time to translate NASA talk into language everyone can understand to explain why we all look like Jabba the Hut?
Or will general audiences (which form the bulk of Pixar’s demographic), upon seeing a fat blob “drinking liquified food from Big-Gulp-esque cups, and forever surfing (and chatting) on chair-mounted video screens” think “Wow, so that’s what the obesity epidemic will do to humans!”
They way I read about it, it didn’t sound offensive at all. People floating around in space, nothing to do but internet and eating, 24/7- doesn’t sound that bad! I’d certainly end up like that if you gave me 700 years time. ;-)
It really depends on how this is carried out, if it’s done a little tongue-in-cheek, it could be fun, but I can see it ending up pretty offensive, too.
I think it is important to recognize that lazy does not always equal fat. IT would have been more realistic if we became blobs of different sizes based on the deterioration of the bones. I think based on our continually changing society that is constantly improving technology to “improve our lives” it is feasible that we could degenerate in this way toward slothful blobs. I think if we step back and remember this is a dystopian Disney film and not take it so personally we can realize that based on the premise- a world where humans are living a completely reclined existence excessive weight gain is possible. There are plenty of people who would say that if they stopped exercising they would gain weight.
As is usually the case it depends on how it was originally intended, if it was meant as a reference to the obesity “epidemic” instead of simply a reference to the mass overconsumption then yeah maybe it is offensive, but I am leaning away from offensive and considering it a possible reality of our future world.
Sedentary people do not continuously gain weight indefinitely and grow to huge proportions. As with weight loss, weight gain plateus. As with weight loss, the plateu shifts each time a person diets. So, not only doess a person lose less weight each time they diet, they gain more.
Put another way, there are plenty of thin sedentary people in the world right now. There’s no reason to think that there wouldn’t be in the future too. Also, the degree to which a fat person gets fat will depend on the same complex processes that happen in every body, so there would be a wide variety of body sizes in the future too.
It is a myth that every body responds to sendentary life in exactly the same way.
Wait, so humans are all 500-pound blobs drinking out of Mega-Big-Gulps and floating around in floating barcaloungers? And the earth has been turned into a giant trash heap because of humanity’s slothful, gluttonous ways?
So we’ve got fat people associated with massive over-eating, laziness and slobbery. Oh yeah, that’s not offensive at ALL. Good clean HIGH-larious fun is what that is. (end sarc)
I’m honestly really disappointed with this. My husband and I are big Pixar fans (despite many sexism issues already with them). And my kids’ favorite movie is Cars, and used to be Finding Nemo. So really, we’ve got Pixar merchandise out the yin-yang around here. But this movie? I just don’t think I can support it.
I know Pixar’s early advertising is often only tangentially related to what the movie actually winds up being, so I’m holding out a little hope that the movie will actually wind up a good deal different than the ads are currently. But if not? Sorry, Pixar. Try telling stories that aren’t so damn demeaning, and maybe you’ll get another chance.
I vote for “offensive.” Clearly, there are never any thin, sedentary, overconsuming people. (Ironic about the bones, too – I would think fatter people’s bones would deteriorate *less.*)
It sounds a lot like an old 1950s-era sci-fi story by Jack Vance called “Abercrombie Station,” where everyone on the space station becomes massively fat, and the main villain of the station is pretty much a “monster.”
Too bad – because the fat character Auguste Gusteau in Ratatouille was really sweet. Guess no one can resist the cheap pot shot.
Businesses will continue to sell the messages people are hot to buy, until they can’t profit from them anymore and go on to something else.
Right now, the hot messages for sale include “fat people are evil, disgusting, gluttonous slobs” and “the planet is dying”.
So Dixar (not mispelled) is cashing in.
whyme63,
Well obviously if it’s not doing well with test audiences, it’s not as hot to buy as Pixar thought.
What I am ultimately curious about is WHY these audiences aren’t liking it. Are they bothered by the implication that consumption+technology will make everyone a fat lazy stereotype? Is it that they don’t dig a world where everyone is a lazy slob? Or is it that they have to watch “fat people”/”fat people stereotypes” for an hour and a half?
I kinda feel like Pixar wanted to play on the fat people stereotype, but didn’t take into account that (sadly) many people are offended at the very sight of fat people. How many times have we heard people say they shouldn’t have to look at us?
Offensive. Highly. And very moral-panic-y. Which makes me gag.
Pat tried to add a link, but it broke. Pat, here it is! And the quote you pulled out:
“There’s an amazing sequence where the camera pans over portraits of the previous captains of the ship — and we watch as they slowly devolve into amorphous blobs with each successive generation.”
I think people will get offended by anything and everything.
Yes, I don’t necessarily love the idea of playing off fat people, but can’t this also be seen as a a statement about the inactivity of new generations, who spend hours more sitting at the computers, playing video games, and watching tv? Kids are exponentially more inactive, and I think it’s okay to play off a national problem. Sometimes approaching it with humor in an animated film is the best way to change someone’s mind.
No one needs to read this as a blatant stereotype, saying all fat people are inactive. That’s like assuming that all models are anorexic. We just don’t need to always be so personally offended by *everything.*
Anyone ever wonder why aliens always look the same in movies/TV? Small, frail bodies, giant heads. They live in space, flying around in saucers, no labor workers, robots doing things for them, always at a computer. Sound familiar?
Why would our bones disintegrate? I totally forgot that I need a spine to sit upright in a chair and arms to move my hands to push buttons. I forgot I need limbs at all to do anything.
Put another vote on offended because it’s pure bullshit that they would even come up with this when the logical conclusion for not doing anything would to have muscle mass shrink into nothing, left only with a skeleton and enough adipose tissue to keep the bones from poking through the skin. There’s a reason astronauts have to work out so much on the space station and it’s not to keep their bones from disintegrating.
Try doing some more research there, Pixar.
No one needs to read this as a blatant stereotype, saying all fat people are inactive.
Yeah, it’s just a complete coincidence that ALL of the inactive characters responsible for the destruction of the planet are fat. Whatev.
The whole ‘people are just looking for something to get offended about’ meme needs to die. This movie is one of a million ways fat people are targeted and shamed every day. Believe me. We don’t need to look for it. It’s freakin’ shoved down our throats.
I’m not sure that the movie is really about the humans (there is very little actual dialogue, for example, mostly just R2D2-style machine language), and as far as I can tell, the evil consumerism happens before the exodus from Earth, which happens before the giant-boneless-blob transformation. If that’s the case, then the association with evil rampant consumerism is going to be with average-sized humans, and the happily-ever-after is going to be with the big floppy boneless people.
(In fact, here is the Buy n Large website, a promo for the company that manufactures Wall-E years before the big floppy boneless space people era, and indeed the people are average-sized people from stock photos:
http://www.buynlarge.com/)
I decline to interpret the big floppy boneless space people, of whom I have not been able to find images, as being fat. Fat people are real, live on this planet, and have bones. Boneless space blob humans are cartoon fiction, and may not even be fat – perhaps all their blobbiness is muscle and connective tissue.
They should glamourize obesity instead. How about a 550lb hero who saves a boy from a burning building by running a 4 minute mile.
Anyone see the preview for Dreamwork’s Kung-Fu Panda? At least it looks as though the “flabby” Panda doesn’t have to get skinny to get good at Kung-Fu…but of course his Kung-Fu master has to use food as tool in his training, a la “Can you get the dumpling from me, fattie?”
At least they aren’t employing stereotypical Asian English accents like on that Super Bowl commercial.
http://www.kungfupanda.com/
Sorry, ginger, but this “floppy boneless” thing is being beaten to death. My BS detector is beeping wildly. Like Rachel mentioned before, it’s all about perception. Do you think the kids, the middle-schoolers and teenagers, and the rest of the general public is going to think, “Wow, look at those people with deteriorated bones! Boy, we should never over-consume and then have to live in space and become boneless!”
They’re being fed a stereotype of the significantly morbidly-obese person who rides a scooter while sucking down a Slurpee in one hand and eating baby donuts with the other. (a stereotype, people, NOT what I actually think of when I think of disabled fat people, but what I believe a lot of ignorant fattists think of).
Whether or not this is the line that Pixar is feeding the protesters (who, like every other company, wants to save their ass when it gets too close to the coals), I’m calling BS. I’m a little bit of a science fiction aficionado, and I’m a scientist and writer myself, and boy, the “boneless floppy-body” thing would have worked if they didn’t equate complete inactivity with automatic weight gain.
Sure, because there’s no such thing as inactive thin people! I think they’d make smaller floppy blobs, don’t you? Kind of like that deflated girl from the pot commercial (I hope people remember which one I’m referencing lol ).
Sorry for the double post:
Skittle, I think it’s been repeated ad nauseam on these sites that we’re about fat ACCEPTANCE, not the GLORIFICATION of any one size over another.
And it will be repeated over and over again, since haters like to paint their victims in as low a moral light as possible, so they feel justified in their hate. Sorry, but this back isn’t bending for you (I’m not boneless yet, lol).
I really hope that this movie isn’t a fat-bash, considering Auguste Gusteau was a pretty influential character in Ratatouille (and he had a kid, here I thought fat people didn’t have sex ;)).
But to all the people who tout that fat acceptors shouldn’t be so ‘sensitive’ about the use of fat stereotypes, or for the trolls on Rachel’s blog who say that fat acceptors are trying to take the ‘edge’ off the piece of artwork that is this film, let me tell you something. While it is considered ‘edgy’ to use stereotypes by shock jocks and comedians to backlash against what is perceived to be a overly-politically correct society, I would hope that Pixar isn’t trying to get in to the shock comedy business (might conflict with the family entertainment thing they got going on).
But do you know the art that’s truly groundbreaking? Truly edgy? It’s the art that makes you question what you believe to be true, and challenges the stereotypes that you know, instead of lazily relying on them.
Whether or not Pixar does use the negative fat stereotypes we won’t truly know until a larger group of people watch the film. If they do, it would not only be ethically reprehensible, but also artistically so, and would be terribly disappointing.
“Wait, so humans are all 500-pound blobs drinking out of Mega-Big-Gulps and floating around in floating barcaloungers? And the earth has been turned into a giant trash heap because of humanity’s slothful, gluttonous ways?”
You know, this is one thing I like about “Idiocracy.” In it, people are sitting in chairs that serve as toilets (so they don’t have to get up), watching tv incessantly, guzzling massive quantities of sweetened drinks, eating without untensils from HUGE tubs full of things that are basically pure fat, and ordering massive amounts of junk food. But they aren’t fat. They’re lazy, they’re stupid, but they aren’t all gigantic blobs. I like that.
Just as people now, in this supposedly quite sedentary, fat-eating time, aren’t all gigantic blobs.
zenjen, I know what you mean, and I actually appreciate comedians who aren’t afraid to cross PC lines. But since when has it ever been non-PC to make fat jokes? And how is it “edgy”? It’s been done SO long, SO much, SO often – it’s passe. It’s completely overdone, and it has been for a long, long time. There’s not an “edge” left in sight for fat jokes. Once in a very very rare while I hear a fat joke that’s still a little funny. The most offensive thing about ANY joke is it not being funny. And 99.9999% of fat jokes aren’t funny anymore. I’m 41, and by the time I was maybe 14 and still very thin, they *already* weren’t funny hardly ever. Who are they funny to anymore? Why don’t they just go back to “Take my wife, please.” That’s funnier.
Oh come on, people. Maybe it’s because I live in France, where our political correct radar is different, but can’t we make fun of anyone anymore? We had ads in newspapers years ago showing naked “skinny” women and the tagline: “Sure, she’s beautiful outside, but is she taking care of her inside?” and naked “fat” women with “Her cholesterol is better than yours” , for the organism preventing eating disorders and my two American friends thought this was “sexist” because it showed no naked men, etc. I agree that fat jokes are rarely funny, but I’m all for joking and laughing at yourself. In France this will probably go down well. Maybe it’s a cultural thing!
I think I agree with most people here that, while there’s this entire backstory behind the bone deterioration, people aren’t going to see them and think, “oh, they don’t have bones. From my extensive training at NASA, I’ve come to learn that your skeleton deteriorates in space.” They’re going to see enormous fat people, who through many generations, have caught the obesity plague and turned into lazy, stupid, marketable fatties whose only purpose in the movie is to flop around like seals and guzzle down food like good little stereotypes while skinny people laugh hysterically. But hey, that laughter just means that they’re only concerned about our health. Or is it our skeleton?
They could have done a lot more work on portraying the “boneless” idea. Maybe by designing humans with a body containment suit when their bodies became unstable, or a mechanical exoskeleton to support them. Know why they didn’t? Know why they fly everywhere in giant floating armchairs, guzzling junk-food? Three guesses.
Oh, and Skittle: facepalm.
It’s obvious to me that many of you have been picked on for a large part of your lives due to your weight. Perhaps that’s why you tend to see like the world is out to get you. I think many of you are not only over weight but over-sensitive. Fat people, unfortunately, will always be a comedic foil. Is it fair? No. Is it funny? Depends on your comedic tastes. But it will always be around. I
“to see like the world is out to get you.” ?? I need another cup of coffee.
Sara,
There is making fun of people–and being able to laugh at yourself–and there is targeting and stigmatizing people. And if you don’t think it matters who and what we make fun of, you should really look at some critical studies on humor.
I read about WALL-E awhile back on another FA blog and was horrified! I felt that I could trust Pixar in that they were very PC in funand friendly ways…but this? Ugh! Though while walking past one of the cardboard cutout preview thingys at a theatre two of my friends got all excited about another Pixar film while my husband just thought “cute robot.” When I told him the supposed premise he didn’t really seem to believe that such a large company would do that to such a large percentage of the population. I hope that it’s just rumors and whatnot…because I won’t see it if it’s true.
If they show a bunch of backstory where average-sized people ruin the world, and then the average-sized people go into space and turn into big boneless space people, won’t it be pretty apparent that the size of the people is the outcome of the consumerist destruction, rather than its cause?
I don’t know whether that’s an acceptable message, either – but I think it’s a pretty important difference.
I admit that I want Pixar to be on the side of good, here, because they’ve been such a force for fresh ideas in the past. Disney has been so awful for so long, with the princesses and the rescue scenarios (“Lilo and Stitch” was the exception that proved the rule) and I had hoped Pixar would keep being positive.
For those who think us fat people are just “over-sensitive” or “can’t take a joke,” consider this. There are several reviewers who have seen the pilot version of WALL-E as it has progressed in production. Not one of them has remarked on how space disintegrates human bones. Not one of them has commented on how these characters more cartoon than human. Not one of them has disassociated the film from real life fat people.
Rather, what the reviewers have said is precisely the same perceptions other offended commenters here have come to, namely, that mankind has devolved into a population of gluttonous slothful fat people who have almost single-handedly destroyed the environment thanks to their laziness, overconsumption, and lack of regard for the planet in which they inhabit.
If you find that kind of stereotype to be “funny,” I suggest it is you and not we who have the real problem.
I also find it extremely ironic that a broadcaster “jokes” about “nappy-headed hos” and there is a public outcry and calls for his firing and forced apology. Yet when another media outlet “jokes” about fat people, we’re told to sit back, shut up, and to stop being overly sensitive.
I think we are talking about peoples reactions to the movie, and I keep reading people saying people are not responding well because the people are “fat”. I do not think that is peoples problem with the movie it seems like people are more concerned with the dark subject matter, as well as the fact that children will possibly perceive these people in the future as being scary.
Also, I am sorry but being sedentary and slovenly will cause weight gain. Especially things full of sugar and preservatives. So if in the future we sit on our asses and drink super big gulps then we will not surprisingly be overweight.
The premise is overconsumption, and maybe we are slightly bothered and afraid because it is an all too real possibility
I know what you mean Annie McPhee. That’s the ironic/funny/sad part. People make fat-jokes as if it’s non-PC to make them even though fat-jokes run rampant, and everyone has heard who knows how many fat-jokes. It’s like those people who say they want to talk about obesity because “no one wants to talk about it.” Everyone who hears those statements are thinking “What rock are you living under?” Pretty much people who think making fat-jokes is edgy are living under the same rock.
Ashley, I didn’t know that things like “sedentary” and “slovenly” contained sugar and preservatives. Where can I find the sugar-free and preservative-free sedentary?
Yeah! What Rachel said!
And zenjen, please let me know if you find out where I can purchase some lo-cal sloth. I’ve been getting my slovenly and sedentary from a can of Eazy Cheeze and I’m ready for something without preservatives.
“I also find it extremely ironic that a broadcaster “jokes” about “nappy-headed hos” and there is a public outcry and calls for his firing and forced apology. Yet when another media outlet “jokes” about fat people, we’re told to sit back, shut up, and to stop being overly sensitive.”
Rachel, you may not have heard it, but there WERE a lot of people who complained about Imus that were also told to sit back, shut up, and stop being overly sensitive.
Plus, as you notice, he’s back at work at another job.
What I find fascinating is that, fairly frequently, the same people who get huffy about fat people or people of color — or anyone, for that matter, who isn’t THEM — being “overly sensitive” are the exact same people who whine and cry about men being portrayed as dolts on TV and how ridiculous that all is.
Then, they’re being “portrayed unfairly”.
The rest of us, you see, are being “overly sensitive”.
People don’t choose to be “nappy headed hoes” (in that he was referring to black women, which is what got him in trouble).
People do frequently choose to be obese.
Considering that people complain about the growing prevalence of fat people in commercials, or that a contestant on American Idol can’t be fat without someone running to say that they are the “picture of un-health,” I don’t think it’s the fat people that are “oversensitive.”
And Frank Reich, people frequently choose religion, but last time I checked something like anti-Semetism is still looked down upon.
Or maybe I should clarify.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a person’s choice to do something (to join a religion, to act on their sexual attractions, supposedly to become fat, whatever) discrimination is discrimination is discrimination. It’s already a pretty much given that discriminating against someone for having a particular religion is considered bad, so saying something is a “choice” is a weak argument for saying that it’s open for discrimination even if you believe that being fat is a person’s choice.
How do you feel about heroin users?
Very carefully – they might have needles in their pockets. No, seriously, though – hold up, there.
Some, but not all, fat people are fat because they overeat and are sedentary. Some fat people are unhealthy because they are fat; some are unhealthy for other reasons; some are healthy. It is unfair, unreasonable, and incorrect to assume that fat people are overeaters, sedentary, or unhealthy, because you can’t tell by looking.
However, it is obvious that sedentary people who overconsume are, generally speaking, going to become fat. There are fat people who got there the easy way. (There’s no easy way to lose weight, but there’s sure as hell easy ways to put it on.)
Nobody deserves to be treated with contempt because of his or her weight, though, irrespective of how s/he gained it (and there’s a certain sort of greasy faux-compassion that’s just contempt in a different face). It’s unkind and stupid. Some people try to justify their prejudiced attitude as motivation for fat people to lose weight – but that’s plain bullshit. It doesn’t work, and it’s just ugly, self-righteous busybodiness.
That they’re human, and should be treated as human. That drug addiction is too complex for someone like me to pass a moral judgment on an entire group of people. That discriminating against heroin users wouldn’t help them either way. That these and other issues would cause me to think that discriminating against heroin users isn’t a good idea. That’s not even going in the argument that heroin use becomes less of a choice after a person becomes addicted.
Seriously, what kind of answer were you expecting when asking this question?
“BUT, BUT, BUT… THATS DIFFERENT! dRUGS ARE BAD, M’Kay! pEOPLE WHO USE DRUGS ARE baD!11!1 IS OK TO DISCRIMINATE CUZ TEY CHOOSE 2 B ADDICTED!!1!”*
Sorry but no. Discriminating against drug users without knowing a damn thing about them isn’t a smart idea, even giving in to the assumption that drug addiction is in the user’s control.
*lame attempt at text speak, lol.
Everyone should stop feeling so victimized! You were given this life to live, and I dont see how any movie can keep from living your life it to it’s fullest (no pun intended).
Wow…troll-meter off the charts!
Why is everyone with a different opinion than you a troll? I am not taking sides here, but all that this is here is an argument, and the film isn’t even finished yet! After you have watched the movie than you can form your own opinion. Please feel free to argue about the movie than. Thank you.
You’re right Angel H! And no 1234, people aren’t trolls because they have a different opinion. People are trolls when they dump comments like, “Don’t be so sensitive!” or “lazy people are fat!” or “fat people are lazy!” without reading any of the previous comments.
I vote Funny. But not because the film features obese humanoids. I think the film will be funny because of all the situations the robot is going to get himself into, think: “short circuit”. Im sure some people will be offended that there are no humanoids in this future-world that weigh under 500lbs, but some people can be offended by almost anything…
I think without knowing Wall•E’s full story it is hard to tell. If showing overconsumption and self-sedation (call screen watching what you will) at one’s own expense is necessary to juxtapose to Wall•E’s journey of finding purpose, then I don’t find it offensive. Sorry, although there are many factors that contribute to obesity, film is a visual medium, and it’s hard to show overconsumption with a skinny dude. I am, by the way, clinically overweight.
i wanted to let you know that i saw wall-e and figured that i would post what i thought about it: the first half hour or so took place on earth with only wall-e and eve, the two robots. the environmental message is basically shown by the trashed earth that wall-e is trying to clean up, [piles of tires, old fridges, rubber ducks, fire extinguishers, anything you can name it's there in the garbage heaps]. the imagery was amazing here, and very enjoyable. the whole story is basically wall-e and eve’s love story [who'd of thought that love could be so wonderful between two robots?]. the environment and over-consumption is there, but secondary.
secondly, the people are not evil. as a matter of fact, the captain of the ship, who is very fat, becomes a sort of hero at the end. basically the people may be fat, but are only lazy because they are basically following their ‘directives’, [to be plugged into their electronics all day, and eat when the ship tells them to, move when the ship tells them to, etc.]. yes, one man does fall out of his hover chair, and can’t get up on his own, but this is more because of his initial shock of being ‘unplugged’ so to speak, than being fat. later on in the movie when people fall out of their chairs, they get up on the own. the real evil factor here is the corporation buy ‘n’ large. they have brainwashed humanity into thinking that they are worthless, and stupid. [BTW, it is mentioned about degenerative bone loss at one point, for people who don't know about it.]
there is a nice scene when two of the people, [the man from earlier and a women], start a relationship. very nice to see indeed. the people are shocked to find out that they can walk, think for themselves, and have relationships. [from babies they were basically put into hover chairs, and raised by robots, this is why they had never learned to walk before]. auto the ships autopilot is buy ‘n’ large’s evil force on the ship. [reminiscent of 2001: a space oddessy, even the music from it plays at one point, LOL]
the whole point of the movie is to stop just following your ‘directive’, be yourself and start truly living. as the captain says; “i don’t want to survive, i want to live!”
/MAJOR SPOILER BELOW/
evil auto electrocutes wall-e at one point with his taser. the captain fights auto, nearly getting zapped himself, and triumphs over auto. the end of the movie with wall-e and eve is amazing. the humans have taken over their own future, and start a new life on earth, no longer dependent on electronics.
/SPOILER ENDS/
I recently saw this movie with my two children. We enjoyed it thoroughly.
I understand the concerns of overweight people, and some are valid. Not every person is overweight due to eating. A classmate of my children was born with a rare condition where her body does not make muscle. She also does not ever have the sensation of being full. Thankfully, her parents have discovered the cause and have her in treatment. No cure. Just treatment.
That said, I didn’t take the portrayal of overweight humans as a bigoted comment on fat people, but an extended result of our increasingly sedentary lifestyles. Yes, if you consume food and do not exercise, you will gain weight.
The message I got from the movie was that we need to get up from our computer monitors, get out, and interact with each other and the world.
Did everyone miss the lines about people doing everything virtually (golf, etc.)? Did everyone miss the lines about the characters not even realizing that the ship had a pool because they were always interfacing with the screen directly in front of them?
Would we have bought this social commentary if all the humans were fit and trim? How does a person lie around in a chair their entire life doing everything virtually and not gain weight?
Let’s all simmer down.
All you fatties need to relax. I thought this was one of the best movies I’ve seen in years.