Will You See Wall-E?
Sorry for the sporadic updating this week. There were some back end issues with the blog (they should be resolved for now), I had a couple of interviews to do (one for Japanese television, which I definitely will need to write a report on at some point, especially because I’m pretty sure one of the camera guys actually zoomed in on my fat so god only knows how that will turn out), and there was a family emergency. Oh, also work has been insane and I am teaching over the summer. So there you go: lots of things happening this week.
In the meantime, are you planning to see Wall-E this weekend? (Follow that link to read our previous discussion about the film.) Red No. 3 has some thoughts about the movie as well:
Indeed, it seems like Pixar is actually being quite subtle and I suspect their use of fat shorthand will appeal to a variety of different fat prejudices. Essentially, fat is cautionary in the film. A sign of humanity’s downfall in the future. But that’s all it is. A sign, a symbol to represent something else. That can be useful sometimes, but here the effect is far more crass. Rather than making a complex point about consumerism or over-consumpsion of resources, they just rely on people’s fear and disgust of fat. Forget all the valid complaints about those things. They’ll make you FAT! That fear can be so base for people, that it doesn’t matter if someone thinks of fat as a consequences of personal irresponsibility or corporate neglect. Both will feel the fear of fat and attach their own nuanced prejudices onto that.
Wow, that’s way more profound than I can be this Friday. So who’s going to see the movie? If you see it, please report back in this thread!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Feel Good Friday, Meta, Movies, Tidbit
Nope, I’m not going to see Wall-E, and it will be difficult, as I have an 8 year old son who wants to see the film. I told him that his dad will have to take him, because I was unhappy with some of the messages in the film.
Granted, I haven’t seen it, but just one screen cap convinced me that I won’t *want* to be sitting in the theater. I have long-held convictions about not supporting media which speaks against my best interests, and this film seems to be one.
I’m assuming that one day I’ll rent it via Netflix just to see it, but there is no way I’m forking over 8 bucks just to feel insulted!
I’m definately going to go see Wall.E, supposed fat angst or not.
I forgot to mention my own answer! I love Pixar so I kind of want to see it, but the trailers and posters kind of make me cry! Poor little lonely Wall-E! So then I think if I see it I will be really really sad. About the fat angst stuff, I’m just curious. I’m more scared of crying the whole time.
I wrote on Wall-E here last November when the film was still in development. I continue to get comments and trolls responding to that post and just recently closed it because I’m sick of moderating comments on that post. It appears Pixar has responded to the criticism of the early reviewers in that it negatively portrays fat people as the reason for the demise of the planet and has since reworked the film to be less sizeist. Still, stereotypes abound, according to some early screeners.
I’m not going to see it in the theater, but it’s not so much because of concerns with sizeism as it is that I’m really just not all that interested in it to fork over $10 for a ticket. I’ll wait for it to come out via Netflix.
Oh I’ll definitely see it.
It’s not that I don’t care about the anti-fat possibilities, only that the stuff is so rampant and not always obvious from the previews so I don’t feel like I can really ever avoid it. “Get Smart” was full of fat jokes - and not the ones you might think from the preview - and yet I found “Kung Fu Panda” to be a lot more fat positive than the previews would lead one to believe.
I will probably not ‘go and see’ it, but I will probably rent or download it at some point. Despite being for fat acceptance, I do believe that we have not started to be this size until very recently in our evolution, and that our evolution will take sometime to catch up with the environmental factors that affect us now as opposed to 10 thousand years ago. (and 10 thousand years is nothing in evolutionary terms.)
Nope.
1) I don’t do “big maker” movies. The MPAA is not an organization I choose to support.
2) Its fat-bias sucks from the previews I’ve seen. thanks but no thanks.
3) IT’S A KID’S MOVIE. I do not, will not and refuse to see kid’s movies in the theater. I’ve done it twice in my semi-adult life (the first time I was 16 and took all my neices and nephews) and it was a nightmare both times. Never again. There’s not enough alcohol in the world ;)
Haven’t touched a Pixar film since…you know I can’t remember. We borrowed Robots from the library, and I wasn’t really all that happy with it. Or was that Dreamworks, I confuse to two. Anyway, I’m firmly set against giving actual money to the film industry unless it’s something astoundingly good. The last “astoundingly good” movie I coughed up for was Pan’s Labyrinth.
My husband will check out and watch just about any old crap from the library, recently he’s run into a string of movies where I’ve flat out refused to let him use the tv to watch them (relegating him to his computer and headphones) because I’m just exhausted with how mind-numbingly bad Hollywood is. Screw giving money, I’m not even willing to give time and attention to an industry that is still blatantly racist, sexist, sizist, and classist. I got other shit to do.
I’ll probably download it illegally just to stick it to them.
Also: I thought Get Smart had some tasteless fat jokes, but they also had that awesome dance scene. And Zohan. I had a hard time distinguishing if it was fat positive or not.
Netflix or watch online. If I decide it looks like it’s worth my time.
I didn’t know it was fat related, though. I just don’t see kids movies in theaters (except Harry Potter, but I usually see those at night when it’s all grown-up nerds like me). I don’t need to pay $10.75 (yes, $10.75, New York fucking City) to have my seat kicked. Kthnx.
I plan to see it - perhaps not this weekend, but in the theatre.
I plan to do what I always do with films and books: withhold any criticism until I’ve actually seen it or read it. To do otherwise seems a little foolish to me.
I regret, to this day, my tone in replying to Rachel on her blog about the movie last year. I don’t regret my opinion — I think it’s foolhardy to try to critique something you haven’t seen — just the way I expressed it.
WTF? thats just ridiculous sounding. Its a cartoon people, take it for what it is. I havent seen it yet, will in about an hour and will report back on what I thought, but c’mon!
Thanks for reporting back, Israel! And Cindy, I hope you report back too, once you’ve seen it. I don’t like to judge most things, but I admit, I judged the fuck out of Norbit and I’m not sorry.
I won’t be seeing it in the theater, especially after seeing Get Smart recently and getting so offended/annoyed/bored/sad.
But…there’s no such thing as “just a cartoon.” It’s part of our media and, as such, something that contributes to the way our culture typifies, represents, creates, and understands the world. And especially important, cartoons are marketed to kids, who don’t always have the skills to critique the way certain images are used, but are certainly absorbing those images and the meanings tied to them. Not just a cartoon in that light, is it?
I’ll see Wall-e. In terms of creative things to do with movies (modern playing with the silent movie form) it looks appealling, and sending an environmental message to middle America can’t hurt. Even though I don’t agree with representing mass consumption with fatness (I would have used Paris Hilton instead) I think it’s very bold (and a bit ironic)
of a studio that’s in bed with Disney to critique consumerism and big corporations.
Besides, I’m a big fan of Pixar and want to support their efforts to do things that don’t jive with the mainstream (I mean the environmental message, not the potentially fat-phobic one) because we need some creative rule breaking in film.
That said, I had a look at the “art of wall-e” book, and the way the humans are portrayed is kind of disgruntling. Particularly the thought processes of the director…they’re described as “devolved” and are meant to look literally immature, like babies. That visual representation stuff is POTENT.
Someone mentioned Zohan the movie and as a fat woman, i remember thinking, cool, zohan digs the larger ladies (he likes ALL kinds of ladies, he did not discriminate AT ALL).
And, Dear Mo Pie (i think its you im addressing this to, sometimes these things are hard to follow and im still new at this)–I am SO Curious about your japanese tv interview. i lived in japan for two years, and as a fatwoman, i have tons of great stories (some good, some not so good). Anyway, im eager for the post!
Concerning Zohan, I am more concerned about a white actor (Adam Sandler) doing the role of someone from Israel, brown-face and all. It’s a bit too minstrel to me, and a tad racist. Let’s not forget all the other civil rights around the world, kids.
I sort of want to see Wall-E because the robots look quite cute and the plot is almost (”almost”, because of the portrayal of fat people as the decay of humanity. I agree it would have been more effective if they were portrayed as Paris Hilton or those spoiled kids from Gossip Girl and the O.C.) intelligent. But I think I will wait until they show it on cable TV, in about two or three years. I don’t do kids films in theatres either, unless they are live action and more PG than G (The Golden Compass, for example) and I go and see them late at night, on schooldays and subtitled (I’m in Mexico, and kids hate reading subtitles).
Dear Cyn,
Adam Sandler as the Zohan: Both he and the Zohan are ethnically Jewish, so I don’t know why this is even classified as brownface. And, some of us “kids” can distinguish between satire and minstrel.
Just so you all know, the fat hate campaign has already started on the IMDB boards for Wall-E. I don’t know if you feel it would be worth going there and commenting or not. There are some pretty nasty idiots there.
I took my kids to see it yesterday, knowing nothing about it at all. I was quite surprised to see humans portrayed as very doughy, spacey, look-a-like blobs interested in nothing but watching personal screens, eating, and drinking! It made me uncomfortable but I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. Many people walk around now plugged in to something with a drink in their hand, so an idea of that as a future isn’t too farfetched.
It wasn’t that humans were put down in the movie for being fat — they all were, after all — but more that they used an actual actor to portray the man who had been president when they all left earth, but were now apparently cartoons. What was that about?
I think the reason earth was destroyed in the movie was due to overconsumption in general, rather than overeating, and doesn’t it seem that is truly where we’re headed?
I was distressed to hear my ten-year-old say, “Mom, I hope that doesn’t happen! I don’t want to be FAT!” ARGH!! Have I taught the child nothing?!?
Not Seeing it. So tired of fat people getting all the blame for everything. Now we’re responsible for the downfall of humanity? Great.
Really, I found Get Smart to be fairly fat positive, there were some jokes but they were not disdainful and full of hate as so many jokes are
Honestly, I loved the movie and plan to buy it. I understand that the movie is trying (and I mean TRYING, because even the setup seems flimsy to me) to tell us that it was simply the human’s extended time on the Axiom that made them the size they were. The movie never places blame on fat people for the state the earth is in. People on the Axiom only became fat because they spent 700 years on a ship that was literally designed to take care of their EVERY need, a ship that babied them, to take away every single worry or care. It’s a look at a very possible future, if we keep striving for convenience.
But that’s not to say I bought their explanation. “Withering bones?” Please. They became obese, and that’s the end of it. During a video of the president’s speech, where he explains that humans aboard the Axiom would not be returning to earth due to its inhospitable conditions, he explained that the effects of living in space would result in bone deterioration. However, he remarked that “it’s nothing a quick jog around the block couldn’t fix.” A quick jog, on feet that have brittle bones? Are you kidding me? Plus, how could these people support themselves (after learning how to walk again) on legs with such little bone mass? Not to mention the fa–BONELESS people being portrayed as lazy and stupid, plopped in a hover-chair with drink in hand just as we had been warned. Bone deterioration, my giant keister.
Other than that, the movie IS really good, even though I’m sure kids are going to walk away from it thinking, “I better start obsessively exercising or my fat body might destroy the world.” Ugh. Take it how you will.
I just got back from it and I really really loved it. To me, there was no suggestion that fat people were the cause of all the problems. In fact, when humans first leave the planet, they are mostly thin. There were a few fat gags, but not as many as “Get Smart” even.
I saw it tonight. My husband and I both independently thought that the ship had been controlling reproduction and that over the course of time, the ship had bred humanity into something different. Something less capable of leaving a chair.
Neither of us thought they were supposed to just be plain old fat people; we thought they were supposed to be a completely new sort of person, the product of what happens when you allow a single source to control every aspect of your environment, society, and life while you stay seated in your chair 24-7 plugged into the propaganda machine while quite literally drinking the Kool-Aid without a second thought for a few centuries.
What I did find very, very weird was that the clothing ad featured a thinner body type than every single human on the ship had. That was really the only time when I wasn’t sure I was getting the message as intended. CENTURIES later in a completely controlled environment the ads are featuring people who just don’t resemble the average build of a person at all? Still? I was very confused by that choice. That little tiny throwaway joke really did bother and confuse me.
mary ann — that throwaway joke actually sounds really astute and clever. I will be seeing the movie, because I have a 6-year-old, and because from the ads I am already half in love with Wall-E. The movie has gotten great reviews and the animation looks like something to behold. mo - don’t worry about crying the whole time, there HAS to be a happy ending.
ladykuri — you sound like a barrel of laughs. Have fun with that.
Susan, that is interesting the idea that the people who left Earth would be turned from humans into cartoons. Perhaps the statement is that living a life like the one on the Axiom isn’t living a real life.
The idea being that living in a place where everything is given to you, with no effort isn’t living. That life comes through dealing with strife, that’s what makes us human. That we thought we’d be happy when the robots did everything for us, but in the end all that did was make us feel a sense of emptyness. Then going onto the Axiom I guess represents the point, where we just would stop caring that we weren’t ourselves anymore.
BTW, did anyone else think the ship’s captain was really cute?
Mseeger, Pixar did try their best to not associate the blobs with obesity. I think the withering bones concept is a good one. I also think their point about mentioning the “jog around the block” statement, is how people say that to fat people all the time, and how it’s like saying to someone with no bones oh just go for a jog. In both ways it’s not going to resolve things.
Perhaps the concept behind regeneritive organs in Buy N Large is making a statment towards things like the diet industry. That it’s all about consumption in the end, be it consumption for stuff, or consumption in the sense of health.
I really do feel better about the film, reading what people have said here. Perhaps the jog around the blog statement, was a bad attempt at Pixar trying to make light of the statements people say to fat people that are prejudicial. I can see now they did realize how wrong they were to originally associate, perhaps unintentionally, fatness with the destruction of the Earth. That they did come up with a great alternative to that explanation, or presumed explanation.
Oh and I did mention I thought the space captain was really cute, right? LoL
I saw the movie with my daughter (7) and nephew (8) on Friday and they both walked away talking about conservation. There wasn’t any mention of being “fat.”
Just got back from seeing Wall.E and I have to say I enjoyed it very much.
What I saw was that it was a Skinny Guy who caused the problem that Wall.E and Co. must overcome and it’s the fatties who help solve it.
Definitely struck me more as a message of environmentalism and conservation rather than anti-fat. Did also see a message to be careful of over consumerism and too many gadgets to make life too easy. But, again more about taking care of the environment than about the fatties.
Oh and Mseeger? It’s a common plot element in the Science Fiction community that microgravity reduces the density of your bones and your muscles. Quite often they’ll have exercise rooms and parts of the ships that have higher gravity for pregnant women to reside within to allow proper gestation.
Am guessing it was IVF and Uterine Replicators that allowed the babies to be bred on the Axiom. (Especially since the humans never seemd to have any physical interaction with one another.)
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 really loved this movie and can second all of the comments about it not really being anti-fat. Wall-E and Eve were adorable; I love the way Pixar makes inanimate objects come to life.
Yes, the people were all large and unfit, but it was presented that much of it was because of bone loss (which really does happen after prolonged period of time in space, due to the bones and muscles not bearing weight, which is why astronauts exercise like mad when they are there, to diminish the effects) along with the automation of their lives. The people, like the ship, are on automatic. The budding romance between two people who lose their video screen thingies was a nice touch. I definitely got the message that it was the automation of the ship, the complete ignorance of anything going on around them, etc… that was the problem, not just that they were fat.
My kids loved this movie and I laughed almost the entire time. Highly, highly recommend it.
I saw it Friday night, and to be honest, I loved it.
Yes, there was a message involved, but it was more about “this is what happens when we let robots take over and we cease to do anything for ourselves” rather than “being fat is horrible and stupid.”
K, I saw it that same night I commented. I liked it a lot, so did my wife, and so did my 3 yr old daughter. The fat people are not portrayed as the cause of earths issues, on the contrary, they are a result.
Leaving everything up to robots, technology, laziness, and not taking care of the environment is the message that I got. And I’m a fat bastard, recovering fat bastard actually.
I saw it today, and I loved it. My son did, too, and my mom.
I honestly think the obesity thing could go either way, depending on how you see it. Ten years ago, before the “obesity epidemic” hysteria (and when this film was written), I honestly don’t know that I would have even considered that the movie was making some sort of point about body weight. The low gravity thing makes sense, the fat people are really cute (you want cute people in cartoons), and, in the cartoon running during the credits, they were still fat even though they had begun living differently.
But, I do think that, given today’s climate, more care should have been paid to this. Having people have a variety of body shapes would have made more sense, and would have made it far less likely that kids–already beaten over the head with obesity hysteria–would read the message of the film as “Don’t be lazy or you’ll get fat.” I don’t think that’s the message of the film, at all. But, I can see how a child raised in our current culture could absolutely understand it that way.
As far as I could tell, the message of the film was not even about overconsumption so much as about questioning authority. Both robots and humans have to learn to figure out what they should do, and not what they are being told to do. The film seemed to imply that it wasn’t that humans were just really lazy and let robots do everything, but that the evil corporation convinced humans that they didn’t need to move (a human is ordered to not try to get up when he falls out of his floating chair). They didn’t realize how much they were capable of. In some ways, I think it could be seen in a subversive way, because fat people are told all the time that they are lazy and that their bodies can’t do anything. That’s what the people in the film were told, and they were being told lies. They realize what they can do and are eager to live a different life.
So I think the “people got lazy and fat and life got really bad” is a very simplistic reading, although I also think it’s the one that many children would unfortunately come away with, because of how ubiquitous that conception of things is. But in the film both humans and robots share the same fault, which isn’t being lazy, but being programmed. I think it’s a very good message, and a really well-done film, and it saddens me that our culture is in a place right now where it’s much more likely that a child will walk away from the film thinking about why it’s bad to be fat than about why it’s dangerous to just do what we’re told.
I saw it and…Cutest. Movie. EVER. That is all.
I saw it, having only seen previews with the robots and having no idea what the humans looked like. While I was initially a little on edge (”here we go, ninety minutes of fat as cautionary tale…”) when we did see the humans, it quickly became clear that their shape had to do with being strapped to a chair since birth.
Also, the scene where the guy falls out of his hover chair, I thought, made the point even less offensive…he looked less like a fat man and more like an adult sized infant–the result of having every need met and never LEARNING to walk.
While consumerism and conservation were definitely the prevailing themes, the message that really came through to me was “Unplug!!”Wall-E developed a unique persona, and it appeared almost contagious–everyone who came in contact with him “woke up” and started thinking or doing for themselves–I loved the movie and found it to be at least fat-neutral.
I saw a new ad for Wall-E. It starts saying how Wall-E is the best selling movie in America, then they have Wall-E show up and say “Whoa!” Then the ad goes on to be of clips of different robots saying “Whoa!” It’s so funny!
It sounds like the movie isn’t clearly fat-hating (if not fat-positive) - one of the posters on the feed mentioned that her children really want to see it. I wonder if the best thing, if you have kids, might be to go see it with them - and then talk about the fat people and how they’re treated pro-actively, rather than waiting for the kids to respond or see what they say? It could help them learn to be critical of messages they get from media and to see how messages can be transmitted - and maybe help them realize that thoughtlessness (i.e, this wasn’t likely intended as malice towards fat folk - unless you think it was) - can be just as hurtful as malice.
If you don’t have kids, it’s a tougher call - and I support those whose $$s won’t go towards the messages. But if you do, maybe going to see it can be a positive experience?
I loved Wall-E, but let’s be honest about the ending…earth really belongs to the robots now, because as much as the truth may sting-THOSE FAT PEOPLE AIN’T GONNA MAKE IT!
I just read a story on Kathy Najimy in figure magazine. She did voicework on the movie and identifies herself as a “body image activist”. Hmmmm. This threw me off, a little bit. I, too, saw the movie with my kids and was really distressed by it. Then I was even more distressed by how hard I had to work to find reviews that were in sync with my own opinion and not “best movie evah”. (You guys rock, hard)
I loved the movie overall, but I really was put off by the fat stuff in it. I had gone to see it with a good friend of mine (who is thin) and we talked about it afterwards. He was very put off by it too, and found it weird. For me it was just kind of sad, like, “Come on already, I have to put up with so many prejudices already as a fat woman. Do I really need a movie that showcases a bunch of fat characters who only eat and sit and go online all day?” It just felt like a step back in developing a more diverse viewpoint out there about what fat people are like. It just seems to give more fat-hating fodder (and in a cuddly children’s movie!) for a world that already seems to have enough.
i don’t think Pixar means anything by the people being fat in the movie. what i do think though is that society is sometimes not very smart about ‘getting movies’, and if one person says it’s about one thing everyone follows it. [i.e. 'fat people made the Earth messed up'].
one person says that’s what the movies about, and everyone follows it. it’s sad, really. this movie to me is about love, whether you’re fat, thin, or a robot.
one more thing that i want to note, is that just because a movie is animated, it doesn’t automatically make it a ‘kids’ movie. that, in itself, is a stereotype. [i hope no one thinks that i'm trying to start an argument. i'm really not. just trying to voice my opinion, not change yours.]
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one more thing. some of you may have read parts of ‘the art of Wall-e’? the original concept was actually for Wall-e to meet aliens on the spaceship, not people. they looked kinda like the aliens in the short film ‘lifted’. they changed them to people since they thought that it would be a more ‘believable’ story line, so to speak.
p.s. what did everyone here think of the Captain as a character? He was kind of the human hero of the story.
I know this comment is a little late — I was behind on my blog reading. Just came across this Slate article that was interesting and thought I’d pass it along. Who knew Slate could be all “fat acceptance”!
http://www.slate.com/id/2195126/?GT1=38001
I saw Wall-E this week with my husband, and when I saw the humans (after 45 delightful minutes of movie with no dialogue!) I thought..”oh, I can’t wait to read the blogs on this one!”
I loved this movie, and I don’t have kids, and I make no excuses for seeing “kids” movies. I love the animation. I thought the humans were big babies (still in the same chairs you saw the babies in…?) because the robots had taken over and wanted them to be that way. I did NOT love that they were so fat, but even more, I hated that they were so dumb, but I guess after 700 years of never having to think and watching dumb tv all day, I’d be dumb too. All during the human segments, I wanted them to get back to the robots…I LOVED the robots, and hope I can get some for my desk at McD’s or whoever links this stuff.
1234, it doesn’t matter if Pixar meant the humans to be negative stereotypes of fat people or not. It’s the effect of what they’ve created that causes harm, not their intent. Would we write off another movie maker as blameless if they had slurred another group, even if it were unintentional? A religion, or a gender, or a race? I’m not saying that any one of these kinds of stereotyping is worse than any other. But another group were made into charicatures like these I think people would be less likely to give them a pass
O.C. - True, but still, i did not see that the people were supposed to be the cause of Earth’s problems. They were not the villains in the movie. i know that many people are, (with good reason), afraid that people will think ‘oh no, look the fat people destroyed the Earth!’ but in my opinion, it is clear enough, that they are not the villains. They can think for themselves, but not until the technology is removed. Who were the villains? Buy ‘n’ Large was, and Auto was, (even though it could be argued that he was just following his directive.) what i had meant by my comment, was that some people, (i’m not sure if it was here, or on another blog), mentioned that the people looked really weird in the ‘Art of Wall-e’ book. i was just saying that the odd-looking pictures in the book were of aliens, not humans.
anyway, i really enjoyed this movie. keep your opinion. i don’t mind, but i’m sticking with mine.
Hello. Great job. This is a great story. Thanks!
Being a busy college student, I kind of fell out of my body acceptance blog readership for a while. I went to see Wall-E having not heard about the controversy, and I think that honestly people are reading a lot more prejudice into the film (or rather, the previews, placing judgment on the film without actually seeing it) than it deserves.
I have always been overweight. I clarify this to make sure my perspective is understood.
I loved Wall-E. I thought it was one of the most thoughtful kid’s movies I’ve ever seen, with a really good set of themes and messages. Fatness in the film doesn’t represent the downfall of society - merely a bi-product of a lifestyle of complete inactivity.
I think those who find this offensive assume that it is perpetuating the stereotype that all fat people are lazy, and that people only become fat through laziness. I just don’t see this in the film, and I actually find it mildly offensive to read this into the story. The reason I find this interpretation offensive is because it seems counter-active to our stated goal of body acceptance.
As a general statement about the human body, if you stayed in a state of complete inactivity while continuing to intake food as you normally would, our general understanding would tell us that this would lead to gaining weight. I cannot envision that, after generations of living in complete inactive states, surrounded by personal media to the point of near isolation, our bodies would be able to maintain what we consider a “normal” range of weight.
Why do I think that seeing this as fat hate is counter to body acceptance? If we want the media to reflect reality in the body types they show, I don’t think its right to instantly see a representation of a body image that is not exactly how we would like to see it as offensive. While I understand that the knee jerk reaction to assume fat=bad in the media is due to a lack of representation of positive heavy forms, I still think that the message in this film is being lost by oversimplifying it (especially by those who judge without seeing it in context).
There are fat people who are lazy. There are thin people who are lazy. There are fat people who are fat due to inactivity and too many calories, just as there are fat people who are heavy due solely to genetics. Wall-E is not saying fatness is the problem. The problem is inactivity. The problem is living a life of such “convenience” that we lose the value in going for a walk, talking to someone face to face, etc. The weight of the people involved is just a result of that inactivity - its not condemning the people, merely the lifestyle that this society perpetuates.