Comments on: Will You See Wall-E?

By: Jezthesiren

Jezthesiren — Sun, 17 May 2009 19:05:52 +0000

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.

By: Ava

Ava — Tue, 12 May 2009 10:52:35 +0000

Hello. Great job. This is a great story. Thanks!

By: 1234

1234 — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:06:15 +0000

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.

By: O.C.

O.C. — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 04:48:16 +0000

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

By: RC

RC — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:23:13 +0000

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.

By: Ellen

Ellen — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:22:07 +0000

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

By: 1234

1234 — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:23:24 +0000

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.

By: sample

sample — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:17:27 +0000

By: 1234

1234 — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:16:58 +0000

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.]

By: Bethany

Bethany — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:16:46 +0000

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.