The Feminist Review

This adult-friendly cartoon packs a wonderful array of important messages: environmental, anti-consumerist, grassroots revolution and relationship building. Alas, patriarchy and consumerism slip in, too.

It has some great gender statements as well, and a few disappointments. WALL·E’s character is not overly gendered - he has a male voice, but also carries precious cargo in his “stomach,” decorates his home, obsesses over romance, and longs for relationship. This longing is the compelling soul of the film, and provides redemption, not only for metal machines, but for fleshy humans and a barren earth.

EVE, on the other hand, is slightly more gendered, subtly reinforcing the patriarchal notion that male is normal, female abnormal. At least there are no eyelashes on this curvaceous, high-voiced robot. It seems that accepting robot love is wacky enough, but apparently Pixar thought that as long as it was obviously opposite-sex love, audiences would catch right on.

She bears “new life,” hope for humanity and the earth, in her own “stomach” back to the spaceship where all humans live. WALL·E carries this hope as well, driven by his devotion to EVE.

Each gets to save the other at various points, from all kinds of physical danger. The film culminates with EVE saving WALL·E from emotional death through relentless love and persistent tenderness. In fact, WALL·E and EVE’s teamwork is so essential that they should share the film’s title.

Yearning for authentic relationships wakes up a lazy, ineffective humanity, bringing them into the revolution. A band of “malfunctioning” robots joins the team as well, adn the rebellion honors their peculiarities.

I’m skeptical about anthropomophising machines to this extent (falling in love, rebelling against their own programming based on personal ethics, etc.) and wonder if “the hero of the next generation” should really be a robot. What are the repercussions of idolizing machines in an age of snowballing technology budgets and development?

The ultimate irony of the film is that the “villian” Buy N Large (pollutes the planet and coddles humanity into complete helplessness), looks a lot like the film’s makers, especially Disney. Check it out.

Filed under: movies on July 25th, 2008 by Anna Lisa