Wall-E and the Propagandic Liberal Agenda for your Soul

I have to tell you that the original title for this post was "Seriously, Where Is Nemo?" I'll explain.

The TimesOnline.co.Uk ran an article last week that addresses the paradoxical affect that Finding Nemo has had on the Clown fish population; it's actually made them more difficult to find because of everyone's fascination with owning their own Nemo which, in turn, acted as the catalyst for over-hoarding of the Clown Fish.

So yeah - the kids pretty much lost the message of the film. I get that. However amusing the irony of the matter is, I think it's a stretch to say that Disney/Pixar's ultimate aim was to get children to be more conscientious of the family lives of marine animals everywhere. In the end, their aim was to make money, and part of that is marketing Nemo himself to children in Happy Meals, plush toys, video games, and the like - it shouldn't be altogether surprising that the Clown Fish population has in turn become threatened ever since the film's release.

Well, I'm taking my lil' man to see Disney/Pixar's newest film Wall-E today. (Really, I'm going for myself, but it doesn't hurt to use my son as an excuse to go.) The approval rating on RottenTomatoes.com is about 97% with over 140 reviews. Going by their reviews in the past, a 97% rating is seriously a pretty phenomenal consensus that you rarely see on this site. From what I heard, there isn't much dialogue in the film, which is going to suck if I start bawling and can't mask my sniffles during the dialogue. But that's not going to happen, right? We'll see.








UPDATE: A couple of things, I've since watched the film and liked it for what it was. This started out as simple post pointing out the causation between Nemo and the Clown Fish population but now here's another angle. So apparently many people are upset at the direction of Wall-E and the supposed propaganda therein. (These people include many pundits from certain mainstream news networks.) Check out these comments:

Shannen Coffin: From the first moment of the film, my kids were bombarded with leftist propaganda about the evils of mankind. It’s a shame, too, because the robot had promise. The story was just awful, however.
Greg Pollowitz: It was like a 90-minute lecture on the dangers of over consumption, big corporations, and the destruction of the environment. … Much to Disney’s chagrin, I will do my part to avoid future environmental armageddon by boycotting any and all WALL-E merchandise and I hope others join my crusade.
Glenn Beck: I can’t wait to teach my kids how we’ve destroyed the Earth. … Pixar is teaching. I can’t wait. You know if your kid has ever come home and said, “Dad, how come we use so much styrofoam,” oh, this is the movie for you.
Dirty Harry: Have we lost Pixar? Have we lost the wonderful studio who brought us The Incredibles and Ratatouille to Bush Derangement Syndrome? Here you have a winning streak going back ten-years, enormous amounts of public goodwill, equal amounts of credibility as serious storytellers, and they stop things cold, yanking you out of the story with the liberal nonsense. Quite a disappointment.
Jonah Goldberg: I agree with the charges of hypocrisy. I agree that the Malthusian fear mongering was annoying.


Goldberg posted a lengthy letter from a reader decrying the film’s “fascistic elements,” which apparently include the movie’s discussion of the environment, a character “getting in touch with her emotional, passionate inner self,” and the use of the color red.
Now we can add a critically-acclaimed and universally-beloved cartoon character to Goldberg’s enormous list of evidence of “liberal facism,” which already includes vegetarianism, love of animals, and Captain Planet.

Hey, um, people. IT WAS CHILDREN'S FANTASY MOVIE! FICTIONAL, EVEN!

Not to mention, why is it LIBERAL to say things like 'we're destroying our planet?' Why? Why is that a partisan issue? I really don't get it. Also, does anyone even know what the term 'liberal' means? They throw that word out there as a pejorative.


lib·er·al (lĭb'ər-əl, lĭb'rəl)
adj.

1. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
2. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.
3. Of, relating to, or characteristic of liberalism.

It's a sad day when I must combine a film from Disney/Pixar and the definition of 'liberal' in the same post. Greg Pollowitz wants us to join his crusade? WHAT THE FLYING FUCK? THERE'S A CRUSADE NOW? Is this really happening? WHY?


If you have very young children, they might just be looking at all the pretty colors anyway. But I still don't get it. It's obvious it's mainly the adults that are offended as most children of very young ages don't have the social or political contexts to form an opinion or be swayed from one 'thinktank' to another. On the other hand, if your two-year-old actually starts digging deep into the bigger insinuations that the movie produces about our world, or better yet - throws down his or her popcorn mid-screening and begins to cleanup all the trash in the theater - then what's the worst that was done? Seriously, people.


The further I seep into adulthood, the more I realize that nothing magical happens when you enter it- we're all essentially still kids-- but with bills who--though not in all cases--are armed with a more expansive vocabulary with which to formalize our trite tantrums. Sad and true.



Wall-E is a uniter, not a d i v i d e r !



Bonus:
See girl recording herself crying at the Wall*E trailer. HUH?
Also: Your Guide To The Wall-E Controversy