A lot of the terminology used in WALL-E has hidden meaning.
Buy N Large Corporation - the multinational corporation that mass produces EVERY product in WALL-E
The company name is a play on the term "by and large" which means all things considered. The irony in this name is pointed at the fact that multi-national large corporations fail to consider everything. The Buy N Large corporation specifically promoted the consumerism that led to the irreconcilable amounts of waste and technological dependency that stripped the human race of their humanity.
Shelby Forthright - The "Global CEO" of the Buy N Large Corporation.
Play on the words "shall be forthright." The irony in this name is that he is hardly forthright and instead lies to the entire human race. While the Axiom was initially supposed to only be a 5 year cruise, it became permanent when Buy N Large's mission to clean up the earth failed. He set the ship on Autopilot and made the existence of the earth top secret.
He is also the only non-animated character of the movie and reflects today's humanity. He represents today's corrupt politicians, corporations, and failing economy.
The Axiom - the space craft carrying all of humanity.
Axiom literally means“self-evident truth.” This relfects how none of the humans question the norms of life on the Axiom. They just trust that the technology is correct and continue on their way. This reflects today's modern and commony believed axiom that technology is best.
WALL-E. Dir. Andrew Stanton. By Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, and Jeff Garlin. Prod. Jim Morris. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 2008.
Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic, 2011. Print.
Pariser, Eli. The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You. New York: Penguin, 2011. Print."'Wall-E,' Speaking Volumes with Stillness and Stars : NPR." NPR : National Public Radio : News & Analysis, World, US, Music & Arts : NPR. Web. 26 Oct. 2011.
"WALL·E (2008) - Plot Summary." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 26 Oct. 2011. .
Stohl, Peter. "It Only Takes a Moment: An Analysis of Disney and Pixar's Wall-E." The Elevator Music (2008). Web. 25 Oct. 2011.
"WALL-E: Economic Ignorance and the War on Modernity - Gennady Stolyarov II - Mises Daily." Ludwig Von Mises Institute. Web. 26 Oct. 2011. .
Clearly the bleak future for humanity that is depicted in WALL-E is not definite. However, it should be seriously considered and serve as a warning for today's generation. Although our dependence on technology hasn't reached the extent of hovercraft chairs, we are well on our way. As we forgo human interaction and replace it with some technological stimulation, we give up a small part of our humanity. The ability to have face-to-face interaction with another human is invaluable, and fleeting. We must be conscious that new and improved technology doesn't always mean technology "better" for our lives. As consumers we decide what products become relevant in society, and we can equally decide to make products irrelevant. Hopefully our current generations and those to come can bring genuine human interaction and relationships back into relevancy and hold on to all of the distinctly human characteristics that we currently take for granted.
The relationships that robots form with other robots are remarkably humanized in this movie.While humans are unaware of the physical existence of another human around them, many of the robots form genuine friendships.The most interesting robot-robot relationship is that between WALL-E and EVE.
WALL-E and EVE spend the most time face-to-face out of any other characters in the film.Similarly, they also form the only genuine relationship in the film.Although EVE is hesitant at first, WALL-E is relentless in his romantic pursuit of her. When EVE goes into incubation mode after receiving the plant, WALL-E worries for her safety and tries to rejuvenate her through solar power. WALL-E continues to care for EVE when she is incubating the plant and completely unreceptive to his advances. He puts his own life in danger to shelter her from a rain storm and sandstorm, takes her on a boat ride, and even tries to entertain her with video games. See the clip below to watch WALL-E selflessly care for EVE.
While EVE is initially unreceptive to WALL-E’s advances, she later appreciates his selflessness. EVE and WALL-E work together to overcome emotional boundaries and grow together while trying to deliver the plant to the captain. The emotional bonds that they form through interaction are distinctly human. The passengers aboard the ship could use a lesson on genuine human relationships from WALL-E and EVE.They support and protect one another, and eventually fall in love.See the clip below to watch EVE and WALL-E laugh, hold hands, and even hug – all anthropomorphized actions signifying love.
Like the humans in the clip above that are reminded to genuinely interact after seeing WALL-E and EVE’s dance, their entire robot-robot relationship serves as a reminder for today’s generations of what comprises a genuine human relationship. There must be actual face-to-face interaction that develops trust. The partners involved in the relationships must support and care for one another. And moreso, the partners must make sacrifices for the betterment of the relationship. An example of this sacrafice appears later in the movie when EVE ignores the directive of her strict programming, and instead of taking the plant to the captain, stays and cares for the injured WALL-E.
As previously mentioned, humans on board have no concept of today’s “humanity.” They are all obese, lay on hovercrafts, are catered to by robots, and incessantly stare at holographic screens. These humans are so heavily reliant on technology that even common tasks such as brushing one’s teeth are performed for them by robots. There is no person-to-person interaction beyond chatting through the screens. The concept of the personal holographic screen illustrates Turkle’s theory that humans are never truly alone because passengers rely on this technology for constant communication during all waking hours of the day and these screens can also pop up at night. As you can see in the clip below, even when directly next to each other, this generation of humans still only converses via the screen.
Turkle argues that today’s generations are not far off from behind-the-screen interaction as seen in that clip. We hide behind specially tailored facebook profiles and carefully crafted responses via email or text message. We are slowly losing our ability to interact with one another in a face-to-face format. This lack of face-to-face interaction is permeating into our relationships as well. The internet has become a new opportunity for dating. In WALL-E, the humans take it one step further and “holo-date” via their holographic screens. One passenger describes her “holo-date” as “superficial.” Start the clip below at 3:20 for elaboration.
Many passengers are unaware of their surroundings on the ship because their faces are constantly buried in a holographic screen. The woman in these clips admits that she was unaware of the ship’s pool. However, the passengers are even more unaware of the people surrounding them. As seen previously, passengers will commonly be video chatting the person sitting beside them. They never take notice of people unless out of interruption. The same woman complaining about “holo-dates” sparks chemistry with a passenger from accidental face-to-face interaction and accidental physical contact – something that is completely forgotten by all humans on the Axiom. The clip below beginning at 1:00 illustrates the immediate tangible power of face-to-face human interaction.
The captain is equally unaware of the ship’s surroundings and its purpose (he didn't even know what the earth was) because of the lack of interaction with his predecessors and his reliance on technology. Like the rest of the passengers, the captain had no concept of the ship's mission, plant matter, or even the earth until informed by the computer. He is also illiterate because the computer screens write words out phonetically if he must read. When trying to read one of the ship’s manuals, the captain isn’t only unable to read it, but also doesn’t know what a book or paper is. This illustrates just how important human interaction is in the maintenance of human characteristics. Because the captain and all of the humans on the ship are completely dependent on technology, they stopped interacting with one another out of sheer laziness. In halting all face-to-face interaction, they also ended many distinctly human attributes that were transmitted in face-to-face interaction, including literacy.
Initially, Buy N Large assumed that humans would only live on the Axiom for five years while robots executed “operation clean-up” and restored the earth to a life sustaining state. They designed the ship to provide a literally effortless quality of life, especially in comparison to life on earth. The movie’s setting fast-forwards to the 700th anniversary of their five-year cruise on day 255,642, long after the failure of “operation clean-up.”
The Axiom strongly resembles a high-tech spaceship version of present-day commercial cruise liners – another technologically “improved” commodity in the movie. Essentially every feature of the present-day cruise ship is present, but “improved upon” with technology in the sense that passengers do not have to employ any physical or mental effort, beyond lifting fingers to press a button, in order to get or do what they want. As humans allowed robots to perform the most basic human tasks (e.g. brushing their teeth), they anthropomorphized the machines and gave up a part of their own humanity in return. But the Axiom went above and beyond fulfilling basic tasks in its design. Each passenger has a hovering reclining chair that transports him or her around the ship on a specified grid. The chair also has a holographic screen in front of it that provides interaction with other passengers via video chat and constant entertainment. Like today’s cruises, the Axiom has a lido deck with several pools, but with a simulated blue sky on the hundreds of screens that comprise the roof of the ship and a constant “balmy” temperature of “72 degrees” (WALL-E). The pool is supervised by lifeguard robots and surrounded by umbrella robots that come to a passengers’ aid at their request. Likewise, passengers can press a button to request and instantly receive limitless liquid food, a spa treatment, a virtual golf or virtual ping-pong game, and essentially any other customer service request – all of which are responded to with specialized robots. See the clip below to view the lido deck and several of the services that the ship provides.
In reality, I feel that the Axiom is a dystopia governed by the oppressive programming of the ship’s autopilot feature. The Axiom selectively exposes humans to certain messages and provides an intentionally structured schedule of daily activities. Phrases such as “be happy,” “feel beautiful,” and “EAT” are constantly spoken or flashed by the ship’s computers to influence and even brainwash the passengers of the ship (WALL-E). The messages also constantly plug things related to the Buy N Large Corporation, even beginning with infants learning the alphabet: “A is for Axiom, your home sweet home” (WALL-E).
The variety of anthropomorphized robots performs the common daily tasks that are essential for a human to know in order to care for himself. However, the humans currently aboard the ship have never even heard of earth, so they are unable to imagine possibilities beyond the norms of life on the Axiom. The Axiom’s strict implementation of technology creates the “more efficient” and “better quality of life” that their ancestors desired.
Similar to computer programs seen in The Filter Bubble that are capable of using algorithms to stereotype a person’s interests then dictate ads and search results that correlate, the Axiom also stereotypes its passengers interests. The dependence on technology in WALL-E eventually rids all human passengers of the ability to form opinions because of the lack of choice – the computers decide if it is in their best interest to go to bed at a certain time, to eat, to wear a certain outfit etc. Computers also cradle them through life and don’t allow them to fix or learn from their mistakes. The average adult should be able to take care of himself by adulthood, however if an adult passenger of the Axiom falls off of the hover chair, he will flop around confused like an infant without motor skills depend on a robot to assist him. Begin the clip below at 1:00 to see how helpless humanity becomes after becoming fully dependent on technology.
Is the Axiom’s strictly enforced and technological-based life ethical? In our class discussions regarding Alone Together we questioned the ethics of letting people remain blissfully ignorant within the safe, reliable bubble of technological services. For example, we elaborated on the idea of Nursebot, a robot “which can help elderly people in their homes, reminding them of their medication schedule and to eat regular meals” and imagined a flawless machine-run nursing home (Turkle 121).This alternative seemed far better than abandoning our elderly loved ones in a nursing home with unpredictable potentially neglectful human service.However, despite the ethics of the matter, Turkle argues that the concept of Nursebots have “limitations” (121). The patients of the Nursebots lose the stimulating human interaction such as “solicitous and funny” comments that they would typically receive from a human. Equally, although the Axiom can provide homogenized essential services to all of its passengers, it only caters to the lowest common denominator of what a human is capable of wanting and who a human is capable of being.
As mentioned above, the film takes place in the not so distant future, in which the discarded products of the multi-national corporation, Buy N Large, cover the earth. Humans have evacuated the uninhabitable earth and no life remains other than a cockroach, which alludes to the insect’s unremarkable ability to survive throughout history, tracing back to the similarly apocalyptic extinction of the dinosaurs. The earth is blanketed in smog, covered in mountains of garbage, and completely desolate of all living things. The only movements stem from the lone cockroach, rampant sandstorms and the single functioning robot left on the planet, WALL-E, a trash compactor robot. All humans were forced to leave the planet after they created so much waste and pollution that the earth could no longer sustain life. The introduction of WALL-E perfectly captures the despondency of the earth.
The opening credits are complimented by a jolly song from Hello Dolly including lyrics about seeing the wonders of the world. The song is juxtaposed with images of their present earth, completely rampant with pollution. Initially, the opening scenes seem familiar to the audience. The Milky Way galaxy sparkles from afar and as the hypothetical camera pans in on the planets, they appear unchanged. Even the earth is recognizable until the audience is propelled into its pollution-ridden atmosphere. What first appears to be a cityscape of skyscrapers is ultimately a ghost town barricaded by towering junkyards. Some skyscrapers are still present but camouflaged by their garbage counterparts and scattered with holographic billboards promoting all things created by the Buy N Large Corporation. Metaphorically, the similarities between the skyscrapers of today, and those of garbage in the movie suggest that the composition of our society today is nothing more than glorified garbage. Afterall, the capitalist large corporations that today’s skyscrapers house propel the constant creation of waste that becomes the earth’s ultimate downfall in WALL-E. So figuratively speaking, in regard to the hypothetical outcomes of WALL-E, our present society is currently creating and living in the squander of our own downfall as we continue to support capitalist large corporations.
WALL-E is the only robot in the movie that is completely anthropomorphized upon introduction in the film, although it is unclear if the humanized facets of his “personality” are a part of his programming or developed over time. He spent over 700 years isolated on earth collecting trinkets that humans left behind and watching old films that displayed human emotion. He records, learns, and performs the dances he sees in old human musicals. He also befriends a cockroach and shows genuine concern for its safety whenever it gets crushed, zapped, or threatened in any way. The trailer below highlights many of these humanized attributes.
WALL-E also displays many of the qualities that signify human comprehension and interaction as defined by several field studies by Turkle. Like Cog, WALL-E is capable of physical recognition and constantly makes eye contact. In several scenes, WALL-E even distinctly follows EVE with his eyes out of infatuation. Like Kismet, WALL-E uses inflection. Although he doesn’t speak very many real words in over the course of the film, he does express fear, excitement, love, and frustration with the inflection of his voice. WALL-E’s physical recognition, strong eye contact, and emotion-conveying inflection combined with the many physical acts (such as hand holding) that he tries to perform, it is very apparent that he is capable of feeling. At roughly the 15 seconds mark in the clip below, WALL-E lovingly gazes at EVE showing genuine emotion through eye contact.
WALL-E's capability to show geniune emotion is juxtaposed against the incapability for humans of his generation to do the same. The never may eye contact even if sitting right next to another human. If sitting directly next to a human, it is rare that they will even recognize that the person is there. Each human relentlessly stares into his or her holographic screen. This illustration isn't far off from how Turkle sees my generation. We interact from behind the comfort of a computer or cell phone screen. Even a phone call seems invasive. Today I heard my roommate say, "This is sad. We're all at the dinner table together and on our cell phones instead of talking to one another." The depiction of machines having more human-like features than humans themselves in WALL-E has social implications about our current generation. The holographic screen is merely a more portable computer screen. As we begin to hide behind the screen of any technology for social interaction, we are giving up the many facets of face-to-face interaction that we define as inherently human.
The remaining machines are newer models and perhaps their programming is less human-like or they’ve had less interaction with humans outside of the untraditional passengers of the Axiom. The one that develops clear anthropomorphized qualities over time is EVE. At first EVE appears to be purely an emotionless robot that only follows the “directives” of her programming. She incessantly scans for living things, shoots when provoked, and immediately follows her programming orders. This side of EVE can be seen in the clip below.
From the clip above, it is obvious that WALL-E teaches EVE to let her robot guard down to let her humanized emotions show. Even after their first reaction EVE laughs a little. After spending more time on earth, EVE learns about human emotions from the same musicals that WALL-E idolizes. As the movie progresses and her relationship with WALL-E becomes more complex, EVE becomes more anthropomorphized, even to the point that she disregards her strict directives. This progression also has social implications about our current generations. If a machine can become more humanized after consistent exposure to humanized face-to-face interaction, it is not too late for us. We must find some sort of balance in the way that we use technology, because just as EVE became humanized after face-to-face interaction, we can also lose our humanity if we rely on machines for social stimulation.
The relationship that WALL-E forms with EVE is more complex and anthropomorphized than any other relationship featured in the movie. You can learn more about it in the Robot-Robot Relationships section.
The clip below shows the main robot characters of WALL-E.
For the sake of pronoun differentiation in this blog, WALL-E is considered “male” and EVE is considered “female.” The robots are anthropomorphized in varying degrees according to their specific models.
For those of you unfamiliar with the movie, there is a brief synopsis below.
“In a distant, but not so unrealistic future, where mankind has abandoned earth because it has become covered with trash from products sold by the powerful multi-national Buy N Large corporation, WALL-E, a garbage collecting robot has been left to clean up the mess. Mesmerized with trinkets of Earth's history and show tunes, WALL-E is alone on Earth except for a sprightly pet cockroach. One day, EVE, a sleek (and dangerous) reconnaissance robot, is sent to Earth to find proof that life is once again sustainable. WALL-E falls in love with EVE. WALL-E rescues EVE from a dust storm and shows her a living plant he found amongst the rubble. Consistent with her "directive" EVE takes the plant and automatically enters a deactivated state except for a blinking green beacon. WALL-E, doesn't understand what has happened to his new friend, but true to his love, he protects her from wind, rain, and lightning, even as she is unresponsive. One day a massive ship comes to reclaim EVE, but WALL-E, out of love or loneliness hitches a ride on the outside of the ship to rescue EVE. The ship arrives back at a large space cruise ship [called the Axiom], which is carrying all of the humans who evacuated Earth 700 years earlier. The people of Earth ride around this space resort on hovering chairs which give them a constant feed of TV and video chatting. They drink all of their meals through a straw out of laziness and/or bone loss, and are all so fat that they can barely move. When the auto-pilot computer, acting on hastily given instructions sent many centuries before, tries to prevent the people of Earth from returning, by stealing the plant, WALL-E, EVE, the portly captain, and a band of broken robots stage a mutiny” (IMBD).
It is no secret that we live in a capitalistic society governed by consumerism. We strive for efficiency and compete to keep up with the newest technology. We want newer, cheaper, faster, sleeker, sophisticated, improved, user-friendly technologies that make tasks easier and our quality of life better. These keywords and phrases are often used with the advent of a new model or new product all together. Powerful multi-national corporations mass produce their merchandise at an alarmingly fast rate and make them globally accessible. However, with the constant influx of new technology, and especially cheaper more efficient technology, there is also an influx of waste. As new technology is invented, consumers rapidly discard older, decidedly “inferior” technology as waste in order to keep up and compete in our capitalistic society. This has occurred long before computers replaced the typewriters unknown to my generation; and now iPads, for example, are replacing computers. Once sought-after technology is thrown by the wayside and into the nearest landfill.
Similarly, as the new technology replaces older models, it also replaces the inadequacies and errors of humans. For instance, the human brain is insufficient in the fact that it cannot retain every bit of information that it processes, but the Internet can store a limitless amount of information with ease. Traditional US mail is delivered at whatever unpredictable pace humans are able sort and distribute it; this human-run system isn’t nearly as fast or reliable as an email sent at the click of a button. The popular question of our generation is: what happens if technology replaces us? Will we too be thrown by the wayside only to join the ranks of the technology that we haphazardly discarded into the nearest landfill?
In Sherry Turkle’s novel, Alone Together, she explores the relationship between humans and technology and specifically “why we expect more from technology and less from each other” (Turkle, front cover). She explores our desire to find sophisticated, improved, user-friendly technology to perform the time consuming and “insignificant” daily tasks that we do not wish to perform ourselves. Furthermore, Turkle explores whether we will eventually want to replace frustrating, unpredictable, and unfulfilling interpersonal relationships with technology that caters to our personal and emotional needs. In researching these potential desires, Turkle also explores humans’ ability to form relationships with machines and if we need them to be mutual. Can we find fulfillment in, challenge, trust, or love a robot; can a robot find fulfillment in, challenge, trust, or love us; and for that matter, can a robot find fulfillment in, challenge, trust, or love another robot?
Eli Pariser’s novel also questions the nonexistent boundaries of our relationship with technology. Currently, we allow companies like Google or Facebook to track the websites we visit and stereotype our interests based off of those websites. From the stereotyped interests, these programs develop ads catered toward what we consider important, search results according to assumed biases, and articles that their algorithms say we’d define as “newsworthy.” This technology strips us of our human ability to peruse both sides of a subject regardless of bias and to form our own opinions. I began considering what personal information we could allow programs to access in the future and how advancements in these and other programs could use the new information to their advantage. Could programs target personalized ads to consumers that would unquestionably persuade them to buy their product?
In beginning this study, I wanted to challenge myself to envision beyond what is psychologically fathomable for relationships between humans and machines, even if it meant imagining things such as interpersonal interactions, individual choice, personal/spiritual/intellectual growth, the ability to make and learn from a mistake, quirky individual differences, and everything else inherently human about human nature that I love disappearing. I also wanted discover how today’s media frames these uncertain relationship possibilities with historical, social, and political implications. After reading both Turkle and Pariser’s books, I realized that the “unfathomable” and dehumanizing relationships that I was trying to imagine between humans and advancing technology were already becoming a reality. I began considering the film industry’s portrayal of these relationships and settled on Disney-Pixar’s relatively recent film, WALL-E (2008). (http://adisney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/wall-e/). This film is geared toward a family audience of all ages including moldable younger generations, but also my own generation and that of my elders. Its subject matter challenges current and prospective relationships between humans and technology in any combination, while highlighting the many historical, social, and political implications that reflect the beliefs of today’s consumerist generations. WALL-E, Alone Together, and The Filter Bubble depict hypothetical human/machine relationships in which humans become so dependent on technology that they lose their inherent humanity and actually replace themselves with technology. These hypothetical relationships reflect only mere elaborations on many of the real relationships that we have with technology now. More importantly, these works highlight the gradual dehumanization of today’s generations, and the generations to come, as they become knowingly or unknowingly more reliant on technology
