(There might be some spoilers in this post about "Wall-E," so if you absolutely don't want to know anything about the movie before having seen it, look away now!)
So, every since we saw "Wall-E" on Saturday night, I've been trying to puzzle out just what the politics of this little animated wonder are. Now, don't going trying to tell me that this ain't a political movie. It plum hits you over the head with politics, but it's chaotic enough that you can't really make out where the blows are coming from. Now, some conservatives, thus confused have lashed out against the movie -- see, for example, the remarks from National Review Online's Greg Pollowitz and Shannen Coffin. But let's take a pause and review what happened in the film. The earth is more or less uninhabitable, and while I'm a little unclear on the details because we got to the drive-in late, Wikipedia seems to indicate that the the destruction is the result of the exploitation of the planet's natural resources. Humans, shunted on to giant cruise-ship like spaceships, grow so fat and blobish from mindless consumption that the are unable to form meaningful interpersonal relationships. Eventually a battle arises over whether humans should reclaim and reseed the earth they once knew.
Now darn it all if that doesn't sound like this great blog I've been reading -- Zack Exley's Revolution in Jesusland. Zack's been reporting on the growing evangelical movement in the U.S. that's rooted in some fairly rabid anti-consumerism and pro-environmentalism. So I think I've cracked it -- Wall-E is an evangelical Christian film. Consider yourself warned. (Photo thx themarina)
UPDATE: Umm, I was pretty much kidding with this post, about how "Wall-E" has Christian connotations, but gadzooks -- I just stumbled across a mention of how the two human characters who put down their super-sized sodas and form a human connection are named "Mary" and "John." Like, in the Bible? I'm starting to think I might actually be on to something.
