Am I the only one who was slightly offended by Wall-E?

[PlainJane]

There are spoilers, so be aware.
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I knew when they showed the grandmother in the hover chair and then said "no need to walk" that this part of the story and message was going to go in a bad direction. It seemed that they were trying to say that hey if you exercise and eat right you'll be skinny, which isn't necessarily true.

I guess, it really stung for me personally because my mother use to be a very skinny woman, but then she was diagnosed with cancer. She has been in remission for years, but because of the medications she's on to prevent recurrence she is now overweight. It also hit home because of my hypermobility, I will most likely have to rely on a wheelchair in the future. I'm currently a healthy weight, but I'm ashamed to admit that one of my worries when it comes to my future is that I'll be overweight because of my disability(I guess, that's the ex- ballet dancer coming out of me).

The movie didn't show anyone who actually needed assistance besides the grandmother and one woman I saw with a walker, but it was unclear wether or not the woman even needed the walker, or if they were trying to portray her as lazy.

I didn't appreciate the message that fat=lazy. There is already a lot of intolerance towards overweight people. Take for instance the politicians in Mississippi who are trying to make a law that overweight people can't eat in restaurants.

It would have been nice if they had shown that some people need walkers, wheelchairs, and food in liquid form, and it doesn't make them lazy.

I don't even know where I'm going with this, I guess, I'm just rambling.

 

[Matt'sMom]

I didn't appreciate the message that fat=lazy.

I personally didn't find the movie offensive at all. And I did not percieve the message as being that overweight people are all lazy.

Instead, I understood the people to be 'out of condition' because they chose to not take care of themselves. The message I took away from the movie was that we all have a choice as to whether or not we will take care of our planet and ourselves. The captain's 'light bulb moment' came when he realized that the plant just needed someone to take care of it so that it could thrive & be healthy... and then he made the connection to the same being true of Earth (and also that he could/should take better care of himself). The people in the movie were heavy because they chose that sedentary lifestyle--abandoning all physical activity and riding around in hovercraft while stuffing their faces with unhealthy foods (the 'cupcake in a cup', for one example). They were not obese or confined to the chairs due to physical disabilities, but because of the poor choices that they had made.

No where did I hear the message that all overweight people, or people who need assistive mobility devices (due to disability), are 'lazy'. Being lazy (making poor choices) can indeed lead to weight gain... but it is just one of many potential causes of obesity. Being lazy can lead to being 'fat', but being 'fat' doesn't necesarily equate with being lazy. And I personally didn't feel that the movie implied any differently.

It's all a matter of perception. And each person's perception is influenced by their own life experiences. For myself, the most memorable part of the movie was when Wall-e was returned to Earth, after his memory/hard drive had been severely damaged. Eve repaired him... and then Wall-e woke, and remembered his primary directive (his function as a trash compactor)... but he had no memory of Eve, his pet roach, or the many other things that had been so important to him prior to the damages. But Eve kept trying, and eventually Wall-e did regain his memory & charming personality. Having personally dealt with three stroke survivors in my immediate family (both of my parents, and one grandmother), that part really touched me. It was so similar to the process of recovery from a brain injury.

 

[merryweather20]

Even though I have loved Pixar's movie's in the past, I wasn't planing on seeing Wall-E because it seemed so dark.

Even after reading Matt's Mom post the message the OP talked about sounds concerning. Matt'a Mom said that they didn't say lazyness was the only way to become fat or develop health problems, but it didn't sound like they provided the alternative either ie. adults of various shapes sizes (maybe even mobility needs and ages) enjoying exercise and healthy food. If this is the case then Wal-E sounds like a skipper to me.

 

[GrowingUpDisney]

I personally didn't find the movie offensive at all. And I did not percieve the message as being that overweight people are all lazy.

Instead, I understood the people to be 'out of condition' because they chose to not take care of themselves. The message I took away from the movie was that we all have a choice as to whether or not we will take care of our planet and ourselves. The captain's 'light bulb moment' came when he realized that the plant just needed someone to take care of it so that it could thrive & be healthy... and then he made the connection to the same being true of Earth (and also that he could/should take better care of himself). The people in the movie were heavy because they chose that sedentary lifestyle--abandoning all physical activity and riding around in hovercraft while stuffing their faces with unhealthy foods (the 'cupcake in a cup', for one example). They were not obese or confined to the chairs due to physical disabilities, but because of the poor choices that they had made.

No where did I hear the message that all overweight people, or people who need assistive mobility devices (due to disability), are 'lazy'. Being lazy (making poor choices) can indeed lead to weight gain... but it is just one of many potential causes of obesity. Being lazy can lead to being 'fat', but being 'fat' doesn't necesarily equate with being lazy. And I personally didn't feel that the movie implied any differently.

It's all a matter of perception. And each person's perception is influenced by their own life experiences. For myself, the most memorable part of the movie was when Wall-e was returned to Earth, after his memory/hard drive had been severely damaged. Eve repaired him... and then Wall-e woke, and remembered his primary directive (his function as a trash compactor)... but he had no memory of Eve, his pet roach, or the many other things that had been so important to him prior to the damages. But Eve kept trying, and eventually Wall-e did regain his memory & charming personality. Having personally dealt with three stroke survivors in my immediate family (both of my parents, and one grandmother), that part really touched me. It was so similar to the process of recovery from a brain injury.

I agree 100%. I am a pooh-sized person...by choice! I chose to overeat and now I am choosing to diet and exercise to loose that weight.

I think too many people are looking for things to be offended by and therefore are reading into a lot of innocent things!

 

[KPeveler]

I actually kinda think the opposite of the OP. I will say that i liked that the "broken" robots, the misfits who needed to be fixed, were the heroes... it turns out that each of them had a purpose to their difference. i may be reading my own life into it, but its almost like they were the "disabled" robots, who learned they weren't broken, but learned what they were "meant for." maybe i'm reading too much into it, but i liked that.

i also agree that the point of the movie was to emphasize that we live with our choices, but there is ALWAYS a choice. yes, illness and disability may create situations we cannot change, but we have a choice about how we deal with those situations. i think it was pointing out that whatever is expedient or easy is not always the best choice...

 

[terri01p]

I haven't seen this movie but I guess whenever things hit close to home it's more hurtful than entertaining, the movie " The Hunchback of Notre Dame ", I found to be very offensive, I throw away anything to do with it whenever it first came out. My dd has spina bifida and has a huge deformity on her back and to keep on about this person being so ugly and such like to have pushed me over the edge...My dd even has a disney cd with this song on it , about being so ugly from this same movie and I redid the cd and took that hateful song out, if people ever listen to it I just wonder what is so happy and disney like about this.

So even though I haven't seen this movie I understand how you feel.

 

[Matt'sMom]

I actually kinda think the opposite of the OP. I will say that i liked that the "broken" robots, the misfits who needed to be fixed, were the heroes... it turns out that each of them had a purpose to their difference.

Yes, I liked that too! Those robots were not 'disabled'... just 'differently-abled'! It was a positive message about all of us being useful and having abilities and purpose, even if we are quite different from 'the norm'. Being different, &/or doing things differently, is ok--we don't all need to conform in order to be able to contribute positively to our society.

 

[Cheshire_cat]

I only heard it once during the movie, but I think the point of the floating chairs was that after mankind's 705 years in space, that they had lost bone density due to zero gravity. I know that this happens to astronauts when they spend time in the space station.

Also, they were so preoccupied w/ their technology that they didn't see the point in even talking face to face - they used their computer screens. So they didn't even see the need to walk about because they were so oblivious to what was happening to them by letting technology do absolutely everything for you.

I enjoyed the movie, but it wasn't one that I would take small children to see - it was a little dark in some places.

 

[GrowingUpDisney]

I enjoyed the movie, but it wasn't one that I would take small children to see - it was a little dark in some places.

Could you provide an example please? I saw the movie and took both of my boys (age 6) and didn't see anything remotely "dark".

 

[PlainJane]

OP here. I wasn't looking for everyone to agree with me, so the varied responses are fine by me. My position hasn't changed, I was still left with an uncomfertable knot in my stomach most of the movie.
Thanks, to those who understood some things hit way to close to home, and it makes them anything but enjoyable.

 

[dizcrazee]

I went back and found this old thread because I finally went to see Wall.e.....and yes, I was offended! I was offended and embarrassed in front of my daughter on our mother-daughter movie outing. I don't want her to think of me as one of those big blobs that rides a scooter out of laziness. On the way home from the movie, I explained to her that not all overweight people are lazy or eat all the time. I explained to her that just because an overweight person is riding a scooter, that doesn't mean that they are lazy, but they often have other medical issues that make walking and exercise difficult or impossible (like me). (She already knew all of this, though.)

Anyway, maybe I am being overly-sensitive, but I don't think that obese people should be held up to derision in a family movie from Disney. I guess that the truth is that obesity is the only physical condition that it's still okay to ridicule. Defend the movie if you will, but the fact remains that they portrayed the people as fat, disgusting blobs that were too lazy to even walk. That doesn't make me feel good, it doesn't reflect positively on the many obese scooter-riders in the parks (like me), and I'm sure I'm not the only one that left that movie embarrassed and offended.

 

[GrowingUpDisney]

I went back and found this old thread because I finally went to see Wall.e.....and yes, I was offended! I was offended and embarrassed in front of my daughter on our mother-daughter movie outing. I don't want her to think of me as one of those big blobs that rides a scooter out of laziness. On the way home from the movie, I explained to her that not all overweight people are lazy or eat all the time. I explained to her that just because an overweight person is riding a scooter, that doesn't mean that they are lazy, but they often have other medical issues that make walking and exercise difficult or impossible (like me). (She already knew all of this, though.)

Anyway, maybe I am being overly-sensitive, but I don't think that obese people should be held up to derision in a family movie from Disney. I guess that the truth is that obesity is the only physical condition that it's still okay to ridicule. Defend the movie if you will, but the fact remains that they portrayed the people as fat, disgusting blobs that were too lazy to even walk. That doesn't make me feel good, it doesn't reflect positively on the many obese scooter-riders in the parks (like me), and I'm sure I'm not the only one that left that movie embarrassed and offended.

I am sorry, but that is NOT what is portrayed in this movie. I think you went into it LOOKING for these things and that is why you came away with this opinion. The REASON these particular people in this particular movie were "fat and too lazy to walk" was because they allowed the robots and computers to do everything for them. That is EXACTLY what will happen if we allow it.

BTW - I am obese myself and I was not in the least bit offended by this movie. If anything I was inspired to get off my butt and do something about my weight.

 

[dizcrazee]

OP here. I wasn't looking for everyone to agree with me, so the varied responses are fine by me. My position hasn't changed, I was still left with an uncomfertable knot in my stomach most of the movie.
Thanks, to those who understood some things hit way to close to home, and it makes them anything but enjoyable.

I think the OP said it best with this post - nobody has to agree with me, but I know how the movie made me feel.

 

[Justish]

OP here. I wasn't looking for everyone to agree with me, so the varied responses are fine by me. My position hasn't changed, I was still left with an uncomfertable knot in my stomach most of the movie.
Thanks, to those who understood some things hit way to close to home, and it makes them anything but enjoyable.

I hope one day you might not see it so upsetting, cause I love cute movies,
and I never want someone to feel bad about cute things like Wall-E...

It makes me sad just thinking about how uncomfortable you must feel!

If I may, here is another angle you could look at it from, (I.E., my personal
lense):
SPOILERS MASKED:

In the begining it was made very clear that this new world had everything anyone would need to be happy for a few years until they found a new planet, including activities and excercise. They also mention that, for grandma (and I assume they include those disabled) They have equipment
to make life easier. I connect this to those chair commercials on TV for
the elderly and the disabled.

What went wrong was not a deplorability of people who NEED those items,
but that ordinary people, free of illness and disability began to wax bored and
tired of the space ship and it's activities, probably got tired of excercising
(After all, what were they doing it for? They didn't have to do ANYTHING
on that ship, which is the whole point.. but I'll get to that later). So they
sloughed off the actvities and opted for the complimentary chairs that would
tote them anywhere they wanted with ease, get them food and service and
allow them to continue living without ever lifting a finger.

The chair was not so much a symbol of lazyness as a symbol of the fact that
the majority of people had given up on really living and had started to abuse
a tool that had originally only been intended for few.

The story explains it thusly; Since no one, not even the captain of the ship,
really had any duties (the bots did it all). The people stopped taking care
of themselves and stoped living for anything. Instead, all they were were
a bunch of sheep being raised and hearded around by the control of the ship.

When someone finally realized there WAS a reason to get up out of the chair and do something else, it became a movement that brought people who
did not really need those chairs out of their stasis and into a life that included
making something out of life.

I'm sure I'm making this far to convoluded so I'll make a quick and short
explinaton here: The chairs were a tool for some, people got lazy and started
to abuse them, then everyone had them and forgot what they were originally
for: To help people have a BETTER life, not an easier one. Those chairs
allowed people to get places they couldn't otherwise, it was not intended to
get anyone anywhere faster or with less energy use. They became a glorified
escelator, and the people suffered for it. When they realized that they had
all been living at the whim and will of these chairs and the robots that controlled
the station, they CHOSE to try and make things BETTER, fix the earth, and
live life the way people used to live, through hard work and the joy of making
things better. Perhaps not easier, and perhaps not faster, but better.

I hope that, if you look through the movie with that lense of Better vs. Easier
you will see that the idea wasn't to demean users of the chairs and other
ease-making tools, it was to show how they had changed from helpful asst.
to abused products and the danger it had caused people.

I will always say, if you need help, get it. But if you know in your heart you
don't really need something, you are only hurting yourself and your future
by taking it anyway. The ease will come back to bite you in the end.

Wow... I really need to learn to cut down my posts...

~Ally

 

[Selket]

Could you provide an example please? I saw the movie and took both of my boys (age 6) and didn't see anything remotely "dark".

There is the whole "destruction of the earth" thing.... LOL! I thought that was an extremely dark movie. I think younger kids are not going to be affected by the movie because of the way it was done but to think of earth as uninhabitable for so long - except by roaches and robots - is really quite depressing. And so few humans survived in that ship. If that was it then most of the population perished.

I don't deal with mobility issues but I'm overweight. I guess I saw the film as others have - the people chose to let the technology take over. I don't think of those who use mobility devices as too lazy to walk, etc. - which is the way they were in the movie. I can see your point though - and the point about the Hunchback movie and the song. Your personal experience is your lens.

I know I cringe when people go on about type 2 diabetes is caused because the person gets fat and lazy, etc. Several in my family have type 2 who are normal weight - and always have been - and hardly lazy.

 

[jkCT]

I heard a radio interview on National Public Radio with one of the "creators" of the movie...his explanation of the intent of the "fat" people was that they were not intended to be "fat people", but intended to show that humans had "regressed" to being babies. His explanation was that babies are pudgy, they have short arms and legs, they have big heads, they can't walk. When they had everything done for them in their new "community" they actually reversed evolution and became more baby-like. This was his explanation of how the creators intended the film, but like most of us here I saw "fat people" until I heard his explanation on the radio program.

 

[SueM in MN]

There is the whole "destruction of the earth" thing.... LOL! I thought that was an extremely dark movie. I think younger kids are not going to be affected by the movie because of the way it was done but to think of earth as uninhabitable for so long - except by roaches and robots - is really quite depressing. And so few humans survived in that ship. If that was it then most of the population perished.

I don't deal with mobility issues but I'm overweight. I guess I saw the film as others have - the people chose to let the technology take over. I don't think of those who use mobility devices as too lazy to walk, etc. - which is the way they were in the movie. I can see your point though - and the point about the Hunchback movie and the song. Your personal experience is your lens.

that was the way I saw it too.
I think the writers were looking at the fact that obesity is going up in the US and kind of took that to where it could go in the future. Things like an article I just read in the paper about teens and exercise:
Kids get less than 1 hour of exercise daily.

By JOSEPHINE MARCOTTY, Star Tribune
Last update: July 16, 2008 - 9:45 AM
New research is charting the roots of the nation's obesity epidemic: Between the ages of 9 and 15, kids' daily physical activity drops from an average of three hours to less than one.

On weekends it's worse. Fifteen-year-olds, on average, move around only 35 minutes a day on Saturdays and Sundays, according to a study of 1,000 kids across the country.

The results, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), put physicians on notice that they need to pay more attention to whether their young patients are spending too much time online and on their cell phones, and not enough at the pool or park.

Unfortunately, I don't think that's what some people think of when they saw the movie. All the threads on the DIS Boards about people judging guests using ECVs is proof of that.

When you think about it, it was a pretty depressing start to the movie and it wasn't until the credits, where you see people rebuilding the earth, that it is a more hopeful picture.

 

[Poohbug]

I am sorry the movie made you feel bad. I don't think the people were meant to be portrayed as fat and lazy. As said before the people lost bone density because of the space travel and the fact that they rode around on chairs all day. They also did not have any human contact. As a matter of fact I was wondering where those babies came from. I think it was a comment of misusing technology and making it more important than humanity. But anyway I understand about not liking certain movies because how it made you feel. I didn't like Hunchback at all and cannot watch Ratitouille(sp?) because the rats in the kitchen make my skin crawl.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

To me it wasn't equating fat with lazy, but laziness with excess and loss of personal freedom. The people were all caricatures anyway. I am overweight and it is somethign I struggle with, however, this movie did not offend me at all, I think it had a good social message. We need to take care of ourselves and of our environment. As others have said, I liked that it was the "broken" robots who saved the day.

As for Hunchback, while I understand how you feel based on your personal experience, I do not find it offensive. The movie is based on a classic novel by Victor Hugo, his physical deformity and the way people perceive him is a huge part of the book. I remember in French class watching an old black and white version of Hunchback, and that was even worse. He was deaf from ringing the bells and was portrayed as almost being mildly mentally retarded. To me, the Disney version was about coming to terms with your own body and finding that outer beauty and inner beauty are not the same thing. Even though others percieve him as ugly (and he perceives himself that way because he has been told), they learn to see his heart of gold despite his physical appearance, and I think that is a great message for any child. However, I can understand why you feel the way you do because of your daughter.

 

[OneLittleSpark]

Hugs to all of you . I know I'm jumping in a bit late on this thread, but I only saw the film on Saturday (it was released Friday over here). Here's my random musings on the film, though of course I completely understand if people don't agree with me (this word would be pretty dull if everyone agreed on everything!).

This one is a bit of a tricky issue for me, as I've got Fibromyalgia, with a nice side helping of chronic fatigue. Because these are invisible illnesses, with no conclusive tests and no physical damage, it's pretty easy to get labeled with the 'faker' sticker. Also, with the fatigue, I can't always get up and 'do' as easily as I'd like. Just want to make it clear, this isn't me angling for sympathy or anything, I know I've got it pretty easy compared to many out there, I just wanted to make sure people knew the angle I was coming from.

Though I could understand the message Pixar wanted to get across, with people giving up on life, it did make me worry a bit about all of our lovely friends in other areas of the board, who seem to think that everyone on an ECV is doing it out of 'laziness'. I'm just a little concerned that it may accidentally reinforce the message that people using mobility devices are only doing it out of laziness. The message that I felt they were trying to get across, though, was a good one: we need to look after ourselves, each other and our Earth as best we can; we need to keep finding things to live for and keep living, rather than just surviving.

I actually kinda think the opposite of the OP. I will say that i liked that the "broken" robots, the misfits who needed to be fixed, were the heroes... it turns out that each of them had a purpose to their difference. i may be reading my own life into it, but its almost like they were the "disabled" robots, who learned they weren't broken, but learned what they were "meant for." maybe i'm reading too much into it, but i liked that.

That's a good way of looking at the film, and I did like that very much. The idea that the robots that were though of as 'broken', were actually just different, is a nice message to get across.

I guess it all depends on the minds it goes into, and the experiences the audience has had. People who are going to judge those of us with invisible disabilities as 'lazy' or 'faking', will do it with or without this film; whereas those who understand what we're going through (whether through personal experience, experiences of a loved one, or just through good old fashioned empathy) are going to continue to understand. I'm so sorry some of you feel hurt by this film, and I can completely understand where you're coming from; it's not easy to feel like you're being attacked (whether that was the original intention or not), especially when it comes from something you love as much as we love Disney.

More hugs to all of you, and thank you for being able to hold a discussion without it lowering to petty squabbling and personal attacks (unlike one or two sad threads on the DIS ) You're all wonderful people