How many years has it been since Larry Niven used the concept “the probe is programmed to find a habitable point; the people who sent it assume that it found an entire habitable planet” in his Known Space stories?
That would be 40 years ago, assuming that you’re referring to A Gift from Earth, which was published in 1968.
Yeah I amused myself during the terrible Disney happy ending with the thought that after all the happy clappy Disney songs about 95% would not have survived the first winter 
Though of course whatever gunk they were surviving off in space (they mention it in passing at one point) , would still be there when they were on earth.
Also of course you can’t really complain about a Disney style ending on a Disney movie.
Did the Pizza Planet truck make an appearance? I don’t remember seeing it.
I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Pizza Planet logo appears on one of the chubby humans’ chair viewscreens aboard the Axiom, but I didn’t notice it when I saw the movie.
Why wouldn’t they? I assume they’d be living on the Axiom until they had things well under control outside of it. Go out and farm during the day, sure, but go back to the Axiom for food, sleep, etc until you’ve got things going on the surface.
The webcomic Multiplex had a strip where two guys were complaining about how “liberal” Wall-E was. But I was struck by its “conservative” message.
Sure there was an environmental message. But when you think about it, BnL’s plan worked. So the message there was “just be patient and the trust big business to fix things.”
And the Axiom was a parody of conservative views of the welfare state, which in the climax we saw people reject so they could embrace the rewards of hard work and self-suffiency.
Well, yeah, but remember all those huge trash blocks the Wall-A’s were constantly dumping out into space? Where are they going to go now? If anything, the humans are more wasteful now, and with a mysterious, but apparently unlimited, source of raw materials. (Although if they were farming it from space debris, it’s lost to them now.)
And we’re supposed to believe that the entire population of the Axiom has suddenly and unanimously agreed to give up their sedentary junk-food lifestyle to live on a desolate, trash-ridden planet, supposedly to be sustained by a single species of plant? :rolleyes: Yeah, right!
In think someone should create two dark sequels to Wall-E. Part 2 would recount the fate of the humans: the numerous deaths and injuries that occur as the pudgy humans try to get around in the wasteland of earth; the political divisions that would immediately erupt between the stay-on-Earth and the back-to-space factions. Civil war, fighting over the resources of the Axiom, a small colony left on Earth (with a few months’ supply of pizza from the ship’s replicators) after the back-to-spacers seize control of the ship and leave. And the slow, painful death of the remaining colony through starvation as they realize that the little plant Wall-E found was…
…tobacco.
Episode 2 ends with Wall-E and Eve struggling to bury the now emaciated corpse of the last of the colonists, the captain.
Part 3 opens hopefully with Wall-E and Eve preparing to spend the rest of eternity together, cleaning up Earth. But although there are plenty of spare parts for Wall-E to keep him running indefinitely, Eve suffers a catastrophic failure while they are attempting a novel sexual position. Since the Axiom was the only possible source of spares for her, Wall-E desperately tries to adapt old Earth technology to her space-age circuits, but with no success.
His continued attempts to revive her by fitting old junk into her corpse transforms her once-sleek form to a revolting and nearly unrecognizable hodgepodge. However, Wall-E remains obstinately devoted to her memory, ultimately sinking into a psychotic robotic monomania, fixated on the desecrated remains of Eve. (Ratings may keep us from fully depicting the shocking perversions he practices on her corpse. But we can put those scenes on the unrated DVD.)
In the end, one of the huge towers of junk blocks he has built collapses on top of him, entombing him forever. The only faint sound we can hear from the rubble as Part 3 ends is a few warbling, distorted seconds of “Put on Your Sunday Clothes” from Hello, Dolly!
Fade out.
Well, I don’t think you can say that BnL’s plan worked. I thought the message was about getting your humanity back through work and care (for others and for the land). I mean, look, the Tree of Life sprouted from a workboot. And also about really thinking about the ways we use technology–not mindlessly accepting whatever anyone wants to sell us, but mindfully using technology to work together and all that good stuff.
Half-conservative, half-liberal. Possibly crunchy conservative.
heehee.
hee ha ha!
Bah ha haha!
BAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!
pees a little
I like it. Not exactly Pixar’s style, to say the least, but I like it!
commasense, you’re a sick, sick man.
So you’re going to be writing it, right?
You want dark? Change one thing in Wall-E: after being repaired, have him wake up but not retain his personality.
I was thinking about writing a longer post and pointing out the possible interpretations of the movie. One was that the actions of Wall-E and the other clean-up robots did have an effect - this was the one I consider more likely (after all the movie was named for him so presumedly he had some impact on events), The second interpretation was the the plant arrived spontaneously and Wall-E’s actions were unneeded. If so, my original point remains unchanged: “don’t worry because enviromental problems will fix themselves” is just as conservatively sound an answer as “just be patient and the trust big business to fix things.”
My dark sequel: After being rebuilt by Eve, Wall-E goes back to following his Directive: clean up the Earth. And when he looks around he realizes that people are what is causing the problem. Earth must be protected. Humanity must be “cleansed”.
Remember the final scene of the movie? It showed Wall-E and Eve holding hands in a pastoral setting - with no people in sight.
Coming soon: Wall-E 2: The Rise of the Machines.
That was Eragon
Ya know…sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
And as a commentary on the OP, sometimes I think folks think too much.
Just saw it, and agree that plot was thin compared to other Pixar movies. I was also surprised by the lack of, I dunno, not “depth”, but maybe “layers of meaning”. In Monsters Inc., The Incredibles and even A Bug’s Life I thought there was plenty to chew on intellectually. (Brad Bird says The Incredibles didn’t contain homages to Atlas Shrugged? Phsaw.) But with Wall-E, I had a feeling of what you see is what you get. The only thing that adults would get that would go over the kids’ heads was the 2001 references, but that was so obvious as not to be debatable at all. I really enjoyed the movie, and I’m not complaining, but was a bit surprised.
Hmmm . . . thinking about it a bit more . . . the references to 2001 actually do give me a tinge of disappointment now that I mull it over. There were so many things that could have given Wall-E a bit more depth, and without much effort at all plot-wise. The relationship between man and his tools is a subject just begging to be addressed, but isn’t. Even Hal, excuse me, Auto really doesn’t reflect anything of the dilemma posed by 2001. He isn’t going crazy from conflicting orders and finding that the humans are standing in the way–no, he’s faithfully carrying out a direct order from the BuyNLarge president issued 700 years before. Seems a bit of a cop-out to me now–we lost a chance to reopen the discussion of what are these tools in relation to us?