Compelling Compositions

Image via IMDB.

I watched the movie WALL-E again last night. I'd forgotten how terrifyingly, potentially real the movie's plot line really is. Corpulent, lazy people who let convenience take over their lives. I know I harp on it, but it's scary what is in other peoples' shopping carts at the grocery every week. Absolute JUNK (soda, chips, cookies, tv dinners, and not a fruit of vegetable to be seen). In WALL-E everything the people ate was 'in a cup,' and any more you can get anything "pre-made" from individually packaged frozen pb&j-s to 'baby carrots' (really, we can't whittle down a regular carrot ourselves anymore). I move for people to just try making a habit of making their meals from scratch. It isn't as time consuming as you'd think, and you know exactly what your family is eating. I still feel guilty that I go to the grocery store at all. I'm hoping within five years I'll be raising all our food right here on the farm.

The other factor in WALL-E is essentially they covered the Earth with trash until it wasn't conducive to supporting life. It would be ideal if the grassroots effort of 'back to the land' and just a waking up of the average person to realize that progress and convenience aren't always for the better would become popular culture. Just a re-invention of a 'do for yourself' mentality. Personally I'll clutch to the past. I read ag books from the early 1900s for my advice on livestock raising and gardening and I'm getting along just fine. People, me included, need to take a hard look at their choices and the consequences they have on ourselves and the big picture as well. I get into this sort of bad mood thinking about where the world is heading. I wish I could shout from my rooftop and get others to see things my way. I've got some world changing ideas, but they are pretty radical and it would require everybody to have to work really hard to make the changes happen. So, it's probably a slim chance that anybody would listen. I'll do my best to push them forward, and we'll see if they get off the ground around my town, and potentially on a grander scale (ha).

At any rate, WALL-E makes you think. It really makes me want to get up and do a few jumping jacks to keep me from looking like the people aboard the Axiom. The ending is nice though, and it is a very good movie, although not one I'd consider a kids' film. I think it's dark undertones are lost on many kids and adults alike. It should definitely not be taken lightly.