Topic Group II: DystopiaBrighid CallahanJason HinkleKevin SampsonYanxiu Xu

UNST 254 – Popular CultureGroup Presentation

Introduction

Dystopia stands for an imagined place that is visually displeasing to the eyes. Everything about it is unpleasant and has a destroyed feel to the environment. The Film assigned to us as a subtopic was Pixar Animation Studio’s WALL-E.

WALL-E was animated by PIXAR animation, mostly known for working in computer animation (aka CGI animation). This movie was also done in CGI, which enhances the beauty of space and the horror that earth became.

While WALL-E is on earth by himself many of the shots are wide shots, with WALL-E small in comparison to the building and the trash. This is done to exemplify how alone WALL-E is, unlike on the ship.

On the ship WALL-E is almost constantly surrounded by others and has closer shots, similar to the feeling of being in a crowded room. Even when creating an animation one must put in the thought of camera angle and lighting, Pixar did a lovely example of this in WALL-E.

Technical Aspects

Story Summary The story begins on earth in year 2805. The planet is covered in trash and humans have fled to space, leaving robots called WALL-E to clean their mess. 700 years later after humans have left, one WALL-E remains to clean the entire earth by himself. Until one day a ship lands and a scanner robot EVE comes to check the planet for plant life.

WALL-E falls for EVE and helps shelter her from a dust storm, and shows her a plant he found. EVE takes the plant and goes into a ‘sleep’ mode, scaring WALL-E. After some time a home ship comes for EVE, WALL-E follows her thinking that she is in danger and that he needs to save her. Once on the ship WALL-E and EVE plan to bring the plant back to the captain's deck and disable the authoritative co-pilot robot, Auto. In order to return to the earth and revive the planet and the human race.

Main Characters

WALL·E (Waste Allocation Lift Loader, Earth-Class) is the only robot of his kind left on Earth after a botched attempt at trying to clean the trash-covered planet. The WALL·E units were left behind to clean the planet while humanity enjoyed a 5-year cruise.

The 5-year cruise became a 700-year cruise with humans content to remain in space, waited on hand and foot by an army of robots care of the Buy N Large corporation. After 700 years WALL-E developed one little glitch: a personality.

WALL-E loves collecting memorabilia from the past and the musical Hello Dolly. He cares deeply for his cockroach friend who follows him on the job. Even though WALL-E is all alone he stays optimistic for a better future and doesn’t lose faith.

EVE (which stands for Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) is the female robot in WALL-E. Dedicated to her mission in scanning for any signs of self-sustaining plant-life on earth, EVE was not interested in WALL-E and was even hostile towards him at first, but befriended him when they formally introduced each other and when he took her to safety.

The Axiom is one of the countless starliner spacecrafts built by the Buy n Large corporation (BNL) to evacuate humanity to space while the Earth (that was overwhelmed by trash due to mass consumerism) was cleaned by the BNLs machines.

Designed as a massive luxury cruise ship, the Axiom kept everyone aboard fed and entertained as it cruised through space. The ship was crewed almost entirely by robots, though there was a human captain. The majority of the ship's functions were handled by its computer, as well as an autopilot called Auto.

Captain B. McCrea is the current captain of the spaceship Axiom when WALL-E and EVE arrive on it. He looks forward to doing the morning announcements, which he claims are the one thing he gets to do on the ship. He is curious about and aspires one day to return to the planet Earth.

AUTO (Short for "Autopilot”) is the main antagonist in WALL-E. He is a wheel that controls the space station Axiom and He tries to prevent the Axiom and the hundreds of people living on it from returning to Earth.

Plot Overview

WALL-E is a robot that was sent by the big corporations to go and clean up the earth. He was left by himself after BnL attempted to shut down the operation by disabling the robots internal program. WALL-E was the only survivor and after 700 years learned to have feelings and appreciate some of the materialistic items left by the humans.

One day while sorting and compacting some trash, he finds a plant in a fridge. WALL-E understands the significance of this plant, as it could be the beginning to plant life flourishing across the plant again. That same day a spaceship lands to deploy a robot named EVE.

https://youtu.be/bQEo45izDkw This clip shows Wall-E finding the plant.

EVE’s goal is to scan the earth for potential plant life. They befriend each other and when WALL-E takes her to his home she finds the plant and radios back to her spaceship to bring her back to Axiom.

When the ship collects EVE, WALL-E holds on to the ships hull and gets dragged back to Axiom where they embark on a mission to regain the plant seed and bring back the humans to restore earth.

Culture Relevance

https://youtu.be/h1BQPV-iCkU

After hundreds of years living in space and not having to move a muscle, humans have virtually converted themselves into couch potatoes.

Technology has the capability to make life a convenient experience to humanity. However, an over-reliance on technology could lead to a dystopian society like the one depicted in WALL-E, where humans essentially turn into robots while robots like WALL-E and EVE actually have more humanistic qualities than the humans themselves.

Human Dystopia

This clip shows human dystopia

WALL-E is an American film produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation, written and directed by American screenwriter Andrew Stanton. According to IMDb WALL-E is based on an original script by Andrew Stanton.

WALL-E is the representation of the American underdog determined and optimistic to changes the course of human history. From the beginning of the movie he maintained his will to never give up and continue working for the world he believes. WALL-E continues to clean up the trash still left on earth, even though he is the last WALL-E. The lone hero fighting against the odds is the typical American theme.

Cultural Theme

Major Theme

The major theme in WALL-E is that as man has lost his connection with earth, he has lost connection with himself. In order to best take care of ourselves we need to take good care of our earth.

During the end credits we are able to see the humans change along with the earth as they take care of each other. In the beginning it may not be as obvious, but after boarding the ship along with WALL-E and EVE we see what has become of humans within the last 700 years without the planet.

End of Presentation

Brighid - Created an analytical paragraph researching the cultural aspects of the film

Jason - Master Tech: Created the power point and helped with discussion questions

Kevin - Set up the overview, introduction and found the video clips

Yanxiu - Created discussion questions and helped with the power point

Bibliography

Disney Wiki. “EVE.” Web. 20 May 2015. http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/EVE

Cinemablography. “WALL-E.” Web. 18 May 2015. http://www.cinemablography.org/wall-e.html

IMDb. “Captain.” http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0089610/bio

IMDb. “WALL-E.” Web. 18 May 2015. http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0089568/bio

Pixar Wikia. “Axiom.” Web. 18 May 2015. http://pixar.wikia.com/Axiom

Villains Wikia. “Auto.” Web. 20 May 2015. http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/AUTO