With great anticipation, my family waited for Pixar's newest masterpiece, Wall-E.
Everyday, my girls (5y and 3y) watched the trailers on the little robot figuring out a shop-vac, a hula-hoop, or the one shown during the Super Bowl (with Woody and Buzz Lightyear).
On the day it opened, my husband and I ventured to the theater, our girls in tow and found a very different movie that we expected. The robot, Wall-E was completely delightful and although the world Pixar painted seemed bleak, Wall-E offered a great ray of hope.
"What if mankind had to leave Earth and someone forgot to turn off the last robot?" Andrew Stanton, Academy Award winning screenwriter of Finding Nemo and the director of Wall-E said in a trailer about the movie. "What if the most human thing left in the universe was a machine?"
The concept of everyone on the planet having to leave because we've so polluted it isn't totally far fetched, but is it something that kids can understand? Relate to? Talk about?
Will it only scare them?
More importantly, is there enough going on with the movie to keep kids attention for the one and half hours?
After reading the message boards on CNN, the majority of the parents are saying yes. There are those who think Wall-E was a complete bore because of the lack of action and one woman said her daughter cried, saying something like "is this the world I'm going to end up living in?"
Others defended the lack of action, stating her worries about those comments "worried her" that Americans are so addicted to action movies that they can't sit through something that doesn't have car crashes and a shoot 'em up theme.
Although the movie packs a deep message, it's ideal for opening dialogue to make kids more aware and responsible about the world around them. Even if your thoughts on global warming aren't warm and fuzzy, the message to take care of the world around you by not being gluttonous or wasteful (like the humans are in the movie) can be introduced and a great way to make children more aware of being responsible. Turn off lights when you're not using them, don't run the water the entire time when brushing your teeth, and put your trash in the proper place. If that's not enough to inspire you, think of it as teaching your kids to be more responsible and mindful of money management because they turn off lights no one is using, don't run the water excessively, and take care of their things, therefore having to buy less.
I call this Pixar's "thinking" movie because it's not about the action as seen in Cars or even Ratatouille. The movie is more cerebral and can easily apply to the direction our planet could take if we don't keeping being mindful of our Earth. Whether you want to see the movie because it's Pixar or because you like a bit of Sci-Fi there is a solid story (as all Pixar movies have).
As for our girls, what did they think? Our 5y old loved it, our 3yo danced around the theater and I ended up wrestling her for most of the movie. She seemed to get more out of the two minute trailers versus the entire movie, but then again, she'd done that for the last three movies we've gone to. I doubt it was Wall-E.
What did your kids think of Wall-E?
What questions did they ask you after you saw it with them?
Did this help you discuss subjects you hadn't addressed before with your children?
comments
my 4 year old really enjoyed it..he loved the romance between eve & wally...i don't think he really got the message about the environment as much as the heart wally had, and then showed to the humans.
my friend & i (the grown ups) thought it was a little slow-moving..although we liked it. what's that say about OUR attention spans? haha!
I think the movie had a great message about the environment, although it was not a "memorable" Disney film like some of the classics. My husband and I had the conversation about something that was disturbing though. Him, being a fireman of 12 yrs., brought it up not long after the movie was over....why did WALL E have to keep lighting the lighter???? This was not a good message to kids, and we wondered why they even put this in the movie. As we all know kids are already fascinated with "fire". Just didn't make sense to make a main kids character to be watching a flame.
My 5 yr old loved it, my 3 yr old did the dancing around the theater. I think the message was more for the parents but it did open a basic (5 yr old level) discussion about how we can help the enviornment.
- Jessica
- posted on 7/8
- Rating:
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View All CommentsI thought Wall-E the robot was adorable, but the rest of the movie was a little drab and depressing for me. Of all of the Pixar films this was my least favorite. My son (8) was a little bored. Just my experience.