Who am I? Well, that is a complicated question to answer, so let me pare it down a little. I am many things at once. One of the aspects of my being that I am most proud of is that I am a teacher. Among the many great things about being a teacher, the one I wish to talk about today is that I am a champion of children. I am in their corner. I believe in the ability of children to think deep thoughts and hold grand ideas. I have witnessed children engage in the most effortless, and yet remarkable, acts of empathy and compassion without the expectation of reward, simply because it was the right thing to do. I have watched the brains of children in action and have marveled at their creativity and their common sense. Finally, I have enjoyed the companionship of many young children who reached out to put their hand in mine as we strolled around the school yard at recess time. As much as walking with their teacher may have seemed like a big deal to them, it was also a big deal for me and helped to brighten my day every time it happened. Children are wonderful humans and are deserving of respect. It is for this reason that I wish to shine my spotlight on other people who also value children and respect their capacity to understand worldly issues. Please allow me to introduce you to the great minds who work at Disney Pixar Animation. These folks have made some of the most wonderful movies for children, such as the Toy Story franchise, Coco and today’s featured film, WALL-E. These movies explored important topics such as death and loss, ecology and pollution, friendship and separation, loneliness and love in ways that made sense for children. Believe me when I tell you some of the best discussions I have ever been involved in have been while seated on a carpet surrounded by children who are working hard to understand the world around them and why it works as it does. Movies such as those listed above provide visual evidence and context clues that help young children sort through their own emotions and ideas when asked to deal with big idea-type topics such as personal responsibility in a social setting, standing up for your beliefs (and developing a healthy value system in the first place), not giving up even though things are difficult sometimes and so many more. Kids are awesome! I will wave their banner on high forever and a day. They deserve nothing less from adults like me.
The movie WALL-E is a children’s film. It is also an extraordinary film. I especially found the opening quarter or third of the film to be incredibly moving. The “big idea” for WALL-E was hatched at a Disney Pixar lunch meeting held by various writers and animators including a man named Andrew Stanton. Stanton has written/directed several feature length animated movies, including Finding Nemo, Finding Dory, A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc. and all four Toy Story films. As the lunch progressed and ideas for new movies were being tossed about, Stanton pitched the question “What if mankind had to leave Earth and forgot to turn off the last robot?” The idea of being the last person on Earth had been explored to great effect on an episode of The Twilight Zone TV show a half century ago, in which the solitary character nearly goes insane. In this case, Andrew Stanton wanted more of a Robinson Crusoe-esque slant to the story whose big idea would be if you could start a utopian society, how would you do it and what would that look like in the end? Stanton and his colleagues took that question and created a movie called WALL-E for children. WALL-E has won numerous awards for being the best animated feature length film, the best science fiction/fantasy film and many more. In order to create a brave new world, it is imperative that the old world is destroyed and lost. Stanton and his peers didn’t want to do this in a violent, war-like manner. Instead, they opted to destroy the world with something that every child completely understands, and that is garbage. Social responsibility is a theme that runs throughout WALL-E. That topic is laid bare for children by showing how a lack of social responsibility caused by our tendency toward copious amounts of commercial consumption and our subsequent disposal of used up objects actually got to such a scale that life on earth became unlivable and everyone was forced to leave. Society at that time was controlled by corporations. These corporations exhausted the resources of Earth and left when there was nothing left there of value. The one thing they did leave behind was a solitary custodial robot named WALL-E. This lone robot was programmed to clean up the mess left behind and to keep doing so until the job was completely finished. Since the entire world was uninhabitable, the extent of the waste that WALL-E is faced with is epic in scale. It is possible that he may not be able to complete his mission before breaking down due to the wear and tear on his own parts. But, once programmed and activated, WALL-E began the job of clearing away our garbage. He does this all by himself in a dystopian environment washed in shades of brown and sandy beige. He does not speak words that we would understand. So for the first third of the movie, we simply watch WALL-E at work. That may seem uninteresting, but, in reality, it provides audiences with a mirror in which to see themselves as reflected in the objects that WALL-E finds, sorts, compacts into cubes for removal at a later date, or else that he finds enjoyable and keeps for himself. At one point he finds a bra, which was always good to draw a reaction from the kids on the carpet watching this movie in class. But the thing that Andrew Stanton and the folks at Pixar Animation did masterfully well with WALL-E was to use this time to convey the sense of loss that comes with being unable to continue living on Earth. The film does not rush through this portion of the story. It lingers here instead. We watch WALL-E going about his business silently for many minutes without relief. There are no other robots or animals or people. WALL-E is all alone on a wasteland of a world. He has no one to talk with or to share his burden. He has been left behind and is totally alone. The loneliness of it all is palpable. For the kids who watch this film, they understand the social consequence of being left alone and excluded. It is an awful way to spend a recess, let alone have it be your entire existence. So, as the kids watch the opening twenty minutes or so go by, they develop a deep sense of empathy for WALL-E and come to be fully on his side as events unfold.
The pivotal moment in the film happens when one day WALL-E discovers a plant. Much like we see dandelions grow from a crack in an urban concrete sidewalk or parking lot, WALL-E discovers a plant growing in the dry, cracked ground. He is fascinated by it and decides to save it and care for it. The kids are always smart enough to understand that wonderful literary device known as symbolism. With the appearance of this plant, suddenly there is hope. When you have hope you have life. When you have life, then the renewal of our planet becomes possible. The kids understand this instinctively. Without giving away what happens next, Stanton and his associates created the rest of the storyline of WALL-E using references from other classic movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien and, seemingly an odd choice, Hello Dolly. However, it is a moment from the original movie “Hello Dolly” that provides the heart and soul of WALL-E. It is one thing to have hope, in the scientific sense that the little plant symbolizes so well, but it is another thing entirely to have companionship and to know love. Among WALL-E’s collection of favoured objects is a computer/TV screen that occasionally plays clips from TV shows and movies. One of the clips that WALL-E has developed a fondness for watching is from the movie Hello Dolly. In the short clip that WALL-E has to view, actor Michael Crawford sings a song called “It Only Takes a Moment” to actress/singer Barbra Streisand. Crawford sings of how it only takes a moment to fall in love once you meet the right person for you. Then, he and Streisand take hold of each other’s hand and walk into the sunset, so to speak. To WALL-E, holding hands means not being alone. To him and his robot heart, that is what love means. Thus, later in the movie when a second robot arrives on Earth to check on WALL-E’s progress, one of the first things that WALL-E does is to take this lovely, sleek robot back to where he lives and play for her the clip from Hello Dolly. WALL-E then attempts to join his “hand” with hers. When she pulls hers away in confusion, WALL-E quickly offers her a token of his affection…his little plant. Where there is hope, there is life. Where there is love, you have a life worth living and fighting for.
As I have noted before, big ideas such as social responsibility, having a value system, understanding the concepts of loneliness in terms of the emotional toll it can take and the redemptive power of love and companionship are all things that children can and do understand. Movies like WALL-E package it all together in a wonderful story that contains far more action and adventure and poignant moments than I have described above. There are many great children’s authors who do the same thing with regard to exposing the dangers of taking our environment for granted. One great example is The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. Another is Just a Dream by master illustrator and storyteller Chris Van Allsburg. In all cases, these creative adults show children the ultimate form of respect by not talking down to them or watering down their work. Instead, they create stories that they know will speak to children in their hearts and their minds and trust that the kids will know what to do as a result of what they have read or seen. All that I know is that hanging out with my kids in the classroom or out on the playground was one of the things that made being a teacher such a great way to make a living. How blessed am I that a young child trusted me enough to take my hand in theirs just so we could steal a few moments together during recess?! It is not by fluke that the act of holding hands with another became one of the most significant moments in WALL-E. Being alone in the world is hard. Kids know it. Adults know it, too. What makes it better is having a hand to hold while making life’s journey. Here’s to having a hand to hold.
The link to the video for the trailer to the movie WALL-E can be found here.
The link to the video for the song “It Only Takes a Moment” by Michael Crawford from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to the film Hello Dolly (as shown in the film WALL-E), can be found here.
The link to the official website for Disney Pixar Animation can be found here.
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