By Cameron Turner
Pixar Studios is famous for telling thoughtful, even profound stories through family animated films.
Pixar's tender robot love story, "WALL-E", achieves a whole new level of heaviness by holding a mirror to our society and looking ahead to a grim and plausible future.
"WALL-E's" title character is the last in an army of trash-compacting robots charged with the impossible task of cleaning up a deserted Earth laid-waste by a corporate-controlled society obsessed with selling and shopping.
The human population has moved off-world to a behemoth shopping mall/resort of a space ship called the Axiom.
There, after centuries of laziness and self-indulgence, humanity has been reduced to a pathetic collection of obese drones who spend their lives veging out on floating recliners, sucking down supersized soft drinks and avoiding meaningful human interaction while their faces remain transfixed by holographic screens that continuously display games and advertisements.
"WALL-E" reminds us that the greatest threat facing our world is greed. For greed (which is distinct from hunger, desire of ambition) pushes us to consume more and more (natural resources, junk food, escapist entertainment,
etc.) no matter how full we are and no matter what the cost to our environment, our bodies, our minds or our souls.
"Wall-E's" Warning....
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