My Take on Wall-E

One of the highlights of my vacation was going to see Wall-E. As expected, it was great. It is an animation masterpiece, but the underlying message is sobering for those with eyes to see it. Basically the underlying message is consumerism left unchecked will result in massive amounts of garbage, and lazy, self-absorbed humans who can no longer think for themselves, connect with other humans in a meaningful ways (the only characters in the movie who fall in love are machines!), or even walk! After 700 years, humans have evolved (or de-evolved) into overweight couch potatoes who spend their days in hovering recliners watching TV and eating. Every day is like the day before...no purpose, no adventure, no love, just consumption. It's scary because it seems to be true for some people.

Wall-E, after 700 years of compacting and stacking garbage on an abandoned Earth, finally meets another robot from the ship where humans have been "surviving" for seven centuries since the garbage they left behind had rendered the planet uninhabitable. Suffice it to say, Wall-E rocks their world.

On a Christian level, it amazes me how many people don't understand that Christ came not just to get us into heaven, but to transform us here so we can be transforming agents in our culture... for the better...hmmm....sort of like Wall-E...who comes to humans who have forgotten what it means to be truly alive, to show them the way "home." So don't write Wall-E off because it's animated. Critics are almost unanimous in their praise for Wall-E's artistry and for its message.

Wall-E is introduced doing what he was built to do, stack garbage in nice little cubes, but along the way, he found out life has a lot more to offer. We live in a culture that pushes consumption, and there are a lot of people out there who are buying into that (literally). Maybe we Christians need to learn again and again that we all were created for a lot more than that, and like Wall-E, will have the love for our fellow man and God to spend our lives helping others to discover the life that IS life and worth living...the life Christ died to give us!
"Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing." Philippians 2:14-16