I just saw WALL-E...

I've never really thought I'd be discussing movies in my blog, but we just got back from the movies and thought WALL-E was worth a mention. I thought it was a good movie entertainment wise, but also had a positive message about the environment.

When I saw the movie previews, I figured it was just a cute robot love story, but I was surprised to see it was also a movie about the environment. (Stop here if you're going to see the movie and don't want to read some spoilers below).

In a nutshell, WALL-E is a cute little, lonely, trash compacting robot who is lonely because he's all alone (except for a roach) on Earth, which has been abandoned by the human race after they trashed it. Another "girl" robot flies in from outer space and he's in love.

The girl robot is sent to find signs of plant life on Earth to see if it's inhabitable again, 700 years after humans left Earth. They now live on the space equivalent of an ocean cruise ship, eat liquid fast food, and are so fat and lazy, they don't even walk...they scoot around in floating chairs.

I thought the movie did a nice job of showing the negative effects of pollution and consumerism in a fun, kid friendly way. The ending was hopeful, with the humans returning to Earth to try to revitalize it (although they do wonder if the small green plant they tend to will grow into pizza).

I was glad to have my son see a movie that promoted taking care of Earth and avoiding an unhealthy lifestyle. So the movie in itself was a positive thing.

I was disappointed in a couple things, though. Maybe this was an opening day of the movie thing, but they gave each kid a plastic digital WALL-E watch. OK, how many of those will end up in a landfill? It would have been great to instead give the kids a little book with games or activities that dealt with the environment...or not anything at all.

I also looked at the WALL-E website, thinking they might have something environmental there. Nope. Just little games and wallpapers and stuff like that. I feel like Disney/Pixar wasted the chance to inspire an educate kids. It would be so easy for them to make a recycling game on the website, or kid friendly tips to help the environment? Disney/Pixar missed a real opportunity here.

Overall, though, it was a good movie with a positive message that I'd recommend for families. You just have to do your own follow-up about the environment with your kids afterwards.