Ps. Loved the movie and thought it was adorable. My boyfriend thought it was even better than Iron Man, Indiana Jones, The Hulk or Speed Racer. He is a total movie junkie (insisted on advanced tickets for Dark Knight) and is FAR from anyone who cares about the environment or politics THAT much. Haha.

I hope the film does inspire kids to have a revolutioary mindset based on curiosity and love, the character WALL-E’s defining qualities. A little bit of luck too.

Not that the system we live in is that bad but… people are dying in foreign countries, kids are dropping out of school and living in poverty and the temperature is rising.

I understand this blog isn’t about the movie, so let me just comment on the revolution. I hope all of you will work peacefully. Working within our democratic system may also be wise.

The film is political, and it’s the first film to make all this kumbaya, let’s clean up the planet shit not seem sanctimonious and syrupy. (remember the end of the “Tookarjobs” episode of South Park in which the begin to clean up the earth but abruptly stop because it was “gay”, in Wall-E, they actually make that ending work!)

Re-read Rich’s column: He never says that neither candidate knows about these issues or cares, he never claimed that the film was the magical answer to all our problems. YOU put those words in Rich’s mouth and then argued with them.

I think the crux of his argument lies here: “a cartoon robot evokes America’s patriotic ideals with more conviction than either of the men who would be president.”

It’s a sad statement about politics, not a hyperbole about the power of film. Rich is a political columnist and, yes, he’s capitalizing on a film that millions of Americans saw and millions more will see before November. But he’s been around the block a few times, he knows that Wall-E can’t change the world. He hopes that the only two men that can change the world can inspire the denizens of earth to change their ways, like Wall-E did to the passengers of the Axiom. A vain hope perhaps, but an apt point.

if you watch the movie, you will understand what Rich is talking about. He is talking about simple human values, including “focus on our problems”. Wall-E does not have answers, but it has a funny robot who has more willingness to learn/solve a problem than our current blabbering mainstream media does.

My post does not pretend to be a work of criticism, it’s not even really about the movie itself––it’s about reactions to the movie.

(in less delicate terms: One’s ass might have good accoustics, but that doesn’t mean you should talk out of it)

Rich isn’t saying that the candidates should be taking notes as to what Pixar is saying about economic or environmental policy, he’s making an argument about values, focus, and message. In THESE areas, politicians are (maybe, just maybe) less apt than a filmmaker.

If you’d seen the film, you might have a better perspective, but please don’t let that get in the way of a good sarcastic rant. Lord knows there aren’t enough of those out there. And they TOTALLY change the world more than any stupid little movie.

I’ll take a film that’s only one level above a popcorn flick on the 4th of july.