What if I told you they were preparing us for the future? What if I told you Pixar’s films will affect how we define the rights of millions, perhaps billions, in the coming century? Only by analyzing the collection as a whole can we see the subliminal concept being drilled into our collective mind. I have uncovered the skeleton key deciphering the hidden message contained within the Pixar canon. Let’s unlock it.
The Hidden Message in Pixar’s Films
> Catena Ex Situ
4 Comments | 
A Bug's Life, Cars, ex situ, Monsters Inc., morality, philosophy, Ratatouille, Robin Hood, Tarzan, The Incredibles, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, The Rescuers, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Up, WALL-E | Tagged: Pixar | 
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Posted by The Editor
[Editor's Note: I found this Ex Situ via the indispensable The Disney Blog.]
Mr. Michial Farmer at Ladder on Wheels has written an excellent two-parter about themes of darkness and anxiety in Disney and Pixar movies (including Up). It’s practically a survey of disturbing things in Disney and Pixar movies. The first part is all about how dark the early Disney features were, and how they lost some of that darkness after (roughly) World War II:
…All of the early Disney features—for our purposes, let’s define “early” as prewar, which would allow us to work with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi—are shiny and beautifully drawn, but all of their prettiness only serves to hide the deep, existential dread at their cores.
While Mr. Farmer has a good point, I do think he neglects some of the darker imagery of The Rescuers, The Black Cauldron, The Lion King, or even Lilo & Stitch. Though the darkness in these films isn’t quite as fundamental or thematic as most of the pre-WWII examples he gives.
His second part is all about how Pixar’s stories are successful partly because they have embraced those mature themes which have been largely absent from the post-war Disney films. Here’s part of his discussion of Finding Nemo:
Finding Nemo, on the other hand, begins with a reference to and amplification of the central terror in Bambi. Here Marlin’s wife dies a terrible death just as they’re planning their life together, and the Barrucuda who eats her also goes ahead and takes out all but one of her eggs. Marlin—understandably, although the film doesn’t seem to acknowledge that!—becomes a picture of anxiety, protecting his disabled son (a nod to Dumbo, though Nemo doesn’t get the brutal mocking that his elephantine counterpart does) from the world that took his wife with little to no warning.
It’s very true that Pixar does not shy away from including more sophisticated and mature themes. It’s certainly part of the reason why Pixar movies resonate strongly with both kids and adults. Pixar also does not make the mistake (common among the filmgoing public) of mistaking “dark/edgy” for “dark/mature.” A lot of cartoon and comic fans seem to think it validates their love of the artform if disturbing stuff is haphazardly included, whether or not it actually adds anything symbolically or thematically. Pixar probably learned its lesson after that first disastrous “edgy” draft of Toy Story.
Deep in the Big Black Heart of the Sunshine State
Part 1 >Catena Ex Situ
Part 2 >Catena Ex Situ
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1 Comment | A Bug's Life, Atlantis, Bambi, Bolt, Brother Bear, Cars, Chicken Little, Cinderella, death, Dumbo, ex situ, Fantasia, Finding Nemo, Home on the Range, Lady and the Tramp, Lilo and Stitch, Meet the Robinsons, Monsters Inc., morality, philosophy, Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Song of the South, The Black Cauldron, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Incredibles, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Frog, The Rescuers, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Up, villains, violence, WALL-E | Tagged: angst, existential dread, ontological, The Island, World War II | Permalink
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Just in time for Up: WALL•E!
SynchroLux (né Kevin Koch) decided to revisit WALL•E and share some of his thoughts on the relationship between theme and plot:
My issue, put simply, is that the film’s theme was revealed and resolved early, robbing the remainder of the film of meaning. Put another way, by climaxing and resolving the theme about half way through the movie, it ended up feeling like two distinct, shorter episodes welded together, with the first one quite a bit more compelling than the second.
and:
Let’s take a step back and look at the issue of theme. Plot is about what happens, to whom, and in what order. Theme is what the film is about. Themes give films meaning, depth, and enhance our sense of entertainment. Not all films have much of a theme, but I’d argue strongly that there are no memorable or great films that don’t have well-developed themes that infuse and drive the narrative. And, as I recall reading somewhere I can’t place now, the great films tend to make the resolution of the theme the key to resolving the plot…
His primary solution, which will not be completely revealed here, is to tweak the character of Captain McCrea to keep more in synch with the theme to get that nice, endorphin-releasing thematic resolution.
…Perhaps the Captain, instead of being a bored dope, could have been a devoted scholar of man’s time on Earth. Maybe this is how he spent his countless hours of leisure time, looking at old National Geographics…
Mr. Koch’s specific objection of thematic resolution never bothered me, since the movie supports all manner of thematic analysis and symbolism, despite what Mr. Stanton says. I don’t think WALL•E truly possesses one consistent theme, but seems to be a bit of a hodgepodge.
I do like his idea of tweaking the Captain character, since his transformation to proactive go-getter was a little bit easy. (The filmmakers did at least right away show how bored he was with his day-to-day routine.) I wouldn’t tweak quite so dramatically as Mr. Koch suggests, since this might rob the film of any suspense or mystery regarding Captain McCrea if we know from the outset that he’s going to be emphatically on WALL•E’s side. It might also telegraph the return-to-Earth ending a little too much. Having the Captain as an interested go-getter from the start would also undercut a bit of the importance of humanity taking charge again. He can’t seem like the kind of guy who would have already flipped the switch to MANUAL.
WALL•E: When Theme and Plot Get Out of Sync > Catena Ex Situ
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2 Comments | ex situ, Up, WALL-E | Tagged: Eve, irrational love, plot, Theme | Permalink
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2 Comments | diagnosis, ex situ, Mini-Analyzations, philosophy, racism, Sesame Street, stereotypes, The Muppet Show, The Rescuers Down Under, Tom and Jerry, villains, WALL-E | Tagged: 666, Axiom, Don't Let's be Beastly to the Germans, Fozzie, Kermit, Miss Piggy, The Count, The Swedish Chef | Permalink
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Over at Jim Hill Media, the eponymous webmaster received this e-mail query:
Can you please help me win a bet at work? A co-worker of mine says that WALL-E makes a brief cameo appearance in “Ratatouille.” More importantly, this guy has bet me $100 that I’ll never ever be able to find that robot in this movie. I’ve watch my kid’s “Ratatouille” DVD three times now and haven’t seen hide nor hair of WALL-E yet. So if I offer you a percentage of my winnings, will you please tell me where I can find this robot in the movie?
J.H. has done more than answer this guy’s question: he has written an exhaustive article detailing almost all of the Pixar self-references he could find. Some of them are so hard to spot, you need an expert like Mr. Hill to do the legwork for you. So, click over to brush up on your Pixar minutia and picayune intelligence. It’s how I would impress my co-workers if they would ever talk to me.
A Special “Where’s WALL-E” Edition of Why For? >Catena Ex Situ
14 Comments | ex situ, Ratatouille, WALL-E | Tagged: eponymous, picayune intelligence | Permalink
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Over at CHUD.com, lovable grouch Devin Faraci has written another editorial about WALL•E. The premise of this editorial is that WALL•E‘s less-than-really-expected box office is partly due to “The central love story doesn’t really work.” He then proceeds to make an extended analysis of WALL•E and EVE’s relationship:
But of course this is a story told from the point of view of the social retard, so this creepy behavior is rewarded. This is the wish fulfillment aspect, and it’s here that the relationship story goes off the rails for me. In the movie EVE wakes up essentially in love with Wall*E; having him need to win her at this point would have been more interesting and realistic. Wall*E as a character undergoes almost no change in the movie, which again is that social misfit POV – it’s everybody else who needs to change, not the guy who can’t make eye contact with the check out girl at the supermarket.
I don’t buy the hypothesis of this being the reason for WALL•E‘s relatively lackluster B.O. (Like Ratatouille, it’s a hard movie to sell properly.) Nor do I completely buy his analysis of the romance, but I have to admit that Mr. Faraci makes several excellent, thought-provoking, and essentially accurate points. It’s a valid critique, just one I don’t agree with. I think that the movie works best as a sort of nonliteral robot fairy tale (c.f. A.I.), though that probably is a critical cop-out.
NOTE FOR SENSITIVE READERS: Mr. Faraci refers to Doing It, using the euphemism “Doing It.”
The Devin’s Advocate: WALL•E’s Unlikely Love Story
>Catena Ex Situ
2 Comments | ex situ, Ratatouille, WALL-E | Tagged: A.I. | Permalink
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Well, here we were, all planning to write up an article tonight linking to and discussing the assorted controversies surrounding the release of Pixar’s newest precious stone, WALL•E, only to find out that The Onion‘s excellent The A.V. Club has beaten us to the proverbial punch. Such is the cutthroat cosm of over-analyzationing. The A.V. Club categorizes the controversies into four groups:
The staff here was quite fond of WALL•E, and did not find it to be too preachy or damning about anything. We thought it was a charming satirical fantasy encouraging responsible awareness and making connections with others, wrapped around a chewy nougat of sweet romance and amazing character animation. Also, we are so not tired of posting articles about it.
Your Guide to the WALL•E Controversy >Catena Ex Situ
2 Comments | ex situ, politics, stereotypes, WALL-E | Tagged: fascism, liberal, onion | Permalink
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1 Comment | A Bug's Life, knock-offery, Mini-Analyzations, Monsters Inc., WALL-E | Tagged: Three Amigos | Permalink
Posted by The Editor
Nota bene: We wish to apologize for the lack of updates in the last few days. Our red-headed Editor has been busy with a curious new part-time job on Fleet Street which keeps him occupied from ten to two each day.
One thing Pixar films are not is shallow. Their enduring appeal partly rests on the myriad themes and intelligent designs which wimple softly in the flow like brook trout in the streams in the mountains. This is also quite true of their latest delightfully delightful film, WALL•E. For those of you who have not seen this amazing film as of yet, please do so immediately, and we shall wait for your return to continue our article.
The percolatory Cartoon Brew has brought to our attention an interview in Christianity Today with WALL•E director Andrew Stanton. In this interview, Mr. Stanton explicitly discusses some of the biblical themes and influences in the film. What follows is a sample:
I wasn’t using the Noah’s Ark story as a guide, but through circumstances, I loved the parallels of EVE almost being like this dove, of going down for proof that it’s time to come back. It just worked in that allegory, so I ran with it.
A lot of the discussion is the same stories about WALL•E and Pixar that have been reiterated in every recent interview, but what’s left makes for an interesting read.
The Little Robot That Could >Catena Ex Situ
2 Comments | ex situ, WALL-E | Tagged: Bible, Eve, Noah's Ark | Permalink
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Devin Faraci from CHUD.COM, who despite being a bit of a grumpster really is one of the best movie journalist/reviewers on the internet, has seen WALL•E before you and me. Lucky guy. However, he took issue with the movie’s strong pro-environmental themes apparently contradicting the fleet of merchandising tie-ins surrounding the movie.
Here’s a piece of the piece to whet your controversial whistle:
When I got to the Four Seasons hotel the next day, the site of the junket for the film, and saw an entire room dedicated to showing off the marketing tie-ins, I lost the sense of irony and began to think what I was seeing was flat out hypocrisy. I wondered if maybe Stanton’s denials about the messages weren’t coming from a marketing point of view but from simple shame.
A minor warning that if you’re trying to stay completely data-free before you see the movie, you might want to wait until after. If you’ve been reading anything else about the movie, there’s probably nothing in there that you don’t already know.
Is WALL•E Environmental or Hypocritical? >Catena Ex Situ
3 Comments | ex situ, WALL-E | Tagged: CHUD, junket | Permalink
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