Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

The View From Wendy's World

By Wendy Ledbetter

Im reminded of an old

Statler Brothers song about

how difficult it is to go to the

movies these days. We went to

see Wall-E last week and I have

to say I was disappointed.

For those who havent seen

the movie, the adult-version of

the premise is that theres a single

robot left on Earth which has

been abandoned as a huge

refuse pile until a probe arrives

on Earth, discovers a single

growing plant (that looked

remarkably like an English pea

vine to me) and prompts people

to make the decision whether

its time to return to Earth. The

kid-version is that theres this

really clutzy robot who falls in

love with another robot and they

go through a whole bunch of

adventures in order to be together.

I went to the movie with

great expectations. Someone

had told me it was the best Pixar

movie ever. I have to admit that

it had its moments  like when

he cant figure out whether the

spork that he finds should go

with his fork collection or the

spoons.

Wall-E was a trash compactor

left with the impossible

task of cleaning up all the

stuff left behind by humans 

an obvious statement about the

war with commercialism. Wall-

E resolutely went about this task

daily with his trusty sidekick.

Every adult in the world can

guess what single living organism

survived on the desolate

planet abandoned by humans.

Thats right  Wall-Es only

friend is a resilient cockroach.

The people meanwhile had

become worthless globs of jelly

accustomed to being fed,

groomed and cared for by

robots. Is it just me or is that

some sort of statement about the

potential fate of fat America?

I guess that on a positive

note, there was the fact that

Wall-E managed to change

things single-handedly which

could be taken as a ray of hope

that one person makes a difference

after all.

The movie seemed to be

someones statement of what

could happen to us as a species

if we dont change our ways.

Maybe the key is to making a

global difference is to reach kids

subtly, like in this film.

Maybe the adults should just

laugh when Wall-E finds a paddle

ball or deals with a rogue

computerized umbrella or uses a

fire extinguisher to fly around in

outer space.