***CONTAINS SPOILERS***

***CONTAINS SPOILERS***

I have now watched or listened to the last two acts of  Wall-E more times than can be measured with existing technology.  My son does not like the first act because the space ship landing on earth scares him.  But the last two are golden.

We get to the end, Peter Gabriel’s song starts up and he just says, “Again.” I say, “How do you ask baby?”  He says, “Again please.”  Then he says, “The song first.  Then again.”

Then he listens to the song and watches the tail credit animation sequence which is incredibly clever, nuanced and, when I am paying close enough attention seems to be charting the Earth re-colonists’ progress through various stages of development in parallel with the various developments in art over the millennia, from cave painting up to and including low-level Atari-like computer animation.

Pixar, I tip my hat to thee.  Always.

The first time I saw this film I was supposed to see a different movie with a friend and then they couldn’t make it but I was pretty much already there so I went in, stood there thinking, “Do I see what we were supposed to see or do I see something else?”  There was only one other movie playing at that time (more-or-less) and just as I was thinking about it a woman – quite unprompted except in so far as I was looking up at the info board a lot – turned around in the line and said, “Have you seen Wall-E?  I’ve seen it five times.  It’s beautiful and gets better every time you watch it.”

There was a whiff of melancholy madness to her but it seemed fated enough that she should literally answer the question in my head that I chose to see Wall-E. 

I was very moved by it.  Still am.  I wept actually.  It’s not new for me to cry in movies but for children’s cartoons it is more of a rarity.  The only other children’s animated feature to move me as much as Wall-E is The Iron Giant and if you haven’t seen that then shame on you.  Really.  Shame on you.

On my first pass through Wall-E I thought the character of Eve was practically the definitive contemporary heroine:  Goal/Job oriented, possessing a full spectrum of emotions but defaulting most often to explosive expressions of  “anger” and violent “frustration,” (What modern gal wouldn’t want a gun arm with which to blow up beached oil tankers?  I ask you?), overachieving, difficult to impress, distrustful, not entirely aware of her own dangerous strength and prone to not realizing she’s found something/someone beautiful until it might be too late. 

Wall-E on the other hand is literally wide-eyed, curious, longing, emotive on a spectrum that does not really possess anger so much as a unquestioned sense of justice.  He is gregarious, good-natured, inspiring to others and a hopeless (hopeless, hopeless) romantic. 

And, he is in love with Eve.

He is creative and makes sculptural offerings to the object of his affection regardless of her indifference.  He is not immune to the sting of rejection.  He is definitely hurt – both emotionally and physically – as he pursues her but he does not stop.  Not at all.  Never. 

Not even after Eve – who has acquiesced to his “advances” enough to exchange names and allow herself to be taken back to his place where she shares his interests with all the delicacy of a thunderstorm – shuts down on him.

She literally goes dark, stops functioning, cannot be reached at all. 

All that is left of her, an eerie green and pulsing glow.

And still he cares for her.  He takes her with him to work.  He puts her in front of beautiful sights.  He boats with her as if in Venice…

And when a rocket comes to take her away he hurls himself at the rocket as it launches into space even though he has never before left earth and hangs on for the entire journey, watching her through a window in between delicate dances with nebulae and the rings of planets.

I started to think his behaviour plays far more stereotypically feminine in nature, and that Eve’s is far more masculine.  I started to think it is only the biases of a prejudicially heterosexual culture that would make me assume they had any gender at all. 

They are robots.

I had begun by thinking, in the grand tradition of audience identification, that I was like Eve.  Defensive, feisty.  And I am.  Or I have been and I can be.

But I’m not really.  I couldn’t quite tell because I’m still thawing and remembering who I was before life made me withdraw and shut down from more-or-less everything.  But I am not really like Eve. 

I’ve always admired the Eves of this world for their ambition and sleekness.  For their power.  But mine is a mind mired in a powerful need for connection with other minds, a mind tickled and amused and inspired by many, many little things.  My world has mostly been incredibly small, my mind and soul both prone to launching themselves at love with abandon and sticking to it past points that are good for me always hoping that this time it will be magical.  This time the adventure and feeling and devotion will get through and be entirely welcome and eventually reciprocated.   I am a hopeless (hopeless, hopeless) romantic.

I am like Wall-E. 

Only he has a naïve faith I think I mostly lack.  I have instincts, weepy heartfelt visions in the wee hours of the night, the occasional prophetic dream… But I am not innocent.  

I am not so wide-eyed. 

And, lacking both that naïvete and much, but not all, of that faith means that I sit here wondering whether being like Wall-E is good thing.  Or not.

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Image Borrowed From HERE

Friend Chris’ post about Wall-E HERE