Comments on Look What My Kid Got at Wall•E

It's a shame that the creative team doesn't have any control over the marketing department.

Since I am in a Pixar euphoria, I blame Disney.

Crossmarketing and all that shit is what is ruining the world.

The movie is made by Disney.
That explains everything.

Loved the movie though.

i saw this movie on saturday night. it was well done and had a good message, but overall pretty depressing. i wasn't expecting that from a kid's movie. i don't think i would have seen it if i knew it was going to be such a downer.

It would have been adorably cynical if Pixar had put an "easter egg" in the movie featuring Wall-E picking up a cheap, plastic version of himself (or any other Pixar film) from the garbage.

They need to make all the garbage so the movie becomes true and can be hailed as a prophetic and visionary film. Like those weird religious end times guys who pray with members of Congress, you know?

wonderful movie. I'm gonna blame the Disney part of the equation as well.

@5 I didn't think it was so depressing, did you see the end/watch the credits? Humans realizing what we'd lost and working to revive Earth?

Makes you wonder if the marketing team actually took the time to WATCH the movie.

Where's my goddamned Wall-E watch?!

IRON.E

Why is made in China highlighted in your post along with the fact that the batteries are not replaceable? A little racism to go with your eco-outrage?

Crap like this is necessary to keep our landfills from flying off into space.

Wow,

I look forward to the column where you laud the use of free childrens toys as cock rings and anal ticklers...

You dirtbag...

Chinese Guy, maybe he highlighted the fact that it was made in China because it's not eco-friendly to ship things thousands of miles.

@ 8

i didn't stay for all of the ending credits. however i don't think they would have made up for the majority of the movie anyways. don't get me wrong, i didn't want to hang myself afterwards, but i didn't feel a sense of enjoyment either.

@12: Or because Chicomm factories lack the environmental safeguards (such as they are) that American ones have?

I made that point about made-in-China because the film specifically goes out of its way to condemn shipping goods around the world—via container ship. There's a scene [SPOILER ALERT!] where a beached row of tankers explode and burn. The message is unmistakable.

A good way to fight swag is to refuse it.

I thought it was a great movie, but also had the same experience of ironic annoyance.

Three minutes after the movie started, a family of mom, dad, 3-year old and barely walking infant came and sat right next to us. Why parents would bring an infant to a movie is beyond me, and totally rude in my opinion.

But then said immediately shat its diaper, and what does the mother do? Take the infant to the restroom? Leave it for the rest of us to smell for the next two hours? Leave with the rest of the family embarrassed for bringing an infant in the first place? None of the above. She calmly whips out a new diaper and changes the baby in the seat next to her while the movie is playing.

As we leave after the movie, I notice the dirty diaper has been left under the seat they were sitting in.

Humans really do not deserve this planet and if there is a God, he really is long overdue in wiping this plague off the surface of the planet.

Marketing departments: immune to irony since forever.

Agreed on your main point, but I was more disturbed by the scores of children clutching popcorn boxes featuring the stoned faces of Seth Rogen and James Franco from Pineapple Express.

I'm no prude, but please reconsider marketing your stoner movie to kids next time, Team Apatow.

I've heard about the Wall-E watches, so I was pleasantly surprised when our theatre didn't give them out. To anyone. On Fri/Sat/Sun night.

*Shrugs* Maybe it's a big city thing.

PS: You could always burn it, if it infuriates you so.

@ Martin - He doesn't pick anything up, cause that would kinda kill the mood, but this is Pixar of course there is a reference to their old movies everywhere. http://xrl.us/ip762

In any case, this movie seemed aware of the fact that it was an environmentalist film where the cause of the problem is a culture that it is apart of. They spend a lot of time justifying that though. What other movie looks for lessons about humanity from a shitty old musical like Hello Dolly. You get my drift?

We saw it this weekend at the Cinerama, and saw those watches being handed out. I knew the basic plot of the film, and pointed out to the employees, "Doesn't that fly in the face of the film's whole point?" She shot back with, "Gimme a break. I'm just doing my job here."

And then she left to deal with an irate adult customer who was throwing an absolute fit because she couldn't get a free watch, too.

When we saw her head for the mail floor, still pissing vinegar over her denied free piece of crap, we headed for the balcony.

Dan is this your way of saying The Stranger is no longer going to print cigarette ads?

This reminds me of a spot on Friday night's news...

The United States' biggest export to China is.... TRASH!

I thought we were paying THEM to take it - but NO. They BUY it - and then re-cycle it. (Do NOT know - but I got the impression they buy what we put in those recycle bins every week.)

China may be part of the problem, but it looks as if they're working to be part of the solution as well.

Weird...

Why the fuck can't the US do that??

The director, Andrew Stanton, tries to equivocate on the film's message here.

G&M: This film has a big ecological message -

Andrew Stanton: Actually, no.

G&M: No? The world of the future is overflowing with garbage.

Stanton: Yeah, well I did that for other reasons. I just went with logic. I had no eco thing to push. I had to have everybody leave Earth, because I wanted the last robot on Earth. And then I needed something very visual, that made him feel like he was the lowest on the totem pole, that wouldn't require any dialogue to understand it. Trash is very get-able. One, you don't have to explain it - people see too much of it and they get it. And then second, it has all those human artifacts in it, so it allowed him to show through actions that he's interested in humanity.

G&M: Inevitably, someone will point out that -

Stanton: Sure, that's fine! But I'm not going to stand there and go, "That's what I was trying to do."

G&M: But you're depicting a future world cluttered with junk, and meanwhile there will be tons of WALL-E-generated toys, lunch boxes, T-shirts and candy wrappers.

Stanton: Possibly. Possibly. [An awkward, fixed-look pause passes]. I was just trying to make the best film I could.

G&M: Um, okay.

I was horrified by the vision of consumer future in Wall-E (which was fantastic), but my boyfriend thought differently. Hoverchairs, food in cups, robots and video screens to do and see everything for you-- that's fucking awesome, he said.

And he was only half-joking.

the ability of the human race to dissapoint, on so many levels, never fails to dissapoint me. when will this evolutionary dead end die out? I hope I get one more trip to Prada in.

I loved the movie and downtown was giving out free watches. The watches were being given to kids.

It thought it gave a great wake up call to adults and children. I walked away with this message: the Earth needs humans as much as humans need Earth.

Wall E has lived among the good and bad of consumerism while picking up compassion and love thru a movie. He makes art where there is none. He turns trash into treasure. He impacts the braindead humans, he falls in love and convinces another robot to fall in love with him.

We all needed this reminder, including kids about being "programmed" into buying happiness thru useless things.

yes, the movie had some problems but overall it was a wonderful movie.

I KNOW.

I know.

Sitting in a theater with a bunch of people eating, drinking, and hanging on to their new Wall*E watches. . . OMG. It was hilariously, painfully ironic.

elenchos @26,

FTW.

Took our 7 year old to see it and they gave him the watch. My wife says "wheres mine" guy said kids only. You could buy an extra kid ticket and get one. LOL

This reminds me of my aunt and uncle, who, after watching Finding Nemo, went out and bought a clown fish for their aquarium. *sigh*

Thanks for the spoiler without a warning! Asshole.

But the most ironic part is that we could never get either of the two watches my grandchildren got to work at all. I'm guessing the outside buttons don't line up with the inside.

Personally, I didn't like the movies - too little of the funny stuff. Did very little laughing. Nemo, Monster Inc, Ice Age are MUCH better. I laughed a lot more at the short before the feature.

Ha ha, I work at a 10-screen local movie theater, and I had to pass out hundreds of these. Despite the Wall-E branding, the real function of the watch was to pitch Disney's next terrible kids movie, Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Every watch came with 3 cards advertising the movie.

I was glad to read this post. It's about time people opened their eyes, switched their brains on and realized this simple truth: to produce stuff we consume resources and produce garbage. Resources are finite, garbage keeps piling up. Both serious problems. At least let's not make them worse by craving utterly useless stuff.

I think it's a very practical issue. There's no need to see a political or ecological message in them. It's a household problem: no one is collecting the garbage on the sidewalk in front of our collective house.

You can call Pixar at 510-922-3000 and complain about it. Slightly more satisfying than griping on the Internet.

Thanks for the write up. I spent the whole movie holding my watch, my daughters watch, and my sons watch as I thought, "What am I suppose to do with these? Oh my God I have no way to get rid of them." The guilt and irony combined as I watch the movie present mounds of trash on a desolate planet, was kind of painfully funny and then ironic, then irritating, and then mind opening. My husband wanted to go to Wallmart after to kill some time. That was where we picked up more nonessentials. The only immunity is a partial lobotomy or a cultural revolution. Pick your potion.