Have to agree with everyone.

Nice post, Charles. But not all labor is alienated, is it? "Our moment in history" has much more to tell us about capitalism's seemingly infinite capacity to distract labor -- with porn and drugs and, dare I say it, blogs -- and keep our attention away from the economic and military workings of the current kleptocracy.

I'm just sayin'.

Congratulations, ILMHC, you're the first to have bitten the bait.

Gotcha!

All that Herbert Marcuse in high school, when I should have been reading Strunk and White!

please keep up the good work

MichaelPgh @11:

Hey, wait a minute! That's my slightly-Photoshopped-but-still-very-photogenic home town in back of that newscaster! Oh crap! Now I'm going to have to see the movie, too!

Michael, while Fred Willard does make the one non-animated speaking appearance in WALL•E, that picture Charles grabbed is not from the film but rather from the deservedly cancelled Fox sitcom "Back to You."

Still, you are going to have to see WALL•E because it is that rare film that is both timeless and timely, that works as both pop culture and high art, that is completely grounded in film history and yet is outrageously original, and... and... oh yeah, it appeals to both children and adults. Peter Travers in Rolling Stone is one reviewer who does does this film justice: You leave WALL-E with a feeling of the rarest kind: that you've just enjoyed a close encounter with an enduring classic.

Now there's a Point Seven, and two Point Sixes.....

As for point two - realistic attempts to portray people in animation always suck. It's much easier to realistically portray robots because

a) they're easier to draw mechanically, i.e. by computers, because of all the straight lines and simple [for computers] algorithmic curves and all.

b) people [who watch these things] are much more attuned to the human face than they are to the veracity of a depiction of, say, a toaster oven. Whenever you try [in an animated cartoon, not an oil painting] to "realistically" depict the human form, especially the face, you just fall short pathetically every time. But if you just go for expressiveness, via caricature, then you cut to the chase of what you want to convey without distracting us with your crappy drawing.

Case in point, that wretched looking new animated Star Wars movie, the preview of which I saw before Wall E, where you just get a failed representation of Ewan McGregor as Obi Wan, and it just looks wooden because it is - it is too simplistic to convey the subtleties that a real human face can. But - to go to the other extreme - South Park has succeeded perfectly in conveying the personality and various emotions of its characters with the simplest of strokes, BECAUSE it doesn't waste time trying to draw in every hair, but focuses solely on the important, and suddenly that kid, Butters, has the sweetest, most tender, yet wistful expression on his face.

It's also why it's easier to do animals than people. Bugs Bunny is more of a person than a rabbit, and a more effective representation of a person because of it.

Protestant work ethic? Anyone?

Yes, we know about slaves, capitalism, Marx got it somewhat right and womwhat wrong, blah blah blah. But you just write drivel, man.

Like this:"Wall-e is the subject of universal history, a slave."

That's meaningless. We have no history now because really very few slaves right now?

" A slave is in history because of his/her work marks the temporality of his labor."

Even more meaningless. A slave is in hisotry be (a) there were slaves in history and (b) it's a form of eoonomic organization also (c) oppression which is a somewhat constant theme in history, though not always via slavery.

" The temporality is the trace between the body and world."

all 4 mouns completely meaningless giberish in this sentence.

"The trace is the subject."
OK got it.

Wall-e = subject
subject = slave
slave = temporality of his labot WTF that means
temporality = trace WTF that means
trace = subject

This is about as meaningful as saying Wall-e is the hodah, the hodah is the blitbump, the blitbump is the footzkreig, and the footzkrieg is the olipan, and the olipan is the hodah.

It's just words strung together w/ no meaning.

"Wall-e builds pyramids out of blocks of garbage. He is continuous with the slaves pulling blocks of stone in the cradle of civilisation."

Un, one of like the 5 cradles, there are many variety of slaves in history too, ranging from Egypt to Mongols to NAtive Americans to moors taking white christians to vikings taking Irish chicks to serfs being sort of slavish to the Slavs blah blah blah. So Wall-e is reminiscent of slaves in Egypt. Wow. What a brilliant insight. Get it? The pyramids, man.

Hey did you ever think our whole universe might be like really little dots floating in the eyeball of a really duge ginormaous giant dude?

Plan to take over the World:

1. Steal underwear
2. Write long story about animated fatness of robots

4. Profit!

Speaking of worshipping the trascendent power of work, the SS General who first thought to put up the "Arbeit Macht Frei" signs at the gates to the concentration camps was not being a smartass. There was Serious Philosophy behind that, you know.

I'm not being merciful because I share Charles's fixation upon the odd-yet-interesting Natalie Merchant. That's a completely separate issue!

"Can't you just watch a cartoon? How awful is it to go through life trying to spot Chairman Mao in your Cocoa Puffs?"

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!