From Christianity Today:
Moring: OK, but why were the humans on the space station all fat and riding around in their hovering lounge chairs?
Stanton (director): I wasn’t trying to make the humans into fat, lazy consumers, but to make humanity appear to be completely consumed by everything that can distract you—to the point where they lost connection with each other, even though they’re right next to each other. The reason I made them look like big babies was because a NASA guy told me that they haven’t yet simulated gravity perfectly for long-term residency in space. And if they don’t get it just right, atrophy kicks in and you begin to lose your muscle tone—you just turn into a blob of goo. For a while, that’s what I did with the humans in the movie; they were just big blobs of Jell-O. But it was so bizarre, we had to pull it back. So I said, well, let’s just make them look like big babies. That’s where all that came from.
I wasn’t trying to make some sort of mean-spirited comment on consumerism or today’s society. I was going with just the logic of what would happen if you were in a perpetual vacation with no real purpose in life. So I went with the idea that we’d become sort of big babies with no reason to grow up. I definitely saw humanity as victims of this system that they were in. They were just big babies that needed to stand on their own two feet.
The last thing I’m going to do is try to make a message movie!
(I don’t think I believe him.)
Not a bad message if you are going to give one to kids. "Don't take the easy way, it just makes you weak and useless."
The Incredibles was one of the most Conservative movies of the last decade, so I think I'll wait to pass judgement on this same group of filmmakers.
I saw it this morning with my son. I thought it was a good movie. Why? Well told, well animated, and a good story. I won’t spoil it, but there is an age-old story of redemption in there, as well.
I do. I saw the same thing. Granted, the obvious green propaganda was ‘bleh’, but I saw an interesting message. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The robots = big government, willing to do whatever it takes (i.e. stealing the plant from EVE and WALL-E) to keep the people subservient to them.
The humans = people on welfare, reduced to a slovenly, obese state where there’s no incentive to do anything because everything’s taken care of. Why waste the effort?
Then along comes WALL-E, and people see there are other things. Case in point; when two people finally start seeing things differently, their suits morph from Democrat Blue to Republican Red. ;)
True, the whole ‘green’ angle was annoying, but I actually found a redeeming message of individualism and conservatism underneath it all.