I find it fascinating that the media is now having a field day - four links on the cover of MCN and more to come, I'm sure - taking the position that Wall-E's portrayal of a future...
STORY SPOILER WARNING
... in which earth has been decimated, the survivors live on corporately-controlled ships in which they are kept satisfied and simple-minded so there are no rebellious thoughts - not unlike The Matrix.... duh! -
END SPOILERS
....is all about the people being... OMFG! - FAT!!!!!
To me, the whole attitude combines two of the media's worst traits... first, gross oversimplification... second, the tendency to look at groups in which they are not - or have been not since they dragged themselves into the media universe - reflected.
Is there anyone whose parents didn't tell them that too much TV and junk food and laziness would make them into a miserable, brain damaged blob? I mean, really, is this idea so simple and obvious that "critics" look right past it and feel compelled to make it all about our obsession with weight?
There is a real hatred in the media, both left and right (coasts and ideologies), of the "soft" middle of America. Fox News pretends not to have this so it can bow to the right wing, which is allegedly favored by the heartland... but look at its parade of blonde, tartified women anchors and, often, "experts." They are as image conscious as Maureen Dowd as Jessica Rabbit on her book cover.
By making this into an issue, all "we" are doing is pointing at the fat people and saying, "Why doesn't Disney feel sorry for them? They are fat! We know... we've seen them in tank tops at Disneyland (while we cut in front of them with special passes that we had our producers and editors get for us from our media friends and partners at Disney)!"
Deep dark truthful mirror time, kids.
Obviously, there is a satirical thread in this film that has a Wal-Mart like corporation taking over the entire planet. There is no government... only the corporation. You know, like every smart person with an eye on a world that is becoming dominated by commerce over ideology has recognized for more than a decade.
Obviously, Wall-E is a cartoon... and bodies in jellied pods have been done before. So has a world in which young people are tricked into thinking that all is well and as soon as they hit 30, they are killed and thrown off the ship. So here we are in a generation that shops in big box stores in bulk, in a nation where obesity is epidemic not because we are an inherently lazy people but because portion control and self-control is out of control, where we spend more and more time attached to machines and not enjoying the simple activities of life, like playing in the yard, the way we once did... it all makes sense.
And might I point our, Wall-E sounds a hopeful note, that all we have to do to change is to choose to change our outlook and to make a real effort.
And while all this mewing about Wall-E is going on, media seems to endlessly look away as we and our children are endlessly told that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and the MTV Idiot Squad are what we all must look like if we are to be worthy in this world... without the slightest f-ing sense of irony or rage. You think Wall-E is insulting its audience? Compared to the cover of People or Us or any of those crap rags, it is LOVING its audience. And you can be sure that its audience will love it back.
It is stunning how stupid we are all willing to allow ourselves to be in order to make a civil discussion into A STORY.
Boo on us.
Read the complete post at http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2008/06/the_media_foist.html